C3, A Command-line Catalogue Cross-match tool for large astrophysical catalogues

Abstract

Modern Astrophysics is based on multi-wavelength data organized into large and heterogeneous catalogues. Hence, the need for efficient, reliable and scalable catalogue cross-matching methods plays a crucial role in the era of the petabyte scale. Furthermore, multi-band data have often very different angular resolution, requiring the highest generality of cross-matching features, mainly in terms of region shape and resolution. In this work we present $C^3$ (Command-line Catalogue Cross-match), a multi-platform application designed to efficiently cross-match massive catalogues. It is based on a multi-core parallel processing paradigm and conceived to be executed as a stand-alone command-line process or integrated within any generic data reduction/analysis pipeline, providing the maximum flexibility to the end-user, in terms of portability, parameter configuration, catalogue formats, angular resolution, region shapes, coordinate units and cross-matching types. Using real data, extracted from public surveys, we discuss the cross-matching capabilities and computing time efficiency also through a direct comparison with some publicly available tools, chosen among the most used within the community, and representative of different interface paradigms. We verified that the $C^3$ tool has excellent capabilities to perform an efficient and reliable cross-matching between large datasets. Although the elliptical cross-match and the parametric handling of angular orientation and offset are known concepts in the astrophysical context, their availability in the presented command-line tool makes $C^3$ competitive in the context of public astronomical tools.

arXiv comment18 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for publication on PASP

References in corpus (7)

• The NumPy array: a structure for efficient numerical computation
• HEALPix -- a Framework for High Resolution Discretization, and Fast Analysis of Data Distributed on the Sphere
• GLIMPSE: I. A SIRTF Legacy Project to Map the Inner Galaxy
• The UKIDSS Galactic Plane Survey
• The first and second data releases of the Kilo-Degree Survey
• Hi-GAL, the Herschel infrared Galactic Plane Survey: photometric maps and compact source catalogues. First data release for Inner Milky Way: +68°> l > -70°
• Probabilistic Cross-Identification of Astronomical Sources

Cited by in corpus (11)

• When the tale comes true: multiple populations and wide binaries in the Orion Nebula Cluster
• catsHTM - A tool for fast accessing and cross-matching large astronomical catalogs
• A sextet of clusters in the Vela OB2 region revealed by Gaia
• A stellar relic filament in the Orion star forming region
• Star Formation Rates for photometric samples of galaxies using machine learning methods
• Photometric redshifts for X-ray-selected active galactic nuclei in the eROSITA era
• A comprehensive study of 94 open clusters based on the data from IPHAS, GAIA DR2, and other sky surveys
• AstroCatR: a Mechanism and Tool for Efficient Time Series Reconstruction of Large-Scale Astronomical Catalogues
• Astroinformatics based search for globular clusters in the Fornax Deep Survey
• HLC2: a highly efficient cross-matching framework for large astronomical catalogues on heterogeneous computing environments
• The Evolutionary Path of Star-Forming Clumps in Hi-GAL