Title: Using Contour Trees in the Analysis and Visualization of Radio Astronomy Data Cubes,
Abstract: The current generation of radio and millimeter telescopes, particularly the
Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), offers enormous advances in observing
capabilities. While these advances represent an unprecedented opportunity to
advance scientific understanding, the increased complexity in the spatial and
spectral structure of even a single spectral line is hard to interpret. The
complexity present in current ALMA data cubes therefore challenges not only the
existing tools for fundamental analysis of these datasets, but also users'
ability to explore and visualize their data. We have performed a feasibility
study for applying forms of topological data analysis and visualization never
before tested by the ALMA community. Through contour tree-based data analysis,
we seek to improve upon existing data cube analysis and visualization
workflows, in the forms of improved accuracy and speed in extracting features.
In this paper, we review our design process in building effective analysis and
visualization capabilities for the astrophysicist users. We summarize effective
design practices, in particular, we identify domain-specific needs of
simplicity, integrability and reproducibility, in order to best target and
service the large astrophysics community.