FITSURFACE

Fits a polynomial surface to two-dimensional data array

Description:

This task fits a surface to a two-dimensional data array stored array within an NDF  data structure. At present it only permits a fit with a polynomial, and the coefficients of that surface are stored in a POLYNOMIAL structure (SGP/38) as an extension  to that NDF.

Unlike SURFIT, neither does it bin the data nor does it reject outliers.

Usage:

fitsurface ndf [fittype]
nxpar nypar [knots]

                      fittype

Parameters:

COSYS = LITERAL (Read)
The ?? to be used. This can be either "World" or "Data". If COSYS="World" the co-ordinates used to fits the surface are pixel co-ordinates. If COSYS="Data" the data co-ordinates used are used in the fit, provided there are axis centres present in the NDF. COSYS="World" is recommended. [Current co-ordinate system]
FITTYPE = LITERAL (Read)
The type of fit. It must be either "Polynomial" for a polynomial or "Spline" for a bi-cubic spline. ["Polynomial"]
KNOTS( 2 ) = _INTEGER (Read)
The number of interior knots used for the bi-cubic-spline fit along the x and y axes. These knots are equally spaced within the image. Both values must be in the range 0 to 11. If you supply a single value, it applies to both axes. Thus 1 creates one interior knot, [5,4] gives five along the x axis and four along the y direction. Increasing this parameter values increases the flexibility of the surface. Normally, 4 is a reasonable value. The upper limit of acceptable values will be reduced along each axis when its binned array dimension is fewer than 29. KNOTS is only accessed when FITTYPE="Spline". The default is the current value, which is 4 initially. []
NDF = NDF (Update)
The NDF containing the two-dimensional data array to be fitted.
NXPAR = _INTEGER (Read)
The number of fitting parameters to be used in the x direction. It must be in the range 1 to 15 for a polynomial fit. Thus 1 gives a constant, 2 a linear fit, 3 a quadratic etc. Increasing this parameter increases the flexibility of the surface in the x direction. The upper limit of acceptable values will be reduced for arrays with an x dimension fewer than 29. NXPAR is only accessed when FITTYPE="Polynomial".
NYPAR = _INTEGER (Read)
The number of fitting parameters to be used in the y direction. It must be in the range 1 to 15 for a polynomial fit. Thus 1 gives a constant, 2 a linear fit, 3 a quadratic etc. Increasing this parameter increases the flexibility of the surface in the y direction. The upper limit of acceptable values will be reduced for arrays with a y dimension fewer than 29. NYPAR is only accessed when FITTYPE="Polynomial".
OVERWRITE = _LOGICAL (Read)
OVERWRITE=TRUE, allows an NDF extension containing an existing surface fit to be overwritten. OVERWRITE=FALSE protects an existing surface-fit extension, and should one exist, an error condition will result and the task terminated. [TRUE]
VARIANCE = _LOGICAL (Read)
A flag indicating whether any variance array present in the NDF is used to define the weights for the fit. If VARIANCE is TRUE and the NDF contains a variance array this will be used to define the weights, otherwise all the weights will be set equal. [TRUE]
XMAX = _DOUBLE (Read)
The maximum x value to be used in the fit. This must be greater than or equal to the x co-ordinate of the right-hand pixel in the data array. Normally this parameter is automatically set to the maximum x co-ordinate found in the data, but this mechanism can be overridden by specifying XMAX on the command line. The parameter is provided to allow the fit limits to be fine tuned for special purposes. It should not normally be altered. If a null (!) value is supplied, the value used is the maximum x co-ordinate of the fitted data. [!]
XMIN = _DOUBLE (Read)
The minimum x value to be used in the fit. This must be smaller than or equal to the x co-ordinate of the left-hand pixel in the data array. Normally this parameter is automatically set to the minimum x co-ordinate found in the data, but this mechanism can be overridden by specifying XMIN on the command line. The parameter is provided to allow the fit limits to be fine tuned for special purposes. It should not normally be altered. If a null (!) value is supplied, the value used is the minimum x co-ordinate of the fitted data. [!]
YMAX = _DOUBLE (Read)
The maximum y value to be used in the fit. This must be greater than or equal to the y co-ordinate of the top pixel in the data array. Normally this parameter is automatically set to the maximum y co-ordinate found in the data, but this mechanism can be overridden by specifying YMAX on the command line. The parameter is provided to allow the fit limits to be fine tuned for special purposes. It should not normally be altered. If a null (!) value is supplied, the value used is the maximum y co-ordinate of the fitted data. [!]
YMIN = _DOUBLE (Read)
The minimum y value to be used in the fit. This must be smaller than or equal to the y co-ordinate of the bottom pixel in the data array. Normally this parameter is automatically set to the minimum y co-ordinate found in the data, but this mechanism can be overridden by specifying YMIN on the command line. The parameter is provided to allow the fit limits to be fine tuned for special purposes. It should not normally be altered. If a null (!) value is supplied, the value used is the minimum y co-ordinate of the fitted data. [!]

Examples:

fitsurface virgo nxpar=4 nypar=4 novariance
This fits a bi-cubic polynomial surface to the data array in the NDF called virgo. All the data values are given equal weight. The coefficients of the fitted surface are stored in an extension of virgo.
fitsurface virgo nxpar=4 nypar=4
As the first example except the data variance, if present, is used to weight the data values.
fitsurface virgo fittype=spl
As the previous example except a B-spline fit is made using four interior knots along both axes.
fitsurface virgo fittype=spl knots=[10,7]
As the previous example except now there are ten interior knots along the x axis and seven along the y axis.
fitsurface mkn231 nxpar=6 nypar=2 cosys=d xmin=-10.0 xmax=8.5
This fits a polynomial surface to the data array in the NDF called mkn231. A fifth order is used along the x direction, but only a linear fit along the y direction. The fit is made between x data co-ordinates −10.0 to 8.5. The variance weights the data values. The coefficients of the fitted surface are stored in an extension of mkn231.

Notes:

A polynomial surface fit is stored in a SURFACEFIT extension, component FIT of type POLYNOMIAL, variant CHEBYSHEV or BSPLINE. This is read by MAKESURFACE to create a NDF of the fitted surface.

For further details of the CHEBYSHEV variant see SGP/38. The CHEBYSHEV variant includes the fitting variance for each coefficient.

The BSPLINE variant structure is provisional. It contain the spline coefficients in the two-dimensional DATA_ARRAY component, the knots in XKNOTS and YKNOTS arrays, and a scaling factor to restore the original values after spline evaluation recorded in component SCALE. All of these components have type _REAL.

Also stored in the SURFACEFIT extension are the r.m.s. deviation to the fit (component RMS), the maximum absolute deviation (component RSMAX), and the co-ordinate system (component COSYS) translated to AST Domain names AXIS (for Parameter COSYS="Data") and PIXEL ("World").

Related Applications

KAPPA: MAKESURFACE, SURFIT.

Implementation Status: