AVO Science Telecon: Oct. 8, 03

present:
MA Mark Allen
TB Thomas Boch
LC Laurent Cambresy
PF Pepi Fabbiano
FG Francoise Genova
PP Paolo Padovani
TP Timo Prusti
AR Anita Richards

chair:
NW Nicholas Walton

minutes:
MD Markus Dolensky, revised by PP

excused:
DD Dave DeYoung
PR Piero Rosati

action items:
[LC+AR+TP] write down ideas for a galactic case

[PP+PR] write down ideas for extragalactic case

[MD] prepare wiki page for SWG

[PP] contact SWG and point them to the wiki page

[ALL] next telecon: Oct 23, 2003, 4pm CET


notes:

NW reported on an email received from DD, who suggested to integrate the
extragalactic case with numerical simulations and to stress for the
Galactic one nulti-band IR data.

1.) galactic case

PP: very little data for SIRTF in January, main release in Spring 2004

PF: the Galaxy Structure and Evolution SWG sub-group had indicated the
importance of a tool for registering and mosaicing images; MONTAGE (IRSA)
might do that, but not clear when available

MA/MD: "bring in your own data to the VO" should be addressed by the demo,
as users appear to be very interested in this

AR: spectral energy distribution; compact objects

TP: Is there a group doing it (combining spectra in multiple bands)
already that could set requirements? Right now we approach from
technical point of view, not from an existing scientific research
project.

PP: galactic case ISO/XMM
  star forming region: ISO spectra (SWS, LWS) + XMM data
  strong interest from ISO and XMM to work on overlapping fields;
  will discuss this in Strasbourg

Consensus that Galactic case still weak; LC & AR will work on a draft on a
short time-scale, TP will help as well. MD will then upload it to the Wiki.


2.) extra galactic case

PP: GOODS field: FORS2 spectra available for a few hundred sources, XMM
spectra available; one idea could be to look for type II AGN, for which
one needs the X-ray spectrum to see the hard, absorbed component and the
optical spectrum, which should show only narrow lines; nobody in the GOODS/AGN
team (PP is a member) currently working on this.

Discussion on cross-correlation tools to match sources from different
catalogs; there are tools available (e.g. W3Browse
(http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/db-perl/W3Browse/w3browse.pl) but require
expert users.

NW: suggests to create postage stamps of a list of sources, extracting
cut-outs from available images

Consensus that extragalactic case is stronger; PP will write a short draft
and get PR's input. MD will then upload it to the Wiki.

Once both drafts are there, PP will contact SWG members to point them
to the Wiki and ask for comments/input.

3.) tools

MD: brief discussion on SpecView, which can handle HST and FORS2 spectra,
plus any ASCII file; Spexter is more a pipeline than a display tool

Discussion will continue next week in Strasbourg.