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Overview

This page documents the extensive and publicly-accessible software tools that have been developed for WFC3 data. 

In the first section of this page, we provide currently-maintained data analysis software. WFC3 Notebooks is the primary GitHub repository for new notebooks. WFC3Tools contains the pipeline calwf3 and supporting programs. 

The second section details tools that support proposal and observing work, including post-observation issues. The last section contains information regarding deprecated/outdated software tools. 

 

WFC3 Data Analysis Software
WFC3 Notebooks WFC3 Notebooks is the primary repository for new notebooks, including tools for photometry, spectra, IR time variable background, and other analyses
WFC3Tools

The Python package containing calwf3, which is used to process WFC3 data. Requests for WFC3 data from the HST Archive Portal will either return the most up-to-date recalibrated data or alert you that more up-to-date products will be available soon and allow you to choose whether to wait for the new products or not.
DrizzlePac

Python package that performs automated image registration, cosmic-ray rejection and final combination with AstroDrizzle, with a large number of optionally user-adjustable parameters.

DrizzlePac Handbook

Grism Software

Spectral extraction software for grism observations. The calwf3 processing of grism observations does not include extraction or calibration of the spectra, which should be performed using the Python implementation of aXe, HSTaXe. HSTaXe can be used to calibrate and automatically extract large numbers of spectra from HST slitless spectroscopic observations.
CTE Tools

Note that the MAST pipeline produces the most up-to-date corrected products for parallel CTE, which involves charge-trailing in the vertical direction.  We provide here a stand-alone correction for serial CTE, which deals with the less significant trailing in the horizontal direction.
Crosstalk Tools Tool for correcting crosstalk in the UVIS detector, and information on mitigating IR crosstalk.

PSF page

 The WFC3 team provides empirically-constructed WFC3 PSFs for the UVIS and IR detectors. For users who wish to construct their own empirical WFC3/UVIS PSFs, there exists a database of WFC3/UVIS observed PSFs accessible through MAST as a Collection named "WFC3 PSF."
hst1pass hst1pass is a software routine, written in Fortran, that has been optimized for PSF-fiting photometry on HST images, and currently supports WFPC2, ACS/HRC, ACS/WFC, WFC3/UVIS, and WFC3/IR images. For a user's manual, see ISR 2022-05.

 

WFC3 Proposal and Observing Software
WFC3 ETCs The Exposure Time Calculators (ETCs) are on-line tools useful for predicting the signal-to-noise for various observing modes, once the characteristics of the source are known.
APT The Astronomer's Proposal Tool (APT) is the general proposal planning tool for all HST instruments.
Exception Report Checklist

In this Jupyter Notebook tutorial, we present the steps that should be taken when an observer receives a WFC3 Exception Report Email in order to determine if a Hubble Observation Problem Report (HOPR) should be filed. Additional documentation is provided in the WFC3 Exception Reports page. 

 

Deprecated Software Tools
TinyTIM

Presently, we do not recommend using TinyTIM for WFC3 data as it relies on outdated optical models. For example, ISR 2014-10 found significant errors in the WFC3/IR TinyTIM 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 who wish to proceed with TinyTIM regardless should be aware that while TinyTIM resources are hosted on the HST website, it is not currently maintained. 

 

Last Updated: 10/28/2024

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