In the previous issue of the Chandra Newsletter we announced a new feature in manuscript preparation: the inclusion of Dataset Identifiers to provide links between the literature and the data. Since then we have updated our informational web page on these
identifiers with a tool that provides users with tools to determine the correct syntax of all existing Dataset Identifiers and to request the assignment of custom Dataset Identifiers for large groups of
ObsIds.
Since early October users in south Asia are being served public Chandra data from a mirror at IUCAA in Pune, India. All browse functions in WebChaser and FastImage still go through our servers at CfA/CXC, but when users request the retrieval of data, their geographic location is determined and, if in southern Asia, the data are prepared at the Pune mirror, rather than in Cambridge, MA. Note that this only applies to primary and secondary products for public data; proprietary data are still exclusively retrieved from the archive at CfA/CXC.
We hope that this will speed data transfers for our users in the region and encourage them to give it a try, especially if they have been reluctant in the past due to low transmission speeds. HEASARC, at GSFC/NASA, has a similar mirror which feeds retrievals through its Browse interface. We are planning to establish several of these mirrors around the globe.
Arnold Rots
for the Archive Operations Team
