The Space Telescope Science Data Analysis System (STSDAS) is software for calibrating and analyzing data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). STSDAS includes the same calibration routines as are used in the STScI operational data processing pipeline, as well as general-purpose tools and enhancements to the Image Reduction and Analysis Facility (IRAF).
IRAF provides the user interface (command language, or CL) and general purpose graphic and image display facilities. Because STSDAS is layered on IRAF, the system runs on any computing platform for which an IRAF port is available, including most Unix systems. STSDAS can also be used with PyRAF.
STSDAS Package Organization
Programs in STSDAS are called tasks. Tasks are grouped by function into packages, which can themselves be further grouped into packages.
| analysis | Data analysis packages. |
| dither | Dithered image combination. |
| fitting | Curve fitting tools. |
| fourier | Fourier analysis. |
| gasp | Access the HST Guide Star Catalog on CD-ROM. |
| isophote | Elliptical isophote image analysis. |
| nebular | Tasks for analyzing nebular emission lines |
| restore | Deconvolve or filter 1- or 2-dimensional images. |
| statistics | Statistical analysis software. |
| contrib | User-contributed software. |
| redshift | Tasks for determining redshifts and dispersions. |
| spfitpkg | Tasks for fitting spectra with non-linear chi-square minimization |
| vla | Spectral image reduction for VLA data. |
| fitsio | FITS input/output for Space Telescope data (images and tables). |
| graphics | Graphics and image display packages. |
| sdisplay | Image display package for SAOImage display device. |
| stplot | General plotting utilities. |
| hst_calib | HST Science Instrument calibration packages. |
| acs | Tasks for calibrating ACS data. |
| ctools | General calibration tools. |
| foc | Tasks for calibrating FOC data. |
| focprism | FOC prism package. |
| fos | Tasks for calibrating FOS data. |
| spec_polar | Tasks for reducing and analyzing FOS polarimetry observations. |
| hrs | Tasks for calibrating HRS data. |
| nicmos | Tasks for calibrating NICMOS data. |
| mstools | General-purpose tasks that handle NICMOS IMSETs. |
| paperprod | Tasks for generating paper products. |
| stis | Tasks for calibrating STIS data. |
| synphot | Tasks for synthetic photometry and modelling instrument response. |
| wfpc | Tasks for calibrating WFPC and WFPC-2 data. |
| w_calib | Tasks for deriving the WF/PC instrument calibration. |
| playpen | Miscellaneous experimental tasks. |
| sobsolete | Package of tasks that have been retired. |
| foccs | OC calibration software package. |
| focgeom | FOC geometry package. |
| focphot | FOC photometry package. |
| focutility | Obsolete FOC utility package |
| hsp | Tasks for calibrating HSP data. |
| registration | Compute registration parameters and resample unaligned data files |
| testdata | Tools for creating artificial images. |
| timeseries | Time series photometry data reduction and analysis. |
| y_calib | Tasks supporting the FOS calibration process. |
| z_calib | Tasks supporting the HRS calibration process. |
| toolbox | General tools packages. |
| convfile | Reformat images from one machine type to another (VAX <-> Sun only). |
| headers | Tools for modifying image headers. |
| imgtools | Tools for manipulating & examining images and bad pixel lists. |
| mstools | Tasks to handle STIS/NICMOS IMSETs. |
| tools | Generic data handling and utility tools. |
| ttools | Table manipulation tools. |
You can see an alphabetical list of task names as part of our online help system.
More complete documentation can be found in the HST Data Handbook, which includes an overview of how to use STSDAS to accomplish basic tasks and how to use tasks that are specific to the HST instruments. The STSDAS User Guide was last updated in 1994(!), but does contain information on some of the older packages in STSDAS.