Physical Reference Dataof the NIST Physics Laboratory

Presentation for the DASER Symposium

Digital Archives for Science & Engineering Research

Saturday, November 22, 2003

Bob DragosetPhysics Laboratory

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Physical Reference Data Office of Electronic Commerce

in Scientific and Engineering Data,NIST Physics Laboratory Karen Olsen, programming Gloria Wiersma, HTML editing

Nearly 30 online databases covering: Fundamental Physical Constants Atomic and Molecular Spectroscopy Electron-Impact Atomic Cross Sections X-ray Attenuation and Absorption

First database online June 1994

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Data Storage & Integrity Public & internal web servers

Dual, mirrored disk drives Daily backup of internal web server Automatic monitoring of unauthorized file

modification on public web server All files for each new or updated database

are archived on CDs and stored outside NIST. Firewalls are configured for minimal access

to public web server.

public server

internal server

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Data Input ASCII files

Fixed-column Tab-delimited

LaTeX to gif for equation images

Scanned legacy documents

Data entry through web interfaces

Scripts & programs for processing data

Automatic daily updating

MySQL and PHP (open source)

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Data Output Dynamic web pages

HTML tables ASCII files

• fixed-column• tab-delimited

User-selected output options

PDF files generated "on-the-fly"

Custom data graphs

Dynamic calculations of user-defined compounds and mixtures

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Physical Reference Data

http://physics.nist.gov/data

Fundamental Physical Constants 260,000 page requests / month

Searchable Bibliography 3600 references

Fundamental Physical Constants 260,000 page requests / month

Searchable Bibliography 3600 references

Atomic Spectra Database 2.0 72,000 spectroscopic lines 66,000 energy levels 90,000 page requests / month

Atomic Spectra Database 2.0 72,000 spectroscopic lines 66,000 energy levels 90,000 page requests / month

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Physical Reference Data (cont.)

http://physics.nist.gov/data

Microwave Molecular Spectral Databases diatomics (121), triatomics (55), & hydrocarbons (91) 30,000 spectral lines 23,000 page requests / month

Microwave Molecular Spectral Databases diatomics (121), triatomics (55), & hydrocarbons (91) 30,000 spectral lines 23,000 page requests / month

Electron-Impact Cross Sections 70 molecules & 2 atoms (updated soon) theory comparison with experiments 25,000 page requests / month

Electron-Impact Cross Sections 70 molecules & 2 atoms (updated soon) theory comparison with experiments 25,000 page requests / month

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http://physics.nist.gov/constants

Extensive evaluation method for determining values of the constants

Extensive evaluation method for determining values of the constants

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http://physics.nist.gov/constantsbib

DATA INPUT Choose reference source Choose Journal (e.g., pr) Enter info (TeX if needed)

title first & last pages year authors keywords

Editing screen available showing HTML & TeX

Scientist proofs Secretary: final approval Database automatically

updated daily

DATA INPUT Choose reference source Choose Journal (e.g., pr) Enter info (TeX if needed)

title first & last pages year authors keywords

Editing screen available showing HTML & TeX

Scientist proofs Secretary: final approval Database automatically

updated daily

DATA OUTPUT HTML output PDF output

Generate PostScript by running LaTeX with BibTeX references (39,000 line file)

Distill PostScript file

DATA OUTPUT HTML output PDF output

Generate PostScript by running LaTeX with BibTeX references (39,000 line file)

Distill PostScript file

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http://physics.nist.gov/asd

Data Input Data entered into Oracle database from

uploaded data files. ASCII output from Oracle database put into

Ctree database and data massaged. ASCII output from Ctree database used by Korn

shell & PERL scripts for web output. Ctree was used because NIST originally offered

a PC-based product containing the data.

Data Input Data entered into Oracle database from

uploaded data files. ASCII output from Oracle database put into

Ctree database and data massaged. ASCII output from Ctree database used by Korn

shell & PERL scripts for web output. Ctree was used because NIST originally offered

a PC-based product containing the data.

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DATA OUTPUT Many user-selected

options, including: ASCII fixed-column HTML & paged HTML

User options are listed in the URL, which can be bookmarked.

Options stored without using "banned" cookies.

DATA OUTPUT Many user-selected

options, including: ASCII fixed-column HTML & paged HTML

User options are listed in the URL, which can be bookmarked.

Options stored without using "banned" cookies.

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http://physics.nist.gov/ionxsec

The "Atoms" portion of the new version of the database was designed using MySQL database & PHP programming language, both Open Source.

The "Atoms" portion of the new version of the database was designed using MySQL database & PHP programming language, both Open Source.

Manual check required.

Manual check required.

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http://physics.nist.gov/molspec

DATA INPUT: Legacy data Scanning, OCR, & manual

labor used to generate hundreds of molecular constants tables in HTML.

Errors found and corrected by running scripts on electronic data file.

DATA INPUT: Legacy data Scanning, OCR, & manual

labor used to generate hundreds of molecular constants tables in HTML.

Errors found and corrected by running scripts on electronic data file.

14http://physics.nist.gov/restfreq

DATA OUTPUT Search & retrieval using

several data fields, including: molecule telescope reference empirical formula

DATA OUTPUT Search & retrieval using

several data fields, including: molecule telescope reference empirical formula

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For More Information

Bob Dragoset

National Institute ofStandards and Technology

dragoset@nist.gov

http://physics.nist.gov

Bob Dragoset

National Institute ofStandards and Technology

dragoset@nist.gov

http://physics.nist.gov