CTA - serving the community at large J. Knödlseder (CESR)

CTA and the « common astronomer » Requirements CTA access should be as easy as possible for the community Provide high-level data products (from calibrated photon lists up to spectra and images) Provide a data analysis system that astronomers are already familiar with (do not invent data formats / analysis logics / interfaces that are completely new!) Provide support Provide documentation Open access is key to success Guarantees best science (competetive proposal selection) Guarantees visibility (the community using TeV data will greatly expand) Enhances science return (more people will work on CTA data and publish results) Paves the way for funding

Towards a standard for HE astronomy Common features in high-energy astronomy (soft X-rays up to TeV gamma-rays) Data are photon based (event lists are common) Background is important or dominating (background reduction techniques are crucial) Instruments are complex (time variable background and instrument properties, indirect imaging) Common formats and methods in high-energy astronomy All community data are in FITS format (OGIP) (ftools, DS9, …) Most systems break down analysis tasks in executables (bricks of science analysis) (ftools like executables; analysis pipeline by chaining executables) Many executables use the IRAF parameter interface (ftools, Chandra, INTEGRAL, SWIFT, Fermi, …) XSPEC: X-ray (and beyond) spectra analysis tool (Chandra, XMM-Newton, INTEGRAL, SWIFT, Fermi, …)

System comparison Comparison of some HE data analysis systems Chandra XMM-Newton SWIFT INTEGRAL Fermi Test protocol Installation of data analysis system on RH9 32 Bit server Data access First cookbook data analysis

Chandra: C handra I nteractive A nalysisOf O bservations Information Access: Supported systems: Solaris 8/10, FC 4/8, Mac OS X 10.4/10.5 (Intel/PowerPC) Self contained: yes Installs: binary & source 64 Bit compliant: not supported but apparently possible (no native 64 Bit builds) Documentation: online Helpdesk: yes Other features: yearly newsletter, integrated data center (CXC) Personal experience Download & installation (ciao-4.1): binary not for RH9, painful source install (many library dependencies and some compile problems) Data access: easy (Chaser tool) First analysis: easy (online tutorials)

XMM: S cientific A nalysis S system Information Access: Supported systems: Sun OS 2. 8/2.9, RH9, EL3/4, FC3, SuSE8.2, Mac OS X 10.4/10.5 (Intel/PowerPC), Windows VM Self contained: almost (requires ds9, Grace, Heasoft, Perl, X11 for Mac) Installs: binary only 64 Bit compliant: not supported Documentation: online Helpdesk: yes Other features: newsletter Personal experience Download & installation (sas-8.0.1): Binary install went smoothly Data access: easy (Java applet, ftp retrieval) First analysis: not so easy as Chandra (environment variables, data ingest, …)

SWIFT: HEAsoft Information Access: Supported systems: Solaris, Linux, Mac OS X (Intel/PowerPC), Cygwin Self contained: yes (only X11 required for Mac) Installs: source (recommended) & binary 64 Bit compliant: yes Documentation: online Helpdesk: yes (general HEASARC feedback form) Other features: software fully included in HEAsoft, FAQ Personal experience Download & installation (heasoft-6.6.2): Source install went smoothly Data access: easy (Web interface, wget) First analysis: easy (good software guide)

INTEGRAL: O ff-line S cientific A nalysis Information Access: Supported systems: Solaris, Linux, Mac OS X 10.4 (Intel/PowerPC) Self contained: yes (HEAsoft & DS9 needed to follow cookbook) Installs: source & binary (recommended) 64 Bit compliant: Linux and Solaris Documentation: online Helpdesk: yes Other features: FAQ, newsletter, integrated data centre (ISDC) Personal experience Download & installation (OSA 7.0): Binary install went smoothly Data access: easy (Web interface, download script using wget slightly troublesome) First analysis: smoothly following cookbook; quite complex data structure

Fermi: S cience T ools Information (preliminary) Access: Supported systems: ScientificLinux4/5, Mac OS X 10.4/5 (Intel/PowerPC) Self contained: yes Installs: source & binary 64 Bit compliant: yes Documentation: online Helpdesk: yes Other features: FAQ, newsletter, integrated data centre (FSSC) Personal experience Download & installation (ST v9r8p2): Source install went relatively smoothly Data access: n.a. First analysis: n.a.

Science analysis requirements Lessons Self contained binary packages install best, source compilation can be painful Easy data access through web access (sometimes download very long) Short cookbooks with worked out step-by-step examples are extremely useful Requirements: musts All community data in OGIP FITS format Self contained analysis system (GNU compliant) supporting Linux, Solaris & Mac OS X (32 Bit and 64 Bit) ftools compatible analysis executables (IRAF parameter I/F) Requirements: nice to haves python interface to analysis executables XSPEC compatibility CALDB calibration database

The gammalib project Goal Self contained multi-instrument library Very limited dependencies (if at all) Structure Usage Proposal CTA community data analysis system could be based on this toolbox Proposal CTA community data analysis system could be based on this toolbox