Configure a dataset

Before creating a dataset, the user has the possibility to specify the preferences of the calibrations to associate, and configure the workflow parameters to select the reduction strategies.

Select the desired reduction target

The “Reduction Target”, or the “target task” is the end point of the reduction cascade. When specifying a target, EDPS will process all and only the files needed to execute it. For example, if my target is “science”, and the science files need the bias files, EDPS will process only the biases that have been selected to process those science files; then it processes the science using the product of the bias reduction. However, if my target is bias, then EDPS will process all and only the bias files, regardless they are not used by any science. In this case, EDPS does not process the science, as it has reached already the end reduction point (e.g., process all biases). The “Target category” is a group of target that have similar purposes. For example, the target category “science”, includes all the tasks that deliver final scientific products, the target category “qc1calib” includes all and only the tasks that processes calibrations (e.g., bias, standard stars).

For scientific data reduction purposes, leave the default Target Category and Reduction Targets.

select_target

Select appropriate calibrations

By default, EDPS associates raw calibrations to the reduction process. It is also possible to use pre-processed calibrations (a.k.a. master calibrations) if available, in order to speed up the reduction. The preference can be specified in the Raw Data tab, before creating the datasets (see here).

Possible values of the Calibration Preferences are:

  • raw_per_quality_level: At equal quality of reduction, association of raw calibrations is preferred. This is the default.

  • master_per_quality_level: At equal quality of reduction, association of master calibrations is preferred.

  • raw. Association of raw calibration is preferred, despite the quality of results.

  • master. Association of master calibration is preferred, despite the quality of results.

When master calibrations are used, the reduction step needed to process raw calibrations are not executed. The reduction then moves directly to the process of scientific exposures.

For example, if reduction speed for a quick check is preferred over a high quality reduction, one can select “master”. In this case, old master calibrations are associated even if there are raw calibrations closer in time (and therefore more likely to ensure better quality products).

The quality level that the selected calibrations deliver is indicated close to each dataset in the Raw input tab, under the colum CalibLevel. CalibLevel=0 indicates that calibrations that follow the rules of the instrument calibration plans have been selected. The higher the number, the poorer the quality of the products.

More information on the application properties file can be found here.

More explanations on the concept of “association levels” can be found here.

Configure workflow parameters

This window allows to:

  • Select the parameter set. A pre-determined list of workflow parameters and recipe parameters for a given use case. For the majority of the cases, the “science” parameter set can be used.

  • Edit the workflow parameters. These are parameters that regulates the reduction strategy, e.g. whether to use a given calibration or not, or to trigger a certain reduction step. Some changes can define a strategy that selects different files; in this case a new dataset is created.

select_wkf_parameters

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