Standardized Formats for Gamma-Ray Analysis Applied to HAWC Observatory Data

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how HAWC gamma-ray data can be formatted according to the gamma-astro-data-format (GADF), enabling compatibility with open-source analysis tools like Gammapy and promoting data sharing across observatories.

Contribution

It presents the first GADF-compatible data products for HAWC, including event lists and response functions, and validates the approach by reproducing the Crab spectrum.

Findings

GADF-compatible data for HAWC successfully produced

Reproduced Crab spectrum with excellent agreement

Facilitates joint analysis across gamma-ray observatories

Abstract

A wide range of data formats and proprietary software have traditionally been used in gamma-ray astronomy, usually developed for a single specific mission or experiment. However, in recent years there has been an increasing effort towards making astronomical data open and easily accessible. Within the gamma-ray community this has translated to the creation of a common data format across different gamma-ray observatories: the "gamma-astro-data-format" (GADF). Based on a similar premise, open-source analysis packages, such as Gammapy, are being developed and aim to provide a single, robust tool which suits the needs of many experiments at once. In this contribution we show that data from the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory can be made compatible with the GADF and present the first GADF-based production of event lists and instrument response functions for a ground-based wide-field instrument. We use these data products to reproduce with excellent agreement the published HAWC Crab spectrum using Gammapy. Having a common data format and analysis tools facilitates joint analysis between different experiments and effective data sharing. This will be especially important for next-generation instruments, such as the proposed Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory (SWGO) and the planned Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA).