STSDAS v3.4 RELEASE SUMMARY 4-Nov-2005 This release of STSDAS contains changes to SYNPHOT, CTOOLS, CALSTIS, CALACS, aXe, MultiDrizzle, and the DITHER package. There were also changes made to support compilation of the code under new compilers on several platforms. A couple of new tasks have also been added; including, SAACLEAN to the NICMOS package, 'tweakshifts' to the DITHER package and a Python interface to SExtractor. Updated or New Tasks: ===================== 1. NEW TASKS: - 'tweakshifts' added to the DITHER package: This prototype version of 'tweakshifts' provides an automated interface for computing residual shifts between input exposures being combined using MultiDrizzle or PyDrizzle. The shifts computed by Tweakshifts correspond to pointing differences after applying the WCS information from the input image's headers. Such errors would, for example, be due to errors in guide-star positions when combining observations from different observing visits or from slight offsets introduced upon re-acquiring the guide stars in a slightly different position. This task was written using Python and relies on the Python interface to the IRAF environment, PyRAF, for its operation. As a result, this task can only be run under PyRAF. - 'wblot' added to the DITHER package: Wblot is a version of blot which also allows the transformations from input to output pixels to be defined by the WCS of the images rather than user-specified linear transformations. - Python interface to SExtractor added to STSDAS$PYTHON: This new interface, written by Laurent Le Guillou, and used for 'tweakshifts' allows you to configure SExtractor, run it and get back its outputs without the need of editing SExtractor configuration files. By default, configuration files are created on-the-fly, and SExtractor is run silently via python. This wrapper interface has been tested on SExtractor versions 2.2.1 and 2.3.2. - 'saaclean' added to the NICMOS package: The 'saaclean' task measures and removes an estimate of the SAA persistence signal in a NICMOS image. It was written using Python and relies on the Python interface to the IRAF environment, PyRAF, for its operation. As a result, this task can only be run under PyRAF. 2. Changes to CALSTIS: - Updated to Version 2.19. - Temperature corrections to the sensitivity have been implemented. - The flux correction in 'calstis7' now also includes a dependence on the temperature. - An additional wavelength-dependent correction factor that depends on the grating/aperture combination used was implemented through the use of a new reference table, GACTAB. - The correction for the nonuniformity of charge transfer efficiency in CALSTIS now can be applied to subarray data. - The scaling factor for binning was removed from the correction for the tilt angle of the slit. 3. Changes to CALACS: - CALACS was updated to Version 4.5.9. - A help file was added for the stand-alone task 'acsrej'. - Memory bugs weree fixed in the handling of the number of images for each sub-product and for each DTH product to allow an arbitrary large number of images to be processed in a single association. - HISTORY keywords updated for coronographic data reference file usage. 4. Changes to aXe: - The version of aXe distributed with the ACS package updated to Version 1.5 as released by ST-ECF. - This new version provides support for processing ACS Prism observations. 5. Changes to the DRIZZLE package: - MultiDrizzle updated to V2.7.0 and PyDrizzle updated to 5.6.0. - CTE tails now can be masked during MultiDrizzle processing. - New 'minimum' combination function added to CREATE MEDIAN step. - Input images with EXPTIME of 0 (zero) seconds now get ignored. - Output product can now be produced with units of 'counts' based on 'units' parameter. 6. Changes to Synphot: - Added support for SDSS bandpasses. 7. Platform Support: - Changes were made to some SPP code to support compilation under Mac OS X Tiger and Linux using GCC 3.4. Complete List of packages with updated tasks ============================================ As in STSDAS v3.3, some new tasks require the use of PyRAF. PyRAF itself has been upgraded including upgrades to the installed libraries which are used by the new versions of PyDrizzle and Multidrizzle. Packages or tasks that have seen significant changes include: analysis.dither hst_calib.acs.calacs .aXe .nicmos .stis Packages or tasks that have had minor enhancements of bug fixes include: hst_calib.synphot .ctools .playpen .wfpc .hrs graphics.stplot.igi toolbox.imgtools analysis.fitting .fourier .isophote .statistics Tasks with Parameter File Changes ================================= Parameter files that have changed (new parameters or new default values, excluding prameters indicating version number changes): analysis/dither/multidrizzle.par - changed options for 'mode' parameter - added parameters 'driz_cr_grow', 'driz_cr_ctegrow' hst_calib/synphot/thermback.par - added parameter 'thermflux' - changed default values for 'verbose' and 'tcmptb' hst_calib/acs/axe/axecore.par - added parameters 'distortion', 'lambda_mark', 'cont_model', 'model_scale', 'inter_type', 'lambda_psf', 'niter_med', 'niter_fit', 'kappa', 'weights', 'sampling' - removed parameters 'do_flux', 'rectified' axedrizzle.par - added parameter 'opt_extr' axeprep.par - added parameter 'dq' - changed propmpt for 'norm' backest.par - added parameters 'niter_med', 'niter_fit', 'kappa', 'old_bck' drz2pet.par - added parameter 'opt_extr' drzprep.par - added parameter 'opt_extr' gol2af.par - added parameter 'lambda_mark' pet2spc.par - added parameter 'weights' petcont.par - added parameters 'cont_model', 'model_scale', 'inter_type','lambda_psf' sex2gol.par - added parameter 'distortion' stamps.par - replaced parameter 'rectified' with 'sampling' playpen/ilspars.par - changed default values for 'px0','py0'