Major Users of the CFITSIO Library

The following satellite missions, ground observatories, and software projects currently use the CFITSIO library to read and write FITS files within their data handling or data analysis systems. If your project is not listed, please let us know.

    ASTRONOMICAL SATELLITES

    The following past, present, or future orbiting astronomical observatories have used or will use CFITSIO in their ground data processing pipeline systems to manipulate FITS format data files.

      ASCA - Japanese/U.S. X-ray mission (1993 - 2000)
      BepposSAX - Italian X-ray mission (1996 - 2002)
      Chandra - U.S. X-ray mission (1999- )
      GLAST - Fermi Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (2008 - )
      HST - The Hubble Space Telescope (1990 - )
      INTEGRAL - European X-ray and Gamma-ray mission (2002 - )
      RXTE - Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (1995 - )
      Suzaku - Japanese/US X-ray astronomy mission (2005 - )
      SWIFT - Gamma-Ray Burst Mission (2004 -)
      USA - U.S. DoD X-ray timing mission on the ARGOS satellite (1999 - 2003)
      XMM-Newton - European X-ray Multi-Mirror mission (1999 - )

    GROUND-BASED OBSERVATORIES

      Keck Observatory
      The Keck observatory instruments that have optical CCD detectors use CFITSIO to convert the CCD data to FITS files. This includes HIRES, LRIS, ESI, and DEIMOS.

      Gemini Observatory
      The Gemini telescopes in Hawaii use CFITSIO in most of its data handling applications.

      Subaru Observatory
      Some of the instruments mounted on the Subaru telescope use CFITSIO in their data processing systems.

      The Green Bank Telescope
      This radio observatory uses CFITSIO to construct FITS data products in real time during the observation.

      e-STAR Project
      The eScience Telescopes for Astronomical Research (eSTAR) project at the University of Liverpool and University of Exeter is a network of robotic telescopes that use CFITSIO to record the output from CCD observations.

      Raptor Optical Transient Project
      This project uses wide field telescopes to identify optical transients in real time. It uses CFITSIO in its data acquisition systems.

      OLGE Project
      The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) project uses CFITSIO to create and compress 30 TB of FITS CCD images per year taken with the 1.3m Warsaw University Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile.

      Digital Zenith Camera
      This project at the University of Hanover, Germany, uses CCD cameras on zenith telescopes to determine vertical deflections in the earth's gravity field. CFITSIO is used in their data analysis system.

      Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF)
      Software for the Parkes radiotelescope uses CFITSIO to read and write data in single-dish FITS format for near-real time and offline data reduction.

    SOFTWARE PROJECTS

      FTOOLS
      Large package of analysis tools distributed by the HEASARC for analyzing data in FITS format.

      CIAO
      The Chandra data analysis system.

      SAS (XMM)
      The XMM-Newton data analysis system.

      STSDAS Tables System
      The STSDAS Tables software package, developed at the Space Telescope Science Institute used CFITSIO to read and write FITS tables.

      Starlink
      The major U.K. astronomical data analysis system used CFITSIO in several of its packages, including 'CURSA' and 'CONVERT'.

      Adobe Photoshop Liberator plug-in
      Liberator is a free plug-in for Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements 2 for manipulating FITS images with those programs. A color composite "Action" file is also available to simplify the process of creating color composite images from 3 separate red, green, and blue images.

      The ESO Imaging Survey
      This project to carry out public imaging surveys to prepare target lists for the European VLT 8-meter telescope uses CFITSIO in its data analysis system.

      Hypercat FITS Archive (HFA)
      The HFA project at the Observatory of Lyon, France, is an archive of FITS images and spectra of galaxies. The associated data processing software uses CFITSIO. to read and write the FITS data.

      Canadian Astronomy Data Center (CADC)
      The CADC uses CFITSIO for a variety of astronomical data processing and analysis tasks.

      XAssist
      The XAssist project developed by Dr. Andrew Ptak to automate X-ray astrophysics analysis uses CFITSIO.

      Sloan Digital Sky Survey Image Cutout Service
      Each of the 100 million objects in the Sloan survey will have an associated image cutout for each of the five bandpasses. CFITSIO will be used in the archive and database system that provides the cutouts to users over the Internet.

      NICMOS IDT
      The NICMOS Instrument Definition Team which developed the instrument for the HST use CFITSIO for a variety of data analysis applications.

      CARMA
      The CARMA (Combined Array for Research in mm-wave Astronomy) software tool kit developed for the BIMA and OVRO millimeter radio observatories uses CFITSIO.

      GLAST Gaudi
      The Gaudi software system that is being developed for the GLAST satellite uses CFITSIO to manipulate FITS files.

      NEMO
      NEMO is an extendible Stellar Dynamics Toolbox with various programs to create, analyze, and visualize N-body and SPH systems. It uses CFITSIO to export/import FITS files to/from other systems.

      HippoDraw
      HippoDraw's built-in support for reading a FITS file is implemented by using the CFITSIO library. FITS binary and ASCII tables are supported as well as images.


    HEASARC Home | Observatories | Archive | Calibration | Software | Tools | Students/Teachers/Public

    Last modified: Thursday, 19-Aug-2010 14:45:05 EDT

    HEASARC Staff Scientist Position - Applications are now being accepted for a Staff Scientist with significant experience and interest in the technical aspects of astrophysics research, to work in the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, MD. Refer to the AAS Job register for full details.