The Starlink Datacube Package (see SUN/237)
of which this cookbook forms a part, mainly consists of C-shell (csh) scripts layered on top of various
pieces of the Starlink Software Collection (SSC). This approach was a deliberate design decision to
allow the maximum amount of flexibility during data visualisation. Due to the relative lack
of maturity in this still developing field, it is difficult to say exactly what visualisation
tasks you may wish (or be required) to carry out to achieve the underlying science. While I
(AA) have attempted to anticipate commonly required tasks, the implementation of the
package in easily understandable, and modifiable, scripts allows you to make minor (or
even major) changes to the way they behave, although most of the scripts already have
command-line arguments which can modify their behaviour to some extent (see SUN/237 for
details).
It is to be hoped that enough ground work has been done so that the approach to solving your data
visualisation or manipulation problem is obvious, even if Datacube doesn’t have a script or
application to exactly what you require. I would welcome comments, contributions and corrections to
the package since I have been very much aware while compiling it my on lack of experience in this
fast evolving field, and my own biases. For instance, this document deals only briefly with IRAF,
while I am aware that there are IRAF applications available that will deal with spectral data
cubes, my own lack of familiarlity with the IRAF package has lead to only spartan coverage.
Comments should be sent to the Starlink support mailing list starlink@jiscmail.ac.uk
.