Bridging the gap between geographical information systems and planetary virtual observatory

Abstract

Virtual Observatory tools are specifically designed for astronomical data, but they can be adapted to work with geospatial data by providing existing Geographical Information System tools with Simple Application Messaging Protocol interface. Open source QGIS package was chosen as a platform for this. The Simple Application Messaging Protocol interface was made with Python plug‐ins. Geospatial data were exposed to Virtual European Solar and Planetary Access via a dedicated German Astronomical Virtual Observatory Data Center Helper Suite server and several tables exposing existing Open Geospatial Consortium—compliant planetary services were published to Virtual European Solar and Planetary Access providing a variety of geospatial data types: vector data and spectral cube rasters, as well as Open Geospatial Consortium Web Map Service of planetary maps.