CTA data challenge 2017

This is a repository containing code and files for the CTA data challenge.

It is very preliminary. Contributions welcome!

URL: https://github.com/gammasky/cta-dc

Here's an overview of the content of this repository.

For further details, see the README.md files in each folder, e.g. sky_model/README.md contains a description of the sky model we generated.

• sky_model - The sky model (sources and diffuse emission components)
• observations - Simulated list of observations for the GPS and EGS
• irf - CTA instrument response functions
• data - Generated data (event lists and more)
• ctadc - Python package with helper functions / classes
• make.py - Main script, that can run all steps (e.g. generate sky model and data)

The following data formats are used:

• FITS - "Flexible Image Transport System", see here
• ECSV - "Enhanced Character Separated Values table format", see here
• YAML - a human and machine readable data format see here
• XML - "Extensible Markup Language", see here

Note that these are only "container" formats that can hold almost any data and information. The specification of data formats for gamma-ray astronomy is work in progress at http://gamma-astro-data-formats.readthedocs.io/ . Some of the formats we use (e.g. event lists) are already described there.

We use Python scripts to produce the sky model and data.

You can access the files with whatever software you like.

E.g. the sky model and data generation is fully scripted and reproducible. Anyone can use the make.py script to run them. To see what's available type:

./make.py --help

There's no setup.py file, i.e. you can't install ctadc into your site-packages. Just execute scripts from the top-level repo folder (where make.py is located), and all scripts should work.

To run the scripts, you have to install some software.

One simple recommended way is to get https://www.continuum.io/downloads and then install extra packages using

conda env create --file environment.yml 

If there's some issue (e.g. with HTTPS access for the pip install part), you can conda install or pip install the packages listed in that file individually. And of course, if you prefer, there's other ways to install the software, e.g. using Linux or Mac package managers.

Here's some links to the documentation pages for the packages we use:

• pytest (http://docs.pytest.org/), optional, for automated tests
• Numpy (https://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/)
• Scipy (https://docs.scipy.org/doc/scipy/reference/)
• Matplotlib (http://matplotlib.org/), optional, for plotting
• Astropy (http://www.astropy.org/)
• Gammapy (http://docs.gammapy.org/)
• Maybe Naima (http://naima.readthedocs.io/) for SED models
• Maybe GAMERA (http://joachimhahn.github.io/GAMERA/) for GPS population models

Commonly used abbreviations:

• CTA - Cherenkov telescope array
• DC - Data challenge
• GPS - Galactic plane survey
• EGS - Extragalactic survey
• ST - Science tools
• IRF - Instrument response function