Mission Study

High Energy Astrophysics Software Futures (HEASwF) Working Group

The High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) has been directed in a letter from June 2024 to develop a plan to support the science community with software analysis tools for Chandra and Fermi data that HEASARC will maintain after the missions close out.

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Leadership

Steering Committee

Documents

About HEASwF Working Group

Developing a New Structure for Data Analysis Software

This task may include developing a new structure for analysis software to perform common tasks for X-ray missions and, potentially in a separate structure, for gamma-ray and particle astrophysics missions.

HEASARC

Using data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, scientists discovered a gigantic, mysterious structure in our galaxy. This feature looks like a pair of bubbles extending above and below our galaxy’s center. Each lobe is 25,000 light-years tall and the whole structure may be only a few million years old.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

The HEASARC is directed to work with the Chandra and Fermi missions, and with the Physics of the Cosmos Program Office and Chief Scientists, to understand the needs of current and future X-ray, gamma-ray, and particle astrophysics missions, and to present a preliminary version of the plan to the Astrophysics Division.

To implement this directive, a working group will be formed from volunteers from the community. A steering group made up of representatives of HEASARC, Physics of the Cosmos, Chandra, Fermi, and the cosmic-ray communities will select the members and leadership of the working group. This steering committee will continue to serve as an advisory board to the working group.

The main goal of the working group is to advise on the long-term plan for Chandra and Fermi software to be incorporated into HEASARC and scope the NASA HQ mandate: namely, to advise the Chandra X-ray Center, and the Fermi and HEASARC teams in the short term on developing a software framework for future missions to use, and on a longer term to play a leadership role in the development of these high-energy astrophysics data analysis packages.

The HEASwF Working Group Steering Committee

Name	Institution
Francesca Civano	Physics of the Cosmo – NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Janet Evans	Chandra X-ray Center – Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Phil Evans	Leicester University
Don Horner	Fermi – NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Andy Ptak	HEASARC – NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Alex Rustle	Cosmic Ray / Fermi – NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Colleen Wilson-Hodge	Gamma Ray / Fermi – NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

The Steering Committee requested nominations for community members to join the High Energy Astrophysics Software Futures (HEASwF) Working Group.

HEASwF Working Group Chairs

Name	Institution
Johannes Eser	Columbia University
Ian Evans	Chandra X-ray Center
Adam Goldstein	NASA / Marshall Space Flight Center

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