slotback

Name

slotback – Produce background subtracted slotmode images

Usage

slotback images outfits extension imgtype (subbacktype) (sigback) (mbin) (iter) (sorder) (ignorexp) (clobber) (logfile) (verbose) (debug)

Parameters

images

String. List of images to reduce. Data can be provided as a comma-delineated list, or a string with a wildcard (e.g. ‘images=S20061210*.fits’), or a foreign file containing an ascii list of image filenames. For ascii list option, the filename containing the list must be provided preceded by a ‘@’ character, e.g. 'images=@listoffiles.lis‘. Note that SLOT mode fits files often contain more than one exposed frame. In such cases, all frames will be reduced by default from any file specified in the list of images. saltphot works specifcally only on un-mosaiced data. Do not provide any files in this list that have been created by either the pmosaic, smosaic or saltmosaic tools.

outfits

String. If outfits contains a value, then an output fits file only containing extensions with the target and companion star will be written out. If outfits contains none or is left empty, no data will be written out. The output images will be background subtracted (if selected) or just the background image.

extension

Int. The first exstension (or amplifier) that the target and comparison star appear on. This extesnion will be extracted from all of the input fits files and compiled into a single fits frame.

imgtype = [image|background]

String. The type of outfits image that is produced. The options are:

“image”

A image withe the selected type of background subtraction.

“background”

The background which would be subtracted from the image.

subbacktype

Type of background subtraction used for the sources. Currently these are the options:

none

No background subtraction is done

median

After removing pixels which are sigback above the background deviation, the image is median smoothed with a bin size set by mbin. The smoothing is repeated iter number of times. The smoothed image is then subtracted from the original image.

surf

After removing pixels which are sigback above the background, a 2-D polynomial surface with order set by sorder is fit to the image. The surface is then subtracted from the image.

both

The image is clipped, median smoothed, and then fit by a 2-D polynomial. The result is subtracted from the image.

sigback

Real. Pixels that are sigback times above the background deviation are replaced with the average value for the purposes of smoothing or surface fitting the image.

mbin

Int. The bin size of the median smoothing box. Assumed to be odd integers and will be rounded up to the next odd integer if even.

niter

Int. The number of repeats to apply when smoothing the image.

sorder

Int. The order of the 2-D polynomial fit to the image for background subtraction.

ampperccd

Int. The number of amplifiers per CCD. If it is the newfits file and has already been processed by slotphot, then set to zero.

ignorexp

Integer >= 0. If ignorexp > 0 the first ignorexp frames will be skipped over before extraction is performed on ignorexp + 1 and all subsequent frames. This functionality is useful for SLOT mode data because the first few frames are generally empty. This is simply because SLOT mode involves continuous readout. The exposed area of the chip is some way from the readout boundary, so the first few frames of a sequence will contain CCD bias only.

clobber

Hidden Boolean. If clobber=y the tool is permitted to overwrite an exisiting file with name outfile.

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

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

Description

This task produces an output fits file that either contains background selected images or the background that would be subtracted from the images. The task will select all frames from a given amplifier (as specified by extension) and compile them into a single, master fits file. If imgtype=’image’, then the output image will be background subtracted (if selected) images. If imgtype=’background’, the output will be the background that would have been subtracted from the images. The outfits file can be placed directly into slotphot for the purposes of photometry.

If selected, a global background will be subtracted from the data. The user options allow for four different options. One, no background can be subtrated. Two, the subtracted background can be created from a median smoothing of the image. Bright sources will be excluded from the image by setting the sigback value, and any pixel above that value will be replaced with the sigma-clipped mean background value. The median smoothed image will have a filter window equal to mbin and the filtering will be repeated the number of times indicated by the iter parameter. Three, a 2-D polynomial surface of order, sorder, can be fit to the image and then subtracted. Bright sources will once again be excluded. Finally, the image can be median smoothed and then have a 2-D polynomial subtracted from the unsmoothed image.

Once the outfits file has been satisfactorily created, this file can be used in slotphot by setting ampperccd=0 and updating the other settings. The srcfile must be updated so the amplifier of the sources is set to 1. In addition, the newfits file should be set to ‘none’, the subbacktype should be updated, and ignorexp should be set to zero. Then, by setting the just created newfits file as the input img, slotphot will only perform photometry on this image.

Examples

1. To create the background images for stars on amplifier 2:

   --> slotback images="*.fits" outfits='out.fits', extension=2,
   subbacktype='median', imgtype='background',
   sigback=2.5, mbin=7, iter=3, sorder=3,
   ignorexp=0 clobber=y logfile=salt.log verbose=y

Time requirements

A linux machine with 2 GB of RAM and a 2.8 Ghz processer was able to process one 4x4 binned SALTICAM slotmode exposures in 0.08 seconds. The data were median backgroun subtracted.

Bugs and limitations

The current version of SLOTBACK has been tested only on SALTICAM slot mode data.

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

See also

saltslot slotview