The AstroStat Slog » 2007

The Digital Universe

vlk — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 22:52:36 +0000

Another one in the CXC/CfA Visualizing Astronomy series: “The Digital Universe: Cosmic Cartography and Data Visualization”, by Brian Abbott of Hayden Planetarium & Department of Astrophysics, next Tuesday, Nov 13, at 2pm in Phillips.

Abstract:
The Digital Universe is a 3-D, interactive atlas of the universe created and distributed by the American Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium. The atlas is freely available on the web and is distributed to our business partners for use in full-dome video planetariums worldwide. The atlas is also utilized in pre-rendered content for Space Shows and Science Bulletins, a video program that brings subscribers the latest developments in astrophysics.
At the heart of the Digital Universe is scientific data visualization, where accuracy, not art, is our top priority. We use a variety of tools to render scientific data including Partiview, an open- source visualization tool, and Uniview, a full-dome package created in collaboration with students from Linkoping University and SCISS, AB in Sweden. Uniview allows for the seamless exploration of scales ranging from the mountains on Earth to the farthest known quasars. Uniview also provides for network collaboration for remote lectures, teaching, and professional development within a global network of users who log into the same database.

During my talk, I will demonstrate the Digital Universe atlas, discuss some of the visualization issues we encounter while building the atlas, then, in workshop-style, focus on how to use Partiview to visualize your own observed and simulated data.

“They let you in now?”

vlk — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 17:09:48 +0000

Much to everybody’s surprise, they let some astronomers into the recently concluded Joint Statistical Meeting at Salt Lake City, UT. There were ~~two~~ three astrostat sessions: [#45 on Probing the Universe with Nonparametric Methods,] #367 on Bayesian Applications in Astronomy and Physics (chaired by David van Dyk), and #411 on Image Analysis in Solar- and Astro-physics (chaired by Yaming Yu and Thomas Lee). Both [of the latter] sessions were dominated by presentations from CHASC collaborators.

Summarizing Coronal Spectra

vlk — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:50:50 +0000

Hyunsook and I have preliminary findings (work done with the help of the X-Atlas group) on the efficacy of using spectral proxies to classify low-mass coronal sources, put up as a poster at the XGratings workshop. The workshop has a “poster haiku” session, where one may summarize a poster in a single transparency and speak on it for a couple of minutes. I cannot count syllables, so I wrote a limerick instead:

For simple models, hardness ratios make for a useful grid;
But to describe hi-res coronal spectra they’re quite horrid.: So we went to find, with line ratios as witness,; Patterns and trends in a high-dimensional mess;
And extract stellar subclasses from the morass where it is hid.

Update: The poster is at CHASC.