1 Starlink SPLAT news. 3.11-3 ====== - Improvements in the ObsCore interface - Several bug fixes - update to Datalink(SODA) protocol changes 3.11-2 ====== - Several improvements/corrections in services GUI - Query results list witth context menu (info/preview, copy line to clipboard, download) 3.11-1 ====== - new server and metadata selection GUI - several problems corrected 3.11-0 ====== The already deprecated PLASTIC VO interoperability mechanism has now been removed from SPLAT. All interoperability is now only available using SAMP. A new command-line option "--interop none" has been added so that SPLAT can run without attempting to communicate with any running SAMP hubs. 3.10-8 ====== - registry interface uses now RegTap - new service and metadata selection GUI - several problems corrected 3.10-7 ====== - Support for spectra in SDFITS format 3.10-6 ====== - New metadata selection panel. All metadata parameters are listed and can be selected. - Update Datalink parser to changed syntax 3.10-5 ====== - Splat checks now the http header Content-Type for determining the file format. This solves the problem of error messages when file format not defined. 3.10-4 ====== Changes: - Bug correction. DataLink parameters are now properly removed when "Clear Parameters"button is pressed. - Error messages correctios (e.g. if a table contains no data) 3.10-3 ====== This version introduces new features contributed by David Andresic: - visual selection of spectra - saving/restoring a stack of spectra using a standard multi-HDU FITS file Several bug corrections from the last versioni has been corrected, as well as updates for conformity to the DATALINK standard. 3.10-2 ====== Changes in this version: - new feature: Search for spectra using ObsCore/Tap. - getData operation will not be supported anymore, instead the same funcionality will be covered using DATALINK (change is transparent to the user) - Echelle Spectra: A new data model for chelle spectra has been introduced, making it possible to download only selected orders. 3.10-1 ====== This version introduces server-side manipulations using the SSAP getData operation. Besides that some improvements have been made in the server selection interface: - User-defined server tags are now saved and loaded next time SPLAT starts. - Added "all theoretical" / "all observational" server options. Several bug fixes, including - correct display of server resources containing more than one SSAP capability - correction of server information display - big fix: Exception when querying registry 3.10-0 ====== The major change in this release is much improved support for more complex SSAP queries. For instance you can now create server groups for more targeted queries according to the waveband or data source (theory/archive/survey for instance), as well as using your specific tags to create such groups. It is now also possible to add additional metadata parameters to the queries for the currently selected server list. New SSAP servers not currently registered can now be added manually. Access control for servers that use HTTP passwords is now implemented. Bug fixes in this release include: - If the SSAP server maximum record limit is reached (MAXREC), SPLAT will no longer return an error, it just continues downloading spectra to the available limit. - The BAND parameter now handles the case when the upper limit is null. - TARGETNAME values are now correctly encoded to allow the use of special characters ($+$ etc.). The column name used to select spectral coordinates in tables without any other metadata has changed from "wavelength*" to "wave*". When changing the spectral coordinates column of a table in the main window the change wasn't seen immediately. This issue should now be fixed. A bug in the spectral synopsis that misidentified the celestial coordinate axes has been fixed. This means the "Spec position:" item should now be correct for DSB spectral frames with permuted axes. A problem filtering with the standard spectral profiles has been fixed. Previously the profiles where sampled with an interval of one X coordinate unit, this is now done using the average channel spacing. A bug in the utype matching code has been fixed. Previously the data column of a table would not match against fluxaxis utypes as intended (in fact it matched against the coordinate column, which could be confusing). A bug when determining the statistics of more than one range when the spectral axis was reversed has been fixed. It is now possible to switching columns for spectra stored as a single row in vector cell format. The column selection for tables now prefers those with UCD meta.main. A problem with memory handling when printing hardcopies from a plot has been fixed. Previously SPLAT ran out of memory after printing a plot around 24 times. Post Hikianalia Post Kapuahi 3.9-8 ===== A bug in the "remove" & "remove selected" options in the cutter toolbox has been fixed. After the last change the spectrum created did not have a correct coordinate value assigned to the removed region. This resulted in a non-monotonic spectrum. A bug in the flip toolbox that always reported the radial velocity as zero in the log file has been fixed. The log now also includes whether the values are redshifts. A bug that meant some NDF spectra opened in SPLAT using the "splatdisp" command could not be saved to disk. This has been fixed. Note this includes spectra sent from GAIA. Post Kaulia 3.9-7 ===== The "remove selected" option in the cutter toolbox now handles regions that overlap the ends of the spectrum correctly. Previously bad values where added to the ends and given poor coordinates. A single "a" or "A" as a units string is no longer recognised as meaning "Angstrom". This follows the FITS standard where "A" is "Ampere". The flip toolbox now correctly records the SPEFO log option RV. The current status of the redshift option is also recorded to the SPEFO log. The auto-colourize option when loading spectra has been enabled again. Post Namaka 3.9-6 ===== Make position and target optional in VO queries. Not all SSAP servers are fixated on positions and objects. Both sidebands are now loaded when a request to load all matching line identifiers is made. The deblend script has been enhanced to also report errors for the parameter fits. 3.9-5 ===== Post hawaiki. 3.9-4 ===== The meta-data sent with a spectrum via SAMP now includes some SSA version 1 utypes (spectrum.char.fluxaxis.name, spectrum.char.fluxaxis.unit, spectrum.char.spectralaxis.name and spectrum.char.spectralaxis.unit). The statistics window has been extended to include some alpha trimmed means in the extended statistics option. The loading of spectra using SSAP downloads no longer blocks the interface. The previous behaviour was a bug. Support for asynchronous calls from SAMP has been improved. 3.9-3 ===== Table spectra sent via SAMP will now preserve the selected columns for coordinates, data and errors. Previously the first three columns were always selected. The line identifier plot configuration options controlling the addition of the id name as a prefix or suffix are now saved between sessions. A bug in the plot configuration for displaying dual sideband line identifiers has been fixed. Previously matching lines from the other sideband where always shown, regardless of the initial setting. A bug when reading back spectra saved as part of a stack has been fixed. Previously when spectra which were really n-dimensional but with only one non-trivial dimension where read back the first axis of the WCS was used as the spectral axis, regardless of whether this was correct or not. The locale used by SPLAT is now fixed to POSIX, this means that all numbers should be entered using decimal notation. 3.9-2 ===== The Sesame name resolution service is now the default for SSAP VO queries. Nanahope release ---------------- 3.9-1 ===== Spectra transmitted using the SAMP and deprecated PLASTIC protocol will now only be FITS or VO tables. 1D FITS spectra will no longer be generated. 3.9-0 ===== SPLAT has been updated to use SAMP for interoperability with other desktop applications. It is still possible to use PLASTIC, but that protocol is now deprecated. See the main documentation for more about these changes. When opening NDF spectra with redundant axes the position of the redundant axes may be reported in the synopsis. This will typically be the position on the sky that the spectrum occupied. SSAP query failures are now reported in more detail. The offsets applied to spectra during display can now be derived from an expression, rather than just using an order with a fixed offset. The way that line identifiers are handled when applying offsets is also changed. This should stop excessive data limits being used when most line identifiers are not displayed. A bug parsing the names of remotely downloaded spectra has been fixed. This should make guessing the file types more robust and support compressed sources. SSAP servers that do not return any results will now not be shown in the server response table. 3.8-9 ===== When displaying dual sideband spectra, line identifiers can now be drawn for both sidebands, not just the current one. Series of spectra displayed in a single plot can now be offset from each other using artificial baselines for easier inspections. The ordering of the offsets can be determined by evaluating an expression based on the FITS card values in the spectra. This can include the evaluation of dates and times. The VO registry interface has been updated to use version 1 access. Note that any existing saved lists of SSAP registries will no longer be compatible and must be regenerated. This should mean that new services will be picked up again. A bug calculating UTC from TDB for the epoch of observation in the JAC synopsis has been fixed. A new toolbox for applying offsets to spectra displayed in the same window has been added. This allows the spectra to be displayed stacked above each other by a fixed amount. The spectra can be ordered using the transformation of a FITS value, so that the shift can be applied in, say, date order. Note that the offsets apply to line identifiers as well as normal spectra so can be used when labels from different identifiers groups are overlaid. The filter box has been changed so that rebin is now the default option. A new menu item for removing all line identifiers from a plot has been added. A fuller description of the items shown in the JAC plot synopsis has been added to SUN/243. The colours that are automatically selected for spectra will no longer include shades of yellow. These tend to be indistinctive on a white background. The properties used for rendering the current spectrum (line style, width colour etc.) can now be saved as the default properties and will persist between sessions. Note that the colour of the spectrum will not be re-used unless you have switched off automatically colouring. Extra controls have been added to the SSAP download dialog. You can now clear all the selections and just download data to the stack without displaying it. Line identifiers can be have the associated spectrum shortname suffixed to labels (it is already possible to prefix the shortname) or just have the shortname shown as the label. Lehuakona Release ----------------- 3.8-8 ===== The line profile fits now include error estimates for the fitting parameters. An error in the derivatives used when fitting the Voigt profile has been corrected. This should give closer fits in some cases. MIME types from SSAP queries may now include trailing attributes. The SSAP query options have been extended to include TIME, FLUXCALIB and WAVECALIB. The SSAP query options now allow the object name to be passed as part of the object, without looking up an RA and Dec. This is suitable for searching for solar system objects. Saving the result spectrum of binary maths operations to FITS format should now work. Previously an invalid FITS file was created. The query SSAP server dialog now offers "select all" and "remove unselected" options. A problem with matching the spectral coordinate system to that of the units has been fixed. The data unit milliJansky has been added as a known unit for quick unit changes. 3.8-7 ===== The cutter tool box now offers simple linear interpolation to replace the selected range of values. The exception dialog will now always display the error trace, previously requesting this sometimes caused the dialog to just close. When attempting to overwrite an NDF that is already opened a suitable error message is now displayed, rather than an unhelpful report about a null exception. Printing to postscript should make better use of the available space and fix a scaling problem with the encapsulated option. 3.8-6 ===== A new command-line option --debuglevel to control the messages output on the terminal has been introduced. By default fewer messages will now be seen (especially from the browser window), more can be seen by setting a level greater than zero, but that should only be required when helping to diagnose a problem. The errors of a spectrum can now be plotted as the spectral line, not just as error bars. Humu Release ------------ 3.8-5 ===== Two new command-line options have been added, --hub and --exthub. These start an internal PLASTIC hub and an external one respectively. Note an external hub will persist after SPLAT has been closed down. 3.8-4 ===== When displaying a dual sideband spectrum with the observed band set to LSB the axes coordinates for the USB sideband were shown incorrectly. This bug has been fixed. A bug converting the epoch into UTC, in the absence of a DATE-OBS, has been fixed in the synopsis. Previously times were reported in TAI. 3.8-3 ===== Standard IR spectral lines from UKIRT have been added to the built-in line identifiers (thanks to Andy Adamson). Line identifier labels in text files can now be quoted using single or double quotes. Puana Release ------------- 3.8-2 ===== By default SPLAT searches input spectra for a spectral coordinate system. This can lead to unexpected behaviour when attempting to display spectra with non-spectral coordinates (by selecting the GRID or PIXEL frames in an NDF), so a new command-line flag "--keepcoords" has been introduced to inhibit the search for spectral coordinates, and a UI preference Options->Find spectral coordinates. 3.8-1 ===== Generated spectra how inherit some of the properties of the parent spectrum (line and plotting style). Rebinned spectra are now displayed with a histogram style. The alignment of sidebands is now not done by default. An Interop menu has been added to the SSAP query results controls. This allows a table to be transmitted to other applications for further analysis. The plot spectrum synopsis now includes the number of channels (points in the spectrum). When changing the DSB sideband the labels now include which sideband is the observed and which the image. The readout of the spectral coordinate in a plot should now always have sufficient precision so that adjacent values can be distinguished. Problems displaying spectra sent from GAIA when the plot synopsis is enabled (which came out at the wrong size and with the synopsis misplaced) should be resolved. The synopsis should now be placed at the top-left hand corner of the axis for all plot aspect ratios. Data units which dimensionally match one of the preset flux values will now be identified and shown as the preset value in the data units and plot units toolboxes. For instance "(erg/Angstrom)*cm**-2/s" will now be recognised as "erg/cm^2/s/Angstrom". 3.8-0 ===== Controls have been added to the statistics toolbox so that the TSYS related parameters can be set and inspected. 3.7-2 ===== The FITS headers of all selected spectra can now be viewed and printed using actions available in the main window. Only NDFs and 1D FITS spectra (not tables) can currently have FITS headers. The builtin sub-millimetre line identifiers have been updated to match the latest ones used at the JAC. 3.7-0 ===== Experimental support for the SSAP version 1 protocol has been added. This includes new band qualifiers (upper and lower spectral range in meters) and control of the file format. Older SSAP queries should still work. 3.6-9 ===== A new rest frequency can now be selecting using the plot units toolbox. The new frequency can be selected by clicking on a position in the plot, or a line identifier. The TSYS value is now derived from the median effective exposure time when a better estimate is not available. The alignment of spectra in a plot can now be made to happen via the offset coordinate system (when spectral origins are defined), and also via the coordinate system of the current spectrum (rather than via the WAVE system, this means velocity systems can be aligned directly). 3.6-8 ===== FITS headers are now preserved when creating derived spectra. Simple range, mean and standard deviation estimates can now be shown for any variance or error values. 3.6-7 ===== When opening 2 or 3D data spectra that do not have valid data limits are now automatically removed by default. A TSYS value can now be reported by the statistics toolbox. This will only work for JCMT ACSIS data. This is the same value as reported in the spectral synopsis, but uses the the variance from a region, not the whole spectrum. Hokulei Release --------------- 3.6-6 ===== All the line fitting functions now also report a FWHM value. The line identifiers should now correctly take account of velocity changes in the rest frame of the observer. The display of line identifiers has been changed to remove the _lines postfix and to replace all underscores with blanks when also displaying the shortname as part of the labels. 3.6-5 ===== The plot coordinate matching option is now switched on by default. This option matches different spectral coordinates between spectra plotted together (wavelength, frequency, velocity and energy). To restore the old behaviour (which is quicker for spectra which are all in the same coordinates) just switch this off in any plot window, as the preference is preserved between sessions. Previously users of SPLAT will retain their existing preference. It is now possible to select redshift, a relativistic velocity and an optical velocity in the quick change of units associated with a plot. 3.6-4 ===== The way that line identifiers are matched to the source velocity of a spectrum has been changed. INCOMPATIBILITY: recessional velocities are now positive, previously these were negative. It is now possible to define source velocities as optical or radio velocities, as well as as a beta factor. Support continues for relativistic velocities and redshifts. 3.6-3 ===== An optional synopsis figure has been added to each plot. This shows some details of the current spectrum, such as it's name, the telescope, instrument, object, position of extraction (when used together with GAIA), etc. The SSAP query has been remodelled so that all queries are performed concurrently. This means that a failing service will not block access to all the others. The quick change of units has been extended to allow a change in standard of rest. A option has been added that controls how dual sideband spectra are aligned, by default this remains in the same sideband. 3.6-1 ===== The statistics toolbox had an off-by-one difference between the selected stats and the individual region stats, giving slightly different results. That has been fixed. 3.6-0 ===== All menus are now accessible using keyboard mnemonics. These are indicated by an underlined character in the menu name. Pressing the (platform dependent) key followed by that character should post the menu. Some menu items can be then activated by pressing a single character (again underlined) or navigated to using the arrow keys. Keyboard accelerators have also been assigned to some more useful menu items. These can be activated by pressing the key and the designated character, when the keyboard focus is in the associated window of the menu item. The accelerator of an item is written next to the item in the menu. Some one character accelerators have been assigned to plot actions. For instance you can now hide any overlay graphics by pressing the `h' key, zoom in X by pressing the `=' key etc. Consult the plot help menu for more about these bindings. When defining ranges (for fitting backgrounds and spectral lines) the associated plot window is now brought forward and the cursor is changed. Ranges can now be created without any graphical interaction (under these circumstances the a range is initially created that covers the range between the current axes). It is now possible to define a spectral origin. This allows the plotting of offset coordinates. The axes of a plot should now always be drawn on on the edges, unless the option to plot them in the plot interior is selected. 3.5-8 ===== Save and restores some UI defaults for filter toolbox. Add new controls for replacing displayed spectrum with processed version in the polynomial, filter and interpolate toolboxes. Usability improvement. Save order of polynomial as a UI default in polynomial fitting toolbox. The splatdisp command now has an extra argument for clearing the plot that the spectrum will be displayed in. 3.5-7 ===== Add a filter that rebins a spectrum to reduce its resolution. When native NDF support is not available spectra are opened as NDXs. NDF/NDX spectra can now also be saved to NDF using NDX support. 3.5-6 ===== When fitting spectral lines of spectra whose coordinate systems run high to low, rather than low to high, the widths etc. are now correctly reported as positive values. 3.5-5 ===== When deleting spectra in the global list the selection now remains set at the next spectrum in the list (rather than selecting the first spectrum). 3.5-4 ===== A bug when reading text files that use whitespace column separators, other than simple spaces, has been fixed and the previous behaviour should be restored. The set of automatically chosen colours are now dimmed slightly so that they are always distinguishable from overlay graphics elements. The percentile autocut now just applies to the data within the X range, when the X range is not being autoranged. When autoranged it applies to all the data. 3.5-3 ===== An integrated flux option has been added to the statistics toolbox. This can be used to estimate the flux in line of a background subtracted spectrum. 3.5-2 ===== The use of file type "guessing" has been extended beyond the File->Browse dialogue. This can now be selected from the command-line, or from the File->Open dialogue. Guessing requires that the spectrum be opened for each candidate type, so is intrinsically slower than file extension based typing. Remote resources will, in general, be opened using guessing. SPLAT has also been extended so that it can now interoperate with other VO-enabled desktop tools using the PLASTIC protocol. Release 3.5 =========== In this release Starlink SPLAT has been enhanced to access prototype spectral data servers (so called SSAP servers) that are being registered on the evolving virtual observatory. Using SPLAT it is now possible to make queries about a region on the sky and retrieve, display and compare any spectra that are available. To signify this development SPLAT is now often called SPLAT-VO. Comparisons of such spectra are made possible by improvements to the Starlink AST library which can transform coordinates between various spectral systems (wavelength, frequency, energy and velocity) and between a growing number of flux systems (currently flux per unit frequency and per unit wavelength). This allows you to view various spectra from differing energy domains as a spectral energy distribution. Other changes of note in this release: - Spectra can now be drawn using point markers of various kinds. - A new tool for obtaining statistics about a spectrum, or regions of a spectrum has been introduced. - A new tool for setting the data units of spectra has been introduced. - A new tool for transforming spectra by a redshift or by a flip and or translation has been introduced. - The grid drawn around the spectra can now be forced to stay within the visible region of the plot window. This makes it easier to view the spectral data values and coordinates, but at a performance cost. Switch on the option "Only display grid axes in visible area" to see this in action. - Postscript output can now be created in encapsulated form. - Graphics printing now provides PNG format too. - Dual sideband data now have the coordinates of the second sideband shown along the opposing X axis of a plot. It is also possible to switch between sidebands. - Log spacing can now be switched on from a plot (rather than by finding the plot configuration window). - Support for data units in the line identifier and simple text formats has been added. - Support for line identifiers to match against spectra that have data units has been added. - SED example data can now be loaded from the main Options menu. - The data and coordinate units of the current spectrum in a Plot can now be modified to preset values quickly. - Several new smoothing filters have been introduced - Hanning, Hamming, Welch and Barlett. - Line identifiers are now also available in the webstart version of SPLAT. - Line identifiers that fall within range of a spectrum can now be automatically loaded. Other changes allow the positioning to follow a spectrum, have the short name shown as a prefix and use horizontal orientation for the labels. - Spectral coordinates can now have the source velocity specified as a redshift. The spectral editing tools now include relativistic velocities in their template functions. - The motion tracker in plot windows can now report the coordinates under the pointer. The default continues to be to report the nearest coordinate and data value of the current spectrum. - The scale factors used when drawing spectra are now related to graphics size. Previously they where related to the spectrum coordinates. This makes it easy to control the plot when displaying spectra with very different coordinates (like those downloaded from the VO), but will cause existing spectra to be re-scaled when new spectra are added to a plot. - If should now be much faster when re-drawing many spectra that are being matching using their spectral coordinates and data units. - The handling of errors when plotting spectra with hugely differing coordinates should be improved. - A long standing problem with graphics corruption between plots has been fixed. (When the current spectrum was shared between plots some drawing changes effected all plots). - A bug that meant that the postscript output of a plot was always written to the default directory has been fixed. - Serialised spectra stacks now include full coordinate information. - Spectra can now be transformed to and from different data units (Jy to W/m^2/Hz or erg/cm^2/s/Angstrom etc.). - The SDSS spectral wavelength calibration is now understood. - The system look and feel is now the platform default. Mac OS X tweaks are enabled on that platform. - Data units are supported when editing and creating new spectra (polynomial and line fits). - Line identifiers can now have vertical lines drawn so show the position more accurately. - An integrated flux is now reported as part of the quick line fitting. - The generate interpolated lines toolbox now includes controls for drawing an interpolated line (avoids use of "Graphics" menu in the plot window). - The flip/shift toolbox now has a "line visitor" tool. This allows a series of coordinate positions (lines) and, optionally, an associated spectrum to displayed, one-by-one, and be re-visited simply. - The flip/shift toolbox will now work with up to 5 decimal places, so that redshifts may be applied with higher accuracy.