Spitzer Documentation & Tools
Previous News Items
  • (Sep 25 2009) MOPEX update released (v18.3.1) with new functionality, new namelists and several big fixes. MOPEX now enables users to carry out photometry on their own input source lists (APEX User List). Users can also subtract the zodiacal light from their frames and automatically make their IRAC Array Location Dependence Correction mosaics within MOPEX. Template namelists have been updated to reflect current best practices. For more information and a complete list of changes, see the MOPEX Change Log
  • (Aug 25 2009) COAD v1.0 released. This IDL software will combine Spitzer IRS BCD images, creating mean images along with uncertainty and mask files.
  • (Jul 14 2009) CUBISM update (v1.7) released - required for S18.7 data. The latest update to CUBISM incorporates a new calibration set for S18.7-processed data. For more information, and to download the new version, see the CUBISM Page .
  • (Jul 11 2009) SMART update (v7.0.0) released - required for S18.7 data. The latest update to SMART incorporates a new calibration set for S18.7-processed data. For more information, and to download the new version, see the SMART Page.
  • (May 12 2009) SPICE update (v2.2.0) released - required for S18.7 data. The latest update to SPICE incorporates new wavelength and flux calibration files, and new CDF files for the S18.7-processed data. SPICE also contains several new and improved visualization options. The update is necessary for anyone wishing to extract data processed with the S18.7 pipeline, which will shortly be the main product available from the archive. The primary change is to the wavsamp.tbl files for LL, SH, and LH, implementing improved wavelength calibration solutions, but see Chapter 5 of the IRS Instrument Handbook for more information. The visualization tools within the SPICE GUI now include a number of new options, including off-target source selection and overlaying the IRS slit position. Users can now also overlay spectra and line lists from file. See the SPICE User's Guide for a full description of the new Overlay capabilities.
  • (Apr 07 2009) DARKSETTLE software released. DARKSETTLE mitigates spatial/temporal variations in the dark-current in IRS Long High (LH) data. These variations can exhibit as "bowing" of spectral orders, which results in mismatches between orders and non-physical tilts. See the IRS Instrument Handbook for an example of this effect. DARKSETTLE is now available for download, and we have released a new Spitzer Data Analysis Cookbook recipe to give users a step-by-step guide to its use.
  • (Jan 16 2009) Update to MOPEX (v18.2.2) to fix a bug in the input to Overlap that was preventing users from using their own FIF.tbl as input. No other changes.
  • (Dec 05 2008) The latest update to MOPEX (v18.2.0) has been released. It includes a new, faster background estimation option in MedFilter based on SExtractor, a change in the way Mosaic Geometry runs, plus a number of bug fixes. Please see the MOPEX Change Log for more information. The update can be automatically installed by starting the MOPEX GUI for both the GUI and command-line versions. See the MOPEX page for instructions on how to enable the GUI auto-update feature.
  • (Nov 14 2008) CUBISM v1.6 is now available. It features updated calibration sets for use with IRS data processed with pipeline version S17. This results in particular improvement in LH order stitching. The new version also allows the user to read/write DS9 polygonal and circular regions for extraction apertures.
  • (Nov 07 2008) The files used for extended source calibration of S17.2 IRS Long-High data in SPICE have been updated. This change only affects extended source extraction, and does not apply to point source extraction. The SPICE update does not reflect any change in the IRS pipeline processing. It only ensures that the calibration is properly applied within SPICE.
  • (Sep 22 2008) IMPORTANT NOTES REGARDING APEX. Note that points 1 and 2 were fixed in the MOPEX update released on Dec 05 2008 (v18.2.0).
    • There is an error in the APEX switch "Use_Photerr_for_SNR", new in MOPEX 18.1.5. Turn this off (set = 0) until fixed. It will default to an estimate for "SNR" based on the point-source profile (see the MOPEX User's Guide). For a better estimate of point-source signal-to-noise, use an aperture uncertainty, where the aperture covers the main core of the point-source
    • There is an error in the Perl script, apex.pl, in MOPEX 18.1.5. The error occurs when the switch "use_data_unc_for_fitted_SNR = 1" is on, and there are tiles with no data. APEX sourcestimate will exit with a message "number of noise images less than number of tiles". The Perl script has been fixed (Version 4.4).
    • The new APEX User List mode has a limitation when used in multi-frame mode: it does not work when there's more than 1 tile. So when making a mosaic (either within APEX, or in a previous "mosaic" run; the latter is usually better), don't set a TILEMAX size in mosaic_coadd, or set it bigger than your mosaic, if you can. In practice, this means you won't be able to use apex_user_list.pl in a single pass for a large area of IRAC data (when you do APEX PRF-fitting on the stack).

  • (Sep 02 2008) The new version of Bandmerge has been released. Bandmerge allows users to input ASCII tables of source fluxes and positions in several different wavebands and merge them into a single output table.
  • (Aug 21 2008) New Point Response Funtions (PRFs) have been released for IRAC, and are a significant improvement over those previously released by the SSC. For true point sources, we are able to obtain agreement between fitted and aperture flux measurements at better than the 1% level. For more information, see the IRAC Instrument Handbook.
  • (Aug 21 2008) The latest update to MOPEX has been released (v18.1.5), with bug fixes and the inclusion of two new pipelines - APEX QA (for source subtraction) and PRF Estimate. An experimental version of User Input has also been included, allowing users to input their own source detection lists into APEX (see the MOPEX User's Guide for more information) Please note that Solaris 8 is no longer supported - this and future updates support Solaris 10+. See the MOPEX Change Log for a full list of changes in this and previous updates.
  • (Jun 23 2008) The SPICE User's Guide has been released in pdf format
  • SPICE has been updated with a new LH spectral extraction algorithm and corresponding flux calibration for S17.2 pipeline-processed data. See the SPICE Page for more information. Note: This is the final update for which Solaris 8 will be supported. Future updates will support only Solaris 10.
  • The new and improved Online Manual for MOPEX has been released, along with the brand new Spitzer Data Analysis Cookbook to offer a guided step-by-step walk-through of how to reduce your Spitzer data.
  • The latest update to MOPEX has been released, with bug fixes and the inclusion of uncertainties for aperture photometry. The update should be installed via the MOPEX GUI for both the GUI and command-line versions. See the MOPEX page for instructions on how to enable the auto-update feature. See the MOPEX Change Log for a full list of changes in this and prior releases. Note: This is the final update for which Solaris 8 will be supported. Future updates will support only Solaris 10.
  • Aug 2007: The new SPICE GUI has been released!
  • June 2007: The new MOPEX GUI has been released! We have also released an updated command-line version of MOPEX, distributed with the GUI. Note that the name of the environment file in this new command-line release has changed from mopex.csh to mopex-script-env.csh.
  • June 2007: IRAC Pipeline Muxbleed Correction: The IRAC pipeline did not have the muxbleed correction properly implemented until pipeline version S16. New data with pipeline processing versions S16 onwards will have the correct correction applied. The next comprehensive IRAC data reprocessing will probably take place in S17 (later this year) or S18 (late Spring to Summer 2008). See the IRAC Data Analysis page for more information.
  • June 2007: Updated SPICE calibration files for Hi-Res data: Four incorrect calibration files were included in the last calibration update for SPICE. The incorrect files are C15.0/b1_aploss_fluxcon.tbl, C15.0/b3_aploss_fluxcon.tbl, C15.0PRE25/b1_aploss_fluxcon.tbl and C15.0PRE25/b3_aploss_fluxcon.tbl. These files are ONLY used when applying extended source calibration to high resolution (SH, LH) data processed with pipelines S15 onwards. See the SPICE page for more information. CUBISM is not affected.
  • Jan 9 2007: New version of IRSCLEAN released (v1.7)
  • Nov 20 2006: SMART version 6.2.4 released
  • Nov 06 2006: Latest version of SPICE released (v1.4.1)
  • Oct 18 2006: New version of CUBISM software package (v1.02)
  • Jun 02 06: Release of MOPEX package (version 030106) for mac (see solaris/linux note below for new capabilities and documentation)
  • Mar 29 06: Release of MOPEX package (version 030106) for solaris/linux featuring:
    • A new outlier detection method called Box Outlier
    • A new recommendation to use THRESH_OPTION = 1 if using Multiframe Temporal Outlier detection method
    • A new perl script for computing aperture photometry (aperture.pl).
    • Two different background subtractions are now used in apex.pl and apex_1frame.pl. WARNING!!! The namelists used for apex.pl and apex_1frame.pl from previous releases of MOPEX are not compatible with MOPEX 030106.
  • Mar 29 2006: New and updated documentation for MOPEX:
    • Updates the Mosaicker and APEX User's Guide
    • Updates the Frequently Asked Questions about MOPEX
    • Updates the mosaic_sed documentation
    • Computing Aperture Photometry documentation
  • Mar 02 2006: new version of SPICE released
  • Dec 16 05: IRSCLEAN_MASK and IRSCLEAN released
  • Oct 17 05: A bug has been fixed in the mosaic_reint MOPEX script (Solaris and linux version). If no uncertainty images were given, the module was ignoring the rmask. The module detect_radhit (linux version only) was also updated. There was a problem with it when run with kernel 2.6.
  • Oct 03 2005: Release of MOPEX package (version 093005) featuring:
    • Added support for Mac OS X, 10.3 and 10.4
    • Added a perl script (mosaic_sed.pl) for MIPS SED mosaicking and spectral extraction
    • Added capability to do moving object mosaicking using mosaic.pl (new keyword MOVING_OBJECT_MOSAIC)
    • Added the bicubic interpolation option (INTERP_METHOD = 4)
  • Oct 03 2005: New and updated documentation for MOPEX:
    • Updates the Mosaicker and APEX User's Guide
    • radhit_stat documentation
    • mosaic_sed documentation
    • Creating PRF file for IRAC1_PRF4x_300.pdf
  • Jul 21 2005: Release of Bandmerge version S13-beta1, featuring support for RedHat Linux 8+, and support for Mac OS X, 10.3 and 10.4, as well as various bug fixes.
  • Jul 12 2005: Release of SPICE v. 1.1-beta16 version containing replaced sample data files with S12.0.2 versions.
  • Jul 12 2005: Release of SMART v. 5.5.6.
  • Jun 24 2005: A bug has been found in the mosaic_rmask module of the MOPEX package version 050905. The module didn't read the refined pointing and the outlier maps were projected slightly off, thereby partially missing the radhits. The module has been fixed in the MOPEX tar file mopex_software_050905.tar.gz and mopex_software_linux_050905.tar.gz.
  • Jun 24 2005: New release of SPICE which includes the following highlights:
    • Support for Mac OS X, 10.3 and 10.4
    • Read support for BITPIX=-64 fits images
    • Changed menu of manual order selection in Profile
    • Update of Extract order selection based on order selection in Profile
    • cal/cdf files for S12.0.2
  • May 09 2005: New release of MOPEX (now comes in two separate tar files: mopex_050905_software.tar.gz and mopex_050905_data.tar.gz).