Ana (programming language): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:08, 28 August 2008

Latest revision as of 00:40, 22 April 2024

(36 intermediate revisions by 24 users not shown)

Line 1:

{{Short description|Computer language for array processing}}

In contexts of [[solar physics]] and [[data analysis]], '''anaAna''' is a somewhat whimsically named computer language that is designed for array processing and image data analysis. The name is an acronym for "A Non Acronym". Ana began as a [[fork (software development)|fork]] of an early version of [[IDL (programming language)|IDL]], but has diverged significantly since then. It is inparticularly commonnotable usefor atbeing the [[Lockheed-Martinonly Spaceknown Applicationsfork Laboratory]]of and at institutions that analyze dataIDL from theits [[TRACE]]early spacecraft, but is not commonly used elsewhere. Ana appears to be intendeddays as [[free software]] though it is not distributed under a recognized [[FOSS]] license. It is available as quasi-open-source code, primarily through the [[Solarsoft]] distributionsoftware systempackage.

Ana was used as early as 1989 to track [[solar granulation]] using the SOUP instrument on [[Spacelab]],<ref name="TitleTarbellTopka1989">{{cite journal | last1 = Title | first1 = A. M. | last2 = Tarbell | first2 = T. D. | last3 = Topka | first3 = K. P. | last4 = Ferguson | first4 = S. H. | last5 = Shine | first5 = R. A. | last6 = SOUP Team | title = Statistical properties of solar granulation derived from the SOUP instrument on Spacelab 2 | journal = The Astrophysical Journal | date = January 1989 | volume = 336 | page = 475 | issn = 0004-637X | eissn = 1538-4357 | doi = 10.1086/167026 | bibcode = 1989ApJ...336..475T | doi-access = free }}</ref> and by the late 1990s it was in common use at the [[Lockheed-Martin Space Applications Laboratory]] and at other institutions that analyzed data from the [[TRACE]] spacecraft; it was never commonly used outside the community of active [[solar physics]] researchers, but represents a significant step forward in data analysis tools in that era. Ana was ultimately used to implement several important data visualization tools that advanced the state of the art, in the late 1990s—notably a multispectral image viewer that was used for several space missions including [[Yohkoh]], [[Solar and Heliospheric Observatory|SOHO]], [[TRACE]], and [[Hinode (satellite)|Hinode]].<ref name="HurlbertShineTarbell1997">{{citation | last1 = Hurlbert | first1 = Neal E. | last2 = Shine | first2 = Richard A. | last3 = Tarbell | first3 = Theodore D. | editor-first1 = Georges G. | editor-first2 = Robert F. | editor-last1 = Grinstein | editor-last2 = Erbacher | title = Interactive interface for visualizing and analyzing multispectral solar images | series = Visual Data Exploration and Analysis IV | date = 9 April 1997 | volume = 3017 | pages = 165–173 | publisher = SPIE | issn = 0277-786X | doi = 10.1117/12.270325 | bibcode = 1997SPIE.3017..165H | s2cid = 61026169 }}</ref> Ana appears to have been intended as [[free software]] though it is not distributed under a recognized [[FOSS]] license. It remains available as source code, primarily through the [[Solarsoft]] distribution system, but its role as an open source, reproducible data analysis language has been subsumed by more recent tools such as [[Perl Data Language|PDL]] and [[Numpy]]/[[Astropy]].

The most commonly used application written in '''ana''' is the [[TRACE image browser]], which is designed for browsing and viewing time-lapse movies collected by [[TRACE]], [[Solar and Heliospheric Observatory|SOHO]], [[Yohkoh]], and other observatories.

==References==

{{Reflist}}

==External links==

{{compu-lang-stub}}

* [http://ana.lmsal.com/ Ana Homepage]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ana (Language)}}

[[Category:Domain-specific programming languages]]

[[Category:Lockheed Martin]]

[[Category:Domain-specificNumerical programming languages]]

[[Category:Array programming languages]]

[[Category:Earth sciences graphics software]]

{{compuCompu-lang-stub}}