• 2014A

Starlink Software Collection - 2014A Release Notes

Highlights

General

• Perl
  • Upgraded to version 5.18.2.
  • Added Astro::ITC::SCUBA2 and UKIRT::Archive modules.
  • Updated JSA and JCMT::Tau modules.

Changes to Applications

CONVERT

CUPID

• Columns in the log file should no longer run into each other.
• MAKECLUMPS can now put clumps on a regular grid.
• MAKECLUMPS can now create an extra catalogue holding the properties of the clumps before convolution with the beam.
• FINDCLUMPS no longer reports an error if no clumps are found.
• FINDCLUMPS no longer prompts for the RMS parameter if an RMS value is supplied in the configuration.
• FINDCLUMPS and EXTRACTCLUMPS can now create catalogues in the form needed for ingestion into the JSA.
• FINDBACK has a new parameter "WLIM" that specifies the faction of good input pixels in a filter box needed to create a good output pixel.

GAIA

KAPPA

• New applications:
  • EXCLUDEBAD: shuffles rows or columns in an NDF to exclude entirely bad rows or columns.
• Modified commands:
  • ARDPLOT: Can now display a plot on an empty graphics device.
  • BEAMFIT: More control on the initial or fixed sizes and shapes of the beams.
  • BEAMFIT: The output parameters now store the statistics of every fitted beam, not just those of the primary beam.
  • CENTROID: Now normalises displayed RA and Dec values into the usual ranges.
  • COPYBAD: Now writes the number of good and bad output pixels to a pair of output parameters.
  • DISPLAY: New scaling mode "Current" allows previous scaling to be re-used.
  • ERASE: New option not to report an error if the specified object does not exist.
  • GDCLEAR: Now truncates the graphics database file if the device is cleared.
  • HISTOGRAM: New option to specify the bin width instead of the number of bins.
  • MFITTREND: Can now preserve the fit where the input data is bad.
  • NDFECHO: Non-existent NDFs can now be removed from the displayed list of NDF paths.
  • NORMALIZE: Can now normalise each row or column of a 2D NDF independently.
  • OUTSET: Now uses the USEAXIS parameter correctly.
  • PASTE: Fix bug in output WCS if pixel origin is changed.
  • SCATTER: Now writes the number of pixels used to an output parameter
  • SETQUAL: Can now copy Quality array and names from a supplied template NDF.
  • WCSALIGN: Can now use the "Gauss" kernal in resampling mode as well as rebinning mode.

ORAC-DR

See http://www.oracdr.org/oracdr/2014AChangeLog

POLPACK

SMURF

• Added a new utility FITSMERGE to merge FITS headers.
• New command CHECKCOORDS checks the detector coordinates stored in a raw ACSIS time series cube for consistency.
• New command JSASPLIT re-projects a supplied image or cube onto the JSA all-sky pixel grid and then dices it up into separate JSA tiles.
• New command JSAJOIN re-projects a set of JSA tiles onto the pixel grid of a supplied image or cube, and then co-adds them into a single NDF.
• New command JSADICER dices an NDF into separate JSA tiles (the NDF must already use the JSA all-sky pixel grid).
• New command JSATILEINFO returns information about the shape, size and location of a specified JSA tile.
• New command JSATILELIST lists the JSA tiles that overlap a supplied sky region or data set.
• MAKEMAP should now also write the OUTFILES parameter when METHOD=ITERATE.
• MAKEMAP now does a more accurate estimation of the amount of memory required.
• Several new configuration parameters added to MAKEMAP, including:
  • ast.skip - omit the AST model on the a specified number of initial iterations.
  • chunkweight - allow maps from different chunks to be weighted differently.
  • com.freeze_flags - allows the flagged of data by the COM model to be frozen after a specified number of iterations.
  • com.sig_limit - controls rejection of time slices for which the four sub-arrays show very different common-modes.
  • flt.filt_order - allow the FLT model to be determinded using a soft-edged Butterworth filter.
  • flt.ring_box1 - enables a filter that identifies and flags time samples that cause ringing in the FLT model.
  • hitslimit - specified the minimum number of hits required to produce a good map pixel.
  • xxx.zero_snr_hipass - applied a spatial high-pass filter to the SNR map before using it to determine a mask.
  • xxx.zero_snr_lopass - applied a spatial low-pass filter to the SNR map before using it to determine a mask.
  • xxx.zero_snr_ffclean - create a mask using an algorithm like kappa:ffclean instead of a simple SNR cut.
• MAKEMAP has the following new ADAM parameters:
  • JSATILES - indicates that the map should use the JSA all-sky pixel grid and should be diced into separate JSA tiles.
  • ITERMAPS - allows the maps created on each iteration to be written to a separate NDF, rather than to the main output NDF.
  • INTOPTION - allows the current map to be saved if the makemap process receives an interrupt signal (e.g. control-C).
• The parameters defining the JSA all-sky pixel grid have been updated.
• Various bug fixes and improvements to the SKYLOOP command.
• Development of FTS-2 software, including the addition of the FTS2MASKMAP program.
• MAKECUBE now reports an error if no output cubes can be created.
• MAKECUBE has the following new ADAM parameters:
  • POSERRFATAL - if TRUE, an error is reported if any inconsistency is found between detector positions implied by RECEPPOS and FPLANEXY.
  • JSATILES - indicates that the cube should use the JSA all-sky pixel grid and should be diced into separate JSA tiles.

SPLAT

Changes to Libraries

AST

• Bug fixes:

HDS

KAPLIBS

NDF

NDG