Bad pixel mask

• Create an empty bad pixel mask for detector defects such as bad columns:

  gemarith S20140919S0090_bias * 0 bpm_2x1 outtype="ushort"
  for i in range(1, 13):
    iraf.hedit("bpm_2x1[sci,%d]" % i, "EXTNAME", "DQ", update=yes, verify=no)
  

  (Press enter at the “…” prompt.)

  In a CL script, you would instead use CL syntax for the loop:

  for (i=1; i < 13; i+=1)
    hedit("bpm_2x1[sci,"//i//"]", "EXTNAME", "DQ", update+, verify-)
  

• Sometimes CL scripts are known to crash when header updates happen too fast for IRAF’s FITS kernel. In a script, add this line after hedit, to force it to catch up:

  flpr
  

• Look at the bias-subtracted data (especially the science exposures) and set any systematically-bad regions to 1 in the mask image:

  • Bad column on a saturated feature:

    imreplace bpm_2x1[dq,5][120:122,3027:4176] 1
    

  • Mask some artifically-bright rows & columns at the edges of each chip. The bright columns eventually get removed during mosaicking & extraction anyway, but dealing with them earlier can sometimes improve scattered light fitting and fibre tracing before we get to that point.

    for i in range(1, 13):
      iraf.imreplace("bpm_2x1[dq,%d][*,4172:4176]" % i, 1)
    
    imreplace bpm_2x1[dq,1][1:10,*] 1
    imreplace bpm_2x1[dq,4][247:256,*] 1
    imreplace bpm_2x1[dq,5][1:10,*] 1
    imreplace bpm_2x1[dq,8][247:256,*] 1
    imreplace bpm_2x1[dq,9][1:10,*] 1
    imreplace bpm_2x1[dq,12][247:256,*] 1
    

    You have to write iraf. before the first imreplace because the for loop puts the PyRAF interpreter in Python mode.

  Hamamatsu data from other eras (between multiple rounds of work on detector problems) have different quite artifacts. New data no longer have the above “saturation banding” problem (which got worse in 2015A) or the CCD2 noise problem from 2016B – but the number of saturated columns seems to be greater now and bias roll-off along columns is quite strong.

• Attach the bad pixel mask to the bias-subtracted data and interpolate over detector defects (using a fairly low order continuum-type fit along each row):

  addbpm rg@all.lis bpm_2x1
  
  iraf.gemfix.grow=1.5
  iraf.gemfix.axis=1
  
  gemfix rg@all.lis prg@all.lis method="fit1d" bitmask=1 order=9 fl_inter-