HEALPix is an open source software for pixelization, hierarchical indexation, synthesis, analysis, and visualization of data on the sphere.

As suggested in the name, the pixelization will produce a subdivision of a spherical surface in which each of the pixels covers the same surface area as every other pixel.

The current version of the HEALPix package (to be updated semi-regularly) contains a suite of programs which allow all of the following (and more):
· Programs for fast simulation and analysis of full-sky maps of CMB temperature and polarization anisotropy (sky maps preview) up to sub-arcminute angular resolution
· C, C++, Fortan 90, IDL, Java, Python implementation of most routines and facilities (for third party implementation in other languages, see this HEALPix wiki page)
· Most critical routines are parallelized
· Forward and backward scalar and spin-weighted Spherical Harmonics Transforms
· Highly optimised Spherical Harmonics Transforms library (libsharp) used by all implementations for better performance
· Routines to read and write the FITS formatted map data sets, and allowing the IDL, Java or Python display and processing of your results
· Fortran 90 and C++ visualization facilities
· Comprehensive documentation (PDF and HTML)
· Automated installation and build scripts
· Programs to search the maps for pixel neighbours and extrema of a random field
· Pixel queries in discs, triangles, polygons and strips
· Programs to manage, modify and rotate spherical harmonic coefficients of arbitrary maps
· Programs to perform median filtering of sky maps
· Constrained and non-Gaussian realization facilities.
· Mask processing facilities
· An IDL toolkit for pixel manipulation and FITS file manipulation.
· Facilities to output HEALPix maps into Google Earth/Google Sky compliant images and into DomeMaster format used in planetariums.