The Cologne Database for Molecular Spectroscopy, CDMS, in the Virtual Atomic and Molecular Data Centre, VAMDC

TL;DR

This paper describes the integration of the Cologne Database for Molecular Spectroscopy (CDMS) into the Virtual Atomic and Molecular Data Centre (VAMDC), enhancing data structure, content, and accessibility for astronomical research.

Contribution

It introduces new data formats and structural modifications to CDMS, enabling inclusion of theoretical data and improved database integration within VAMDC.

Findings

Increased data accessibility for astronomers.

Enhanced data structure supporting theoretical and experimental entries.

Successful integration into VAMDC framework.

Abstract

The CDMS was founded 1998 to provide in its catalog section line lists of molecular species which may be observed in various astronomical sources using radio astronomy. The line lists contain transition frequencies with qualified accuracies, intensities, quantum numbers, as well as further auxilary information. They have been generated from critically evaluated experimental line lists, mostly from laboratory experiments, employing established Hamiltonian models. Seperate entries exist for different isotopic species and usually also for different vibrational states. As of December 2015, the number of entries is 792. They are available online as ascii tables with additional files documenting information on the entries. The Virtual Atomic and Molecular Data Centre was founded more than 5 years ago as a common platform for atomic and molecular data. This platform facilitates exchange not only between spectroscopic databases related to astrophysics or astrochemistry, but also with collisional and kinetic databases. A dedicated infrastructure was developed to provide a common data format in the various databases enabling queries to a large variety of databases on atomic and molecular data at once. For CDMS, the incorporation in VAMDC was combined with several modifications on the generation of CDMS catalog entries. Here we introduce related changes to the data structure and the data content in the CDMS. The new data scheme allows us to incorporate all previous data entries but in addition allows us also to include entries based on new theoretical descriptions. Moreover, the CDMS entries have been transferred into a mySQL database format. These developments within the VAMDC framework have been driven by the needs of the astronomical community to be able to deal efficiently with large data sets obtained with the Herschel Space Telescope or, more recently, with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array.