
arXiv: 1704.04561
The current generation of radio and millimeter telescopes, particularly the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), offers enormous advances in observing capabilities. While these advances represent an unprecedented opportunity to facilitate scientific understanding, the increased complexity in the spatial and spectral structure of these ALMA data cubes lead to challenges in their interpretation. In this paper, we perform a feasibility study for applying topological data analysis and visualization techniques never before tested by the ALMA community. Through techniques based on contour trees, we seek to improve upon existing analysis and visualization workflows of ALMA data cubes, in terms of accuracy and speed in feature extraction. We review our application development process in building effective analysis and visualization capabilities for the astrophysicists. We also summarize effective design practices by identifying domain-specific needs of simplicity, integrability, and reproducibility, in order to best target and service the large astrophysics community.
FOS: Computer and information sciences, Computer Science - Human-Computer Interaction, FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC)
FOS: Computer and information sciences, Computer Science - Human-Computer Interaction, FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC)
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 6 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
