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Last modified: 1 March 2024

URL: https://cxc.cfa.harvard.edu/ciao/releasenotes/ciao_4.15_release.html

CIAO 4.15 Release Notes


CIAO 4.15 is distributed for the following platforms:

Visit our platform support page for our statement about support for Apple's M1/M2 (ARM) chip support used with macOS 11 (Big Sur) and 12 (Monterey), and 13 (Ventura).

CIAO is available using the conda package manager; conda builds are available for Linux and Mac for Python 3.10, 3.9, and 3.8. More information can be found in the conda section of the Installation notes below.

There is no support for 32 bit operating systems, older Linux (CentOS 6 era) or older macOS platforms (macOSX High Sierra and earlier). More details can be found on the Platform Support page.



Notable changes and improvements in CIAO 4.15

  • CIAO 4.15 includes several important bug fixes and includes updates to support newer compilers. There have been enhancements to Sherpa and CIAO 4.15 provides updates to Off The Shelf (OTS) packages like SAOImage DS9.

  • CIAO can be installed using the conda package manager. Users can install the conda edition with Python 3.10, 3.9, or 3.8 on Linux and Mac.

    [IMPORTANT]
    CIAO 4.15 conda install requires conda-forge channel

    Users need to include the conda-forge channel when they install CIAO 4.15. Users are encouraged to create a new conda environment for CIAO 4.15 rather than trying to upgrade an existing environment.

    $ conda create -n ciao-4.15 -c https://cxc.cfa.harvard.edu/conda -c conda-forge \
    ciao sherpa ds9 marx ciao-contrib caldb_main
    

    The default version of Python is variable and will depend on which other packages are available at the time of installation. Users who want a specific version of python must include python=3.8, python=3.9, or python=3.10 on the conda create command.

    Alternatively, the ciao-install script can be used to install CIAO 4.15 without conda, now with Python 3.9.

  • Several tools have been updated including important bug fixes:

    • wavdetect now uses double precision when computing FFT convolutions. This makes detections of low significance sources more reliable. In addition it will now omit certain duplicate source detections.
    • The string length limitation that prevented users from combining a large number of images together with dmimgcalc has been removed. The operation parameter can now accept a stack that allows support for arbitrary line lengths via continuation characters.
    • There have been improvements to the gratings tools tg_resolve_events and mkgrmf for HRC-I + HETG observations.
    • All of the CIAO scripts now write HISTORY records the same as the rest of the compiled CIAO tools.
    • The image processing tools now better handle NULL values.
    • Many tools will now copy the WCS from the input image to the output table, including the CIAO detect tools: celldetect, wavdetect, and vtpdetect. Note: as a result the output WCS name will typically change from "EQSRC" to "EQPOS".
    • Improvements to bring uniformity to tools that parse coordinates and to parameters that accept grids.
  • Notable Sherpa changes include:

    • Sherpa XSPEC models updated to version 12.12.1c.
    • The chi2xspecvar statistic in fitting PHA data now matches XSPEC when the background is subtracted and the source or background group contains 0 counts.
    • Models can now be frozen or thawed when accessing the model objects directly.
    • Changes to the filter are now reported when using notice or ignore or their variants.
    • Continued plotting and documentation improvements.

    As a reminder, Sherpa is also available as a stand alone system, accessible from the Sherpa GitHub repository or from the standalone Sherpa page.

  • The CXC Datamodel has a fix for a bug introduced in CIAO 4.14 when using [opt null=value].

  • There have been several script updates since the CIAO 4.15 release including:

    • [New]psf_contour creates regions based on simulated PSFs.
    • [New]bkg_fixed_counts creates background regions which enclosed a specified number of counts
    • [New]aplimits computes upper limits for false detections and missed detections.
    • specextract now uses the center of the user supplied region when computing PSF fractions and unweighted ARFs. Previously it used the location of the maximum pixel. The new resp_pos parameter controls which method to use to determine the response position.
    • srcflux now supports user plugins to perform custom analysis.
    • dax added an interactive tool to compute grating coordinates.
  • CIAO includes version 8.4 of SAOImage ds9. Users are again reminded that they need to change the Edit mode setting in order to select or create regions in ds9. Please see the watchout page for more information on this.

    SAOImageDS9 v8.4 highlights include:

    • New layout views: Basic and Advanced
    • New Illustration: users can add graphics for presentations
    • Fade between images, save as GIF movies
    • Improvements in access to regions' analysis results via XPA and SAMP.

How CALDB 4.10.7 Affects Your Analysis

CALDB 4.10.7 Release Notes (release 14 September 2023)

HRC Data


How CALDB 4.10.4 Affects Your Analysis

CALDB 4.10.4 Release Notes (release 17 March 2023)

ACIS Imaging and Grating Data


How CALDB 4.10.2 Affects Your Analysis

CALDB 4.10.2 Release Notes (release 15 November 2022)

ACIS Imaging and Grating Data


Installation and Setup

Users should be aware of these installation items before installing CIAO 4.15. Additional problems which are seen less frequently are listed on the Installation & Smoke Tests bug page.

Supported Platforms

Installing with the conda package manager

Updates to the ciao-install Installation Script

Source builds

Smoke Tests

IPython Settings

Remove old parameter files


Tools

acis_find_afterglow

acis_streak_map

asphist

axbary

arfcorr

celldetect

create_bkg_map

dither_region

dmcontour

dmcopy

dmdiff

dmellipse

dmextract

dmfilth

dmgti

dmimg2jpg

dmimgblob

dmimgcalc

dmimgdist

dmimgfilt

dmimghull

dmimglasso

dmimgpick

dmimgpm

dmimgproject

dmimgreproject

dmimgthresh

dmkeypar

dmlist

dmmakepar

dmmaskfill

dmnautilus

dmradar

dmreadpar

dmregrid2

dmsort

dmstat

hrc_dtfstats

imgmoment

mean_energy_map

mkgrmf

mkpsfmap

mkwarf

pfold

reproject_aspect

reproject_events

reproject_image

reproject_image_grid

rmfimg

srcextent

tgdetect

tgdetect2

tg_findzo

tg_resolve_events

vtpdetect

wavdetect

wcs_update


Parameter Files

This section provides a summary of the changes to parameter files in this release. Refer to the Tools and Analysis Scripts sections of these release notes for complete details.

We recommend deleting all the old parameter files or renaming the parameter-file directory before running any new version of CIAO to avoid conflicts. More information is available in the FAQ.

dmimgfilt


Sherpa

Sherpa is developed as an open project, and is available on GitHub. Comments, fixes, and additions from the community are welcome. There are additional releases for this version throughout the year, and can be installed either directly from GitHub or using the conda package manager, as described on the standalone Sherpa documentation page.

changes


Graphical User Interfaces

Obsvis


Analysis Scripts

There have been several updates to the contributed scripts package since CIAO 4.14 was released. These changes are specific to the CIAO 4.15.0 contributed scripts release.

aplimits

blanksky

bkg_fixed_counts

chandra_repro

convert_xspec_user_model

correct_periscope_drift

dax

mktgresp

psf_contour

specextract

srcflux

statmap

ciao_contrib.runtool

sherpa_contrib.chart

sherpa_contrib.marx

coords.gratings


Python Modules

pycrates

pyregion


Libraries

caldb4

cxcparam

datamodel

hdrlib

pixlib

region


Environment

Off-the-Shelf (OTS) Package Versions

Compiler versions


Documentation

Many pages have been updated to reflect the changes in this release. Several analysis threads are still under review.

ahelp