GALEXField

This is a short tutorial on the GALEXField class. This is an implementation of VASCA’s BaseField tailored to the specific needs of GALEX archival data. It serves first and foremost as the interface between the instrument specifics, like raw data handling and nomenclature, and the rest of VASCA’s functionality. Important are the loading functions that download raw data from MAST and load already processed field data into memory.

Example

Let’s load GALEX field data that is already downloaded (used for unit testing)

from pathlib import Path
from vasca.field import GALEXField
from vasca.resource_manager import ResourceManager

This shows the directories of raw data for two GALEX fields. The directories are named after their observation ID. This is used as a globally unique ID across all GALEX data.

rm = ResourceManager()
test_dir = rm.get_path("test_resources", "vasca")
[x.name for x in Path(test_dir).glob("*") if x.is_dir()]
['6388191295067652096', '6371091720297250816']

We’ll take the first one and insatiate a GALEXField.

fd = GALEXField.load(
    gfield_id=6371091720297250816,
    obs_filter="NUV",
    method="MAST_LOCAL",
    load_products="TABLES",
    data_path=test_dir,
    visits_data_path=rm.get_path("gal_visits_list", "vasca"),
)

Using the TableCollection.info method one can see all data tables the field contains.

fd.info()
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 tt_fields:
<Table length=1>
    name     dtype  unit                       description                      
----------- ------- ---- -------------------------------------------------------
   field_id bytes32                                       Field source ID number
 field_name bytes32                                                   Field name
    project bytes32                         Field project, typically survey name
         ra float64  deg                  Sky coordinate Right Ascension (J2000)
        dec float64  deg                      Sky coordinate Declination (J2000)
observatory bytes22                    Telescope of the observation (e.g. GALEX)
 obs_filter  bytes8                         Filter of the observation (e.g. NUV)
   fov_diam float32  deg Field radius or box size (depending on the observatory)
        sel    bool                         Selection of rows for VASCA analysis
{'DATAPATH': 'None', 'INFO': 'Field information table'}

 tt_visits:
<Table length=2>
     name       dtype  unit                description               
-------------- ------- ---- -----------------------------------------
        vis_id  uint64                                Visit ID number
time_bin_start float64    d Visit exposure start date and time in MJD
 time_bin_size float32    s                  Visit exposure time in s
           sel    bool           Selection of rows for VASCA analysis
 obs_filter_id   int32                   Observation filter ID number
            ra float64  deg    Sky coordinate Right Ascension (J2000)
           dec float64  deg        Sky coordinate Declination (J2000)
{'INFO': 'Visit information table'}

 tt_detections:
<Table length=8484>
     name       dtype    unit                                             description                                           
-------------- ------- -------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        vis_id  uint64                                                                                           Visit ID number
     fd_src_id   int32                                                               Source ID associated to the visit detection
            ra float64      deg                                                           Sky coordinate Right Ascension (J2000)
           dec float64      deg                                                               Sky coordinate Declination (J2000)
       pos_err float32   arcsec                                                                    Sky coordinate position error
          flux float32 1e-06 Jy                                                                                     Flux density
      flux_err float32 1e-06 Jy                                                                               Flux density error
flux_app_ratio float32                     Flux ratio measured at a different apertures (3.8 arcsec / 6 arcsec radius for GALEX)
           s2n float32                                                                                      Flux signal to noise
 obs_filter_id   int32                                                                              Observation filter ID number
           sel    bool                                                                      Selection of rows for VASCA analysis
         r_fov float32      deg                                                           Distance from center of FOV in degrees
     artifacts   int64                                                                              Logical OR of artifact flags
    class_star float32          Point-source probability: 0.0 (resolved), 1.0 (unresolved, mcat file filter_CLASS_STAR variable)
   chkobj_type   int32                        Detection matched to a known star (bright_match=1, mcat file chkobj_type variable)
    size_world float32   arcsec                                      Mean RMS of the ellipse size: (major axis + minor axis) / 2
   ellip_world float32                                                                    Ellipticity of the detection or source
     flux_auto float32       Jy                                                                 Flux from SExtractor auto option
 flux_auto_err float32       Jy                          Flux error from a fixed circular aperture (3.8 arcsec radius for GALEX)
        det_id   int64                                                                                Reference source ID number
          E_bv float32                                                                    Galactic reddening expressed as E(B-V)
{'INFO': 'Visit detections table', 'PRECUTS': 'List of pre-cuts'}

 tt_coadd_detections:
<Table length=4914>
     name       dtype    unit                                             description                                           
-------------- ------- -------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        det_id   int64                                                                                Reference source ID number
            ra float64      deg                                                           Sky coordinate Right Ascension (J2000)
           dec float64      deg                                                               Sky coordinate Declination (J2000)
       pos_err float32   arcsec                                                                    Sky coordinate position error
          flux float32 1e-06 Jy                                                                                     Flux density
      flux_err float32 1e-06 Jy                                                                               Flux density error
flux_app_ratio float32                     Flux ratio measured at a different apertures (3.8 arcsec / 6 arcsec radius for GALEX)
           s2n float32                                                                                      Flux signal to noise
 obs_filter_id   int32                                                                              Observation filter ID number
           sel    bool                                                                      Selection of rows for VASCA analysis
         r_fov float32      deg                                                           Distance from center of FOV in degrees
     artifacts   int64                                                                              Logical OR of artifact flags
    class_star float32          Point-source probability: 0.0 (resolved), 1.0 (unresolved, mcat file filter_CLASS_STAR variable)
   chkobj_type   int32                        Detection matched to a known star (bright_match=1, mcat file chkobj_type variable)
    size_world float32   arcsec                                      Mean RMS of the ellipse size: (major axis + minor axis) / 2
   ellip_world float32                                                                    Ellipticity of the detection or source
     flux_auto float32       Jy                                                                 Flux from SExtractor auto option
 flux_auto_err float32       Jy                          Flux error from a fixed circular aperture (3.8 arcsec radius for GALEX)
          E_bv float32                                                                    Galactic reddening expressed as E(B-V)
{'INFO': 'Reference detections table', 'PRECUTS': 'List of pre-cuts'}

For convenience, some important attributes can be accessed directly:

For example, the total exposure time over all visits or the center coordinate:

fd.time_bin_size_sum
\[192 \; \mathrm{s}\]
fd.center
<SkyCoord (ICRS): (ra, dec) in deg
    (291.31877036, 54.25174628)>

All available convenience attributes:

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important_pars = {
    "field_id": "Unique field ID",
    "field_name": "Optional name if the field",
    "ra": "Right ascention coordinate (J2000)",
    "dec": "Declination coordinate (J2000)",
    "fov_diam": "Size of the field of view ",
    "observatory": "The instrument name",
    "obs_filter": "Observation band-pass filter",
    "center": "Center coordinate on the sky",
    "nr_vis": "Number of observational visits",
    "time_bin_size_sum": "Total exposure summed over all visits",
    "time_start": "Beggining of the first observation",
    "time_stop": "End of the last obseration",
}

for par, desc in important_pars.items():
    print(f"{par:<20} {str(getattr(fd, par)):>30} {desc:>60}")
field_id                     GNU6371091720297250816                                              Unique field ID
field_name                               AIS_5_1_40                                   Optional name if the field
ra                           291.31877036165906 deg                           Right ascention coordinate (J2000)
dec                            54.2517462844149 deg                               Declination coordinate (J2000)
fov_diam                     1.2000000476837158 deg                                   Size of the field of view 
observatory                                   GALEX                                          The instrument name
obs_filter                                      NUV                                 Observation band-pass filter
center               <SkyCoord (ICRS): (ra, dec) in deg
    (291.31877036, 54.25174628)>                                 Center coordinate on the sky
nr_vis                                            2                               Number of observational visits
time_bin_size_sum                           192.0 s                        Total exposure summed over all visits
time_start                        53991.48782407407                           Beggining of the first observation
time_stop                         54087.62482638889                                   End of the last obseration