specidentify

Name

specidentify– Calculate the wavelength solution for ARC images

Usage

specidentify images linelist outfile (automethod) (guesstype) (guessfile) (function) (order) (rstep) (mdiff) (sigma) (niter) (rstart) (inter) (clobber) (logfile) (verbose)

Parameters

images

String. List of FITS images to prepare. Data can be provided as a comma-separated list, or a string with a wildcard (e.g. ‘images=S20061210*.fits’), or a foreign file containing an ascii list of image filenames. For the ascii list option, the filename containing the list must be provided preceded by a ‘@’ character, e.g. 'images=@listoffiles.lis‘. The list can contain data files from multiple SALT instruments.

linelist

String. File or list of files with ARC lines for the observed lamp. The format should be a two-column file with wavelength and relative flux.

outfile

String. An ascii file for the resulting wavelength solution to be stored in. The outfile will have the identification for the spectrograph configuration in the header as comments and then a table with the wavelength solutions. The format of the solutions will be a row number and then the coefficients for different solutions

(guesstype)

String. The type of initial guess for the wavelength solution. Currently, the only initial guess method is ‘rss’ which uses the model for the RSS spectrograph as the initial guess.

(guessfile)

String. File with the initial guess. Currently not used.

(automethod)

String. SPECIDENTIFY supports three different methods for automatic line identification. These methods include ‘Zeropoint’, ‘Mactchlines’, and ‘MatchZero’. ‘Zeropoint’ shifts the solution only by its zeropoint to match lines. ‘Matchlines’ tries to match lines by their position and flux. ‘MatchZero’ combines these two methods to iteratively match the lines.

(function)

String. Functional form for the fit to the model. It is only needed if calytpe=’rss’.

(order)

Int. Order for the fit to the model. It is only needed if caltype=’rss’.

(rstep)

Int. When calculating the solution, the number of rows to step between calculating each solution.

(rstart)

String. The first row to calculate the solution. The input is a string. If the user specifies ‘middleline’, the middle row will be used to calculate the first solution. If the user specifies an integer as a string, then this row will be used.

(mdiff)

Int. mdiff is the maximum difference in pixels that an arc line and an observed feature in the image can be in order to be matched.

(thresh)

Real. Threshold for detecting features in the image.

(niter)

Int. Number of times to iterate on detecting features and calculating the wavlength solution.

(smooth)

Int. Smooth the spectrum with a Gaussian kernel before plotting

(inter)

Bool. If ‘yes’, saltspec will run in interactive mode.

(startext)

Int. startextf is the extension to start on. The default is zero, but it is useful especially for multi-object slit masks.

(clobber)

Hidden boolean. If set to ‘yes’ files contained within the outpath directory will be overwritten by newly created files of the same name.

(logfile)

String. Name of an ascii file for storing log and error messages from the tool. The file may be new, or messages can also be appended to a pre-existing file.

(verbose)

Hidden Boolean. If verbose=n, log messages will be suppressed.

Description

SPECIDENTIFY identies Arc lines in a spectra and calculates the wavlength solution. The task can run interactively where the user can confirm the identification of the lines or it can be run automatically where the task will identify the lines without any assistance from the user.

The input for the task is an RSS Arc image that has been processed by the SALTRED package. The input data should be mosaicked as well as having any other corrections already applied to the data. In addition, the user supplies a file with the wavelengths of lines that appear in the spectrum of the lamp. For best results, the user should supply a linelist that includes the line wavelength and the relative line flux.

At this current time, the user supplies an initial guess for the data. There are currently only two options for the initial guess: ‘rss’ and ‘file’. If ‘rss’ is selected, the initial guess is based on the instrument configuration. The SPECIDENTIFY task will use the RSS model from the PySpectrogrph package and based on the grating, set-up, and configuration of RSS, it will determine an initial guess for the wavelength solution. If guess method is ‘file’, then SPECIDENTIFY will read in guessfile and determine the wavelength solution based on the previously calculated wavelength solutions.

The user should also set the function and order for the wavelength solution. The different types include polynomial, legendre, chebyshev, and model. If model is chosen, it will fit the free spectrograph model parameters that included the center of the chip with respect to the central ray, the focus of the instrument, and the index of refraction. It will model the index of refraction as a polynomial with an order given by order.

Once the initial wavelength solution is calculated, the dispersion of that solution is used to create an artificial spectrum from the line list. This artificial spectrum will be compared to the real sprectum, and by convolving the line list with the predicted dispersion, we can use a single line list for all data to account for blended lines in the observed spectrum.

If inter is set to no, the task will then use one of three methods set in automethod for automatically determine the lines. The first method, ‘Zeropoint’, determine the zeropoint shift of the wavelength solution through cross-correlating the arc lines. ‘Matchlines’ works by iteratively trying to identify lines by being near the solution and then progressively improving the solution and finding more lines. ‘MatchZero’ combines the two and does a zeropoint fit, repeated by matching the lines, and then iterating up to niter times or until the solution has stabilized.

Using section, the user can specify the first line to begin fitting the data. If the user specifies ‘middlerow’, then it will automatically select the row corresponding to the optical axis of the system or the middle row the data section supplied. Otherwise, if the user supplies an integer, it will begin at that line. By setting nrows, the user can specify the number of rows that are averaged together before identifying Arc lines in those rows. By setting rstep, the user can specify the number of steps to take between finding the solution for different rows, ie. if rstep=10, then the next row fit will be 10 rows away.

If inter is set to ‘yes’, the user can interactively identify the lines. A GUI interface will appear with three tabs on it. The first tab is the full 2D image and the line extracted will be highlighted by two green lines drawn over the image. On this tab, the user can select different lines to be selected, change nrow or rstep, or run the tool automatically to determine the wavelength solution. Once the user has determined the wavelength solution using the other tabs, they can automatically determine the wavelength solution for the rest of the image using automethod by selecting ‘Auto-Identify’ button.

On the next tab, the extracted spectrum along that row is presented. On this screen the user can use different methods to calculate the solution. At any point, the user can see the solution by typing ‘P’. By hitting ‘z’, a zeropoint shift to solution will be determined through cross correlating. By selecting ‘b’, it will automatically identify line features. Lines are required to be within mdiff pixels of observed features in order to be identified with them. The user can manually add lines by entering in the value for the pixel and wavelength position and then hitting update. In addition, the user can also update the function, order, and automethod from this tab.

On the third tab, the user can view the residual in the fit. The residual is plotted as a function of pixel position and the user can delete points by selecting a point and pressing ‘d’. The mean and rms of the fit are also supplied on this tab. The points can also be rejected automatically by iterating over the fit and the user can update the niter and thresh parameters used for that rejection on this tab.

At anytime, the user can bring up the interactive help function by typing ‘?’. If the user does that, it brings up all of the key bindings that are available to the user that include:

? - Print this file     q - Quit the program
c - centroid on line    x - print the current position
a - Display spectrum    l - display features
b - identify features
p - print features      P - print solution
z - zeropoint fit       f - fit solution
r - redraw spectrum     R - reset values
d - delete feature      u - undelete feature

Once complete, the task will write out to a file specified by solfile. In ths file, the paramters of the observations will be listed as comments. For each row the solution was calculated on, one line will be printed to this file with the first column being the line, and then the next columns will be the coefficients of the solution starting with zeroth order. The task will append this values to this file if this file already exists.

EXAMPLES 1. To calibrate science FITS files with specrectify using solutions based on an arc lamp:

--> specidentify images='pmbxpP*.fits' linelist='Ne.dat' outfile='dbsol'
guesstype='rss' automethod='Matchlines' logfile='salt.log'

Time and disk requirements

Individual unbinned raw full-frame RSS files can be 112MB in size. It is recommended to use workstations with a minimum of 512MB RAM. On a linux machine with 2.8 Ghz processor and 2 Gb of RAM, one 2051x2051 image in 0.15 sec.

Bugs and limitations

No other guess types are currently accepted. If the user wants to change the function form or order and apply it to all data, they will have to restart the task.

Send feedback and bug reports to salthelp@saao.ac.za

See also

specidentify