Planetary World Coordinate System in Astropy

Different research communities are involved in planetary coordinate standardization. Geologists and Remote Sensing specialists work on extending Earth standards to Planets using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and coordinate descriptions endorsed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC).

Astronomers work to define Virtual Observatory (VO) metadata and FITS World Coordinate System (WCS) for planetary bodies. In this proceeding the implementation of the planetary WCS description in Astropy is described.

The related new features are available starting from Astropy 6.0. The current work is part of a broader effort involving other consortia (e.g., heliophysics for Solar or magnetospheric reference frames), and focuses on body-fixed frames to support surface and atmosphere studies.

Chiara Marmo, Stéphane Érard

Comments: Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XXXIII, 2023, Tucson, Conference Proceedings
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:2504.03820 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:2504.03820v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2504.03820
Focus to learn more
Submission history
From: Chiara Marmo
[v1] Fri, 4 Apr 2025 16:46:18 UTC (39 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.03820
Astrobiology,