Usage for sfBeam

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This function attempts to predict the effective restoring beam obtained from the casa command sdimaging when using the SF gridding kernel. It calls the prolate spheroidal wavefunction of scipy (scipy.special.pro_ang1_cv) and convolves the result with the telescope primary beam (as specified by taper, diameter, and obscuration) and a top-hat function of width equal to the sampling interval. The parameters passed to the scipy function are m=0, n=0, c=5.356*pi/2 (see this plot for an overlay). The value of c was tuned so that the result provided the best match to the CASA function grdsf.f (which originated from Fred Schwab in AIPS) which uses a fixed supported width of 6. Note that to accurately reflect the current knowledge of the ALMA 12m antenna beam from holography measurements, the default for taper=10 (which will yield 1.131 lambda / D). See also gjincBeam, pickPixelSize, and getTPSampling.

Usage:

au.sfBeam(frequency, pixelsize=10, diameter=12.0, 
                      xSamplesPerBeam=5.0, ySamplesPerBeam=None, 
                      xSamplingArcsec=None, ySamplingArcsec=None, 
                      convsupport=-1, makeplot=False, m=0, taper=10.0, 
                      geometricMean=False, obscuration=0.75, cmult=1.0,
                      coffset=0.0, xmult=1.0, alpha=1.0, testOption=False,
                      minlevels=[0,0], truncate=True, img=None, row=None, 
                      column=None, stokes='XX', plotfile='', verbose=False,
                      fwhmfactor=None, excludeBand3=True, excludeBand3Below=109.0)

Inputs:

  • frequency: floating point number in GHz (no units) or a string with units
  • pixelsize: floating point number in arcseconds (no units)
  • diameter: the diameter of the single dish antenna in meters (no units)
  • xSamplesPerBeam: the number of sampled points per telescope FWHM beam along the X axis
  • ySamplesPerBeam: the number of sampled points per telescope FWHM beam along the Y axis
  • xSamplingArcsec: if not None, then use this value instead of xSamplesPerBeam
  • ySamplingArcsec: if not None, then use this value instead of ySamplesPerBeam
  • makeplot: if True, then also generate a png
  • convsupport: radius in pixels, default=-1 --> 3 pixels, meaning a support width of 7 points
  • m: The value to pass as m and n to scipy.special.pro_ang1_cv (note that the m in VLA computing memo 156 denotes a different quantity, the support width)
  • taper: the illumination taper (in dB) to pass to au.primaryBeamArcsec
  • fwhmfactor: if specified, pass this to au.primaryBeamArcsec, overriding taper
  • obscuration: diameter in m to pass to au.primaryBeamArcsec
  • geometricMean: if True, then return only the geometric mean beamsize; otherwise, return minorAxis,majorAxis,geometricMean (if the sampling is provided in both axes)
  • cmult, coffset, xmult: these are coefficients to use in computing: supportwidth = (convsupport*cmult + coffset), and the radius in arcsec at which the SF goes to zero (supportwidth*pixelsize*xmult)
  • testOption: if set to True, this will attempt to emulate the method used in SDGrid.cc to establish the convFunc. The result is nearly identical (1:10000) to my original method.
  • alpha: the exponent of the weighting function, i.e. (1-nu*nu)**alpha, which is 1 in casa
  • minlevels: a list of fractional values (from 0..1) above which to perform 1D Gaussian fits on the estimated restoring beam
  • truncate: only used if taper=0, sets whether to truncate the Airy at the first null
  • img: if not none, then use a row or column from this image as the beam model
  • row: the row of img to use as the starting beam profile model
  • column: the column of img to use as the starting beam profile model
  • stokes: 'XX','YY' which Stokes to use in the img
  • excludeBand3: if True, then don't use Band 3 TICRA patterns below excludeBand3Below'
  • excludeBand3Below: frequency in GHz below which to not use Band 3 patterns

Returns:

  • If only the X-axis sampling is given:
    • the FWHM of the restoring beam
    • the FWHM of a Gaussian fit to the restoring beam
  • If both X and Y-axis sampling is given:
    • If geometricMean=True:
      • the FWHM of the predicted restoring beam
      • the FWHM of a Gaussian fit to the predicted restoring beam
    • If geometricMean=False:
      • the minor axis of the restoring beam
      • the major axis of the restoring beam
      • the geometric mean of the restoring beam computed using findFWHM()
      • the geometric mean of the FWHM of a Gaussian fit to the restoring beam

Examples:

CASA <3>: au.sfBeam(114.7,taper=10)
  Out[3]: (55.404693642322442, 55.386051861589472)

CASA <16>: au.sfBeam(336.5,pixelsize=3,taper=10,xSamplingArcsec=3.5,ySamplingArcsec=5.7,makeplot=T)
Plot left in sfBeam.png
  Out[16]: (18.577381915209678,
 18.833994064946779,
 18.705247946320004,
 18.700396982924687)

-- ToddHunter - 2013-07-02
  • sfBeam.png:
    sfBeam.png

  • comparison of grdsf (from casa/aips) and scipy with a value tuned to match grdsf:
    fred vs scipy.png
Topic attachments
I Attachment Action Size Date Who Comment
fred_vs_scipy.pngpng fred_vs_scipy.png manage 52 K 2013-11-15 - 14:08 ToddHunter comparison of grdsf (from casa/aips) and scipy with a value tuned to match grdsf
sfBeam.pngpng sfBeam.png manage 81 K 2013-11-15 - 14:05 ToddHunter created in au v1.1481
Topic revision: r15 - 2014-03-27, ToddHunter
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