Image and Image Value Import and Export
Image Import/Export to FITS
These tasks will allow you to write your CASA image to a FITS file that other packages can read, and to import existing FITS files into CASA as an image.
FITS Image Export (exportfits)
To export your images to fits format use the exportfits task. The inputs are:
# exportfits :: Convert a CASA image to a FITS file
imagename = '' # Name of input CASA image
fitsimage = '' # Name of output image FITS file
velocity = False # Use velocity (rather than frequency) as spectral axis
optical = False # Use the optical (rather than radio) velocity convention
bitpix = -32 # Bits per pixel
minpix = 0 # Minimum pixel value
maxpix = 0 # Maximum pixel value
overwrite = False # Overwrite pre-existing imagename
dropstokes = False # Drop the Stokes axis?
stokeslast = True # Put Stokes axis last in header?
The dropstokes or stokeslast parameter may be needed to make the FITS image compatible with an external application.
For example,
exportfits('ngc5921.demo.cleanimg.image','ngc5921.demo.cleanimg.image.fits')
FITS Image Import (importfits)
You can also use the importfits task to import a FITS image into CASA image table format. Note, the CASA viewer can read fits images so you don’t need to do this if you just want to look at the image. The inputs for importfits are:
# importfits :: Convert an image FITS file into a CASA image
fitsimage = '' # Name of input image FITS file
imagename = '' # Name of output CASA image
whichrep = 0 # If fits image has multiple
# coordinate reps, choose one.
whichhdu = 0 # If its file contains
# multiple images, choose one.
zeroblanks = True # Set blanked pixels to zero (not NaN)
overwrite = False # Overwrite pre-existing imagename
defaultaxes = False # Add the default 4D
# coordinate axes where they are missing
defaultaxesvalues = [] # List of values to assign to
# added degenerate axes when
# defaultaxes=True (ra,dec,freq,stokes)
For example, we can read the above image back in
importfits('ngc5921.demo.cleanimg.image.fits','ngc5921.demo.cleanimage')
Extracting data from an image (imval)
The imval task will extract the values of the data and mask from a specified region of an image and place in the task return value as a Python dictionary. The inputs are:
# imval :: Get the data value(s) and/or mask value in an image.
imagename = '' # Name of the input image
region = '' # Image Region. Use viewer
box = '' # Select one or more box regions
chans = '' # Select the channel(spectral) range
stokes = '' # Stokes params to image (I,IV,IQU,IQUV)
Area selection using box and region is detailed above. By default, box=' ' will extract the image information at the reference pixel on the direction axes. Plane selection is controlled by chans and stokes. By default, chans=' ' and stokes=' ' will extract the image information in all channels and Stokes planes.
For instance,
xval = imval('myimage', box='144,144', stokes='I' )
will extract the Stokes I value or spectrum at pixel 144,144, while
xval = imval('myimage', box='134,134.154,154', stokes='I' )
will extract a 21 by 21 pixel region. Extractions are returned in NumPy arrays in the return value dictionary, plus some extra elements describing the axes and selection:
CASA <2>: xval = imval('ngc5921.demo.moments.integrated')
CASA <3>: xval
Out[3]:
{'axes': [[0, 'Right Ascension'],
[1, 'Declination'],
[3, 'Frequency'],
[2, 'Stokes']],
'blc': [128, 128, 0, 0],
'data': array([ 0.89667124]),
'mask': array([ True], dtype=bool),
'trc': [128, 128, 0, 0],
'unit': 'Jy/beam.km/s'}
extracts the reference pixel value in this 1-plane image. Note that the 'data' and 'mask' elements are NumPy arrays, not Python lists. To extract a spectrum from a cube:
CASA <8>: xval = imval('ngc5921.demo.clean.image',box='125,125')
CASA <9>: xval
Out[9]:
{'axes': [[0, 'Right Ascension'],
[1, 'Declination'],
[3, 'Frequency'],
[2, 'Stokes']],
'blc': [125, 125, 0, 0],
'data': array([ 8.45717848e-04, 1.93370355e-03, 1.53750915e-03,
2.88399984e-03, 2.38683447e-03, 2.89159478e-04,
3.16268904e-03, 9.93389636e-03, 1.88773088e-02,
3.01138610e-02, 3.14478502e-02, 4.03211266e-02,
3.82498614e-02, 3.06552909e-02, 2.80734301e-02,
1.72479432e-02, 1.20884273e-02, 6.13593217e-03,
9.04005766e-03, 1.71429547e-03, 5.22095338e-03,
2.49114982e-03, 5.30831399e-04, 4.80734324e-03,
1.19265869e-05, 1.29435991e-03, 3.75700940e-04,
2.34788167e-03, 2.72604497e-03, 1.78467855e-03,
9.74952069e-04, 2.24676146e-03, 1.82263291e-04,
1.98463408e-06, 2.02975096e-03, 9.65532148e-04,
1.68218743e-03, 2.92119570e-03, 1.29359076e-03,
-5.11484570e-04, 1.54162932e-03, 4.68662125e-04,
-8.50282842e-04, -7.91683051e-05, 2.95954203e-04,
-1.30133145e-03]),
'mask': array([ True, True, True, True, True, True, True, True, True,
True, True, True, True, True, True, True, True, True,
True, True, True, True, True, True, True, True, True,
True, True, True, True, True, True, True, True, True,
True, True, True, True, True, True, True, True, True, True], dtype=bool),
'trc': [125, 125, 0, 45],
'unit': 'Jy/beam'}
To extract a region from the plane of a cube:
CASA <13>: xval = imval('ngc5921.demo.clean.image',box='126,128,130,129',chans='23')
CASA <14>: xval
Out[14]:
{'axes': [[0, 'Right Ascension'],
[1, 'Declination'],
[3, 'Frequency'],
[2, 'Stokes']],
'blc': [126, 128, 0, 23],
'data': array([[ 0.00938627, 0.01487772],
[ 0.00955847, 0.01688832],
[ 0.00696965, 0.01501907],
[ 0.00460964, 0.01220793],
[ 0.00358087, 0.00990202]]),
'mask': array([[ True, True],
[ True, True],
[ True, True],
[ True, True],
[ True, True]], dtype=bool),
'trc': [130, 129, 0, 23],
'unit': 'Jy/beam'}
CASA <15>: print xval['data'][0][1]
0.0148777160794
In this example, a rectangular box was extracted, and you can see the order in the array and how to address specific elements.