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| ESO Reflex | |
|---|---|
| Name | ESO Reflex |
| Developer | European Southern Observatory |
| Released | 2012 |
| Programming language | Python, Java |
| Operating system | Linux, macOS, Windows (via containers) |
| License | GNU Lesser General Public License |
ESO Reflex
ESO Reflex is a scientific workflow engine and graphical environment designed to automate, execute, and document data reduction processes for astronomical instruments operated by the European Southern Observatory. It integrates provenance tracking, batch processing, and interactive inspection to support pipelines from observatories such as Very Large Telescope, Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, and instrument consortia. Reflex is distributed alongside pipeline software and observatory archives to enable reproducible processing for researchers associated with facilities like Paranal Observatory and ALMA Science Center.
Reflex provides a visual pipeline composition and execution environment that bridges instrument teams, data archives, and science users from facilities such as European Southern Observatory, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, and Joint ALMA Observatory. It couples pipeline recipes developed with frameworks like ESOREX and libraries from projects such as Common Pipeline Library into workflows usable by scientists working with data from FORS2, X-shooter, MUSE, and other instruments. Reflex emphasizes provenance, repeatability, and integration with archives like the ESO Science Archive Facility and tools such as TOPCAT, Aladin, and ds9.
Development began within the context of pipeline standardization efforts led by European Southern Observatory engineering groups and partners including Space Telescope Science Institute collaborators and developers from the Astro-WISE project. Reflex evolved from command-line driven systems like ESOREX and influenced by workflow systems such as Taverna and Kepler. Initial public releases targeted support for instruments on the Very Large Telescope and were refined through collaborations with instrument teams from Max Planck Society, INAF, and university consortia involved in projects like VIMOS and FORS. Subsequent improvements incorporated user feedback from surveys run at Paranal Observatory science workshops and integrations tested at the ALMA Regional Center.
Reflex is built around a modular architecture combining a graphical workflow editor, an execution engine, and connectors to pipeline executables produced with Common Pipeline Library and managed by ESOREX. Key components include the Workflow Editor, the Actor library, the File Organizer, and the Provenance Logger. Actors wrap external programs written in languages supported by instrument teams, including C, FORTRAN, and Python packages developed at institutions like University of Cambridge and Leiden University. The engine supports containerized execution strategies compatible with Docker and Singularity deployments used at data centers such as the European Southern Observatory Headquarters and Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg.
The graphical interface is influenced by paradigms used in systems like Kepler and Taverna and provides drag-and-drop construction of data-reduction flows, parameter panels, and interactive viewers. Users can assemble actors representing recipes from instrument pipelines, connect data streams, and set parameter sweeps. Integration points allow invocation of visualization tools such as TOPCAT, Aladin, and ds9 for interactive inspection, and linkage to archive services including the ESO Science Archive Facility and Virtual Observatory protocols. The UI supports provenance capture compatible with standards promoted by International Virtual Observatory Alliance and facilitates batch runs for large programs coordinated with observatories like European Southern Observatory and Paranal Observatory.
Reflex ships workflow templates and actors for a wide range of instruments developed by consortia involving Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, INAF, and university groups across Europe. Notable supported instruments include MUSE, X-shooter, FORS2, SINFONI, and legacy instruments such as ISAAC. It orchestrates recipes implemented in Common Pipeline Library and command-line tools from pipeline packages used by teams at European Southern Observatory, ALMA, and partner observatories. Community contributions extend support to multi-instrument reductions and to instruments from projects like VLT Survey Telescope collaborations.
Researchers employ Reflex for science programs hosted at observatories such as Paranal Observatory and La Silla Observatory to reduce survey datasets, calibrate spectroscopic observations, and prepare data products for archives like the ESO Science Archive Facility and the ALMA Science Archive. Instrument teams use Reflex during commissioning campaigns and characterization activities for instruments connected to consortia such as European Southern Observatory partnerships and university observatories. Reflex workflows are used in pipeline validation studies involving institutes like Max Planck Society, in classroom exercises at universities such as University of Oxford and University of Edinburgh, and in large program processing pipelines coordinated with observatory operations teams.
Performance depends on the underlying hardware, the efficiency of wrapped recipes from teams at institutions like Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and the use of parallel execution via cluster environments managed by projects such as CERN computing centers or local HPC clusters at institutes including Leiden University. Reflex excels at automating complex, repeatable sequences but can be limited by the serial nature of some legacy recipes, dependency on instrument-specific executables, and the maintenance burden of actor wrappers by instrument teams. Reproducibility relies on consistent runtime environments; solutions often involve container strategies promoted by Docker and Singularity and deployment practices used at data centers such as European Southern Observatory Headquarters.
Category:Astronomical software