FITS Documentation Page

Home | News | Docs | WCS | Samples | Libraries | Viewers | Utilities | Keywords | Conventions | Resources

FITS Documentation

FITS Overview - brief history of the origins and evolution of FITS
FITS Format Primer - introduction to the basic structure of a FITS file
The FITS Standard - the definitive reference document that defines the FITS format

Version 2.1b - this is the latest version of the FITS Standard that reflects the changes that were approved by the FITS Working Group in December and April 2005.
NOST FITS Standard, version 2.0 (also available in PDF, or Postscript formats).
This 96 page document was developed by the NOST technical panel in March 1999.
(The original LaTeX format text file and 4 required ancillary files style file, index file, ieee1.eps, and ieee2.eps are also available).
The published version of the NOST document is available online by subscription from the A&A journal in HTML format. An unrestricted PDF version (containing only the main body of the paper, minus the appendixes) has been made available here by permission of the publisher. This published version of the FITS Standard was endorsed by the IAU FITS Working Group in October 2000 and is identical to the original NOST document except for the addition of 2 introductory sections on the history of FITS and on the process that lead to the creation of the NOST document. There were also 2 minor clarifications on a) the interpretation of the word "deprecated" and b) the usage of the TDIMn keyword with variable length array columns.

World Coordinate System (WCS) - documents and software dealing with world coordinate system conventions. The first 3 WCS papers have been approved by the IAU-FWG and are now officially recognized as part of the FITS Standard.
FITS MIME types (RFC 4047) - The Internet Engineering Task Force issued this Internet standards document that defines and registers the "image/fits" and "application/fits" MIME types in April 2005 after a long review process. The MIME types are typically used to describe the type of content (or media type) of documents or data files that are passed between applications over the Internet. The MIME type indicates to the receiveing application (e.g., a web browser) how to handle the information.
FITS User's Guide - an out of date (April 1997) introduction to the history and usage of FITS. This document does not reflect the changes that were introduced in version 2.0 of the FITS Standard that was approved in the year 2000, nor does it address the FITS conventions that are defined in the series of World Coordinate System (WCS) papers that have been approved by the FITS Working Group. The User's guide is also available in PDF and postscript formats, as well as the LaTeX source text file and style file.
FITS extensions - list of extension names registered with the IAU FITS Working Group
FITS Birthday Announcement - Historical note from Don Wells on the events leading up to the 'birth' of the FITS format in 1979.
Historical Perspectives on FITS (PDF) by Eric Greisen, one of the original developers of FITS. This paper was published in Information Handling in Astronomy - Historical Vistas, edited by Andre Heck (Kluwer, Astrophysics and Space Science Library, 285 (2002). It is also available in postscript format.
FITS comparison - a draft document written in 1992 by Barry Schlesinger (then the FITS support person at GSFC-NOST) as part of a comparison of various data formats that was produced by NOST.
Formats Evolution Process established several discussion forums for contrasting and comparing different data formats, including FITS, HDF, and CDF. Several researchers and archive sites present their experiences in using the FITS format.
Published FITS Definition Papers
ADASS Conference Papers

Published FITS Definition Papers

FITS: A Flexible Image Transport System, Wells, D. C., Greisen, E. W., and Harten, R. H., Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series, 44, 363-370, 1981. (HTML, PDF)
An Extension of FITS for Groups of Small Arrays of Data, Greisen, E. W. and Harten, R. H., Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series, 44, 371-374, 1981. (NOTE: The random groups format described in this paper has been used almost exclusively to transport radio interferometry and has now largely been replaced by binary tables. Writing data other than radio interferometry data using this format is not recommended.) (HTML, PDF)
Generalized Extensions and Blocking Factors for FITS, Grosbøl, P., Harten, R. H., Greisen, E. W., and Wells, D. C., Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series, 73, 359-364, 1988. (HTML, PDF)
The FITS Tables Extension, Harten, R. H., Grosbøl. P., Greisen, E. W., and Wells, D. C., Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series, 73, 365-372, 1988. (HTML, PDF)
The FITS Image Extension, Ponz, J. D., Thompson, R. W., and Munoz, J. R., Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series, 105, 53-55, 1994. (HTML, PDF)
Binary Table Extension to FITS, Cotton, W. D., Tody, D. B., and Pence, W. D., Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series, 113, 159-166, 1995. (HTML, PDF)
Definition of the Flexible Image Transport System (FITS), Hanisch, R. J., Farris, A., Greisen, E. W., Pence, W. D., Schlesinger, B. M., Teuben, P. J., Thompson, R. W., and Warnock, A., Astronomy & Astrophysics, 376, 359-380, 2001. (HTML, PDF). These links to the publisher's web site are currently available by subscription only. The PDF version includes only the main body of the paper and not the appendixes. An unrestricted PDF version has been made available here by permission of the publisher. The original NOST version of the Standard is available in HTML, PDF, and Postscript formats.
Representations of World Coordinates in FITS, Greisen, E. W., and Calabretta, M. R., Astronomy & Astrophysics, 395, 1061-1075, 2002. (PDF, HTML). (These links to the publisher's web site are currently available by subscription only). Reprints are also available from the author's web site in PDF format.
Representations of Celestial Coordinates in FITS, Calabretta, M. R., and Greisen, E. W., Astronomy & Astrophysics, 395, 1077-1122, 2002. (PDF, HTML). (These links to the publisher's web site are currently available by subscription only). Reprints are also available from the author's web site in PDF format.

ADASS Conference Papers Related to FITS
This list only contains the papers that are primarily focused on FITS issues. Many other papers that are more indirectly related to the FITS format or data processing issues can be found in the ADASS database.
ADASS I - 1991, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 25.

FITS Kernel Interface in IRAF, Zarate, N. R.
FITSIO and FITS File Utility Software, Pence, W. D.
Definition of a Distribution Format for X-ray Data, Conroy, M. A., et al.
Wavelet-Based Compression Software for FITS Images, Press, W. H.
ADASS II - 1992, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 52.

The ROSAT Implementation of a Proposed Multi-Mission X-ray Data Format, Corcoran, M. F., et al.
FITS Data Conversion Efforts at the Compton Observatory Science Support Center, Jennings, D. G., et al.
FTOOLS---A FITS Utility Package for Multiple Environments, Pence, W. et al.
The IRAF/NOAO Spectral World Coordinate Systems, Valdes, F.

ADASS III - 1993, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 61.

The Design of an Intelligent FITS File Database, A. H. Rots,
Compression Software for Astronomical Images, J. P. Véran, J. R. Wright
FITS Image Compression Using Variable Length Binary Tables, W. D. Pence
ADASS IV - 1994, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 77.

Proposed FITS Keywords and Column Headers for ALEXIS Mission Data Files, J. Bloch and J. Theiler
The OGIP FITS Working Group M. F. Corcoran, et al.
A Generic Data Exchange Scheme Between FITS Format and C Structures, W. Peng and T. Nicinski
Reformatting the Ginga Database to FITS and the Creation of a Data Products Archive, R. H. D. Corbet, et al.
Representations of Celestial Coordinates in FITS, E. W. Greisen, M. Calabretta
A Proposed Convention for Writing FITS Data Tapes: DRAFT 0, ROSAT/ASCA/XTE Development Team
FITSIO Subroutine Library Update, W. D. Pence
FITS Checksum Verification in the NOAO Archive, R. Seaman
FTOOLS: A FITS Data Processing and Analysis Software Package, J. K. Blackburn
ADASS V - 1995, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 101.

STSDAS Tables Package Uses FITSIO, P. Hodge
IDA---A FITS Table Browser and Editor, C. G. Page
A FITS Image Extension Kernel for IRAF, N Zarate, P Greenfield
Availability of Copernicus UV Data in FITS Format, Daniel A. Klinglesmith III, et al.
The XTE FITS Database (XFDB), A. H. Rots,

ADASS VI - 1996, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 125.

Practical Applications of a Relational Database of FITS Keywords, De Clarke and S. L. Allen
Multiple World Coordinate Systems for DEIMOS Mosaic Images, S. L. Allen, De Clarke
WCSTools: Image World Coordinate System Utilities, D. J. Mink
The SAOtng Programming Interface, E. Mandel
Speculations on the Future of FITS, Donald C. Wells
FV: A New FITS File Visualization Tool, W. Pence, J. Xu, L. Brown
FITS++: An Object-Oriented Set of C++ Classes to Support FITS, A. Farris
The FITS List Calculator and Bulk Data Processor, E. B. Stobie and D. M. Lytle
FITS BoF Session, P Teuben, D Wells
ADASS VII - 1997, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 145.

New Developments in the FITSIO and Fv Software Packages, W. Pence
IRAF Multiple Extensions FITS (MEF) Files Interface, N. Zarate
HST Keyword Dictionary, D. A. Swade, et al.
ADASS VIII - 1998, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 172.

A Scheme for Compressing Floating-Point Images, R. L. White and P. Greenfield
PyFITS, a FITS Module for Python, P. E. Barrett and W. T. Bridgman
CFITSIO, v2.0: A New Full-Featured Data Interface, W. D. Pence
ADASS IX - 1999, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 216.

PyFITS, a Python FITS Module, P. E. Barrett and W. T. Bridgman
SDFITS: A Standard for Storage and Interchange of Single Dish Data, R. W. Garwood
A FITS Image Compression Proposal, W. Pence, R. L. White, P. Greenfield, and D. Tody
Representations of World Coordinates in FITS, M. Calabretta and E. W. Greisen
ADASS X - 2000, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 238.

The FITS Embedded Function Format, A. H. Rots, J. C. McDowell, M. Wise, X. H. He, and P. E. Freeman
Converting FITS into XML: Methods and Advantages, B. Thomas, E. Shaya, and C. Cheung
ADASS XI - 2001, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 281. (not currently available)

ADASS XII - 2002, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 295.

Representations of DEIMOS Data Structures in FITS, Steven L. Allen, De A. Clarke, Robert I. Kibrick
Representations of Spectral Coordinates in FITS, E. G. Greisen, F. G. Valdes, M. R. Calabretta, and S. L. Allen
New Features of SAOImage DS9, W. A. Joye and E. Mandel
ADASS XIII - 2003, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 314.

Chandra FITS Dictionary, S. L. Winkelman, A. H. Rots, K. Michaud, and S. E. Blecksmith
Developments in the Starlink AST Library - an Intelligent WCS Management System, D. S. Berry
Making FITS available on Dot Net and its applications, V. Haridas, T. Budavári, W. O'Mullane, A. S. Szalay, A. Thakar, A. Conti, A. Volpicelli, and B. Pence
Representations of distortions in FITS world coordinate systems, M. R. Calabretta, F. Valdes, E. W. Greisen, and S. L. Allen
Demo of numarray, PyFITS, and related software, J.-C. Hsu and P. E. Hodge

Home | News | Docs | WCS | Samples | Libraries | Viewers | Utilities | Keywords | Conventions | Resources

Last revised: Friday, 09-Dec-2005 15:05:58 EST
Contact us: fits @ fits.gsfc.nasa.gov
Hosted by: The HEASARC (High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center)
Responsible NASA representative: Dr. William D. Pence
Privacy, Security & Accessibility Statements. Download the PDF reader