Healpix

HEALPix is an acronym for Hierarchical Equal Area isoLatitude Pixelation of a sphereThe HEALPix software is available in C, C++, Fortran90, IDL, Java and Python. In each of these languages are available an extensive library of HEALPix specific tools and their supporting routines as well as a suite of programs implementing the key features of HEALPix. Each package allows all of, or most of, the following (and more): 1. Spherical Harmonics Transforms:Fast simulation and analysis of full-sky maps of CMB temperature and polarization anisotropy (sky maps preview) up to sub-arcminute angular resolutionFiltering of sky maps with arbitrary circular windowConstrained and non-Gaussian realization facilitiesHighly optimised Spherical Harmonics Transforms library (libsharp) used by all implementations for better performanceForward and backward scalar and spin-weighted Spherical Harmonics TransformsPrograms to manage, modify and rotate spherical harmonic coefficients of arbitrary maps 2. Pixel manipulation:Pixelation of the sphere supported down to a pixel size of 0.4 mas (milli-arcseconds), corresponding to potentially 3.5 1018 pixels on the spherePixel queries in discs, triangles, polygons and stripsPrograms to search the maps for pixel neighbours and extrema of a random fieldMedian filtering of sky mapsMask processing facilitiesSupport for multi resolution maps (aka, Multi Order Coverage maps or MOC)  3. General:Comprehensive documentation (PDF and HTML); web-based and email supportAutomated installation and build scriptsMost critical routines are parallelized  4. Visualization:Visualization facilities available in C++, Fortran 90, IDL, Java and PythonFacilities to output HEALPix maps into Google Earth/Google Sky compliant images and into DomeMaster format used in planetariums.  5. Input/Output:routines to manipulate and visualize the FITS files generally used for I/O