Configuration#

Introduction#

A configuration file has to be stored in the working_place_in with the name PynPoint_config.ini. The file will be created with default values in case it does not exist when the pipeline is initiated. The values of the configuration file are stored in a separate group of the central database, each time the pipeline is initiated.

Configuration file#

The file contains two different sections of configuration parameters. The header section is used to link attributes in PynPoint with header values in the FITS files that will be imported into the database. For example, some of the pipeline modules require values for the dithering position. These attributes are stored as DITHER_X and DITHER_Y in the central database and are for example provided by the ESO SEQ CUMOFFSETX and ESO SEQ CUMOFFSETY values in the FITS header. Setting DITHER_X: ESO SEQ CUMOFFSETX in the header section of the configuration file makes sure that the relevant FITS header values are imported when FitsReadingModule is executed. Therefore, FITS files have to be imported again if values in the header section are changed. Values can be set to None since header values are only required for some of the pipeline modules.

The second section of the configuration values contains the central settings that are used by the pipeline modules. These values are stored in the settings section of the configuration file. The pixel scale can be provided in arcsec per pixel (e.g. PIXSCALE: 0.027), the number of images that will be simultaneously loaded into the memory (e.g. MEMORY: 1000), and the number of cores that are used for pipeline modules that have multiprocessing capabilities (e.g. CPU: 8) such as PcaPsfSubtractionModule and MCMCsamplingModule. A complete overview of the pipeline modules that support multiprocessing is available in the Pipeline modules section.

Note that some of the pipeline modules provide also multithreading support, which by default runs on all available CPUs. The multithreading can be controlled from the command line by setting the OMP_NUM_THREADS environment variable:

$ export OMP_NUM_THREADS=8

In this case a maximum of 8 threads is used. So, if a modules provide both multiprocessing and multithreading support, then the total number of used cores is equal to the product of the values chosen for CPU in the configuration file and OMP_NUM_THREADS from the command line.

Examples#

In this section, several examples are provided of the configuration content for the following instruments:

VLT/NACO#

[header]

INSTRUMENT: INSTRUME
NFRAMES: NAXIS3
EXP_NO: ESO DET EXP NO
DIT: ESO DET DIT
NDIT: ESO DET NDIT
PARANG_START: ESO ADA POSANG
PARANG_END: ESO ADA POSANG END
DITHER_X: ESO SEQ CUMOFFSETX
DITHER_Y: ESO SEQ CUMOFFSETY
PUPIL: ESO ADA PUPILPOS
DATE: DATE-OBS
LATITUDE: ESO TEL GEOLAT
LONGITUDE: ESO TEL GEOLON
RA: RA
DEC: DEC

[settings]

PIXSCALE: 0.027
MEMORY: 1000
CPU: 1

VLT/SPHERE/IRDIS#

[header]

INSTRUMENT: INSTRUME
NFRAMES: NAXIS3
EXP_NO: ESO DET EXP ID
DIT: EXPTIME
NDIT: ESO DET NDIT
PARANG_START: ESO TEL PARANG START
PARANG_END: ESO TEL PARANG END
DITHER_X: ESO INS1 DITH POSX
DITHER_Y: ESO INS1 DITH POSY
PUPIL: None
DATE: DATE-OBS
LATITUDE: ESO TEL GEOLAT
LONGITUDE: ESO TEL GEOLON
RA: ESO INS4 DROT2 RA
DEC: ESO INS4 DROT2 DEC

[settings]

PIXSCALE: 0.01226
MEMORY: 1000
CPU: 1

VLT/VISIR#

[header]

INSTRUMENT: INSTRUME
NFRAMES: NAXIS3
EXP_NO: ESO TPL EXPNO
DIT: ESO DET SEQ1 DIT
NDIT: ESO DET CHOP NCYCLES
PARANG_START: ESO ADA POSANG
PARANG_END: ESO ADA POSANG END
DITHER_X: None
DITHER_Y: None
PUPIL: ESO ADA PUPILPOS
DATE: DATE-OBS
LATITUDE: ESO TEL GEOLAT
LONGITUDE: ESO TEL GEOLON
RA: RA
DEC: DEC

[settings]

PIXSCALE: 0.045
MEMORY: 1000
CPU: 1