Cometary Observation Metadata Archive (COMA), an Interactive Science Portal for Primitive Solar System Objects

Our team at the Institute for Astronomy has accumulated a ~2 TB data set of CCD imaging small body (comets, Centaurs, TNOs and MBCs) observations during the past 30 years. The data in this program were obtained on 1-10 m class telescopes. The investigation of comet activity throughout the orbit is often difficult because of the long timescales and lack of uniform datasets. These data can be used to help understand long- and short-term activity, and to explore the volatile distribution in these primordial remnants of solar system processes. The data will also be of strategic importance for small body missions. In addition, we are combining this data with small body data from the ATLAS and ASAS-SN surveys, along with data from amateur observers at the Crni Vrh observatory to complement the data from the larger telescopes. We have implemented a database to store the data and higher order data products locally. We have been developing the tools to systematically ingest the data through a pipeline from telescope to archiving. During the process, we create the ancillary products (photometry, astrometry, image stacks and filtering, calculation of afrho, find objects etc.) that are also stored in the database along with orbital information for each target. We are in the process of developing the tools to access and visualize the data as well as seamlessly process the data for archiving into the PDS Small Bodies Node. The COMA software consists of the User Interface (UI) that provides the user with data access by connecting to a middleware software application program interface (API). The middleware API encapsulates various data operations such as queries from the COMA database and calls to the backend Processing System (PS). The PS performs commands such as image calibration, photometry, ephemerides calculations and other data reduction. The middleware and PS are also used to ingest data from archival data and external systems (from the ATLAS and ASASSN surveys) and to export to the PDS in non-interactive processes. The UI, middleware and PS communicate using RESTful HTTP JSON APIs. The UI is split into a Module Selection Menu (left), an Environment module (center) where users create pipelines that represent data queries and can create visualizations. We are currently developing the UI and want to present the project status to solicit input from the small body user community.