[fitsbits] [mhvk at astro.utoronto.ca: Question about FITS format for logarithmic units]

Steve Allen sla at ucolick.org
Wed Dec 11 14:43:05 EST 2013


On Wed 2013-12-11T15:09:57 +0100, Lucio Chiappetti hath writ:
> In general I would say that, designing a package, one should distinguish
> between human readable or computer readable information. The first is more
> or less of "commentary" nature, and/or requires the intervention of a
> human user or operator. Note that FITS provides ways to indicate units in
> keywords (BUNIT TUNITn) as well as in keyword comments (section 4.3.2).

As a result of WCS 3, FITS has the concept of WCSNAME, and also
CNAMEia for use where the highly-compressed meanings in CUNITia are
inscrutable.

In some instances I have taken the liberty of extending this notion
to creating BNAME and TNAMEn to give better explanations of the
quantity in the pixel or column.

--
Steve Allen                 <sla at ucolick.org>                WGS-84 (GPS)
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