Application of Open-source Spatio-Temporal Database Systems in Wide-Field Time-domain Astronomy

Poster presentation in the ADASS XXVI (2016)

Abstract:
- We present our on-going experience with open-source spatio-temporal database systems that are optimized to manage both spatial and time information for analyzing large volumes of astronomical data acquired by wide-field time-domain surveys, such as KMTNet (Korea Microlensing Telescope Network) or upcoming LSST.

- Considering performance, cost, and difficulty of the database systems, we conduct comparison studies of two spatio-temporal databases (GeoMesa and PostGIS) that are already being used for handling big geo-spatial data. Our experiments include ingesting, transforming, indexing, and querying millions or billions of astronomical spatio-temporal features using both systems.

- We discuss the performance and limitations of these spatio-temporal database systems to be utilized for astronomical applications: easiness of use, functionalities (e.g., indexing scheme, supported query functions), and speed of computation.