STSDAS v3.3 RELEASE SUMMARY 11-11-2004
The primary changes incorporated into this release are:
1) Redesigned versions of PyDrizzle and MultiDrizzle are included. In particular,
the version of Multidrizzle is the one being used by the HST ACS pipeline.
The new versions no longer have any IRAF dependencies (and thus require an
update to the STScI Python Libraries--see installation instructions). This
release of STSDAS provides PyRAF interfaces to these tasks that allow them
to be run from PyRAF, but they can be run completely indpendently of IRAF and
PyRAF if necessary. The previous versions of PyDrizzle and Multidrizzle have
been renamed to opydriz and omdriz respectively. The older versions will
be removed in future releases of STSDAS. Likewise, the drizzle task has been
updated to version 3.4
2) Changes to CALSTIS:
- Angle parameter added to wavecal task
- Can now use engineering products to correct CCD sensitivity for temperature
dependence.
- Improved algorithm for rejecting bad data in overscan regions (hot columns)
- 1-D spectral extraction has improved algorithm for background.
- X1D task bug regarding calibration switch settings corrected
- Removed bug causing occasional segmentation faults.
- New post-processing task SSHIFT: aligns dithered spectral images.
- New tasks TRXYEQ, TREQXY, UCRPIX added to convert between pixel coordinates
and RA and DEC taking optical distortion into account.
- NORMSPFLAT, MKFRINGFLAT, DEFRINGE scripts updated to work with subarrays
and binned data, and to work under PyRAF.
3) Changes to CALACS:
- Updated to version 4.5.1
- Support for applying spot flats and their shifts was added.
- No longer deletes FLT images for the SFL product image in order to
support Multidrizzle processing
- Bug causing 32 image REPEAT-OBS association to fail was fixed.
- New task RUNCALDRIZ added.
- aXe was upgraded to v1.4. This version differs in various aspects from
previous aXe releases. A new set of High Level Tasks simplifies the user
interaction and reduce the number of commands that need to be issued in
order to perform a basic data reduction. Another important addition is
the aXedrizzle technique which combines for each object the 2D grism images
extracted from the individual images to a deep, 2D drizzled grism image
before deep 1D spectrum are extracted. Details are available from the aXe
web site, http://www.stecf.org/software/aXe/
4) The reference spectrum for Vega used by SYNPHOT for vegamag has been changed.
See the full release notes for details.
5) Changes to ISOPHOTE:
- Bug in BMODEL was fixed; and unnecessary prompting from TCALC when using
BMODEL and ISOMAP has been suppressed.
As in STSDAS v3.2, some new tasks require the use of PyRAF. PyRAF itself has
not been upgraded (it is still at v1.1.1) but installations of PyRAF v1.1.1
will need to upgrade the installed libraries to pick up new versions of
PyDrizzle and Multidrizzle (see installation instructions).
Packages or tasks that have seen significant changes include:
analysis.dither
hst_calib.acs.calacs
.aXe
.nicmos
.stis
.synphot
toolbox.imgtools.mstools
Packages or tasks that have had minor enhancements of bug fixes include:
analysis.isophote
graphics.stplot.igi
.skymap
hst_calib.ghrs
Parameter files that have changed (new parameters or new default values,
excluding prameters indicating version number changes):
analysis/dither/acsdq.par (the following should all be considered new even though
some have correspondences in the previous version of stsdas)
buildasn.par
dqpars.par
dqpars_iraf.py
multidrizzle.par
nicmosdq.par
pydrizzle.par
stisdq.par
tran.par
wfpc2dq.par
xytosky.par
drizzle/blot.par - parameter 'interpol' prompt changed
- parameter 'sinscl' added
drizzle.par - parameters 'xgeoim', 'ygeoim' added
tranback.par - parameters 'xgeoim', 'ygeoim' added
traxy.par - parameters 'xgeoim', 'ygeoim' added
wcs2dr.par - parameters 'xgeoim', 'ygeoim' added
- parameters 'refxgeo', 'refygeo' added
omdriz/omdriz.par (formerly multidrizzle in previous release)
opydriz/buildasn.par (formerly drizzle in previous release)
obuildasn.par
opydriz.par
oxytosky.par
pydrizzle.par
xytosky.par
hst_calib/acs/axe/af2pet.par - removed parameters 'sci_hdu', 'err_hdu',
'dq_hdu'
backest.par - removed parameters 'sci_hdu', 'err_hdu',
'dq_hdu'
gol2af.par - renamed parameter 'fwhm' to 'mfwhm'
pet2spc.par - removed parameter 'oaf'
- added parameters 'drzpath', 'in_af'
petcont.par - removed parameter 'in_af'
petff.par
sex2gol.par - added parameter 'use_direct'
stamps.par - changed parameter 'rectified' default
- added parameters 'drzpath', 'in_af',
'in_pet', 'out_stp'
- removed parameter 'out_root'
ctools/ckwstis1.par - added parameter 'tdstab'
ckwstis2.par - added parameters 'tdstab', 'ctecorr'
ckwstis3.par - added parameter 'tdstab'
nicmos/biaseq/biaseq.par - renamed parameter 'dqpar' to 'nicdqpar'
pedsky/pedsky.par - renamed parameter 'dqpar' to 'nicdqpar'
pedsub/pedsub.par - renamed parameter 'dqpar' to 'nicdqpar'
stis/wavecal - added parameter 'angle'
_cs4 - added parameter 'angle'
mkfringeflat - changed parameter 'do_scales' to 'do_scale'
synphot/simulators/refdata.par - changed parameters 'grtbl', 'cmptbl' defaults
simulators/simcatp.par - changed parameter 'spectrum' default
toolbox/imgtools/mstools/msstatistics/msstatistics.par - changed parameter 'nsstatpar'
comment
nsstatpar.par - added parameter 'acsdqpar'
