About Tiny Tim HST PSF Modeling
Tiny Tim (Krist & Hook 2011) is a point spread function modeling tool developed for HST. Details of the code's operation, configurable parameters, and products are given in the Tiny Tim User's Guide (Krist & Hook 2004, version 6.3). Tiny Tim is no longer maintained or supported by STScI; a final version of the source code is hosted "as-is" on Github, for legacy purposes.
On this page we provide notes from some of the HST instrument teams regarding Tiny Tim's applicability and usefulness, in addition to historical resources and information.
HST Active Instruments
Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3)
Presently, we do not recommend using Tiny Tim for WFC3 data as it relies on outdated optical models (WFC3 ISR 2008-14, published before WFC3 was installed). As an example, WFC3 ISR 2014-10 found significant errors in the WFC3/IR Tiny Tim model. Our team has focused recent efforts on building empirical PSFs and a database of observed PSFs, and we provide a PSF modeling tutorial available from the HST Notebooks Github Repository and HTML Webpage.
Users working with WFC3 data who wish to proceed with Tiny Tim regardless should be aware that while Tiny Tim resources are hosted by STScI, it is not currently maintained.
Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS)
For external users, we do not encourage the use of Tiny Tim nor support the software, as it is "available but unsupported." Members of the STIS team currently do utilize Tiny Tim for specific internal purposes.
Tiny Tim may work to convolve against perfect resolution models to compare against STIS disk observations, or to match the structure of PSFs down to ~10^-8 contrast levels (if PSF is adjusted to match focus and jitter evolution). However, we do not know how STIS Tiny Tim PSFs will perform in other science situations, and caution users on that basis.
For coronagraphic observations requiring PSF subtraction, users are advised to follow the recommendations for obtaining contemporaneous PSF calibrators in Section 12.11 of the STIS Instrument Handbook.
Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS)
We do not support Tiny Tim. For users interested in generating PSFs for ACS, we suggest looking at the effective PSF utility described in the photutils documentation. For additional background on this utility, please see Anderson & King (2000) and WFC3 ISR 2016-12. Additionally, see ACS ISR 2017-08 for comparisons to Tiny Tim generated PSFs.
HST Legacy Instruments
WFPC2
NICMOS
FOC+COSTAR
FOC (Aberrated PSFs)
WF/PC-1 (Aberrated PSFs)
Tiny Tim for Legacy instruments is described in the Tiny Tim Users Guide (Krist & Hook 2004, version 6.3)
A summary of the tool's use over the first 20 years of HST science operations is described in "20 years of Hubble Space Telescope optical modeling using Tiny Tim" by Krist, Hook, & Stoehr (2011). This report compares observed and modeled PSFs for FOC, WF/PC-1, WFPC2, & ACS/HRC.
A discussion of WFPC2 photometry using Tiny Tim PSFs is available in the 1997 HST Calibration Workshop Proceedings (Rémy et al. 1997).
Resources
Input
The Tiny Tim source code presents the following input choices:
- Camera: You may choose to model the PSF specific to a chosen channel for any of the HST imagers past and present. Available options are given in the menu.
- Chip: In some cases you will then be asked to provide the specific detector of interest. Applicable choices are given in the menu. Note that the image file format places ACS/WFC1 in science image 2 and ACS/WFC2 in science image 1. Similarly for WFC3, UVIS2 is in the first image and UVIS1 in the second
- Pixel Position: The PSF is field-dependent so the chip location of interest is input. Appropriate range is offered.
- Filter: PSF is filter dependent. Only applicable filters are given in the menu.
- Spectrum Type / Spectrum Value: Methods for calculating flux over the band are offered. A menu of stellar spectral types, or a field for BB temperatures or power law indices are then offered if applicable.
- PSF diameter: Output PSF image extent. ~3" is recommended.
- Focus: User-supplied focus value in microns at the Secondary Mirror. The best estimated focus for a time period of interest is provided by the focus model. The focus model output can be used directly in this field without unit conversion. Entering zero for focus in this field will result in the generation of a PSF with no wavefront error in focus.
Output
The Tiny Tim source code produces an output web page (example) containing:
- an image illustrating the modeled PSF characteristics
- a summary of the input parameters
- links to the output data files, including the fits images of the distorted and undistorted modeled PSF
- links to the output figures
- a link to the tar.gz file that bundles all the output products for download.
See the Tiny Tim User's Guide for a description of the output products. For ACS and WFC3, PSFs are calculated for both undistorted (tiny2 output) and distorted (tiny3) images. Only the tiny3 distorted image is sampled at the detector resolution. This product corresponds to the images supplied by the pipeline as "_flt" files. For the other instruments, the distortion is much less and has not been considered in Tiny Tim.
We note that Tiny Tim does not model the PSF found in drizzled (_drz) files.
Performance
The generated PSFs can be useful for image simulation and observation planning, or to indicate the level of PSF variability over the field and with time, or for small aperture photometry. For PSF subtraction where details of the outer portions of the distribution are important, and for other cases where accurate PSF characterizations are needed, these modeled PSFs may lack suitable accuracy, and empirical PSF techniques should be considered when practical.
Refinement of the models may enable their more effective use for other data reduction tasks. PSF fidelity will also be found to vary among instruments. For example, the ACS Tiny Tim PSF is believed to be better modeled currently than the WFC3.
For WFC3, Tiny Tim uses aberration coefficients that are derived from the as-built optical ray-trace model, as a function of field position. While the ground test and on-orbit image quality generally matches expectations, no attempt was made to adjust the aberration coefficients used by Tiny Tim to better describe the observed field dependence. Tiny Tim also uses blur kernels to describe the effects of charge diffusion and, for the IR channel, inter-pixel capacitance. The IR and wavelength-dependent UVIS kernels were updated from those listed in WFC3 ISR 2008-14, to better match pre-launch measurements. These updated kernels are described in WFC3 ISR 2008-40 and WFC3 ISR 2008-41.
Note also that Tiny Tim models for all the Science Instruments do not include the effects of any optical ghosts and halos.
The modeling engine and its modifiable calibration parameters are more fully discussed in the Tiny Tim User's Guide.