Locally Developed FITS Conventions

Home | News | Docs | WCS | Samples | Libraries | Viewers | Utilities | Keywords | Conventions | Resources

Local FITS Conventions
(See also:

FITS Registry page for a compilation of registered FITS conventions,
Registered extensions page for a list of FITS extension names, and
Keyword dictionaries page for compilations of other defined keywords).

The following FITS conventions have been locally developed by various groups or projects. While it is believed that these conventions represent valid FITS usage and conform to the rules specified in the FITS Standard, they currently have not been endorsed by the IAU FITS Working Group. They are presented here for reference only.

Interferometry Data Interchange (IDI) - A format used to store radio interferometry data and associated calibration data as a sequence of FITS binary tables. Different types of tables are used to carry visibility measurements, information about the aperture synthesis arrays, calibration data and so on. This format was designed to be used to export raw data from aperture synthesis arrays and to be written in near real-time as the data are correlated.
Table Indexing -a convention for creating indices on FITS tables (Postscript)
Conventions adopted by the HEASARC FITS Working Group:

RA and Dec keywords for giving the position of the observed object, the telescope pointing, and the spacecraft axes (text version)
The CATIDn FITS keywords to contain source catalog identifications (text version)
The CREATOR keyword to denote the name and version of the software program that generated that FITS file/extension (text version)
The HDUCLASn/HDUVERS keywords to provide a hierarchical classification scheme for the various types of FITS extensions (text version). Also available is a list of all HDUCLASn/HDUVERS values currently defined by the HFWG.
Quality flags with a value of zero should be reserved to indicate GOOD (not rejected) quality data. Non-zero quality flag values may be used to indicate varying degrees of 'badness'. (text version)
Keywords to define channel & energy boundaries (text version)
Keywords and definitions relating to exposure times (text version)
Standard strings to denote the mission, instrument and filters within X- and gamma-ray astronomy. This recommendation is contained in OGIP memo ogip_93_013 (postscript, latex).
TSORTKEY - a keyword for specifying the sort order of a FITS Table (text version)
Recommendations for naming columns in a FITS table (text, latex, postscript)

MAST Data Format Guidelines - general FITS format guidelines for data files in the STScI multimission archive (MAST).
SDAC FITS Keyword Conventions - FITS conventions adopted at the Solar Data Analysis Center (SDAC) at Goddard Space Flight Center for several solar missions.
Chandra FITS File Designers Guide - details the FITS conventions adopted by the Chandra X-Ray Satellite project for its archival data sets. (40 pages, postscript file)
If you know of other items that should be listed on this page, please contact the FITS Support Office.

Home | News | Docs | WCS | Samples | Libraries | Viewers | Utilities | Keywords | Conventions | Resources

Last revised: Thursday, 06-Sep-2007 12:48:28 EDT
Contact us: fits @ fits.gsfc.nasa.gov
Hosted by: The HEASARC (High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center)
Responsible NASA representative: Dr. William D. Pence
Privacy, Security & Accessibility Statements. Download the PDF reader.