Example 1-A: Point source through keyhole - Using the “reduce” command

In this example we will reduce a GNIRS keyhole imaging observation of a point source using the “reduce” command that is operated directly from the unix shell. Just open a terminal to get started.

This observation is a simple dither on target.

The dataset

If you have not already, download and unpack the tutorial’s data package. Refer to the Downloading the tutorial datasets for the links and simple instructions.

The dataset specific to this example is described in:

Here is a copy of the table for quick reference.

Science
N20120117S0014-33 (J-band, on-target)
Science darks
N20120102S0538-547 (60 sec, like Science)
Flats
N20120117S0034-41 (lamps-on)
N20120117S0042-49 (lamps-off)

Set up the Local Calibration Manager

DRAGONS comes with a local calibration manager and a local light weight database that uses the same calibration association rules as the Gemini Observatory Archive. This allows “reduce” to make requests for matching processed calibrations when needed to reduce a dataset.

Let’s set up the local calibration manager for this session.

In ~/.geminidr/, create or edit the configuration file rsys.cfg as follow:

[calibs]
standalone = True
database_dir = <where_the_data_package_is>/gnirsimg_tutorial/playground

This simply tells the system where to put the calibration database, the database that will keep track of the processed calibrations we are going to send to it.

Note

~ in the path above refers to your home directory. Also, don’t miss the dot in .geminidr.

Then initialize the calibration database:

caldb init

That’s it. It is ready to use.

You can add processed calibrations with caldb add <filename> (we will later), list the database content with caldb list, and caldb remove <filename> to remove a file from the database (it will not remove the file on disk.) (See the “caldb” documentation for more details.)

Create file lists

The first step is to create input file lists. The tool “dataselect” helps with that. It uses Astrodata tags and “descriptors” to select the files and send the filenames to a text file that can then be fed to “reduce”. (See the Astrodata User Manual for information about Astrodata.)

First, navigate to the playground directory in the unpacked data package.

A list of the darks

There is only one set of 60-second darks in the data package. To create the list, one simply needs to select on the DARK tag:

dataselect ../playdata/*.fits --tags DARK -o darks60.lis

If there was a need to select specifically on the 60-second darks, the command would use the exposure_time descriptor:

dataselect ../playdata/*.fits --tags DARK --expr='exposure_time==60' -o darks60.lis

A list for the flats

The flats are a sequence of lamp-on and lamp-off exposures. We just send all of them to one list.

dataselect ../playdata/*.fits --tags FLAT -o flats.lis

A list for the science observations

The science frames are all the IMAGE non-FLAT frames in the data package. They are also the J filter images that are non-FLAT. And they are the ones with an object name GRB120116A. Those are all valid ways to select the science observations. Here we show all three ways as examples; of course, just one is required.

dataselect ../playdata/*.fits --tags IMAGE --xtags FLAT -o target.lis

dataselect ../playdata/*.fits --xtags FLAT --expr='filter_name=="J"' -o target.lis

dataselect ../playdata/*.fits --expr='object=="GRB120116A"' -o target.lis

Pick the one you prefer, they all yield the same list.

Master Dark

We first create the master dark for the science target, then add it to the calibration database. The name of the output master dark, N20120102S0538_dark.fits, is written to the screen at the end of the process.

reduce @darks60.lis
caldb add N20120102S0538_dark.fits

The @ character before the name of the input file is the “at-file” syntax. More details can be found in the "at-file" Facility documentation.

Note

The file name of the output processed dark is the file name of the first file in the list with _dark appended as a suffix. This is the general naming scheme used by “reduce”.

Master Flat Field

A GNIRS master flat is created from a series of lamp-on and lamp-off exposures. Each flavor is stacked, then the lamp-off stack is subtracted from the lamp-on stack.

We create the master flat field and add it to the calibration database as follows:

reduce @flats.lis
caldb add N20120117S0034_flat.fits

Science Observations

The science target is a point source. The sequence dithers on-target, moving the source across the thin keyhole aperture. The sky frames for each science image will be the adjacent dithered frames obtained within a certain time limit. The default for GNIRS keyhole images is “within 600 seconds”. This can be seen by using “showpars”:

showpars ../playdata/N20120117S0014.fits associateSky
_images/showpars_associateSky.png

Both the master dark and the master flat are in our local calibration database. For any other Gemini facility instrument, they would both be retrieved automatically by the calibration manager. However, GNIRS not being an imager, and the keyhole being normally used only for acquisition, it turns out that there are no calibration association rules between GNIRS keyhole images and darks. This is a recently discovered limitation that we plan to fix in a future release. In the meantime, we are not stuck, we can simply specify the dark on the command line. The flat will be retrieved automatically.

reduce @target.lis --user_cal processed_dark:N20120102S0538_dark.fits

The output stack units are in electrons (header keyword BUNIT=electrons). The output stack is stored in a multi-extension FITS (MEF) file. The science signal is in the “SCI” extension, the variance is in the “VAR” extension, and the data quality plane (mask) is in the “DQ” extension.

Below are a raw image (top) and the final stacked image (bottom). The stack keeps all the pixels and is never cropped to only the common area. Of course the areas covered by less than the full stack of images will have a lower signal-to-noise.

_images/gnirs_keyhole_before.png _images/gnirs_keyhole_after.png