[iaufwg] FITS conventions

[Steve Allen]

On Fri 2006-02-10T12:25:49 -0700, Doug Tody hath writ:
> It is useful to
> be able to manipulate RGB-rendered images with an associated WCS for
> visualization purposes.  Multiband survey projects these days often put
> considerable effort into producing such images and making them look good.
> Such carefully rendered images have some value for scientific interpretation
> of data, not merely as pretty images.

There are examples of GIS applications using GeoTIFF images which are
capable of overlaying property line databases with sidewalk location
surveys to show who does and does not legally own the sidewalks in
front of their houses, and then to combine these with aerial
photography which allows the vector graphics survey data to overlay
the imagery.

Many of the FITS WCS projections prescribed by Calabretta are already
supported by the GeoTIFF specification.  The translation between the
two kinds of WCS would often be one-to-one.

There is significant financial incentive for the GIS software to
evolve and perform these sorts of things.  Some county recorders have
begun to offer java-based applets which provide limited views into
these databases for the sake of their constituents who have web
browsers.  In this regard they are far ahead of the VO efforts,
and it seems likely that situation will persist indefinitely.

Although I am a bit reticent to imply that software which was
developed to show where sewer lines run might be the best thing to
use, I think the astronomy community might be better served by working
out schemes for inter client communication between astronomical and
GIS applications than by re-inventing such software and figuring out
how to encode it in FITS.

--
Steve Allen                 <sla at ucolick.org>                WGS-84 (GPS)
UCO/Lick Observatory        Natural Sciences II, Room 165    Lat  +36.99858
University of California    Voice: +1 831 459 3046           Lng -122.06014
Santa Cruz, CA 95064        http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/     Hgt +250 m