High Energy Interest Group (HEIG)

Last updated - 21Jan26 - JEvans - mtg prep/general cleanup

High Energy Interest group accepted by IVOA Executive committee - November 2024 Interoperability meeting

Chair: Bruno Khélifi (APC, Paris) Vice-chair: Janet Evans (Harvard CfA)

Charter:

The group shall define requirements for the representation of high energy astrophysics data in the VO through:

• development of use cases for data discovery, access and visualization;
• identification of metadata concepts needed by high energy astrophysics data that are not currently supported by the VO;
• contribute to updates and additions to the relevant parts of the IVOA standards framework;
• the group will provide a well identified point of contact for high energy astrophysics projects with IVOA, and actively encourage their use of VO standards and protocols;
• the group will organize sessions focused on high energy astrophysics data at IVOA meetings.

Motivation:

High energy astrophysics (HEA) typically includes X-ray astrophysics and gamma-ray astrophysics of the GeV range (HE), the TeV range (very high energy, VHE), up to the ultra high energy (UHE) above 100 TeV, VHE neutrino astrophysics, and studies of cosmic rays. High energy astrophysics has several domain-specific requirements that need to be fulfilled if HEA data is to be well-served by the VO.

High energy astrophysics observations are based on techniques that are different compared to the optical or radio domains. HEA observatories are generally designed to detect particles, e.g., individual photons, cosmic rays, or neutrinos, with the ability to estimate several characteristics of those particles. This technique is generally named event counting where an event has some probability of being due to the interaction of an astrophysical particle with the detectors. The list of detected events is named an event list and these data sets are typically multi-dimensional and can simultaneously encode event position, time, and spectral information. Instrument Response Functions are required to map the physical properties of the source to the observables, and these mappings are probabilistic and typically not invertible, requiring more complex representations for data sets and their associated calibrations compared to (e.g.) optical data.

The groups and projects that have expressed interest to be involved include current and future X-ray facilities, gamma-ray facilities, and neutrino observatories, as well as high energy astrophysics data archives:

• Chandra X-ray Observatory;
• XMM-Newton;
• Space-based multi-band astronomical Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM);
• High-Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS);
• Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO);
• KM³ Neutrino Telescope (KM3NeT);
• NASA High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC).

By providing the necessary standards, the IVOA can help to ensure that VO protocols can support further developments in the high energy astrophysics community and enable interoperability and data discovery both within high energy astrophysics and between high energy astrophysics and other wavelengths.

Virtual Observatory and High Energy Astrophysics v1.0 - M. Servillat et al.

This note outlines several topics that form an initial roadmap for an HE interest group within the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA). This Note was reviewed by the IVOA Exec to establish the HEIG in Nov 2024. https://github.com/ivoa/HighEnergyDataNote

IVOA ObsCore Extension and Discovery of High Energy Astrophysics Data V1.0 - I. Evans et al.

Draft document that describes a proposed extension to the ObsCore specification for data description, discovery, and selection of High Energy Astrophysics (HEA) data. This Note is the first HEIG project after becoming an IG in Nov 2024. We plan to present it to the Interop at the Jun 2026 Interop. https://github.com/ivoa/HighEnergyObsCoreExt

Membership

Membership - email alias "HEIG"

To be added to the email list, use the following link:

• http://mail.ivoa.net/mailman/listinfo/heig

TCG Roadmap

2025B Roadmap (time between Goerlitz & Strasbourg) - https://wiki.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/2025BRoadmap

HEIG Roadmap Goals:

1. ObsCore continuation - Continue with HEIG Note on Obscore extension for HE data and complete on timeframe of Strasbourg interop with 2 prototypes

Priority 1 - HEIG ObsCore Extension - 2025/2026

• HighEnergyObsCoreExt: GitHub repo for the project
• Obscore v1.1 Standard (2017): https://www.ivoa.net/documents/ObsCore/
• Radio extension proposal: https://github.com/ivoa-std/ObsCoreExtensionForRadioData
• Time extension proposal: https://github.com/ivoa-std/ObscoreTimeExtension
• Analysis of Obscore for the VHE (May24) - IVOA Sydney, M. Servillat (slides 16-17)
• Joint meeting ObsCore Extension meeting notes (Feb 25): https://wiki.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/HEIG_25Feb11

Participating Project Links (add your project and link)

• Chandra Science - https://chandra.harvard.edu/index_scientists.html
  • Chandra Data Descriptions - Event list, GTI
• Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO)
  • Data Model Group - https://www.ctao.org/emission-to-discovery/data-and-computing/
• Einstein Probe - https://ep.bao.ac.cn/ep/ ;; https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/einstein-probe/mission
• Gamma-ray Astronomy Data Formats (GADF) - https://gamma-astro-data-formats.readthedocs.io
• KM3NeT Open Science - openscience.km3net.de
• NASA High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) - https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  • FITS data standards (aka "OGIP")
• Space-based multi-band astronomical Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) - https://www.svom.eu/en/home/
• Very-high-energy Open Data Format (VODF, under construction) - https://vodf.readthedocs.io
• XMM-Newton, XCATDB - https://xcatdb.unistra.fr/4xmmdr14/index.html

HEIG Group Meetings

Next Mtg:

• 08April2026 - Heading to the Interop, VEPs
  • Mtg_Agenda

Past Mtgs:

• 2026-03-20 - Neutrinos
• 2026-03-17 - VEPs
• 2026-01-21
  
  • Mtg_Notes
• 2025 Fall Interop
• 2025-10-30: Editing meeting on the HEIG Obscore note
• 2025-10-22: Editing meeting on the HEIG Obscore note
• 2025-10-07: Editing meeting on the HEIG Obscore note
• 2025-07-31 : Editing meeting on the HEIG Obscore note
• 2025-06-20 : Interop Summary (HEIG View)
  • Mtg_Agenda
• 2025-06-02 : Interop Summary (HEIG View)
  • Mtg_Agenda
• 2025-05-21 @14:00 UTC: Interop Prep meeting
  • Mtg_Notes
• 2025-04-30 @14:30 UTC : Part of the Workshop in Paris (Apr 29/30) - https://indico.obspm.fr/event/2674/
  • Mtg Notes
• 2025-04-02 @14:00 UTC : Paris mtg overview/Status of Obscore Doc/Interop planning
  • Mtg_Notes
• 2025-02-11 @14:00 UTC : Thematic meeting : Obscore
  • Mtg_Notes
• 2025-01-24 @14:30 UTC: Interop/HEIG Roadmap
  • Mtg_Notes
• Interop Nov 15-17: HEIG IG proposal to Exec, Plenary on Day 1, 2 presentations in DM WG session
  • Program - https://wiki.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/InterOpNov2024
• 2024-10-23 @13:00 UTC: Malta Plenary Planning; Session contributions
  • Mtg_Agenda
• 2024-09-27 @14:30 UTC:IVOA Note final/review actions; Malta Plenary; IVOA sessions
  
  • Mtg_Notes
• 2024-08-30 @13:00 UTC: IVOA Note status/feedback, Malta session early planning cont.
  • Mtg_Notes
• 2024-06-28 @13:00 UTC: IVOA Note status/feedback, Malta session early planning
  • Mtg Notes
• 2024-04-03 @14:30 UTC: IVOA Note status/feedback, Sydney session planning, Obscore
  • Mtg Notes
• 2024-01-31 @14:30 UTC: IVOA Note status, Sydney planning, Obscore
  • Mtg Notes
• 2023-12-21 @14:00 UTC: "What makes an event list unique?” “What content should users expect to exist in an Event list instance”
  • Mtg Notes
• 2023-10-18: Discussion and Presentations on Response Files
  • Mtg Notes
• 2023-09-14 : Overview of the Dataset/Cube data models and their applicability to High Energy datasets.
  • Slides & Mtg Notes
• 2023-06-28: IVOA standards for High Energy Astrophysics (French VO Workshop)
  • https://indico.obspm.fr/event/1963/
• 2023-05-11: Presentation at Interop, "DM for High Energy astrophysics", M. Servillat
  • https://wiki.ivoa.net/internal/IVOA/IntropMay3023DM/2023-05-11_IVOA_meeting_-_VOHE.pdf
• 2022-10-11: Virtual Observatory and High Energy Astrophysics (French VO Workshop),
  • https://indico.obspm.fr/event/1489/
• 2021-06-25: IVOA Metadata for high energy astrophysics (ESCAPE European project workshop),
  • https://indico.in2p3.fr/event/24652/

Obscore extension Model and TAP serialization/ Design and prototypes for HE data

this page ObsExtHE contains proposals for model extensions and TAP implementations.