SalalJitendra/SPICE: Initial release

Description

Technical info

• End-to-End Automation: Converts raw GMRT data (.lta, .fits) into calibrated Measurement Sets (MS).
• Precision Flagging: Multi-stage flagging (time, channel, and baseline) to mitigate terrestrial RFI.
• Blind Source Extraction: Integrated with PyBDSF to identify high-SNR point sources in continuum images.
• Scintillation Modeling: Generates dynamic spectra from calibrated visibilities, computes 2D autocorrelations to determine scintillation bandwidth and timescale, and performs 2D Gaussian fitting to extract DISS parameters and modulation indices.
• Diagnostic Visualization: Generates plots for every candidate, showing dynamic spectra alongside their autocorrelation function (ACF) fits.

1. Flagging.py: RFI mitigation and baseline quality control.
2. Scintillation.py: Dynamic spectra extraction and 2D Gaussian modeling.
3. SPICE.py: The main pipeline that manages calibration, imaging, and candidate logging.

• Prerequisites: CASA (Common Astronomy Software Applications) Version 6.2 or higher is recommended, using Python 3.10.12 within the CASA environment.
• Dependencies: Install the required Python libraries via pip using: pip install -r requirements.txt

1. Prepare your environment: Ensure your observation folder contains the raw data (.lta, .fits, or .ms).
2. Calibrator List: Place a file named cals.list in the parent directory containing the names of known GMRT/VLA calibrators used.
3. Run the pipeline: Open your terminal and execute the main script:
   python SPICE.py --target_dir ./path/to/observation_folder

• --flux_cal: Manually specify the scan number for the flux calibrator (e.g., --flux_cal 4).
• --refant: Manually specify the reference antenna (e.g., --refant C02).

1. Tabular Data and Logs: "scintillation_log.csv" (primary science output catalog containing RA, DEC, SNR, scintillation bandwidth, and timescale), "pulsar_summary.txt" (high-level tracking summary), and "pipeline_log.txt" (technical logs).
2. Diagnostic Plots: "source_X.jpg" files for every identified candidate showing raw/fitted dynamic spectra, 2D ACF, and 1D slices with Gaussian fits.