Post BCD Software: CUBISM

CUBISM

Purpose and Description

CUBISM, The CUbe Builder for IRS Spectra Maps, is a tool for constructing spectral cubes, maps, and arbitrary aperture 1D spectral extractions from sets of mapping mode spectra taken with Spitzer's IRS spectrograph. CUBISM was developed by the SINGS team to fulfill, in part, its Legacy proposal commitments. It is optimized for non-sparse maps of extended objects, e.g. the nearby galaxy sample of SINGS, but can be used with data from any spectral mapping AOR (primarily validated for maps which are designed as suggested by the mapping HOWTO).

The SINGS IRS Team working on CUBISM:

• J.D. Smith
• Lee Armus
• Caroline Bot
• Brent Buckalew
• Danny Dale
• George Helou
• Tom Jarrett
• Helene Roussel
• Kartik Sheth

The CUBISM algorithm and implementation are described in detail in:

Smith, J. D. T., et al., Spectral Mapping Reconstruction of Extended Sources, 2007, PASP, in press

Please reference this paper for published use of the tool.

I. Download CUBISM

Cubism requires IDL v6.1 or greater -- licensed or VM (see below).

Cubism is currently at version 1.50. The CUBISM software release consists of the tool, the manual and an example data set. The tool can be downloaded as a pre-compiled binary or as a tar ball of the source code. Details about downloading the installing the software are in the manual.

cubism_v1.50_src.tgz (16MB)

For source distributions (only), you'll also need a recent version of the NASA AstroLib.

Generic Binary Distribution

Binary distributions which can be run on any system, either directly from the command line in a fully licensed version of IDL, or via the free IDL virtual machine (IDLVM).

cubism_v1.50_bin.tgz (20MB)

MacOSX Cubism.app for IDLVM

For MacOSX users of the IDLVM, an alternative binary distribution is available as a conveniently bundled Cubism.app application, which runs automatically under IDLVM (just copy it somewhere and double-click the application; even cubism project files (.cpj) files are double-clickable to start Cubism and open an existing project):

cubism_v1.50.dmg (21MB)

Note: The Cubism.app is a wrapper which loads Cubism in the IDLVM under X11

New in version 1.5.0 of CUBISM

II. Documentation

The CUBISM manual is available as HTML online, or as a PDF File (1.6MB). The PDF is also distributed along with your CUBISM installation, available anytime from the Help->Cubism Manual... menu.

We include an example data set that a user may use to try out CUBISM as discussed in the manual. These data are from the SINGS team for the galaxy NGC 3049 and may be downloaded from here.

III. Installation and Running

• Binary distributions: Binary distributions contain a compiled .sav file which includes all the routines (including the AstroLib library routines) Cubism needs to run, along with relevant calibration sets and auto-compiled C code. Simply unpack the files, and setup your IDL path to include the directory they are in. If you do not have a license for IDL v6.x, install the free Virtual Machine (VM) distribution (or regular distribution) of IDL from RSI, and run Cubism like:

  	    idl -vm=cubism/bin/cubism_vm.sav
  	    

  This will open the cube selection dialog. Note that you will not have access to the IDL command line when running in the VM.

  If you do have a license, and would like access to the IDL command line while using Cubism, start IDL and type:

  IDL> cubism_vm

• MacOSX Cubism.app:

  Simply copy the application from the disk image, and double click the Cubism icon, or any ".cpj" file to start Cubism under the IDL VM.

  If your IDL is not installed in /Applications/rsi/idl or /usr/local/rsi/idl, set the global environment variable IDL_DIR to point to your IDL install.

• Full source distributions:

  Unpack the cubism_[].tar.gz tar file, and setup your IDL path to include the three directories, as well as the AstroLib directories. This can be accomplished (perhaps in your .login file) with:

  
  	    setenv IDL_PATH <IDL_DEFAULT>:+/path/to/cubism_dir:+/path/to/astrolib
  	    

  At the IDL> prompt, run:

  IDL> cubism

  If you have trouble with the colors looking strange on a 16 or 24-bit system, add:

  	    device,DECOMPOSED=0,RETAIN=2
  	    

  to your IDL startup file (whatever file the environment variable IDL_STARTUP points to).

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