Program Interface: Downloading Images
IRSA offers several program interfaces for images. A brief description of each is provided below, along with links to detailed instructions and examples.
Simple Image Access (SIA)
SIA is a VO-compliant method of searching IRSA's holdings for images that satisfy a variety of possible query constraints (e.g. position, wave band). IRSA has a few SIA services, but new users are encouraged to use the first in the list below.
For searches in Python, the pyvo package may be used with the SIA services. Example notebooks are listed below.
Additional Program-Friendly Image Services
In addition to the VO-compliant services listed above, IRSA also offers additional APIs for searching images. If possible, users are encouraged to use VO-compliant protocols.
- Image and Spectrum Server (Atlas) API: Search for images based on the dataset and spatial constraints.
- Cutouts API: Retrieve subsets of original images housed by IRSA, based upon the dataset, seearch position, and size of requested image.
- Finder Chart API: The functionality of IRSA's Finder Chart tool available from the command line.