Spectroscopic Analysis in the Virtual Observatory Environment with SPLAT-VO

TL;DR

SPLAT-VO is a comprehensive graphical tool for astronomical spectra analysis that integrates Virtual Observatory protocols, with a history of development spanning over two decades and recent enhancements in visualization and data management.

Contribution

This paper details the development history, capabilities, recent updates, and future plans of SPLAT-VO, highlighting its integration with VO standards for astronomical spectra analysis.

Findings

Supports latest VO protocols and standards

Enhanced visualization and spectra storage features

Continued development by international institutions

Abstract

SPLAT-VO is a powerful graphical tool for displaying, comparing, modifying and analyzing astronomical spectra, as well as searching and retrieving spectra from services around the world using Virtual Observatory (VO) protocols and services. The development of SPLAT-VO started in 1999, as part of the Starlink StarJava initiative, sometime before that of the VO, so initial support for the VO was necessarily added once VO standards and services became available. Further developments were supported by the Joint Astronomy Centre, Hawaii until 2009. Since end of 2011 development of SPLAT-VO has been continued by the German Astrophysical Virtual Observatory, and the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. From this time several new features have been added, including support for the latest VO protocols, along with new visualization and spectra storing capabilities. This paper presents the history of SPLAT-VO, it's capabilities, recent additions and future plans, as well as a discussion on the motivations and lessons learned up to now.