2003PASP..115.1250M

Fourier coefficients are a valuable tool in the study of a wide variety of pulsating stars. In the case of RR Lyrae stars they, can be used to estimate various physical parameters, such as mass, luminosity, metallicity, and effective temperature. They are frequently used to discriminate between different pulsation modes for both RR Lyrae stars and Cepheids. Fourier coefficients have been published for stars based on many different photometric systems as well as for radial velocity measurements. With the release of coefficients from large-scale surveys and the availability of these data on the Internet, the number of Fourier coefficients available for study has significantly increased, and it is difficult to obtain all available data for individual stars or a given subset of stars. To assist researchers in obtaining and making use of Fourier coefficients, an on-line archive of published values of Fourier coefficients has been established. Users can search the database using a variety of tools, and the data sets extend beyond the Milky Way to include extragalactic variables. The archive is located at the Web site http://nitro9.earth.uni.edu/fourier/.