Software Architecture of the Spitzer Archive Interface

Abstract

The Spitzer Science Center (SSC) provides a set of user tools to support search and retrieval of Spitzer Archive (SA) data via the Internet. This presentation describes the software architecture and design principles that support the Archive Interface subsystem of the SA (Handley 2007). The Archive Interface is an extension of the core components of the Uplink subsystem and provides a set web services to allow open access to the SA data set. Web services technology provides a basis for searching the archive and retrieving data products. The archive interface provides three modes of access: a rich client, a Web browser, and scripts (via Web services). The rich client allows the user to perform complex queries and submit requests for data that are asynchronously down-loaded to the local workstation. Asynchronous down-load is a critical feature given the large volume of a typical data set (on the order of 40 GB). For basic queries and retrieval of data the Web browser interface is provided. For advanced users, scripting languages with web services capabilities (i.e. Perl) can used to query and down-load data from the SA. The archive interface subsystem is the primary means for searching and retrieving data from the SA and is critical to the success of the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Files

Additional details