Grid-Enabled Interactive Data Language for Astronomical Data

Grid technologies provide a valuable solution for data intensive scientific applications but are not readily available for astronomical data and Interactive Data Language (IDL) widely used in astronomy. There is a need for tools allowing IDL and astronomical data to interoperate with Grids. Tech-X Corporation proposes to develop a set of tools, GRIDL, for accessing and manipulating of distributed astronomical data via IDL clients. GRIDL will automate generation of the IDL clients of Web Services for analysis and visualization of astronomical data and provide services for running parallel and serial IDL processes on Grids facilitating astronomical data analysis. In Phase I we will develop a prototype of GRIDL working with Flexible Image Transport System (FITS). Based on the mapping of FITS data types to the Web Services Definition Language, we will implement a prototype Web Service with an IDL client for accessing remote FITS data and develop a prototype Web Service for running parallel IDL processes on a Grid. Our approach is based on the ability IDL to call external C and Java and the Grid interoperability with these languages. In Phase II we will fully implement the GRIDL and include other data formats common in astronomy.