MetaData

Overview

PypeIt will slurp from the raw data frames a set of metadata for performing the reduction. These are held in an astropy.table.Table within the PypeItMetaData class.

The following doc is mainly for developers but we begin with a point or two for the user.

User

The metadata is primarily ingested via code but the user will over-ride any such data via the PypeIt Reduction File. So tread carefully.

When performing a reduction run (with run_pypeit), the code will require that all required metadata be ingested. There are cases, however, when the header has been mucked (e.g. Keck). It is best to fix the file and proceed, but if you are feeling adventuresome, you may set the ignore_image_headers parameter in the ReduxPar Keywords block, e.g.:

[rdx]
    ignore_bad_headers = True

Buyer beware in this case…

Developers

Data Model

The data model for the metadata is specified in a series of methods at the bottom of the metadata module. Here are a few examples:

core_meta['target'] = dict(dtype=str, comment='Name of the target')
core_meta['binning'] = dict(dtype=str, comment='(spatial,spectral) binning')

The key specifies the name, there is a data type, and a comment. If the metadata is a float and is intended to be used for defining a configuration, then an rtol key should be present, e.g.:

additional_meta['dispangle'] = dict(dtype=float, comment='Angle of the disperser', rtol=0.)

The core metadata are required for the code to run. The additional metadata are used primarily for configurations.

Ingesting Metadata

Metadata is read from the Spectrograph classes. The main method is get_meta_value in the parent class.

The subclasses specify how a specific metadata item is to be ingested. The standard method is via the header and one specifies the extension of the header array (typically 0) and the header card, e.g.:

meta['dec'] = dict(ext=0, card='DEC')
meta['target'] = dict(ext=0, card='OBJECT')

If an item of required metadata is not provided by the data file and has a set value, one sets it using default:

meta['binning'] = dict(ext=0, card=None, default='1,1')

If the metadata is only required for a set of frametypes (e.g. VLT which does not provide RA/DEC for calibrations), you may specify which frametypes require it with:

meta['dec'] = dict(ext=0, card='DEC', required_ftypes=['science'])

You can also not require a particular bit of metadata for any frame by setting required=False, i.e.:

self.meta['dither'] = dict(ext=0, card='HIERARCH ESO SEQ CUMOFF Y', required=False)

Note that this overrules required_ftypes, i.e. don’t use these together.

For metadata that depends on more than one header card or has some other complexity, the compound_meta method is used. See, e.g., compound_meta().