1. 3 rd RSIH&SWA Workshop – Morelia, Mexico – 20 October 2015 IPS Common Data Format v1.0 (IPSCDFv1.0) - Official Launch! M.M. Bisi (Mario.Bisi@stfc.ac.uk) (1), and The world-wide IPS community.. (1) RAL Space, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Oxford, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0QX, England, UK

2. Outline  Why?  Outline of IPSCDFv1.0  Where we are  Final steps  Are We Agreed and Open Discussions?

3. Why?

4. Why  There are multiple IPS-capable systems with a variety of analysis methods, data products, and ways in which data are presented.  This makes it complicated for the non-IPS specialist to use and understand without full hands-on interaction with the observatory/data provider.  No clear distinction is made between single- and multi-site obtained velocity values and what they might mean to the end used/scientist looking to exploit the IPS result(s).  Because of the above, IPS is hugely under exploited.

5. Outline of IPSCDFv1.0

6. Outline (1)  Currently several of us have been experimenting with sub- versions of the following plain-text ASCII format (although exact character counts for each parameter/column need to be explicitly agreed upon for uniformity still): DateStart-UTSystemCent. Obs. Freq. Obs. BandwidthSource RA-J2000DC-J2000Limb Dist. Lat.PAElong.Vel.V-err g-valueg-errMethodVel.V-err g-valueg-errMethod

7. Outline (2)  Proposed addition of the source size on the sky which will complete the plain-text ASCII format as the IPS Common Data Format v1.0 (IPSCDFv1.0) for full implementation and use by all: DateStart-UTSystemCent. Obs. Freq. Obs. BandwidthSourceSrc. Size RA-J2000DC-J2000Limb Dist. Lat.PAElong.Vel.V-err g-valueg-errMethodVel.V-err g-valueg-errMethod

8. Where we are

9. Where are we?  STELab and UCSD have been baselining the beta-testing precursor to IPSCDFv1.0 in that almost all the parameters are included with the exception of the radio source size on the sky for the most part (ordering and column sizes need checking).  MEXART have started to implement this precursor format.  Not yet tested, as far as I am aware, is the output of two different velocity values in the format (multi-site and then single site).  Others (as far as I am aware) have yet to start producing data for sharing in this format but are willing to do so (where sufficient data and results are available) once we have “frozen” the format.

10. Final Steps

11. What now?  Add in the source-size option – this can be a null value (-999), an estimate for the source on the sky at that particular observing frequency, or an actual observed/determined size on the sky (dependent upon the observatory’s needs/capabilities) as well as set the column widths needed.  Provide data as openly as possible (with whatever constraints you need to put on the use of the data) in this plain-text ASCII format.  Promote the format where possible at meetings/conferences/ workshops and to let the wider community have exposure to IPS, its capabilities, and its usefulness on its own and alongside other data/data products/models/etc…

12. Are We Agreed and Open Discussions?

13.  Are we agreed? (I hope so…)  Over to you all… Are We Agreed and Open Discussions?