iDaVIE: A virtual reality tool for interactive analysis of astronomical data cubes

Abstract

With the advent of the SKA and other exascale science facilities, data storage and data visualisation present the scientific community with new challenges. The Inter-University Institute for Data-Intensive Astronomy (IDIA, https://idia.ac.za/) and Visualisation Lab (https://vislab.idia.ac.za) are thus investigating new approaches to handle the exploration and detailed interrogation of multi-parameter astronomical datasets (e.g., spectral cubes, catalogues and cosmological simulations) in preparation for the SKA era. My contribution will present the first public release of a novel Virtual Reality software for data exploration named iDaVIE (https://idavie.readthedocs.io/). iDaVIE combines virtual reality (VR) technology and custom-built software to work with particle and volumetric datasets, enabling user interaction and immersive exploration/interrogation of multi-parameter data. In my talk, I will introduce the software, its capabilities and show recent scientific results enabled by the use of iDaVIE e.g., to analyse MeerKAT and ASKAP data. I will then outline our plans for its current and future development and integration within the cloud-based CARTA (https://cartavis.github.io) framework, also under development at IDIA, to support SKA science.