C3, A Command-line Catalog Cross-match Tool for Large Astrophysical Catalogs. (29th December 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Riccio, Giuseppe; Brescia, Massimo; Cavuoti, Stefano; Mercurio, Amata; di Giorgio, Anna Maria; Molinari, Sergio
• Is Part Of: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Volume 129:Number 972(2017)
• Publication Date: 2016-12-29
• Subjects: catalogs -- methods: data analysis -- surveys -- techniques: miscellaneous; Astronomy -- Periodicals; Astronomy; Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1088/1538-3873/129/972/024005
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0004-6280

Abstract

Abstract: Modern Astrophysics is based on multi-wavelength data organized into large and heterogeneous catalogs. Hence, the need for efficient, reliable and scalable catalog cross-matching methods plays a crucial role in the era of the petabyte scale. Furthermore, multi-band data have often very different angular resolution, requiring the highest generality of cross-matching features, mainly in terms of region shape and resolution. In this work we present C 3 (Command-line Catalog Cross-match), a multi-platform application designed to efficiently cross-match massive catalogs. It is based on a multi-core parallel processing paradigm and conceived to be executed as a stand-alone command-line process or integrated within any generic data reduction/analysis pipeline, providing the maximum flexibility to the end-user, in terms of portability, parameter configuration, catalog formats, angular resolution, region shapes, coordinate units and cross-matching types. Using real data, extracted from public surveys, we discuss the cross-matching capabilities and computing time efficiency also through a direct comparison with some publicly available tools, chosen among the most used within the community, and representative of different interface paradigms. We verified that the C 3 tool has excellent capabilities to perform an efficient and reliable cross-matching between large data sets. Although the elliptical cross-match and the parametric handling of angular orientation and offset are known concepts in the astrophysical context, their availability in the presented command-line tool makes C 3 competitive in the context of public astronomical tools.