TAPAS Data Policy
Author: Carsten Kramer (November 2008)
The Telescope Archive for Pool and AstronomerS, TAPAS, will contain the header information of all astronomical observations conducted at the IRAM 30m telescope. TAPAS has been a joint IAA-CSIC/IRAM effort over the past 2 years since 2005, partially funded by the Spanish ministry via grant AYA2005-07516-C02. TAPAS will contain more than 200 header variables for each observational scan, encompassing
- information on the observing setup (source, frequency, observing mode, etc.),
- information on the project (PI, Title, etc.),
- the status of the system at the time of the observations (telescope, receiver, backend, weather, etc.), - and also the results of calibrations, of pointing and focus scans, except for the bolometer. Such bolometer data will be added later.
For all observations, a subset of these header data (about 20 variables) will be made available for unrestricted access via web interfaces and search tools, after a proprietary period of one year. For each scan, the subset will encompass the project number, source name and position, date of observations, LST time, integration time, observing mode, and sky frequency. [This is essentially the information and proprietary period of the PdBI data for the CDMS.] IRAM staff will have immediate and unrestricted access to all data.
It is planned that TAPAS contains header information of all data taken after 1.1.2009. TAPAS does not contain any astronomical heterodyne or bolometer data. However, TAPAS provides the possibility to link the header data of individual scans to FITS files containing the uncalibrated astronomical data. Access rights to any astronomical data in TAPAS depend on the project: In general, the proprietary period is indefinite. The PI and IRAM decide when to make astronomical data public. For large programs, access to all data will be granted after a 18 months proprietary period. The proprietary period starts when the last observations of a given project are finished.