FAIR high level data for Cherenkov astronomy

TL;DR

This paper presents solutions to make Cherenkov astronomy data FAIR by ensuring findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability through indexing, standards, and provenance tracking, demonstrated via a prototype platform for H.E.S.S. data.

Contribution

It introduces a prototype platform that makes high-level Cherenkov data FAIR, emphasizing provenance management to enhance reusability and trustworthiness.

Findings

Data is made findable and accessible via Virtual Observatory standards.

Provenance system captures detailed data transformations.

Prototype supports data search, access, processing, and traceability.

Abstract

We highlight here several solutions developed to make high-level Cherenkov data FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. The first three FAIR principles may be ensured by properly indexing the data and using community standards, protocols and services, for example provided by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA). However, the reusability principle is particularly subtle as the question of trust is raised. Provenance information, that describes the data origin and all transformations performed, is essential to ensure this trust, and it should come with the proper granularity and level of details. We developed a prototype platform to make the first H.E.S.S. public test data findable and accessible through the Virtual Observatory (VO). The exposed high-level data follows the gamma-ray astronomy data format (GADF) proposed as a community standard to ensure wider interoperability. We also designed a provenance management system in connection with the development of pipelines and analysis tools for CTA (ctapipe and gammapy), in order to collect rich and detailed provenance information, as recommended by the FAIR reusability principle. The prototype platform thus implements the main functionalities of a science gateway, including data search and access, online processing, and traceability of the various actions performed by a user.