2021A&A...651A..97N

Context. During more than 17 years of operation in space, the INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) telescope has accumulated a large data set that contains records of hard X-ray and soft γ-ray astronomical sources. These data can be reused in the context of multi-wavelength or multi-messenger studies of astronomical sources and have to be preserved on long timescales.
Aims. We present a scientific validation of an interactive online INTEGRAL data analysis system for multi-wavelength studies of hard X-ray and soft γ-ray sources.
Methods. The online data analysis system generates publication-quality high-level data products: sky images, spectra, and light curves in response to user queries that define analysis parameters such as source position, time and energy interval, and binning. The data products can be requested via a web browser interface or via an application programming interface that is available as a Python package. The products for the Imager on Board the INTEGRAL Satellite/INTEGRAL Soft Gamma-Ray Imager instrument of INTEGRAL are generated using the offline science analysis (OSA) software, which is provided by the instrument teams and is conventionally used to analyse INTEGRAL data. The analysis workflow is organised to preserve and reuse various intermediate analysis products, ensuring that frequently requested results are available without delay. The platform is implemented in a Docker cluster that allows operation of the software in a controlled virtual environment and can be deployed in any compatible infrastructure. The scientific results produced by the open data analysis (ODA) are identical to those produced by OSA because ODA simply provides a platform to retrieve the OSA results online while leveraging a provenance-indexed database of precomputed (cached) results to optimise and reuse the result.
Results. We report the functionalities and performance of the online data analysis system by reproducing the benchmark INTEGRAL results on different types of sources, including bright steady and transient Galactic sources, and bright and weak variable extra-galactic sources. We compare the results obtained with the online data analysis system with previously published results on these sources. We also discuss limitations of the online analysis system.
Conclusions. We consider the INTEGRAL online data analysis as a demonstration of a more general web-based 'data analysis as a service' approach that provides a promising solution for the preservation and maintenance of data analysis tools of astronomical telescopes on (multi)decade long timescales and facilitates combining data in multi-wavelength and multi-messenger studies of astronomical sources.