Tools and Advancements towards Data Standardization of the MAGIC Collaboration

TL;DR

This paper presents the standardization of MAGIC gamma-ray telescope data, demonstrating processing, validation, and automation tools to enhance data accessibility, reproducibility, and large-scale production for future research.

Contribution

It introduces a standardized data format for MAGIC data, validates it with analysis software, and develops autoMAGIC, an automated tool for reliable, reproducible data reduction.

Findings

Successful processing and validation of datasets using open-source and MAGIC software

Development of autoMAGIC for automated, reproducible data reduction

Comparable results between manual and automated data processing

Abstract

Gamma-ray astronomy is able to acquire large data volumes that astronomers use to draw scientific conclusions from. Ensuring the possibility of accessing and utilizing this data also after the lifetime of currently running experiments requires the use of a standardized data format. Following the data standardization format proposed by the gamma-ray astronomy community, we present 104 h of the first production of 166 h of data from the MAGIC Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes in standardized data format. Six datasets were processed from which three are presented, all of which have been analyzed and validated through comparison using the open-source software Gammapy and the MAGIC analysis software MARS. Furthermore, looking towards a large-scale production of standardized data and a legacy of the data taken by the MAGIC experiment, we have developed and implemented the automated database-driven MAGIC data reduction tool autoMAGIC which offers a reliable and reproducible way to produce high-level datasets. By utilizing the automatization of parameter configuration choices, the software allows for a reduction of human error as well as an acceleration in the production of standardized data. Here, we also show comparable results for data processed with manual and automatic methods.