MIME Sub-type Registrations for Flexible Image Transport System (FITS)
RFC 4047
Document | Type |
RFC - Informational
(April 2005; No errata)
Was draft-allen-fitsmime (individual in app area)
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Authors | Donald Wells , Steven Allen | ||
Last updated | 2015-10-14 | ||
Stream | Internent Engineering Task Force (IETF) | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized (tools) htmlized bibtex | ||
Stream | WG state | (None) | |
Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 4047 (Informational) | |
Action Holders |
(None)
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Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | Scott Hollenbeck | ||
Send notices to | (None) |
Network Working Group S. Allen Request for Comments: 4047 UCO/Lick Observatory Category: Informational D. Wells National Radio Astronomy Observatory April 2005 MIME Sub-type Registrations for Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) Status of This Memo This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005). Abstract This document describes the registration of the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) sub-types to be used by the international astronomical community for the interchange of Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) files. The encoding is defined by the published FITS standard documents. The FITS format has been in use since 1979, and almost all data from astronomical observations are interchanged by using FITS. Table of Contents 1. Introduction.................................................. 2 2. Conventions Used in this Document............................. 2 3. Overview...................................................... 2 4. FITS Definition............................................... 3 4.1. FITS Structure.......................................... 3 4.2. History of FITS Features................................ 5 4.3. Stability of the FITS definition........................ 6 4.4. Portability of FITS files............................... 7 4.5. Application Programming Interfaces to FITS.............. 7 4.6. FITS File Conformance Testing........................... 8 4.7. Archives That Distribute FITS Files..................... 8 5. IANA Considerations........................................... 9 5.1. Registration of application/fits........................ 10 5.2. Registration of image/fits.............................. 14 6. References.................................................... 19 6.1. Normative References.................................... 19 Allen & Wells Informational [Page 1] RFC 4047 MIME Sub-type Registrations for FITS April 2005 6.2. Informative References.................................. 20 7. Security Considerations....................................... 21 8. Contributors.................................................. 21 9. Acknowledgements.............................................. 22 Authors' Addresses................................................ 22 Full Copyright Statement.......................................... 23 1. Introduction The FITS file format [FITS] was designed in order to facilitate the interchange of astronomical image data between observatories. FITS provides a means of transporting arrays and tables of data and keyword/value pairs of metadata. FITS is defined by standards documents that are approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU, http://www.iau.org/) and published in refereed journals. Before the inception of HTTP, astronomers used the Internet to exchange FITS files. Multiple unofficial media types for FITS files [ASU] came into use shortly after the inception of the WWW and have remained in use. Currently (2005) the international astronomical community is pursuing many cooperative efforts (e.g., [IVOA], [NVO], [AstroGrid], [AVO]) to produce web services that provide astronomical data. The exchange of FITS files is a fundamental element of the prototypes for these web services [SIAP]. The astronomical community has to agree to use one set of media types for FITS files in order to promote interoperability of its various services. In its simplest form, FITS is used as a means of transporting astronomical image data in a raster form along with coordinate information and other standard and locally defined metadata. In such applications FITS is much like the well-known TIFF format [TIFF] with the addition of the GeoTIFF tags [GeoTIFF]. However, FITS is capable of describing a much broader range of data than 2-dimensional rasters. A consensus has developed in the FITS community that two media types are needed: one for images and one for all other cases. 2. Conventions Used in this Document The keywords "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC-2119 [Require]. 3. Overview This document describes the registration of the MIME media sub-types "application/fits" and "image/fits".Show full document text