Advanced Scientific Data Format (ASDF) is a proposed replacement to the

FITS Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) is an open standard defining a digital file format useful for storage, transmission and processing of data: formatted as multi-dimensional arrays (for example a 2D image), or tables. FITS is the most com ...

standard for astronomical images and other scientific data. The

metadata Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...

is contained in a

YAML YAML ( and ) (''see '') is a human-readable data-serialization language. It is commonly used for configuration files and in applications where data is being stored or transmitted. YAML targets many of the same communications applications as Exte ...

(Human-readable data serialization format) header followed by binary or ASCII data. ASDF is used, notably, as an interchange format for the data processing pipeline of the

James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope which conducts infrared astronomy. As the largest optical telescope in space, its high resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Spa ...

br>

Improvements to FITS

The Flexible Image Transport System (

) standard is a widely used data format in astronomy that incorporates metadata and ASCII or binary data in the same file. However, the FITS standard has several limitations that make it difficult to use for complicated and hierarchical data. For example, the FITS 'cards' have keywords limited to only 8 characters, which can make it difficult to properly describe the value associated with it and the value for each keyword and its comment cannot be longer than 68 characters. By using

, more sophisticated and nested data structures may be used in ASDF than FITS.

References

External links

* for documentation {{Portal bar, Physics, Astronomy, Stars, Outer space, Science Astronomy Astronomical imaging Graphics file formats Data types