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Fornax

The Fornax Initiative

Overview: The Fornax Initiative brings big data, complex software, and computational power together in cloud-based systems that will enable researchers to take full advantage of the data from the next generation of NASA Astrophysics missions. The Fornax Scientific Components are the astrophysics-specific elements required to enable science in the cloud, including Python notebooks that demonstrate access to cloud-hosted NASA mission data, curated astrophysics software environments, and cloud-native services to support common astronomy workflows. The Fornax Science Console is a web-based application that users log into for access to cloud computing, data storage, and interactive data analysis in JupyterLab. The Science Support Systems are a program of engagement with the astronomical community, including a Helpdesk and training opportunities.

The Fornax Initiative is a collaboration of the NASA Astrophysics Archives (IRSA, MAST, HEASARC) with GSFC’s Astrophysics Projects Division (APD). IRSA's focus is building out science user support and scientific components. IRSA is working on general and open solutions to support science enabled by enormous time domain, spectroscopic, and survey data sets coupled with advanced analysis techniques such as machine learning.