TimeTubes: Automatic extraction of observable blazar features from long-term, multi-dimensional datasets

Blazars are attractive objects for astronomers to observe in order to demystify the relativistic jet. Astronomers need to classify characteristic temporal variation patterns and correlations of multi-dimensional time-dependent observed blazar datasets. Our visualization scheme, called TimeTubes, allows them to easily explore and analyze such datasets geometrically as a 3D volumetric tube. Even with TimeTubes, however, data analysis over such long-term datasets costs them so much labor and may cause a biased analysis. This paper, therefore, attempts to incorporate into the current prototype of TimeTubes, a new functionality: feature extraction, which supports astronomers’ efficient data analysis by automatically extracting characteristic spatiotemporal subspaces.