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)
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Last updated | 2015-10-14 | ||
| Stream | IETF | ||
| Formats | plain text pdf html bibtex | ||
| Stream | WG state | (None) | |
| Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
| IESG | IESG state | RFC 4047 (Informational) | |
| 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",
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