# Chapter 6  Image Analysis

Inside the Toolkit:

Image analysis is handled in the ia tool. Many functions exist there, including region statistics and image math. See § 6.28 below for more information.

Once data has been calibrated (and imaged in the case of synthesis data), the resulting image or image cube must be displayed or analyzed in order to extract quantitative information, such as statistics or moment images. In addition, there need to be facilities for the coordinate conversion of images for direct comparison.

• imhead — summarize and manipulate the “header” information in a CASA image (§ 6.2)
• imhead — summarize and manipulate the “header” information in a CASA image (§ 6.3)
• imsubimage — Create a (sub)image from a region of the image (§ 6.4)
• imcontsub — perform continuum subtraction on a spectral-line image cube (§ 6.5)
• imfit — image plane Gaussian component fitting (§ 6.6)
• immath — perform mathematical operations on or between images (§ 6.7)
• immoments — compute the moments of an image cube (§ 6.8)
• impv — generate a position-velocity diagram along a slit (§ 6.9)
• imstat — calculate statistics on an image or part of an image (§ 6.10)
• imval — extract the data and mask values from a pixel or region of an image (§ 6.11)
• imtrans — reorder the axes of an image or cube (§ 6.12)
• imcollapse — collapse image along one or more axes by aggregating pixel values along that axis (§ 6.13)
• imregrid — regrid an image onto the coordinate system of another image (§ 6.14)
• imreframe — change the frame in which the image reports its spectral values (§ 6.15)
• imrebin — rebin an image (§ 6.16)
• specsmooth — 1-dimensional smooth images in the spectral and angular directions (§ 6.17)
• imsmooth — 2-dimensional smooth images in the spectral and angular directions (§ 6.18)
• specfit — fit 1-dimensional Gaussians, polynomial, and/or Lorentzians models to an image or image region (§ 6.19)
• specflux — Report details of an image spectrum. (§ 6.20
• plotprofilemap — Plot spectra at their position (§ 6.21
• rmfit — Calculation of rotation measures (§ 6.22)
• spxfit — Calculation of Spectral Indices and higher order polynomials (§ 6.23)
• slsearch — query a subset of the Splatalogue spectral line catalog (§ 6.25)
• splattotable — convert a file exported from Splatalogue to a CASA table (§ 6.26)
• importfits — import a FITS image into a CASA image format table (§ 6.27.2)
• exportfits — write out an image in FITS format (§ 6.27.1)

There are other tasks which are useful during image analysis. These include:

• viewer — there are useful region statistics and image cube slice and profile capabilities in the viewer (§ 7)

We also give some examples of using the CASA Toolkit to aid in image analysis (§ 6.28).

## 6.1  Common Image Analysis Task Parameters

We now describe some sets of parameters are are common to the image analysis. These should behave the same way in any of the tasks described in this section that they are found in.

### 6.1.1  Input Image (imagename)

The input image typically is an image cube. Most analysis tasks and tools also accept complex valued images.

### 6.1.2  Region Selection (box)

Direction (e.g. RA, Dec) areal selection in the image analysis tasks is controlled by the box parameter or through the region parameter (§ 6.1.6). Note that one should either specify a region (recommended) or any of box/chans/stokes. Specifying both at the same time will give priority to the command line inputs in ’chans’ and ’stokes’ but will keep the region file specification for the spatial region selection.

The box parameter selects spatial rectangular areas:

box        =      ''   #  Select one or more box regions

#          string containing blcx,blcy,trcx,trcy

#          A box selection in the directional portion of an image.
#          The directional portion of an image are the axes for right
#          ascension and declination, for example.  Boxes are specified
#          by their bottom-left corner (blc) and top-right corner (trc)
#          as follows: blcx, blcy, trcx, trcy;
#          ONLY pixel values acceptable at this time.
#          Default: none (all);
#          Example: box='0,0,50,50'



To get help on box, see the in-line help

     help(par.box)


Alert: When box is set in addition to a region file, the spatial selection of the region file and the box will be connected by a Boolean AND, it is thus selecting both areas at the same time.

### 6.1.3  Plane Selection (chans, stokes)

The channel, frequency, or velocity plane(s) of the image is chosen using the chans parameter:

chans      =      ''   #  Select the channel(spectral) range

#          string containing channel range

#          immath, imstat, and imcontsub - takes a string listing
#          of channel numbers, velocity, and/or frequency
#          numbers, much like the spw parameter
#          Only channel numbers acceptable at this time.
#          Default: none (all);
#          Example: chans='3~20'
#                   chans="0,3,4,8"
#                   chans="3~20,50,51"


chans can also be set in the CASA region format to allow settings ins frequency and velocity, e.g.

 chans=("range=[-50km/s,50km/s], restfreq=100GHz, frame=LSRK")


this example would even define a new velocity system independent of the one in the image itself. If the rest frequency and velocity frame within the image are being used, the latter two entries are not needed. The parentheses are needed when the call is in a single command.

A frequency selection looks as follows:


chans=("range=[100GHz,100.125GHz]")


The polarization plane(s) of the image is chosen with the stokes parameter:

stokes     =      ''   #  Stokes params to image (I,IV,IQU,IQUV)

#          string containing Stokes selections

#          Stokes parameters to image, may or may not be separated
#          by commas but best if you use commas.
#          Default: none (all); Example: stokes='IQUV';
#          Example:stokes='I,Q'
#          Options: 'I','Q','U','V',
#                   'RR','RL','LR','LL',
#                   'XX','YX','XY','YY',...


To get help on these parameters, see the in-line help

     help(par.chans)
help(par.stokes)


Sometimes, as in the immoments task, the channel/plane selection is generalized to work on more than one axis type. In this case, the planes parameter is used. This behaves like chans in syntax.

Alert: The chans and stokes paremeters, when set, will override any specifications given in the region file.

### 6.1.4  Lattice Expressions (expr)

Lattice expressions are strings that describe operations on a set of input images to form an output image. These strings use the Lattice Expression Language (LEL). LEL syntax is described in detail in AIPS++ Note 223

http://casa.nrao.edu/aips2_docs/notes/223/index.shtml

The expr string contains the LEL expression:

expr       =      ''   #  Mathematical expression using images

#          string containing LEL expression

#          A mathematical expression, with image file names.
#          image file names must be enclosed in double quotes (")
#          Default: none
#          Example: expr='min("image2.im")+(2*max("image1.im"))'
#
#    Available functions in the expr and mask parameters:
#    pi(), e(), sin(), sinh(), asinh(), cos(), cosh(), tan(), tanh(),
#    atan(), exp(), log(), log10(), pow(), sqrt(), complex(), conj()
#    real(), imag(), abs(), arg(), phase(), amplitude(), min(), max()
#    round(), isgn(), floor(), ceil(), rebin(), spectralindex(), pa(),
#    iif(), indexin(), replace(), ...


For examples using LEL expr, see § 6.7.1 below. Note that in immath, shortcut names have been given to the images provided by the user in imagename that can be used in the LEL expression, for the above example:

  imagename=['image2.im','image1.im']
expr='min(IM0)+(2*max(IM1))'


ALERT: LEL expressions use 0-based indices. Also, the functions must be lowercase (in almost all cases we know about). Numbers in filenames may be interpreted a ssuch and not strings. Some special characters may also need to be escaped. It is advisable to use double quotes outside single quotes to make such strings being accepted as filenames instead of functions, e.g. "’5sigma+file.im’".

A mask can be used to define whether part of an image is used or not. There are different options for masks:

• an image cube with Boolean True/False values
• an image cube with zero and non-zero values
• an LEL string for a condition.

Using image cubes is useful to mask on a pixel by pixel basis, where False and zeros mark masked pixels. Both versions can be converted into each other makemask (§ 6.24). Some analysis task show an optional stretch parameter which is useful, e.g. to expand a single plane mask to an antire cube along the spectral axis.

An LEL string (see § 6.1.4 above) can be an on-the-fly (OTF) mask expression or refer to an image pixel mask.

mask       =      ''   #  Mask to be applied to the images

#          string containing LEL expression

#          Name of mask applied to each image in the calculation
#          Default '' means no mask;


Note that the mask file supplied in the mask parameter must have the same shape, same number of axes and same axes length, as the images supplied in the expr parameter, with one exception. The mask may be missing some of the axes — if this is the case then the mask will be expanded along these axes to become the same shape.

For examples using mask, see § 6.7.2 below.

### 6.1.6  Regions (region)

The region parameter points to a CASA region which can be directly specified or listed in a ImageRegion file. An ImageRegion file can be created with the CASA viewer’s region manager (§ 7.4.3). Or directly using the CASA region syntax (Chapter D. Typically ImageRegion files will have the suffix ’.crtf’ for CASA Region Text Format.

Alert: When both the region parameter and any of box/chans/stokes are specified simultaneously, the task may perform unwanted selections. Only specify one of these (sets of) parameters. We recommend the use of CASA regions and may remove the box/chans/stokes selection in later releases.

For example:

    region='circle[[18h12m24s, -23d11m00s], 2.3arcsec]'


or

    region='myimage.im.crtf'


for to specify a region file.

For the most part, the region parameter in tasks only accepts strings (e.g. file names, region shape descriptions) while the region parameter in ia tool methods only accepts python region dictionaries (e.g. produced using the rg tool).

#  imhead :: List, get and put image header parameters
imagename           =         ''        #  Name of the input image
#   get, history, list, put, summary
verbose        =      False        #  Give a full listing of
#   beams or just a short summary?
#   Only used when the image has multiple beams
#   and mode="summary".



The mode parameter controls the operation of imhead.

Setting mode=’summary’ will print out a summary of the image properties and the header to the logger. It also returns a dictionary with the image header values.

Setting mode=’list’ prints out a list of the header keywords and values to the terminal.

The mode=’get’ allows the user to retrieve the current value for a specified keyword hdkey:

mode           =      'get'   #  imhead options: list, summary, get, put
hdkey       =         ''   #  The FITS keyword


Note that to catch this value, you need to assign it to a Python variable. See § 1.4.3 for more on return values.

The mode=’put’ allows the user to replace the current value for a given keyword hditem with that specified in hdvalue. There are two sub-parameters that are opened by this option:

mode           =      'put'   #  imhead options: list, summary, get, put
hdkey       =         ''   #  The FITS keyword
hdvalue     =         ''   #  Value of hdkey
hdtype      =         ''   #  Data type of the header keyword.
hdcomment   =         ''   #  Comment associated with the header keyword



WARNING: Be careful when using mode=’put’. This task does no checking on whether the values you specify (e.g. for the axes types) are valid, and you can render your image invalid. Make sure you know what you are doing when using this option!

Here is an example – we can print the summary to the logger:

CASA <51>: imhead('ngc5921.demo.cleanimg.image',mode='summary')


prints in the logger:

##### Begin Task: imhead             #####
Image name       : ngc5921.demo.cleanimg.image
Object name      : N5921_2
Image type       : PagedImage
Image quantity   : Intensity
Region(s)        : None
Image units      : Jy/beam
Restoring Beam   : 52.3782 arcsec, 45.7319 arcsec, -165.572 deg

Direction reference : J2000
Spectral  reference : LSRK
Rest frequency      : 1.42041e+09 Hz
Pointing center     :  15:22:00.000000  +05.04.00.000000
Telescope           : VLA
Observer            : TEST
Date observation    : 1995/04/13/00:00:00
Telescope position: [-1.60119e+06m, -5.04198e+06m, 3.55488e+06m] (ITRF)

Axis Coord Type      Name             Proj Shape Tile   Coord value at pixel    Coord incr Units
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0    0     Direction Right Ascension   SIN   256   64  15:22:00.000   128.00 -1.500000e+01 arcsec
1    0     Direction Declination       SIN   256   64 +05.04.00.000   128.00  1.500000e+01 arcsec
2    1     Stokes    Stokes                    1    1             I
3    2     Spectral  Frequency                46    8   1.41279e+09     0.00 2.4414062e+04 Hz
Velocity                               1607.99     0.00 -5.152860e+00 km/s


If the beam size per plane differs, the beam information will be displayed for the channel with the smallest beam, the one with the largest beam, and the channel closest to the median beam size. E.g.,

Restoring Beams
Pol   Type Chan      Freq   Vel
I    Max    0 9.680e+08     0   39.59 arcsec x   22.77 arcsec pa=-70.57 deg
I    Min  511 1.990e+09 -316516   20.36 arcsec x   12.05 arcsec pa=-65.67 deg
I Median  255 1.478e+09 -157949   27.11 arcsec x   15.54 arcsec pa=-70.36 deg


If verbose=T the beam information for every plane will be provided.

If you choose mode=’list’, you get the summary in the logger and a listing of keywords and values to the terminal:

CASA <52>: imhead('ngc5921.demo.cleanimg.image',mode='list')
Out[52]:
{'beammajor': 52.378242492675781,
'beamminor': 45.731891632080078,
'beampa': -165.5721435546875,
'bunit': 'Jy/beam',
'cdelt1': '-7.27220521664e-05',
'cdelt2': '7.27220521664e-05',
'cdelt3': '1.0',
'cdelt4': '24414.0625',
'crpix1': 128.0,
'crpix2': 128.0,
'crpix3': 0.0,
'crpix4': 0.0,
'crval1': '4.02298392585',
'crval2': '0.0884300154344',
'crval3': 'I',
'crval4': '1412787144.08',
'ctype1': 'Right Ascension',
'ctype2': 'Declination',
'ctype3': 'Stokes',
'ctype4': 'Frequency',
'cunit3': '',
'cunit4': 'Hz',
'datamax': ' Not Known ',
'datamin': -0.010392956435680389,
'date-obs': '1995/04/13/00:00:00',
'equinox': 'J2000',
'imtype': 'Intensity',
'maxpixpos': array([134, 134,   0,  38], dtype=int32),
'maxpos': '15:21:53.976, +05.05.29.998, I, 1.41371e+09Hz',
'minpixpos': array([117,   0,   0,  21], dtype=int32),
'minpos': '15:22:11.035, +04.31.59.966, I, 1.4133e+09Hz',
'object': 'N5921_2',
'observer': 'TEST',
'projection': 'SIN',
'reffreqtype': 'LSRK',
'restfreq': [1420405752.0],
'telescope': 'VLA'}


Note that this list is a return value and can be captured in a variable:

  mylist = imhead('ngc5921.demo.cleanimg.image',mode='list')


The values for these keywords can be queried using mode=’get’. At this point you should capture the return value:

CASA <53>: mybmaj = imhead('ngc5921.demo.cleanimg.image',mode='get',hdkey='beammajor')

CASA <54>: mybmaj
Out[54]: {'unit': 'arcsec', 'value': 52.378242492699997}

CASA <56>: print myobserver
{'value': 'TEST', 'unit': ''}


You can set the values for these keywords using mode=’put’. For example:

CASA <57>: imhead('ngc5921.demo.cleanimg.image',mode='put',hdkey='observer',hdvalue='CASA')
Out[57]: 'CASA'

Out[58]: {'unit': '', 'value': 'CASA'}


## 6.3  Image History (imhistory)

Tasks that work on images start to record their execution in the image headers. This information can be retrieved via imhistory.

The inputs are:

#  imhistory :: Retrieve and modify image history
imagename           =         ''        #  Name of the input image
mode                =     'list'        #  Mode to run in, "list" to retrieve history,
#   "append" to append a record to history.
verbose        =       True        #  Write history to logger if mode="list"?


The task returns the massages in the form of a list that can be captured by a variable, e.g. myhistory=imhistory(’image.im’). With verbose=T (default) the image history is also reported in the CASA logger.

It is also possible to add messages to the image headers via mode=’append’.

## 6.4  Extracting sub-images (imsubimage)

The task imsubimage provides a way to extract a smaller data cube from a bigger one. The inputs are:

#  imsubimage :: Create a (sub)image from a region of the image
imagename           =         ''        #  Input image name.  Default is unset.
outfile             =         ''        #  Output image name.  Default is unset.
box                 =         ''        #  Rectangular region to select in direction plane. See
#   "help par.box" for details. Default is to use the
#   entire direction plane.
region              =         ''        #  Region selection. See "help par.region" for details.
#   Default is to use the full image.
chans               =         ''        #  Channels to use. See "help par.chans" for details.
#   Default is to use all channels.
stokes              =         ''        #  Stokes planes to use. See "help par.stokes" for
#   details. Default is to use all Stokes planes.
dropdeg             =       True        #  Drop degenerate axes
keepaxes       =         []        #  If dropdeg=True, these are the degenerate axes to keep.
#   Nondegenerate axes are implicitly always kept.

verbose             =       True        #  Post additional informative
messages to the logger


The region keyword defines the size of the smaller cube and is specified via the CASA region CRTF syntax. E.g.

region='box [ [ 100pix , 130pix] , [120pix, 150pix ] ]'


will extract the portion of the image that is between pixel coordinates (100,130) and (12,150). dropdeg=T with selection via keepaxes is useful to remove axes in the data cube that are degenerate, i.e. axes with a single plane only. A single Stokes I axis is a common example.

## 6.5  Continuum Subtraction on an Image Cube (imcontsub)

One method to separate line and continuum emission in an image cube is to specify a number of line-free channels in that cube, make a linear fit to the visibilities in those channels, and subtract the fit from the whole cube. Note that the task uvcontsub serves a similar purpose; see § 4.7.6 for a synopsis of the pros and cons of either method.

The imcontsub task will subtract a polynomial baseline fit to the specified channels from an image cube.

The default inputs are:

#  imcontsub :: Continuum subtraction on images
imagename  =      ''   #  Name of the input image
linefile   =      ''   #  Output line image file name
contfile   =      ''   #  Output continuum image file name
fitorder   =       0   #  Polynomial order for the continuum estimation
region     =      ''   #  Image region or name to process see 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 in § 6.1.2 and § 6.1.6 respectively.

Image cube plane selection using chans and stokes are described in § 6.1.3.

ALERT: imcontsub has issues when the image does not contain a spectral or stokes axis. Errors are generated when run on an image missing one or both of these axes. You will need to use the Toolkit (e.g. the ia.adddegaxes method) to add degenerate missing axes to the image.

### 6.5.1  Examples for imcontsub)

For example, we first make a clean image without the uv-plane continuum subtraction:

  # First, run clearcal to clear the uvcontsub results from the
# corrected column
clearcal('ngc5921.demo.src.split.ms')

# Now clean, keeping all the channels except first and last
default('clean')
vis = 'ngc5921.demo.src.split.ms'
imagename = 'ngc5921.demo.nouvcontsub'
mode = 'channel'
nchan = 61
start = 1
width = 1
imsize = [256,256]
psfmode = 'clark'
imagermode = ''
cell = [15.,15.]
niter = 6000
threshold='8.0mJy'
weighting = 'briggs'
robust = 0.5
interactive=False
clean()

# It will have made the image:
# -----------------------------
# ngc5921.demo.nouvcontsub.image

# You can view this image
viewer('ngc5921.demo.nouvcontsub.image')


You can clearly see continuum sources in the image which were removed previously in the script by the use of uvcontsub. Let’s see if imcontsub can work as well.

Using the viewer, it looks like channels 0 through 4 and 50 through 60 are line-free. Then:

  default('imcontsub')
imagename = 'ngc5921.demo.nouvcontsub.image'
linefile  = 'ngc5921.demo.nouvcontsub.lineimage'
contfile  = 'ngc5921.demo.nouvcontsub.contimage'
fitorder  = 1
chans      = '0~4,50~60'
stokes    = 'I'
imcontsub()


This did not do too badly!

## 6.6  Image-plane Component Fitting (imfit)

The inputs are:

#  imfit :: Fit one or more elliptical Gaussian components on an image region(s)
imagename           =         ''        #  Name of the input image
box                 =         ''        #  Specify one or more box regions for the fit.
region              =         ''        #  Region. See help par.region for specs.
chans               =         ''        #  Spectral channels on which to perform fit. See "help
#   par.chans" for examples.
stokes              =         ''        #  Stokes parameter to fit. If blank, first stokes plane is
#   used.
includepix          =         []        #  Range of pixel values to include for fitting.
excludepix          =         []        #  Range of pixel values to exclude for fitting.
residual            =         ''        #  Name of output residual image.
model               =         ''        #  Name of output model image.
estimates           =         ''        #  Name of file containing initial estimates of component
#   parameters.
logfile             =         ''        #  Name of file to write fit results.
newestimates        =         ''        #  File to write fit results which can be used as initial
#   estimates for next run.
complist            =         ''        #  Name of output component list table.
dooff               =      False        #  Also fit a zero level offset? Default is False
rms                 =         -1        #  RMS to use in calculation of uncertainties. Numeric or
#   valid quantity (record or string). If numeric, it is
#   given units of the input image. If quantity, units must
#   conform to image units. If not positive, the rms of the
#   residual image, in the region of the fit, is used.
noisefwhm           =         ''        #  Noise correlation beam FWHM. If numeric value,
#   interpreted as pixel widths. If quantity (dictionary,
#   string), it must have angular units.


This task will return (as a Python dictionary) the results of the fit, but the results can also be written into a component list table or a logfile.

Note that to fit more than a single component, you must provide starting estimates for each component via the estimates file. See ‘‘help imfit’’ for more details on this. An noise estimate will be calculated automatically or can be provided through the rms and noisefwhm keywords.

### 6.6.1  Examples for imfit

The following are some examples using the B1608+656 Tutorial

http://casa.nrao.edu/Doc/Scripts/b1608_demo.py

as an example.

# First fit only a single component at a time
# This is OK since the components are well-separated and not blended
# Box around component A
xfit_A_res = imfit('b1608.demo.clean2.image',box='121,121,136,136',

# Now extract the fit part of the return value
xfit_A = xfit_A_res['results']['component0']
#xfit_A
#  Out[7]:
#{'flux': {'error': array([  6.73398035e-05,   0.00000000e+00,   0.00000000e+00,
#         0.00000000e+00]),
#          'polarisation': 'Stokes',
#          'unit': 'Jy',
#          'value': array([ 0.01753742,  0.        ,  0.        ,  0.        ])},
# 'label': '',
# 'shape': {'direction': {'error': {'latitude': {'unit': 'arcsec',
#                                                'value': 0.00041154866279462775},
#                                   'longitude': {'unit': 'arcsec',
#                                                 'value': 0.00046695916589535109}},
#                         'm0': {'unit': 'rad', 'value': -2.0541102061078207},
#                         'm1': {'unit': 'rad', 'value': 1.1439131060384089},
#                         'refer': 'J2000',
#                         'type': 'direction'},
#           'majoraxis': {'unit': 'arcsec', 'value': 0.29100166137741568},
#           'majoraxiserror': {'unit': 'arcsec',
#                              'value': 0.0011186420613222663},
#           'minoraxis': {'unit': 'arcsec', 'value': 0.24738110059830495},
#           'minoraxiserror': {'unit': 'arcsec',
#                              'value': 0.0013431999725066338},
#           'positionangle': {'unit': 'deg', 'value': 19.369249322401796},
#                                  'value': 0.016663189295782171},
#           'type': 'Gaussian'},
# 'spectrum': {'frequency': {'m0': {'unit': 'GHz', 'value': 1.0},
#                            'refer': 'LSRK',
#                            'type': 'frequency'},
#              'type': 'Constant'}}

# Now the other components
xfit_B_res = imfit('b1608.demo.clean2.image',box='108,114,120,126',
xfit_B = xfit_B_res['results']['component0']

xfit_C_res= imfit('b1608.demo.clean2.image',box='108,84,120,96')
xfit_C = xfit_C_res['results']['component0']

xfit_D_res = imfit('b1608.demo.clean2.image',box='144,98,157,110')
xfit_D = xfit_D_res['results']['component0']

print ""
print "Imfit Results:"
print "--------------"
print "A  Flux = %6.4f Bmaj = %6.4f" % (xfit_A['flux']['value'][0],xfit_A['shape']['majoraxis']['value'])
print "B  Flux = %6.4f Bmaj = %6.4f" % (xfit_B['flux']['value'][0],xfit_B['shape']['majoraxis']['value'])
print "C  Flux = %6.4f Bmaj = %6.4f" % (xfit_C['flux']['value'][0],xfit_C['shape']['majoraxis']['value'])
print "D  Flux = %6.4f Bmaj = %6.4f" % (xfit_D['flux']['value'][0],xfit_D['shape']['majoraxis']['value'])
print ""


Now try fitting four components together. For this we will have to provide an estimate file. We will use the clean beam for the estimate of the component sizes:

estfile=open('b1608.demo.clean2.estimate','w')
print >>estfile,'# peak, x, y, bmaj, bmin, bpa'
print >>estfile,'0.017, 128, 129, 0.293arcsec, 0.238arcsec, 21.7deg'
print >>estfile,'0.008, 113, 120, 0.293arcsec, 0.238arcsec, 21.7deg'
print >>estfile,'0.008, 113,  90, 0.293arcsec, 0.238arcsec, 21.7deg'
print >>estfile,'0.002, 151, 104, 0.293arcsec, 0.238arcsec, 21.7deg'
estfile.close()


Then, this can be used in imfit:

xfit_all_res = imfit('b1608.demo.clean2.image',
estimates='b1608.demo.clean2.estimate',
logfile='b1608.demo.clean2.imfitall.log',
box='121,121,136,136,108,114,120,126,108,84,120,96,144,98,157,110')
# Now extract the fit part of the return values
xfit_allA = xfit_all_res['results']['component0']
xfit_allB = xfit_all_res['results']['component1']
xfit_allC = xfit_all_res['results']['component2']
xfit_allD = xfit_all_res['results']['component3']


These results are almost identical to those from the individual fits. You can see a nicer printout of the fit results in the logfile.

## 6.7  Mathematical Operations on an Image (immath)

The inputs are:

#  immath :: Perform math operations on images
imagename           =         ''        #  a list of input images
mode                = 'evalexpr'        #  mode for math operation (evalexpr, spix, pola, poli)
expr           =         ''        #  Mathematical expression using images
varnames       =         ''        #  a list of variable names to use with the image files

outfile             = 'immath_results.im' #  File where the output is saved
region              =         ''        #  Region selection. See "help
#   par.region" for details.
#   Default is to use the full image.
box                 =         ''        #  Rectangular region to
#   select in direction plane.
#   See "help par.box" for details. Default is to use the
#   entire direction plane.
chans               =         ''        #  Channels to use. See "help
#   par.chans" for details.
#   Default is to use all channels.
stokes              =         ''        #  Stokes planes to use. See "help par.stokes" for details.
#   Default is to use all Stokes planes.
imagemd             =         ''        #  An image name from which metadata should be copied. The input
#   can be either an image listed under imagename or any other
#   image on disk. Leaving this parameter unset may copy header
#   metadata from any of the input images, which
#   one is not guaranteed.


Alert: Immath does not convert any brightness units, e.g. from Jy/beam to K or vice versa. The user is responsible for making sure the images are consistent with the values in the header and the image. It is not advisable to mix input images that are in different units or have different beam sizes.

In all cases, outfile must be supplied with the name of the new output file to create.

The mode parameter selects what immath is to do.

The default mode=’evalexpr’ lets the user specify a mathematical operation to carry out on one or more input images. The sub-parameter expr contains the Lattice Expression Language (LEL) string describing the image operations based on the images in the imagename parameter. See § 6.1.4 for more on LEL strings and the expr parameter.

Mask specification is done using the mask parameter. This can optionally contain an on-the-fly mask expression (in LEL) or point to an image with a pixel mask. See § 6.1.5 for more on the use of the mask parameter. See also § 6.1.4 for more on LEL strings. Sometimes, one would like to use a flat image (e.g. a moment image) mask to be applied to an entire cube. The stretch=True subparameter in mask allows one to expand the mask to all planes of the cube.

Region selection is carried out through the region and box parameters. See § 6.1.2 and § 6.1.6 for more on area selection.

Image plane selection is controlled by chans and stokes. See § 6.1.3 for details on plane selection.

For mode=’evalexpr’, the standard usage for specifying images to be used in the LEL expression is to provide them as a list in the imagename parameter, and then access there in the LEL expression by the names IM0, IM1, .... For example,

immath(imagename=['image1.im','image2.im'],expr='IM0-IM1',outfile='ImageDiff.im')


would subtract the second image given from the first.

For the special modes ’spix’, ’pola’, ’poli’, the required images for the given operation are to be provided in imagename (sometimes in a particular order). V3.0 ALERT: For mode=’pola’ you MUST call as a function as in the example below (§ 6.7.1.2), giving the parameters as arguments, or immath will fail.

The parameter imagemd can be set to a image name from which the header meta-information is to be used for the output image. If left unset the task may pick any of the input image headers, so it is better to define this parameter. In fact, the image specified in imagemd can be any image, even an image that is not part of the calculations in immath.

Detailed examples are given below.

### 6.7.1  Examples for immath

In the following, we show a few examples of immath. Note that the image names in the expr are assumed to refer to existing image files in the current working directory.

#### 6.7.1.1  Simple math

Select a single plane (channel 22) of the 3-D cube and subtract it from the original image:

  immath(imagename='ngc5921.demo.cleanimg.image',
expr='IM0',chans='22',
outfile='ngc5921.demo.chan22.image')


Double all values in our image:

  immath(imagename=['ngc5921.demo.chan22.image'],
expr='IM0*2.0',
outfile='ngc5921.demo.chan22double.image' )


Square all values in our image:

  immath(imagename=['ngc5921.demo.chan22.image'],
expr='IM0^2',
outfile='ngc5921.demo.chan22squared.image' )


Note that the units in the output image are still claimed to be “Jy/beam”, i.e. immath will not correctly scale the units in the image for non-linear cases like this. Beware.

You can do other mathematical operations on an image (e.g. trigonometric functions) as well as use scalars results from an image (e.g. max, min, median, mean, variance). You also have access to constants such as e() and pi() (which are doubles internally, while most images are floats). For example: Take the sine of an image:

  immath(imagename=['ngc5921.demo.chan22.image','ngc5921.demo.chan22squared.image'],
expr='sin(float(pi())*IM0/sqrt(max(IM1)))',
outfile='ngc5921.demo.chan22sine.image')


Note again that the units are again kept as they were.

Select a single plane (channel 22) of the 3-D cube and subtract it from the original image:

  immath(imagename='ngc5921.demo.cleanimg.image',
expr='IM0',chans='22',
outfile='ngc5921.demo.chan22.image')

immath(imagename=['ngc5921.demo.cleanimg.image','ngc5921.demo.chan22.image'],
expr='IM0-IM1',
outfile='ngc5921.demo.sub22.image')


Note that in this example the 2-D plane gets extended in the third dimension and the 2-D values are applied to each plane in the 3-D cube.

Select and save the inner 1/4 of an image for channels 40,42,44 as well as channels 10 and below:

   default('immath')
imagename=['ngc5921.demo.cleanimg.image']
expr='IM0'
region='box[[64pix,64pix],[192pix,192pix]]'
chans='<10;40,42,44'
outfile='ngc5921.demo.inner.image'
immath()


ALERT: Note that if chan selects more than one channel then the output image has a number of channels given by the span from the lowest and highest channel selected in chan. In the example above, it will have 45 channels. The ones not selected will be masked in the output cube. If we had set

   chans = '40,42,44'


then there would be 5 output channels corresponding to channels 40,41,42,43,44 of the MS with 41,43 masked. Also, the chans=’<10’ selects channels 0–9.

Note that the chans syntax allows the operators ’<’, ’<=’, ’>’, ’>’. For example,

   chans = '<17,>79'
chans = '<=16,>=80'


do the same thing.

Divide an image by another, with a threshold on one of the images:

  immath(imagename=['ngc5921.demo.cleanimg.image','ngc5921.demo.chan22.image'],
expr='IM0/IM1[IM1>0.008]',
outfile='ngc5921.demo.div22.image')


#### 6.7.1.2  Polarization manipulation

The following are some examples using the 3C129 Tutorial

http://casa.nrao.edu/Doc/Scripts/3c129_tutorial.py

as an example.

It is helpful to extract the Stokes planes from the cube into individual images:

   default('immath')
imagename = '3C129BC.clean.image'
outfile='3C129BC.I'; expr='IM0'; stokes='I'; immath();
outfile='3C129BC.Q'; expr='IM0'; stokes='Q'; immath();
outfile='3C129BC.U'; expr='IM0'; stokes='U'; immath();
outfile='3C129BC.V'; expr='IM0'; stokes='V'; immath();


Extract linearly polarized intensity and polarization position angle images:

  immath(stokes='', outfile='3C129BC.P', mode='poli',
imagename=['3C129BC.Q','3C129BC.U'], sigma='0.0mJy/beam');
immath(stokes='', outfile='3C129BC.X', mode='pola',
imagename=['3C129BC.Q','3C129BC.U'], sigma='0.0mJy/beam');


V3.0 ALERT: For mode=’pola’ you MUST call as a function as in this example (giving the parameters as arguments) or immath will fail.

Create a fractional linear polarization image:

   default( 'immath')
imagename = ['3C129BC.I','3C129BC.Q','3C129BC.U']
outfile='3C129BC.fractional_linpol'
expr='sqrt((IM1^2 + IM2^2)/IM0^2)'
stokes=''
immath()


Create a polarized intensity image:

   default( 'immath')
imagename = ['3C129BC.Q','3C129BC.U','3C129BC.V']
outfile='3C129BC.pol_intensity'
expr='sqrt(IM0^2 + IM1^2 + IM2^2)'
stokes=''
immath()


Toolkit Tricks: The following uses the toolkit (§ 6.28). You can make a complex linear polarization (Q+iU) image using the imagepol tool:

  # See CASA User Reference Manual:
# http://casa.nrao.edu/docs/casaref/imagepol-Tool.html
#
# Make an imagepol tool and open the clean image
potool = casac.homefinder.find_home_by_name('imagepolHome')
po = potool.create()
po.open('3C129BC.clean.image')
# Use complexlinpol to make a Q+iU image
po.complexlinpol('3C129BC.cmplxlinpol')
po.close()


You can now display this in the viewer, in particular overlay this over the intensity raster with the intensity contours. When you load the image, use the LEL:

  '3C129BC.cmplxlinpol'['3C129BC.P'>0.0001]


which is entered into the LEL box at the bottom of the Load Data menu (§ 7.3.1).

### 6.7.2  Using masks in immath

The mask parameter is used inside immath to apply a mask to all the images used in expr before calculations are done (if you are curious, it uses the ia.subimage tool method to make virtual images that are then input in the LEL to the ia.imagecalc method).

For example, let’s assume that we have made a single channel image using clean

  default('clean')

vis = 'ngc5921.demo.src.split.ms.contsub'
imagename = 'ngc5921.demo.chan22.cleanimg'
mode = 'channel'
nchan = 1
start = 22
step = 1

field = ''
spw = ''
imsize = [256,256]
cell = [15.,15.]
psfalg = 'clark'
gain = 0.1
niter = 6000
threshold='8.0mJy'
weighting = 'briggs'
rmode = 'norm'
robust = 0.5

clean()


There is now a file ’ngc5921.demo.chan22.cleanimg.mask’ that is an image with values 1.0 inside the cleanbox region and 0.0 outside.

We can use this to mask the clean image:

  default('immath')
imagename = 'ngc5921.demo.chan22.cleanimg.image'
expr='IM0'
immath()


Toolbox Tricks: Note that there are also pixel masks that can be contained in each image. These are Boolean masks, and are implicitly used in the calculation for each image in expr. If you want to use the mask in a different image not in expr, try it in mask:

  # First make a pixel mask inside ngc5921.demo.chan22.cleanimg.mask
ia.summary()
ia.close()
# There is now a 'mask0' mask in this image as reported by the summary

# Now apply this pixel mask in immath
default('immath')
imagename='ngc5921.demo.chan22.cleanimg.image'
expr='IM0'
immath()


Note that nominally the axes of the mask must be congruent to the axes of the images in expr. However, one exception is that the image in mask can have fewer axes (but not axes that exist but are of the wrong lengths). In this case immath will extend the missing axes to cover the range in the images in expr. Thus, you can apply a mask made from a single channel to a whole cube.

  # drop degenerate stokes and freq axes from mask image
im2.summary()
im2.close()
ia.close()
# mymask has only RA and Dec axes

# Now apply this mask to the whole cube
default('immath')
imagename='ngc5921.demo.cleanimg.image'
expr='IM0'
immath()


For more on masks as used in LEL, see

http://casa.nrao.edu/aips2_docs/notes/223/index.shtml

or in § 6.1.5 above.

## 6.8  Computing the Moments of an Image Cube (immoments)

For spectral line datasets, the output of the imaging process is an image cube, with a frequency or velocity channel axis in addition to the two sky coordinate axes. This can be most easily thought of as a series of image planes stacked along the spectral dimension.

A useful product to compute is to collapse the cube into a moment image by taking a linear combination of the individual planes:

Mm(xi,yi) =
 N ∑ k
wm(xi,yi,vkI(xi,yi,vk)     (6.1)

for pixel i and channel k in the cube I. There are a number of choices to form the m moment, usually approximating some polynomial expansion of the intensity distribution over velocity mean or sum, gradient, dispersion, skew, kurtosis, etc.). There are other possibilities (other than a weighted sum) for calculating the image, such as median filtering, finding minima or maxima along the spectral axis, or absolute mean deviations. And the axis along which to do these calculation need not be the spectral axis (i.e. do moments along Dec for a RA-Velocity image). We will treat all of these as generalized instances of a “moment” map.

The immoments task will compute basic moment images from a cube. The default inputs are:

#  immoments :: Compute moments of an image cube:
imagename    =         ''   #   Input image name
moments      =        [0]   #  List of moments you would like to compute
axis         = 'spectral'   #  The moment axis: ra, dec, lat, long, spectral, or stokes
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)
mask         =         ''   #  mask used for selecting the area of the
#   image to calculate the moments on
includepix   =         -1   #  Range of pixel values to include
excludepix   =         -1   #  Range of pixel values to exclude
outfile      =         ''   #  Output image file name (or root for multiple moments)


This task will operate on the input file given by imagename and produce a new image or set of images based on the name given in outfile.

The moments parameter chooses which moments are calculated. The choices for the operation mode are:

    moments=-1  - mean value of the spectrum
moments=0   - integrated value of the spectrum
moments=1   - intensity weighted coordinate; traditionally used to get
'velocity fields'
moments=2   - intensity weighted dispersion of the coordinate; traditionally
used to get 'velocity dispersion'
moments=3   - median of I
moments=4   - median coordinate
moments=5   - standard deviation about the mean of the spectrum
moments=6   - root mean square of the spectrum
moments=7   - absolute mean deviation of the spectrum
moments=8   - maximum value of the spectrum
moments=9   - coordinate of the maximum value of the spectrum
moments=10  - minimum value of the spectrum
moments=11  - coordinate of the minimum value of the spectrum


The meaning of these is described in the CASA Toolkit Manual, that describes the associated image.moments tool:

http://casa.nrao.edu/docs/CasaRef/image.moments.html

The axis parameter sets the axis along which the moment is “collapsed” or calculated. Choices are: ’ra’, ’dec’, ’lat’, ’long’, ’spectral’, or ’stokes’. A standard moment-0 or moment-1 image of a spectral cube would use the default choice ’spectral’. One could make a position-velocity map by setting ’ra’ or ’dec’.

The includepix and excludepix parameters are used to set ranges for the inclusion and exclusion of pixels based on values. For example, includepix=[0.05,100.0] will include pixels with values from 50 mJy to 1000 Jy, and excludepix=[100.0,1000.0] will exclude pixels with values from 100 to 1000 Jy.

If a single moment is chosen, the outfile specifies the exact name of the output image. If multiple moments are chosen, then outfile will be used as the root of the output filenames, which will get different suffixes for each moment.

For image cubes that contain different beam sizes for each plane, immoments will smooth all planes to the largest beam size first, then collapse to the desired moment.

### 6.8.1  Hints for using (immoments)

In order to make an unbiased moment-0 image, do not put in any thresholding using includepix or excludepix. This is so that the (presumably) zero-mean noise fluctuations in off-line parts of the image cube will cancel out. If you image has large biases, like a pronounced clean bowl due to missing large-scale flux, then your moment-0 image will be biased also. It will be difficult to alleviate this with a threshold, but you can try.

To make a usable moment-1 (or higher) image, on the other hand, it is critical to set a reasonable threshold to exclude noise from being added to the moment maps. Something like a few times the rms noise level in the usable planes seems to work (put into includepix or excludepix as needed. Also use chans to ignore channels with bad data.

### 6.8.2  Examples using (immoments)

Below is an example for immoments:

  default('immoments')
imagename = 'ngc5921.demo.cleanimg'
# Do first and second spectral moments
axis  = 'spectral'
chans = ''
moments = [0,1]
# Need to mask out noisy pixels, currently done
# using hard global limits
excludepix = [-100,0.009]
outfile = 'ngc5921.demo.moments'

immoments()

# It will have made the images:
# --------------------------------------
# ngc5921.demo.moments.integrated
# ngc5921.demo.moments.weighted_coord


Other examples of NGC2403 (a moment zero image of a VLA line dataset) and NGC4826 (a moment one image of a BIMA CO line dataset) are shown in Figure 6.1.

ALERT: We are working on improving the thresholding of planes beyond the global cutoffs in includepix and excludepix.

## 6.9  Generating Position-Velocity Diagrams (impv)

CASA can generate position-velocity (pV) diagrams via the task impv or directly in the viewer (see §7.4.9). The viewer application calls the task:

#  impv :: Construct a position-velocity image by choosing two points in the direction plane.
imagename           =         ''        #  Name of the input image
outfile             =         ''        #  Output image name. If empty, no image is written.
mode                =   'coords'        #  If "coords", use start and end values. If "length", use
#   center, length, and pa values.
width               =          1        #  Width of slice for averaging pixels perpendicular to the
#   slice. Must be an odd positive integer or valid
#   quantity. See help for details.
unit                =   'arcsec'        #  Unit for the offset axis in the resulting image. Must be
#   a unit of angular measure.
chans               =         ''        #  Channels to use. See "help par.chans" for examples.
#   Channels must be contiguous. Default is to use all
#   channels.
region         =         ''        #  Region selection. Default is entire image. No selection
#   is permitted in the direction plane. See help
#   par.region.

stokes              =        'I'        #  Stokes planes to use. Planes must be contiguous. Default
#   is to use all stokes.
stretch        =      False        #  Stretch the mask if necessary and possible? See help
#   par.stretch. Default False


PV diagrams are generated by placing a “slicing” a datacube through the RA/DEC planes. The “slit” can be defined either by start/end coordinates or by a length, center coordinate, and position abgle. Averaged over the width of the ’slit’ the image cube values are then stored in a new image with position and velocity as the two axes. The slit position is specified by a start and end pixel in the RA/DEC plane of the data cube. An angular unit can be set to define what is stored in the resulting pV image.

## 6.10  Computing image statistics (imstat)

The imstat task will calculate statistics on a region of an image, and return the results as a return value in a Python dictionary.

The inputs are:

#  imstat :: Displays statistical information from an image or image region
imagename           =         ''        #  Name of the input image
axes                =         -1        #  List of axes to evaluate statistics over. Default is
#   all axes.
region              =         ''        #  Image Region or name. Use Viewer
box                 =         ''        #  Select one or more box regions
chans               =         ''        #  Select the channel(spectral) range. See "help
#   par.chans" for examples.
stokes              =         ''        #  Stokes params to image (I,IV,IQU,IQUV). Default "" =>
#   include all
listit              =       True        #  Print stats and bounding box to logger?
verbose             =      False        #  Print additional messages to logger?
logfile             =         ''        #  Name of file to write fit results.
algorithm           =  'classic'        #  Algorithm to use. Supported values are "chauvenet",
#   "classic", "fit-half", and "hinges-fences". Minimum
#   match is supported.
clmethod       =     'auto'        #  Method to use for calculating classical statistics.
#   Supported methods are "auto", "tiled", and
#   "framework". Ignored if algorithm is not "classic".


Area selection using region and mask is detailed in § 6.1.6 and (§ 6.1.5) respectively.

Plane selection is controlled by chans and stokes. See § 6.1.3 for details on plane selection.

The parameter axes will select the dimensions that the statistics is calculated over. Typical data cubes have axes like: RA axis 0, DEC axis 1, Velocity axis 2. So, e.g. axes=[0,1] would be the most common setting to calculate statistics per spectral channel.

A typical output of imstat on a cube with axes=[0,1] and algorithm=’classic’ (default) looks like:

No region specified. Using full positional plane.
Using all spectral channels.
Using polarizations ALL
Determining stats for image IRC10216_HC3N.cube_r0.5.image
Set region from supplied region record
Statistics calculated using Classic algorithm
Regions ---
-- bottom-left corner (pixel) [blc]:  [0, 0, 0, 0]
-- top-right corner (pixel) [trc]:    [299, 299, 0, 63]
-- bottom-left corner (world) [blcf]: 09:48:01.492, +13.15.40.658, I, 3.63994e+10Hz
-- top-right corner (world) [trcf]:   09:47:53.299, +13.17.40.258, I, 3.63915e+10Hz
No region specified. Using full positional plane.
Using all spectral channels.
Using polarizations ALL
Selected bounding box :
[0, 0, 0, 0] to [299, 299, 0, 63]  (09:48:01.492, +13.15.40.658, I, 3.63994e+10Hz to 09:47:53.299, +13.17.40.258, I, 3.63915e+10Hz)
#        Frequency  Frequency(Plane) Npts          Sum           Mean          Rms           Std dev       Minimum       Maximum
3.63993552e+10                  0  9.000000e+04  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00
3.63992302e+10                  1  9.000000e+04  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00
3.63991052e+10                  2  9.000000e+04  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00
3.63989802e+10                  3  9.000000e+04  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00
3.63988551e+10                  4  9.000000e+04  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00
3.63987301e+10                  5  9.000000e+04  6.069948e-01  6.744386e-06  1.534640e-03  1.534634e-03 -6.355108e-03  6.166496e-03
3.63986051e+10                  6  9.000000e+04  2.711720e-01  3.013023e-06  1.538071e-03  1.538077e-03 -6.165663e-03  5.862981e-03
3.63984801e+10                  7  9.000000e+04  2.501259e-01  2.779177e-06  1.578049e-03  1.578056e-03 -6.771976e-03  6.272645e-03
3.63983551e+10                  8  9.000000e+04 -3.706732e-01 -4.118591e-06  1.607191e-03  1.607194e-03 -8.871284e-03  6.591001e-03


where the header information provides the specifications of the data that were selected followed by the table with the frequency values of the lanes, the plane numbers, Npts the number of pixels per plane, and the Sum, Median, RMS, Standard deviations, Minimum, and Maximum of the pixel values for each plane. Similar output is provided when the data is averaged over different axes. The logger output can also be written into or appended to a log file for further processing elsewhere (logfile parameter).

Imstat has access to different statistics algorithms. Most of them represent different ways on how to treat distributions that are not Gaussian, in particular to eliminate outlier values from the statistics. Available algorithms are classic, where all unmasked pixels are used, fit-half, where one (good) half of the distribution is being mirrored across a central value, hinges-fences, where the inner quartiles plus a ’fence’ data portion is being used, and chauvenet, which includes values based on the number of standard deviations from the mean. For more information, see the inline help of the imstat task.

### 6.10.1  Using the task return value

The contents of the return value of imstat are in a Python dictionary of key-value sets. For example,

   xstat = imstat()


will assign this to the Python variable xstat.

The keys for xstat are then:

   KEYS
blc          - absolute PIXEL coordinate of the bottom left corner of
the bounding box surrounding the selected region
blcf         - Same as blc, but uses WORLD coordinates instead of pixels
trc          - the absolute PIXEL coordinate of the top right corner
of the bounding box surrounding the selected region
trcf         - Same as trc, but uses WORLD coordinates instead of pixels
flux         - the integrated flux density if the beam is defined and
the if brightness units are $Jy/beam$
npts         - the number of unmasked points used
max          - the maximum pixel value
min          - minimum pixel value
maxpos       - absolute PIXEL coordinate of maximum pixel value
maxposf      - Same as maxpos, but uses WORLD coordinates instead of pixels
minpos       - absolute pixel coordinate of minimum pixel value
minposf      - Same as minpos, but uses WORLD coordinates instead of pixels
sum          - the sum of the pixel values: $\sum I_i$
sumsq        - the sum of the squares of the pixel values: $\sum I_i^2$
mean         - the mean of pixel values:
$ar{I} = \sum I_i / n$
sigma        - the standard deviation about the mean:
$\sigma^2 = (\sum I_i -ar{I})^2 / (n-1)$
rms          - the root mean square:
$\sqrt {\sum I_i^2 / n}$
median       - the median pixel value (if robust=T)
medabsdevmed - the median of the absolute deviations from the
median (if robust=T)
quartile     - the inter-quartile range (if robust=T). Find the points
which are 25% largest and 75% largest (the median is
50% largest), find their difference and divide that
difference by 2.


For example, an imstat call might be

   default('imstat')
imagename = 'ngc5921.demo.cleanimg.image'  #  The NGC5921 image cube
box       = '108,108,148,148'              #  20 pixels around the center
chans     = '21'                           #  channel 21

xstat = imstat()


In the terminal window, imstat reports:

Statistics on  ngc5921.usecase.clean.image

Region ---
-- bottom-left corner (pixel) [blc]: [108, 108, 0, 21]
-- top-right corner (pixel) [trc]:   [148, 148, 0, 21]
-- bottom-left corner (world) [blcf]: 15:22:20.076, +04.58.59.981, I, 1.41332e+09Hz
-- top-right corner( world) [trcf]: 15:21:39.919, +05.08.59.981, I, 1.41332e+09Hz

Values --
-- flux [flux]:              0.111799236126
-- number of points [npts]:  1681.0
-- maximum value [max]:      0.029451508075
-- minimum value [min]:     -0.00612453464419
-- position of max value (pixel) [maxpos]:  [124, 131, 0, 21]
-- position of min value (pixel) [minpos]:  [142, 110, 0, 21]
-- position of max value (world) [maxposf]: 15:22:04.016, +05.04.44.999, I, 1.41332e+09Hz
-- position of min value (world) [minposf]: 15:21:45.947, +04.59.29.990, I, 1.41332e+09Hz
-- Sum of pixel values [sum]: 1.32267159822
-- Sum of squared pixel values [sumsq]: 0.0284534543692

Statistics ---
-- Mean of the pixel values [mean]:       0.000786836167885
-- Standard deviation of the Mean [sigma]: 0.00403944306904
-- Root mean square [rms]:               0.00411418313161
-- Median of the pixel values [median]:     0.000137259965413
-- Median of the deviations [medabsdevmed]:       0.00152346317191
-- Quartile [quartile]:                       0.00305395200849



The return value in xstat is

CASA <152>: xstat
Out[152]:
{'blc': array([108, 108,   0,  21]),
'blcf': '15:22:20.076, +04.58.59.981, I, 1.41332e+09Hz',
'flux': array([ 0.11179924]),
'max': array([ 0.02945151]),
'maxpos': array([124, 131,   0,  21]),
'maxposf': '15:22:04.016, +05.04.44.999, I, 1.41332e+09Hz',
'mean': array([ 0.00078684]),
'medabsdevmed': array([ 0.00152346]),
'median': array([ 0.00013726]),
'min': array([-0.00612453]),
'minpos': array([142, 110,   0,  21]),
'minposf': '15:21:45.947, +04.59.29.990, I, 1.41332e+09Hz',
'npts': array([ 1681.]),
'quartile': array([ 0.00305395]),
'rms': array([ 0.00411418]),
'sigma': array([ 0.00403944]),
'sum': array([ 1.3226716]),
'sumsq': array([ 0.02845345]),
'trc': array([148, 148,   0,  21]),
'trcf': '15:21:39.919, +05.08.59.981, I, 1.41332e+09Hz'}


ALERT: The return dictionary currently includes NumPy array values, which have to be accessed by an array index to get the array value. To access these dictionary elements, use the standard Python dictionary syntax, e.g.

     xstat[<key string>][<array index>]


For example, to extract the standard deviation as a number

   mystddev = xstat['sigma'][0]
print 'Sigma = '+str(xstat['sigma'][0])


### 6.10.2  Examples for imstat

The following are some examples using the B1608+656 Tutorial

http://casa.nrao.edu/Doc/Scripts/b1608_demo.py

as an example.

To extract statistics for the final image:

   xstat = imstat('b1608.demo.clean2.image')
# Printing out some of these
print 'Max   = '+str(xstat['max'][0])
print 'Sigma = '+str(xstat['sigma'][0])
# results:
# Max   = 0.016796965152
# Sigma = 0.00033631979385


In a box around the brightest component:

   xstat_A = imstat('b1608.demo.clean2.image',box='124,125,132,133')
# Printing out some of these
print 'Comp A Max Flux = '+str(xstat_A['max'][0])
print 'Comp A Max X,Y  = ('+str(xstat_A['maxpos'][0])+','+str(xstat_A['maxpos'][1])+')'
# results:
# Comp A Max Flux = 0.016796965152
# Comp A Max X,Y  = (128,129)


## 6.11  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 in § 6.1.2 and § 6.1.6 respectively. By default, box=’’ will extract the image information at the reference pixel on the direction axes.

Plane selection is controlled by chans and stokes. See § 6.1.3 for details on plane selection. 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]),
'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]]),
[ 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.

## 6.12  Reordering the Axes of an Image Cube (imtrans)

Sometimes data cubes can be in axis orders that are not adequate for processing. The CASA task imtrans can change the ordering of the axis:

#  imtrans :: Reorder image axes
imagename           =         ''        #  Name of the input image
outfile             =         ''        #  Name of output CASA image.
order               =         ''        #  New zero-based axes order.
wantreturn          =       True        #  Return an image tool referencing the
#   transposed image


The order parameter is the most important input here. It is a string of numbers that shows how axes 0, 1, 2, 3, ... are mapped onto the new cube (note that the first axis has the label 0, as typical in python). E.g. order=’1032’ will reorder the input axis 0 to be axis 1 in the output, input axis 1 to be output axis 0, input axis 2 to output axis 3 (the last axis) and input axis 3 to output axis 2. Alternatively, axes can be specified by their names. E.g., to reorder an image with right ascension, declination, and frequency and reverse the first two, order=[‘‘declination’’, ‘‘right ascension’’, ‘‘frequency’’] will work. The axes names can be found typing (ia.coordsys().names()). Minimum match is supported, so that order=["d", "f", "r"] will produce the same results.

Axes can simultaneously be transposed and reversed. To reverse an axis, precede it by a "-". For example, order=’-10-32’ will reverse the direction of the first and third axis of the input image (the zeroth and second axes in the output image).

Example:
Swap the stokes and spectral axes in an RA-Dec-Stokes-Frequency image

imagename = "myim.im"
outfile = "outim.im"
order = "0132"
imtrans()


or

outfile = "myim_2.im"
order = 132
imtrans()


or

outfile = "myim_3.im"
order = ["r", "d", "f", "s"]
imtrans()


or

outfile = "myim_4.im"
order = ["rig", "declin", "frequ", "stok"]
imtrans()


If the outfile parameter is empty, only a temporary image is created; no output image is written to disk. The temporary image can be captured in the returned value (assuming wantreturn is true).

## 6.13  Collapsing an Image Along an Axis (imcollapse)

imcollapse allows to apply an aggregation function along one or more axes of an image. Functions supported are ’max’, ’mean’, ’median’, ’min’, ’rms’, ’stdev’, ’sum’, ’variance’ (minimum match supported). The relevant axes will then collapse to a single value or plane (i.e. they will result in a degenerate axis). The functions are specified in the function parameter of the imcollapse inputs:

#  imcollapse :: Collapse image along one axis, aggregating pixel values along that axis.
imagename           =         ''        #  Name of the input image
function            =         ''        #  Function used to compute aggregation
#   of pixel values.
axes                =        [0]        #  Zero-based axis number(s) or minimal
#   match strings to collapse.
outfile             =         ''        #  Name of output CASA image.
box                 =         ''        #  Optional direction plane box ("blcx,
#   blcy, trcx trcy").
region         =         ''        #  Name of optional region file to use.

chans               =         ''        #  Optional zero-based contiguous
#   frequency channel specification.
stokes              =         ''        #  Optional contiguous stokes planes
#   specification.
wantreturn          =       True        #  Should an image analysis tool
#   referencing the collapsed image be
#   returned?


wantreturn=True returns an image analysis tool containing the newly created collapsed image.

Example:
myimage.im is a 512x512x128x4 (ra,dec,freq,stokes; i.e. in the 0-based system, frequency is labeled as axis 2) image and we want to collapse a subimage of it along its spectral axis avoiding the 8 edge channels at each end of the band, computing the mean value of the pixels (resulting image is 256x256x1x4 in size):

imcollapse(imagename="myimage.im", outfile="collapse_spec_mean.im",
function="mean", axis=2, box="127,127,383,383", chans="8~119")


Note that imcollapse will not smooth to a common beam for all planes if they differ. If this is desired, run imsmooth before imcollapse.

## 6.14  Regridding an Image (imregrid)

Inside the Toolkit:

More complex coordinate system and image regridding operation can be carried out in the toolkit. The coordsys (cs) tool and the ia.regrid method are the relevant components.

It is occasionally necessary to regrid an image onto a new coordinate system. The imregrid task will regrid one image onto the coordinate system of another, creating an output image. In this task, the user need only specify the names of the input, template, and output images.

The default inputs are:

#  imregrid :: regrid an image onto a template image
imagename           =         ''        #  Name of the source image
template            =      'get'        #  A dictionary, refcode, or name of an
#   image that provides the output shape
#   and coordinate system
output              =         ''        #  Name for the regridded image
asvelocity          =       True        #  Regrid spectral axis in velocity space
#   rather than frequency space?
axes                =       [-1]        #  The pixel axes to regrid. -1 => all.
interpolation       =   'linear'        #  The interpolation method.  One of
#   "nearest", "linear", "cubic".
decimate            =         10        #  Decimation factor for coordinate grid
#   computation
replicate           =      False        #  Replicate image rather than regrid?
overwrite           =      False        #  Overwrite (unprompted) pre-existing
#   output file?


The output image will have the data in imagename regridded onto the coordinate system provided by the template parameter. template is used universally for a range of ways to define the grid of the output image:

• a template image: specify an image name here and the input will be regridded to the same 3-dimensional coordinate system as the one in template. Values are filled in as blanks if they do not exist in the input. Note that the input and template images must have the same coordinate structure to begin with (like 3 or 4 axes, with the same ordering)
• a coordinate system (reference code): to convert from one coordinate frame to another one, e.g. from B1950 to J2000, the template parameter can be used to specify the output coordinate system. These following recognized keywords are supported: ’J2000’, ’B1950’, ’B1950_VLA’, ’GALACTIC’, ’HADEC’, ’AZEL’, ’AZELSW’, ’AZELNE’, ’ECLIPTIC’, ’MECLIPTIC’, ’TECLIPTIC’, ’SUPERGAL’
• ’get’: This option returns a python dictionary in the {’csys’: csys_record, ’shap’: shape} format
• a python dictionary: In turn, such a dictionary can be used as a template to define the final grid

## 6.15  Redefining the Velocity System of an Image (imreframe)

imreframe can be used to change the velocity system of an image. It is not applying a regridding as a change from radio to optical conventions would require, but it will change the labels of the velocity axes.

#  imreframe :: Change the frame in which the image reports its spectral values
imagename           =         ''        #  Name of the input image
output              =         ''        #  Name of the output image; '' => modify input image
outframe            =     'lsrk'        #  Spectral frame in which the frequency or velocity
#   values will be reported by default
restfreq            =         ''        #  restfrequency to use for velocity values (e.g.
#   "1.420GHz" for the HI line)


outframe defines the velocity frame (LSRK, BARY, etc., see § C.2) of the output image and a rest frequency should be specified to relabel the spectral axis in new velocity units.

## 6.16  Rebin an Image (imrebin)

The task imrebin allows one to rebin an image in any spatial or spectral direction:

  imrebin :: Rebin an image by the specified integer factors
imagename           =         ''        #  Name of the input image
outfile             =         ''        #  Output image name.
factor              =         []        #  Binning factors for each axis. Use
#   imhead or ia.summary to determine axis
#   ordering.
region              =         ''        #  Region selection. See "help par.region"
#   for details. Default is to use the full
#   image.
box                 =         ''        #  Rectangular region to select in
#   direction plane. See "help par.box" for
#   details. Default is to use the entire
#   direction plane.
chans               =         ''        #  Channels to use. See "help par.chans"
#   for details. Default is to use all
#   channels.
stokes              =         ''        #  Stokes planes to use. See "help
#   par.stokes" for details. Default is to
#   use all Stokes planes. Stokes planes
#   cannot be rebinned.
#   is none.
dropdeg             =      False        #  Drop degenerate axes?
crop                =       True        #  Remove pixels from the end of an axis to
#   be rebinned if there are not enough to
#   form an integral bin?


where factor is a list of integers that provides the numbers of pixels to be binned for each axis. The crop parameters controls how pixels at the boundaries are treated if the bin values are not multiple integers of the image dimensions.

Example:

imrebin(imagename="my.im", outfile="rebinned.im", factor=[1,2,1,4], crop=T)


This leaves RA untouched, bins DEC by a factor of 2, leaves Stokes as is, and bins the spectral axis by a factor of 4. If the input image has a spectral axis with a length that is not a multiple of 4, the crop=T setting will discard the remaining 1-3 edge pixels.

## 6.17  1-dimensional Smoothing (specsmooth)

To gain higher signal-to-noise of data cubes, one can smooth the data along one dimension (for 2-dimensional smoothing, see imsmooth § 6.17). Typically this is the spectral axis. Hanning and Boxcar smoothing kernels are available in the task specsmooth:

#  specsmooth :: Smooth an image region in one dimension
imagename           =         ''        #  Name of the input image
outfile             =         ''        #  Output image name.
region              =         ''        #  Region selection. See "help par.region"
#   for details. Default is to use the full
#   image.
box            =         ''        #  Rectangular region to select in
#   direction plane. See "help par.box" for
#   details. Default is to use the entire
#   direction plane.

#   is none..
axis                =         -1        #  The profile axis. Default: use the
#   spectral axis if one exists, axis 0
#   otherwise (<0).
function            =  'hanning'        #  Convolution function. hanning and boxcar
#   are supported functions. Minimum match
#   is supported.
dmethod             =     'copy'        #  Decimation method. "" means no
#   decimation, "copy" and "mean" are also
#   supported (minimum match).


The parameter dmethod=’copy’ allows one to only keep every w’th channel, if the smoothing kernel has a with of w. Leaving this parameter empty will return the same size cube as the input and setting it to ’mean’ will average planes using the kernel width.

## 6.18  2-dimensional Smoothing; Image Convolution (imsmooth)

A data cube can be smoothed across spatial dimensions with imsmooth. The inputs are:

#  imsmooth :: Smooth an image or portion of an image
imagename           =         ''        #  Name of the input image. Must be
#   specified.
kernel              =    'gauss'        #  Type of kernel to use. Acceptable values
#   are "b", "box", or "boxcar" for a
#   boxcar kernel, "g", "gauss", or
#   "gaussian" for a gaussian kernel, "c",
#   "common", or "commonbeam" to use the
#   common beam of an image with multiple
#   beams as the gaussian to which to
#   convolve all the planes, "i" or "image"
#   to use an image as the kernel.
beam           =         ''        #  Alternate way of describing a Gaussian.
#   If specified, must be a dictionary with
#   keys "major", "minor", and "pa" (or
#   "positionangle"). Do not specify beam
#   if specifying major, minor, and pa.
#   Example: Example: {"major": "5arcsec",
#   "minor": "2arcsec", "pa": "20deg"}.
targetres      =      False        #  If gaussian kernel, specified parameters
#   are to be resolution of output image
#   (True) or parameters of gaussian to
#   convolve with input image (False).
major          =         ''        #  Major axis for the kernels. Standard
#   quantity representation. Must be
#   specified for kernel="boxcar". Example:
#   "4arcsec".
minor          =         ''        #  Minor axis. Standard quantity
#   representation. Must be specified for
#   kernel="boxcar". Example: "2arcsec".
pa             =         ''        #  Position angle used only for gaussian
#   kernel. Standard quantity
#   representation. Example: "40deg".

region              =         ''        #  Region selection. See "help par.region"
#   for details. Default is to use the full
#   image.
box                 =         ''        #  Rectangular region to select in
#   direction plane. See "help par.box" for
#   details. Default is to use the entire
#   direction plane.
chans               =         ''        #  Channels to use. See "help par.chans"
#   for details. Default is to use all
#   channels.
stokes              =         ''        #  Stokes planes to use. See "help
#   par.stokes" for details. Default is to
#   use all Stokes planes.
#   is none.
outfile             =         ''        #  Output image name. Must be specified.
overwrite           =      False        #  Overwrite (unprompted) pre-existing
#   output file?


where the cube/image imagename will be convolved with a kernel defined in the kernel keyword. Kernels ’gauss’ and ’boxcar’ need the major and minor axes sizes as input, the Gaussian kernel smoothing also requires a position angle. By default, the kernel size defines the kernel itself, i.e. the data will be smoothed with this kernel. If the targetres parameter for Gaussian kernels is set to ’True’, major and minor axes will be those from the output resolution, and the kernel will be adjusted for each plane to arrive at the final resolution.

The ’commonbeam’ kernel is to be used when the beam shape is different as a function of frequency. This option will then smooth all planes to a single beam, defined by the largest beam in the cube.

With the ’image’ kernel, one can specify an image that will serve as the convolution kernel. A scale factor can be applied, which defaults to flux conservation where units are Jy/beam or Jy/beam.km/s. For all other units, like K, the output will be scaled by the inverse of the convolution kernel. E.g. in the extreme case of a flat distribution the values before and after smoothing will be the same.

Examples:
1) smoothing to a Gaussian kernel 20” by 10”

imsmooth( imagename='my.image', kernel='gauss', major='20arcsec', minor='10arcsec',targetres=T)


2) Smoothing using pixel coordinates and a boxcar kernel.

imsmooth( imagename='new.image', major='20pix', minor='10pix', kernel='boxcar')


## 6.19  Spectral Line fitting with specfit

specfit is a powerful task to perform spectral line fits in data cubes. Three types of fitting functions are currently supported, polynomials, Gaussians, and Lorentzians. specfit can fit these functions in two ways: over data that were averaged across a region (multifit=False) or on a pixel by pixel basis (multifit=True).

#  specfit :: Fit 1-dimensional Gaussians and/or polynomial models to an image or image region
imagename           =         ''        #  Name of the input image
box                 =         ''        #  Rectangular box in direction coordinate
#   blc, trc. Default: entire image ("").
region              =         ''        #  Region of interest. See help par.region
#   for possible specifications. Default: Do
#   not use a region.
chans               =         ''        #  Channels to use. Channels must be
#   contiguous. Default: all channels ("").
stokes              =         ''        #  Stokes planes to use. Planes must be
#   contiguous. Default: all stokes ("").
axis                =         -1        #  The profile axis. Default: use the
#   spectral axis if one exists, axis 0
#   otherwise (<0).
#   none..
poly                =         -1        #  Order of polynomial element.  Default: do
#   not fit a polynomial (<0).
estimates           =         ''        #  Name of file containing initial estimates.
#   Default: No initial estimates ("").
ngauss         =          1        #  Number of Gaussian elements.  Default: 1.
pampest        =         ''        #  Initial estimate of PCF profile (gaussian
#   or lorentzian) amplitudes.
pcenterest     =         ''        #  Initial estimate PCF profile centers, in
#   pixels.
pfwhmest       =         ''        #  Initial estimate PCF profile FWHMs, in
#   pixels.
pfix           =         ''        #  PCF profile parameters to fix during fit.
pfunc          =         ''        #  PCF singlet functions to fit. "gaussian"
#   or "lorentzian" (minimal match
#   supported). Unspecified means all
#   gaussians.

minpts              =          0        #  Minimum number of unmasked points
#   necessary to attempt fit.
multifit            =       True        #  If true, fit a profile along the desired
#   axis at each pixel in the specified
#   region. If false, average the non-fit
#   axis pixels and do a single fit to that
#   average profile. Default False.
amp            =         ''        #  Name of amplitude solution image. Default:
#   do not write the image ("").
amperr         =         ''        #  Name of amplitude solution error image.
#   Default: do not write the image ("").
center         =         ''        #  Name of center solution image. Default: do
#   not write the image ("").
centererr      =         ''        #  Name of center solution error image.
#   Default: do not write the image ("").
fwhm           =         ''        #  Name of fwhm solution image. Default: do
#   not write the image ("").
fwhmerr        =         ''        #  Name of fwhm solution error image.
#   Default: do not write the image ("").
integral       =         ''        #  Prefix of name of integral solution image.
#   Name of image will have gaussian
#   component number appended.  Default: do
#   not write the image ("").
integralerr    =         ''        #  Prefix of name of integral error solution
#   image. Name of image will have gaussian
#   component number appended.  Default: do
#   not write the image ("").

model               =         ''        #  Name of model image. Default: do not write
#   the model image ("").
residual            =         ''        #  Name of residual image. Default: do not
#   write the residual image ("").
wantreturn          =       True        #  Should a record summarizing the results be
#   returned?
logresults          =       True        #  Output results to logger?
gmncomps            =          0        #  Number of components in each gaussian
#   multiplet to fit
gmampcon            =         ''        #  The amplitude ratio constraints for non-
#   reference components to reference
#   component in gaussian multiplets.
gmcentercon         =         ''        #  The center offset constraints (in pixels)
#   for non-reference components to reference
#   component in gaussian multiplets.
gmfwhmcon           =         ''        #  The FWHM  ratio constraints for non-
#   reference components to reference
#   component in gaussian multiplets.
gmampest            =      [0.0]        #  Initial estimate of individual gaussian
#   amplitudes in gaussian multiplets.
gmcenterest         =      [0.0]        #  Initial estimate of individual gaussian
#   centers in gaussian multiplets, in
#   pixels.
gmfwhmest           =      [0.0]        #  Initial estimate of individual gaussian
#   FWHMss in gaussian multiplets, in pixels.
gmfix               =         ''        #  Parameters of individual gaussians in
#   gaussian multiplets to fix during fit.
logfile             =         ''        #  File in which to log results. Default is
#   not to write a logfile.
goodamprange        =      [0.0]        #  Acceptable amplitude solution range. [0.0]
#   => all amplitude solutions are
#   acceptable.
goodcenterrange     =      [0.0]        #  Acceptable center solution range in pixels
#   relative to region start. [0.0] => all
#   center solutions are acceptable.
goodfwhmrange       =      [0.0]        #  Acceptable FWHM solution range in pixels.
#   [0.0] => all FWHM solutions are
#   acceptable.
sigma               =         ''        #  Standard deviation array or image name.


### 6.19.1  Polynomial Fits

Polynomials can be fit by specifying the polynomial order in poly. Negative orders will not fit any polynomials.

### 6.19.2  Lorentzian and Gaussian Fits

Gaussian and Lorentzian fits are very similar, they both require amplitude, center, and FWHM to be fully specified. All of the following discussion is thus valid for both functions. The parameter pfunc controls whether Gaussian or Lorentzian functions are to be used. Default is all Gaussians. pfunc=["L", "G", "G", "L"] would use Lorentzian, Gaussian, Gaussian, and Lorentzian components in the order they appear in the estimates file (see below).

#### 6.19.2.1  One or more single Gaussian/Lorentzian

For Gaussian and Lorentzian fits, the task will allow multiple components and specfit will try to find the best solution. The parameter space, however, is usually not uniform and to avoid local minima in the goodness-of-fit space, one can provide initial start values for the fits. This can be done either through the parameters pampest, pcenterest, and pfwhmest for the amplitudes, center, and FWHM estimates in image coordinates. pfix can take parameters that specify fixed fit values. Any combination of the characters ’p’ (peak), ’c’ (center), and ’f’ (fwhm) are permitted, e.g. "fc" will hold the fwhm and the center constant during the fit. Fixed parameters will have no errors associated with them in the solution. Alternatively, a file with initial values can be supplied by the estimates parameter (one Gaussian/Lorentzian parameter set per line). The file has the following format:

[peak intensity], [center], [fwhm], [optional fixed parameter string]

The first three values are required and must be numerical values. The peak intensity must be expressed in map units, while the center and fwhm must be specified in pixels. The fourth value is optional and if present, represents the parameter(s) that should be held constant during the fit (see above).

An example estimates file is:

# estimates file indicating that two Gaussians should be fit
# first guassian estimate, peak=40, center at pixel number 10.5,
# fwhm = 5.8 pixels, all parameters allowed to vary during
# fit
40, 10.5, 5.8
# second Gaussian, peak = 4, center at pixel number 90.2,
# fwhm = 7.2 pixels, hold fwhm constant
4, 90.2, 7.2, f
# end file


and the output of a typical execution, e.g.

specfit(imagename='IRC10216_HC3N.cube_r0.5.image',
region='specfit.crtf', multifit=F, estimates='', ngauss=2)


(’specfit.crtf’ is a CASA regions file, see Section D)
will be

Fit   :
RA           :   09:47:57.49
Dec          :   13.16.46.46
Stokes       : I
Pixel        : [146.002, 164.499, 0.000,  *]
Attempted    : YES
Converged    : YES
Iterations   : 28
Results for component 0:
Type     : GAUSSIAN
Peak     : 5.76 +/- 0.45 mJy/beam
Center   : -15.96 +/- 0.32 km/s
40.78 +/- 0.31 pixel
FWHM     : 7.70 +/- 0.77 km/s
7.48 +/- 0.74 pixel
Integral : 47.2 +/- 6.0 mJy/beam.km/s
Results for component 1:
Type     : GAUSSIAN
Peak     : 4.37 +/- 0.33 mJy/beam
Center   : -33.51 +/- 0.58 km/s
23.73 +/- 0.57 pixel
FWHM     : 15.1 +/- 1.5 km/s
14.7 +/- 1.5 pixel
Integral : 70.2 +/- 8.8 mJy/beam.km/s


If wantreturn=True (the default value), the task returns a python dictionary (here captured in a variable with the inventive name of ’fitresults’) :

fitresults=specfit(imagename='IRC10216_HC3N.cube_r0.5.image', region='specfit.rgn', multifit=F,
estimates='', ngauss=2)


The values can then be used by other python code for further processing.

#### 6.19.2.2  Gaussian Multiplets

It is possible to fit a number of Gaussians together, as multiplets with restrictions. All restrictions are relative to a reference Gaussian (the zero’th component of each multiplet). gncomps specifies the number of Gaussians for each multiplets, and, in fact, a number of these multiplets can be fit simultaneously. gncomps=[2,4,3], e.g. fits a 2-component Gaussian, a 4-component Gaussian, and a 3-component Gaussian all at once. The initial parameter estimates can be specified with the gmampest, gmcenterest, and gmfwhmest parameters and the estimates are simply listed in the sequence of gncomps. E.g. if gncomps=[2,4,3] is specified with multiplet G0 consisting of 2 Gaussians a, b, multiplet G1 of 4 Gaussians c, d, e, f, and multiplet G2 of three Gaussians g, h, i, the parameter list in gm*est would be like gm*est=[a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i].

Restrictions can be specified via the gmampcon parameter for the amplitude ratio (non-reference to reference), gmcentercon for the offset in pixels (to a reference), and gmfwhmcon for the FWHM ratio (non-reference to reference). A value of 0 will not constrain anything. The reference is always the zero’th component in each multiplet, in our example, Gaussians a, c, and g. They cannot be constrained. So gmncomps=[2, 4, 3], gmampcon= [ 0 , 0.2, 0 , 0.1, 4.5, 0 ], gcentercon=[24.2, 45.6, 92.7, 0 , -22.8, -33.5], and gfwhmcon="" would constrain Gaussians b relative to a with a 24.2 pixel offset, Gaussian d to c with a amplitude ratio of 0.2 and a 45.6 pixel offset, Gaussian e to c with a offset of 92.7 pixels, etc. Restrictions will overrule any estimates.

The parameters goodamprange, goodcenterrange, and goodfwhmrange can be used to limit the range of amplitude, center, and fwhm solutions for all Gaussians.

### 6.19.3  Pixel-by-pixel fits

As mentioned above, specfit can also fit spectral cubes on a pixel by pixel basis. In this case, one can choose to write none, any or all of the solution and error images for Gaussian/Lorentzian fits via the parameters amp, amperr, center, centererr, fwhm, and fwhmerr. Each Gaussian component will produce a set of images _0, _1, etc. suffixes. Writing analogous images for polynomial coefficients is not yet supported although polynomial fits when multifit=True is supported. Best fit coefficients are written to the logger. Pixels for which fits were not attempted or did not converge will be masked as bad.

## 6.20  Spatial Spectral Line Properties (specflux)

specflux calculates the flux as a function of frequency and velocity over a selected spatial region. Flux densities of Jy/beam are being converted to Jy by properly integrating over the selected region.

The input parameters of specflux are:

#  specflux :: Report details of an image spectrum.
imagename           =         ''        #  Name of the input image
box                 =         ''        #  Rectangular region to select in
#   direction plane. See "help par.box" for
#   details. Default is to use the entire
#   direction plane.
region         =         ''        #  Region selection. See "help par.region"
#   for details. Default is to use the full
#   image.

chans               =         ''        #  Channels to use. See "help par.chans"
#   for details. Default is to use all
#   channels.
stokes              =         ''        #  Stokes planes to use. See "help
#   par.stokes" for details. Default is to
#   use all Stokes planes.
#   is none.
unit                =     'km/s'        #  Unit to use for the abscissa. Must be
#   conformant with a typical spectral axis
#   unit.
major               =         ''        #  Major axis of overriding restoring beam.
#   If specified, must be a valid quantity.
minor               =         ''        #  Minor axis of overriding restoring beam.
#   If specified, must be a valid quantity
logfile             =         ''        #  File which to write details. Default is
#   to not write to a file.


The results can be written into a logfile to be plotted in other packages.

## 6.21  Plot Spectra on a Map (plotprofilemap)

The profilemap task enables plotting spectra according to their pointing directions (a.k.a. a profile map) in plots. The input should be CASA image,or FITS format cube. Spectra within the cube are averaged into a bin number specified with the numpanels keyword. Absent or masked data are treated according to plotmasked keyword setting.

plotprofilemap(imagename='interesting_spectralcube_casaimge.im',
figfile = 'grid_map.png',
separatepanel=F,
spectralaxis = 'velocity',
title = 'myprofilemap',
transparent = F,
showaxislabel = True,
showtick = True,
showticklabel = True,
pol=0,
numpanels='8')


## 6.22  Calculation of Rotation Measures (rmfit)

rmfit is an image domain task that accepts an input cube image containing Stokes Q and U axes and will generate the rotation measure by performing a least square fit in the image domain to obtain the best fit to the equation χ = χ0 + RM× λ2.

The inputs to rmfit are:

#  rmfit :: Calculate rotation measure.
imagename           =         ''        #  Name(s) of the input image(s). Must be specified.
rm                  =         ''        #  Output rotation measure image name. If not specified, no
#   image is written.
rmerr               =         ''        #  Output rotation measure error image name. If not
#   specified, no image is written.
pa0                 =         ''        #  Output position angle (degrees) at zero wavelength image
#   name. If not specified, no image is written.
pa0err              =         ''        #  Output position angle (degrees) at zero wavelength error
#   image name. If not specified, no image is written.
nturns              =         ''        #  Output number of turns image name. If not specified, no
#   image is written.
chisq               =         ''        #  Output reduced chi squared image name. If not specified,
#   no image is written.
sigma               =         ''        #  Estimate of the thermal noise.  A value less than 0 means
#   auto estimate.
rmfg                =        0.0        #  Foreground rotation measure in rad/m/m to subtract.
rmmax               =        0.0        #  Maximum rotation measure in rad/m/m for which to solve.
#   IMPORTANT TO SPECIFY.
maxpaerr            =      1e+30        #  Maximum input position angle error in degrees to allow in
#   solution determination.


This task generates the rotation measure image from stokes Q and U measurements at several different frequencies. You are required to specify the name of at least one image with a polarization axis containing stokes Q and U planes and with a frequency axis containing more than two pixels. The frequencies do not have to be equally spaced (ie the frequency coordinate can be a tabular coordinate). It will work out the position angle images for you. You may also specify multiple image names, in which case these images will first be concatenated along the spectral axis using ia.imageconcat(). The requirements are that for all images, the axis order must be the same and the number of pixels along each axis must be identical, except for the spectral axis which may differ in length between images. The spectral axis need not be contiguous from one image to another.

Rotation measure algorithms that work robustly are few. The main problem is in trying to account for the n− π ambiguity (see Leahy et al, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 156, 234 or the MIRIAD manual1).

The algorithm that this task uses is that of Leahy et al. in their Appendix A.1. But as in all these algorithms, the basic process is that for each spatial pixel, the position angle vs frequency data is fit to determine the rotation measure and the position angle at zero wavelength (and associated errors). An image containing the number of n− π turns that were added to the data at each spatial pixel and for which the best fit was found can be written. The reduced χ2 image for the fits can also be written.

Note that no assessment of curvature (i.e. deviation from the simple linear position angle - λ2 functional form) is made.

Any combination of output images can be written.

The parameter sigma gives the thermal noise in Stokes Q and U. By default it is determined automatically using the image data. But if it proves to be inaccurate (maybe not many signal-free pixels), it may be specified. This is used for calculating the error in the position angles (via propagation of Gaussian errors).

The argument maxpaerr specifies the maximum allowable error in the position angle that is acceptable. The default is an infinite value. From the standard propagation of errors, the error in the linearly polarized position angle is determined from the Stokes Q and U images (at each directional pixel for each frequency). If the position angle error for any pixel exceeds the specified value, the position angle at that pixel is omitted from the fit. The process generates an error for the fit and this is used to compute the errors in the output images.

Note that maxpaerr is not used to mask pixels in the output images.

The argument rmfg is used to specify a foreground RM value. For example, you may know the mean RM in some direction out of the Galaxy, then including this can improve the algorithm by reducing ambiguity.

The parameter rmmax specifies the maximum absolute RM value that should be solved for. This quite an important parameter. If you leave it at the default, zero, no ambiguity handling will be used. So some apriori information should be supplied; this is the basic problem with rotation measure algorithms.

## 6.23  Calculation of Spectral Indices and Higher Order Polynomials (spxfit)

This application fits a power logarithmic polynomial or a logarithmic transformed polynomial to pixel values along a specified axis of an image or images. These functions are most often used for fitting the spectral index and higher order terms of a spectrum. A power logarithmic polynomial has the form

y =
 c0 x D(c1 + c2 ln(x/D) + c3 ln(x/D)2 + cn ln(x/D)(n − 1))
(6.2)

and a logarithmic transformed polynomial is simply the result of this equation after taking the natural log of both sides so that it has the form

 ln(y) = c0 + c1 ln(x) + c2 ln(x/D)2 +  ... + cn ln(x/D)n     (6.3)

Because the logarithm of the ordinate values must be taken before fitting a logarithmic transformed polynomial, all non-positive pixel values are effectively masked for the purposes of fitting.

The coefficients of the two forms are equal to each other except that c0 in the second equation is equal to ln(c0) of the first. In the case of fitting a spectral index, which is traditionally represented as α, is equal to c1.

In both cases, D is a normalization constant used so that abscissa values are closer to unity when they are sent to the fitter. This generally improves the probability that the fit will converge. This parameter may be specified via the div parameter. A value of 0 (the default) indicates that the application should determine a reasonable value for D, which is determined via

D = 10∫(log10(√(min(x)*max(x)))

where min(x) and max(x) are the minimum and maximum abscissa values, respectively.

The inputs are:

 #  spxfit :: Fit a 1-dimensional model to an image or image region
for determination of spectral index.
imagename           =                   #  Name of the input image(s)
box                 =         ''        #  Rectangular box in
#   direction coordinate blc, trc.
#   Default: entire image ("").
region              =         ''        #  Region of interest. See
#   help par.region for possible
#   specifications. Default:
#   Do not use a region.
chans               =         ''        #  Channels to use. Channels
#   must be contiguous. See "help
#   par.chans" for
#   examples. Default: all channels ("").
stokes              =         ''        #  Stokes planes to
#   use. Planes must be contiguous. Default:
#   all stokes ("").
axis                =         -1        #  The profile axis. Default:
#   use the spectral axis if one
#   exists, axis 0 otherwise (<0).
minpts              =          1        #  Minimum number of unmasked
#   points necessary to attempt
#   fit.
multifit            =       True        #  If true, fit a profile
#   along the desired axis at each
#   pixel in the specified
#   region. If false, average the
#   non-fit axis pixels and do
#   a single fit to that average
#   profile. Default False.
spxsol         =         ''        #  Name of the spectral index
#   function coefficient solution
#   image to write.
spxerr         =         ''        #  Name of the spectral index
#   function coefficient error
#   image to write.
model          =         ''        #  Name of model
#   image. Default: do not write the model
#   image ("").
residual       =         ''        #  Name of residual
#   image. Default: do not write the
#   residual image ("").
spxtype             =      'plp'        #  Type of function to
#   fit. "plp" => power logarithmic
#   polynomial, "ltp" =>
#   logarithmic transformed polynomial.
spxest              =         []        #  Initial estimates for the
#   spectral index function
#   coefficients.
spxfix              =         []        #  Fix the corresponding spectral index function
#   coefficients during the fit. True=>hold fixed.
div                 =          0        #  Divisor (numerical value or
#   quantity) to use in the
#   logarithmic terms of the
#   plp or ltp function. 0 =>
#   calculate a useful value on the fly.
wantreturn          =       True        #  Should a record summarizing
#   the results be returned?
logresults          =       True        #  Output results to logger?
logfile             =         ''        #  File in which to log
#   results. Default is not to write a
#   logfile.
sigma               =         -1        #  Standard deviation array or image name(s).
outsigma       =         ''        #  Name of output image used
#   for standard deviation. Ignored
#   if sigma is empty.


for more than a single input image or cube, all images must have the same dimensions along all axes other than the fit axis. multifit will perform a per pixel fit, otherwise there will be a single value over the entire region.

makemask facilitates the handling of image masks in CASA. There are two basic mask formats: 1) one or more Boolean masks stored internally in the image file, and 2) images with zero and non-zero image values. makemask looks like:

#  makemask :: Makes and manipulates image masks
inpimage       =         ''        #  Name of input image.



To distinguish between Boolean internal masks and zero/non-zero images, makemask uses the syntax galaxy.image:mask0 for Boolean masks within an image, in this example the Boolean mask mask0 within the image galaxy.image. Without the colon separator, the image itself is assumed to the be treated like a zero/non-zero mask.

mode=’list’ lists all the internal Boolean masks that are present in an image. The default masks can be set with mode setdefaultmask and they can be deleted with the mode delete. The default mask is used when an image is displayed in the viewer and is used in all analysis tasks.

mode=’copy’ lets a user to copy a Boolean mask from one image to another image, or to write out the Boolean mask as a zero/non-zero image. The latter format is very useful when different masks are combined or manipulated. All the image analysis tools, in particular immath are applicable for such zero/non-zero masks as they act like normal images. makemask will always attempt to regrid the input mask to the output image.

In addition mode=’copy’ can be used to merge masks and also accepts regions. E.g. to create a mask from a CASA region file (CRTF, see § 6.1.6), the input would look like:

#  makemask :: Makes and manipulates image masks
inpimage       = 'inputimage.im'   #  Name of input image.
# (Need to include parent image names),regions(for copy mode)
overwrite      =      False        #  overwrite output if exists?



mode=’expand’ furthermore expands a mask in the spectral domain. It regrids first then stretches the edge channels. E.g. a one plane continuum image would be stretched to all planes of a data cube.

## 6.25  Search for Spectral Line Rest Frequencies (slsearch)

The slsearch task allows the spectral line enthusiast to find their favorite spectral lines in subset of the Splatalogue spectral line catalog (http://www.splatalogue.net) which is distributed with CASA. In addition, one can export custom catalogs from Splatalogue and import them to CASA using the task splattotable (Sect. 6.26) or tool method sl.splattotable(). One can even import catalogs with lines not in Splatalogue using the same file format.

The inputs to slsearch are as follows:

#  slsearch :: Search a spectral line table.
tablename           =         ''        #  Input spectral line table name to
#   search. If not specified, use the
#   default table in the system.
outfile             =         ''        #  Results table name. Blank means do not
#   write the table to disk.
freqrange           =   [84, 90]        #  Frequency range in GHz.
species             =       ['']        #  Species to search for.
reconly             =      False        #  List only NRAO recommended
#   frequencies.
chemnames           =       ['']        #  Chemical names to search for.
qns                 =       ['']        #  Resolved quantum numbers to search
#   for.
rrlinclude          =       True        #  Include RRLs in the result set?
rrlonly             =      False        #  Include only RRLs in the result set?
intensity      =         -1        #  CDMS/JPL intensity range. -1 -> do not
#   use an intensity range.
smu2           =         -1        #  S*mu*mu range in Debye**2. -1 -> do
#   not use an S*mu*mu range.
loga           =         -1        #  log(A) (Einstein coefficient) range.
#   -1 -> do not use a loga range.
eu             =         -1        #  Upper energy state range in Kelvin. -1
#   -> do not use an eu range.
el             =         -1        #  Lower energy state range in Kelvin. -1
#   -> do not use an el range.

verbose             =       True        #  List result set to logger (and
#   optionally logfile)?
logfile        =         ''        #  List result set to this logfile (only
#   used if verbose=True).
append         =       True        #  If true, append to logfile if it
#   already exists, if false overwrite
#   logfile if it exists. Only used if
#   verbose=True and logfile not blank.

wantreturn          =       True        #  If true, return the spectralline tool
#   associated with the result set.


The table is provided in the tablename parameter but if it is blank (the default), the catalog which is included with CASA will be used. Searches can be made in a parameter space with large dimensionality:

• freqrange Frequency range in GHz.
• species Species to search for.
• reconly List only NRAO recommended frequencies.
• chemnames Chemical names to search for.
• qns Resolved quantum numbers to search for.
• intensity CDMS/JPL intensity range.
• smu2 Sµ2 range in Debye2.
• loga log(A) (Einstein coefficient) range.
• el Lower energy state range in Kelvin.
• eu Upper energy state range in Kelvin.
• rrlinclude Include RRLs in the result set?
• rrlonly Include only RRLs in the result set?

Notation is as found in the Splatalogue catalog.

Example:
Search for all lines of the species HOCN and HOCO+ in the 200-300GHz range:

slsearch(outfile="myresults.tbl", freqrange = [200,300],
species=['HOCN', 'HOCO+'])


The task can also return a python dictionary if assigned a variable like:

myLines = slsearch(outfile="myresults.tbl", freqrange = [200,300],
species=['HOCN', 'HOCO+'])


## 6.26  Convert Exported Splatalogue Catalogs to CASA Tables (splattotable)

In some cases the internal spectral line catalog may not contain the lines in which one is interested. In that case, one can export a catalog from Splatalogue http://www.splatalogue.net or even create their own "by hand" (be careful to get the format exactly right though!). CASA’s task splattotable can then be used to create a CASA table that contains these lines and can be searched:

---------> inp(splattotable)
#  splattotable :: Convert a downloaded Splatalogue spectral line list to a casa table.
filenames           =       ['']        #  Files containing Splatalogue lists.
table               =         ''        #  Output table name.
wantreturn          =       True        #  Do you want the task to return a spectralline tool attached to the results table?


A search in Splatalogue will return a catalog that can be saved in a file (look for the "Export" section after the results on the search results page). The exported filename(s) should be entered in the filenames parameter of splattotable. The downloaded files must be in a specific format for this task to succeed. If you use the Splatalogue "Export CASA fields" feature, you should have no difficulties.

## 6.27  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.

### 6.27.1  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')


### 6.27.2  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
#   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')


## 6.28  Using the CASA Toolkit for Image Analysis

Inside the Toolkit:

The image analysis tool (ia) is the workhorse here. It appears in the User Reference Manual as the image tool. Other relevant tools for analysis and manipulation include measures (me), quanta (qa) and coordsys (cs).

Although this cookbook is aimed at general users employing the tasks, we include here a more detailed description of doing image analysis in the CASA toolkit. This is because there are currently only a few tasks geared towards image analysis, as well as due to the breadth of possible manipulations that the toolkit allows that more sophisticated users will appreciate.

To see a list of the ia methods available, use the CASA help command:

CASA <1>: help ia
--------> help(ia)
Help on image object:

class image(__builtin__.object)
|  image object
|
|  Methods defined here:
|
|  __init__(...)
|      x.__init__(...) initializes x; see x.__class__.__doc__ for signature
|
|  __str__(...)
|      x.__str__() <==> str(x)
|
|      Add degenerate axes of the specified type to the image  :
|        outfile
|        direction = false
|        spectral  = false
|        stokes
|        linear    = false
|        tabular   = false
|        overwrite = false
|      ----------------------------------------
|

...

|
|  unlock(...)
|      Release any lock on the image  :
|      ----------------------------------------
|
|  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Data and other attributes defined here:
|
|  __new__ = <built-in method __new__ of type object at 0x55d0f20>
|      T.__new__(S, ...) -> a new object with type S, a subtype of T



or for a compact listing use <TAB> completion on ia., e.g.

CASA <5>: ia.
Display all 105 possibilities? (y or n)
ia.__class__                ia.deconvolvecomponentlist  ia.ispersistent             ia.reorder
ia.__doc__                  ia.done                     ia.makearray                ia.restoringbeam
ia.__getattribute__         ia.echo                     ia.makecomplex              ia.rotate
ia.__hash__                 ia.fft                      ia.maketestimage            ia.sepconvolve
ia.__new__                  ia.fitallprofiles           ia.maxfit                   ia.setboxregion
ia.__reduce__               ia.fitcomponents            ia.miscinfo                 ia.setbrightnessunit
ia.__reduce_ex__            ia.fitpolynomial            ia.modify                   ia.setcoordsys
ia.__repr__                 ia.fitprofile               ia.moments                  ia.sethistory
ia.__setattr__              ia.fromarray                ia.name                     ia.setmiscinfo
ia.__str__                  ia.fromascii                ia.newimage                 ia.setrestoringbeam
ia.boundingbox              ia.fromrecord               ia.newimagefromfits         ia.subimage
ia.brightnessunit           ia.fromshape                ia.newimagefromimage        ia.summary
ia.calc                     ia.getchunk                 ia.newimagefromshape        ia.toASCII
ia.close                    ia.getslice                 ia.outputvariant            ia.topixel
ia.collapse                 ia.hanning                  ia.pixelvalue               ia.torecord
ia.continuumsub             ia.haslock                  ia.putchunk                 ia.toworld
ia.convertflux              ia.histograms               ia.putregion                ia.twopointcorrelation
ia.convolve                 ia.history                  ia.rebin                    ia.type
ia.convolve2d               ia.imagecalc                ia.regrid                   ia.unlock
ia.coordmeasures            ia.imageconcat              ia.remove
ia.coordsys                 ia.insert                   ia.removefile
ia.decompose                ia.isopen                   ia.rename


A common use of the ia tool is to do region statistics on an image. The imhead task has mode=’stats’ to do this quickly over the entire image cube. The tool can do this on specific planes or sub-regions. Here is an example on how to use the ia tool to get on-source and off-source statistics:

# The variable clnimage points to the clean image name

# Pull the max and rms from the clean image
ia.open(clnimage)
on_statistics=ia.statistics()
thistest_immax=on_statistics['max'][0]
oldtest_immax = 1.07732224464
print ' Clean image ON-SRC max should be ',oldtest_immax
print ' Found : Max in image = ',thistest_immax
diff_immax = abs((oldtest_immax-thistest_immax)/oldtest_immax)
print ' Difference (fractional) = ',diff_immax

print ''
# Now do stats in the lower right corner of the image
box = ia.setboxregion([0.75,0.00],[1.00,0.25],frac=true)
off_statistics=ia.statistics(region=box)
thistest_imrms=off_statistics['rms'][0]
oldtest_imrms = 0.0010449
print ' Clean image OFF-SRC rms should be ',oldtest_imrms
print ' Found : rms in image = ',thistest_imrms
diff_imrms = abs((oldtest_imrms-thistest_imrms)/oldtest_imrms)
print ' Difference (fractional) = ',diff_imrms

print ''
print ' Final Clean image Dynamic Range = ',thistest_immax/thistest_imrms
print ''
print ' =============== '

ia.close()



Note: If you don’t close the file with, e.g., ia.close() the file will stay in a ’locked’ state. Other processes won’t be able to access the file until the file is properly closed.

## 6.29  Examples of CASA Image Analysis

The data reduction tutorials on casaguides.nrao.edu provide walkthroughs for high and low frequency, spectral line and polarization analysis techniques.

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