Planet detection

Speckle subtraction algorithms like KLIP or LOCI are not planet detection algorithms. An additional step needs to be performed to compute a SNR for example. The SNR can be computed from an aperture photometry, which is then divided by noise standard deviation. The standard deviation is often calculated in an annulus at the same separation as the pixel. This approach is equivalent to a cross correlation of the image with an aperture. In this tutorial, we present simple functions to compute a cross-correlation for broadband images, a simple matched filter for spectral cubes, a SNR map, and a function to quickly identify the brightest blobs in the image.

Note

The different terminology between cross correlation and matched filter is little arbitrary here since the cross correlation is a kind of matched filter. Here, we say matched filter when a division by the local variance is used.

Please find an example ipython notebook (pyklip/examples/kpop_tutorial.ipynb) using beta Pictoris test data available in the test directory of pyklip.

Attribution

If you use this feature, please cite:

Cross-correlation

The cross correlation is the simplest step to perform before computing a SNR map. calculate_cc calculate the correlation of an image with a kernel, which represents the shape of the planet PSF. It ensures that the image isn’t shifted when using even dimensions with scipy.signal.correlate2d. A spectrum can also be given to perform a weighted mean if the input image is a cube.

import astropy.io.fits as pyfits
filename = "path/to/image/image.fits"
hdulist = pyfits.open(filename)
image = hdulist[1].data
hdulist.close()

One can use different kernels. We provide two simple kernels: aperture (ie, hat) or 2d gaussian.

from pyklip.kpp.utils.mathfunc import *
x_grid,y_grid= np.meshgrid(np.arange(-10,10),np.arange(-10,10))
kernel_hat = hat(x_grid,y_grid, radius=3)
kernel_gauss = gauss2d(x_grid,y_grid, amplitude = 1.0, xo = 0.0, yo = 0.0, sigma_x = 1.0, sigma_y = 1.0)

The cross correlated image is then given by:

from pyklip.kpp.metrics.crossCorr import calculate_cc
image_cc = calculate_cc(image, kernel_gauss,spectrum = None, nans2zero=True)

The next step would to calculate the SNR map of image_cc; see section below.

SNR map

There are two routines to compute a SNR map. The fast version get_image_stat_map computes the standard deviation in concentric annuli. The center of the image is defined by center=[cen_x,cen_y]. Two consecutive annuli radii are separated by r_step and their width is Dr. A caveat of this routine is that the standard deviation calculation will be biased by the presence of real point sources.

center = []#[cen_x,cen_y]

from pyklip.kpp.stat.stat_utils import get_image_stat_map
SNR_map = get_image_stat_map(image_cc,
                           centroid = center,
                           r_step=2,
                           Dr = 2,
                           type = "SNR")

A slower version of the routine will perform on similar operation for each pixel in the image. It will mask a region of radius mask_radius, and compute the standard deviation in an annulus of width Dr with the same separation as the current pixel.

center = []#[cen_x,cen_y]

from pyklip.kpp.stat.statPerPix_utils import get_image_stat_map_perPixMasking
SNR_map = get_image_stat_map_perPixMasking(image_cc,
                                           centroid = center,
                                           mask_radius=5,
                                           Dr = 2,
                                           type = "SNR")

Simple matched filter

A more optimal way to detect a planet is to divide pixel values by their variance. If the data is a spectral cube, we can also a template spectrum of the planet to improve our sensitivity. run_matchedfilter performs a matched filter using a 3D model of the planet including the planet PSF and a model of the spectrum of the planet planet_sp. We illustrate the example with a simple 2D gaussian PSF and a flat spectrum. The function also estimates the local variance, which is used to normalize the matched filter.

import astropy.io.fits as pyfits
filename = "path/to/spectral/cube/cube.fits"
hdulist = pyfits.open(filename)
cube = hdulist[1].data
nl,ny,nx = cube.shape
hdulist.close()

# Definition of the planet spectrum
planet_sp = np.ones(nz)

# Definition of the PSF
from pyklip.kpp.utils.mathfunc import *
x_grid,y_grid= np.meshgrid(np.arange(-10,10),np.arange(-10,10))
PSF = gauss2d(x_grid,y_grid, amplitude = 1.0, xo = 0.0, yo = 0.0, sigma_x = 1.0, sigma_y = 1.0)
PSF = np.tile(PSF,(nl,1,1))*planet_sp[:,None,None]

from pyklip.kpp.metrics.matchedfilter import run_matchedfilter
mf_map,cc_map,flux_map = run_matchedfilter(cube, PSF,N_threads=None,maskedge=True)

Point-source detection

The function point_source_detection identifies the brightest point sources in an SNR map and returns a table including their SNR and location. The algorithm is iterative. A disk of radius mask_radius is masked around the brightest candidate at each iteration.

The table includes the following columns described below: ["index","value","PA","Sep (pix)","Sep (as)","x","y","row","col"]

  • 1/ index of the candidate

  • 2/ Value of the maximum

  • 3/ Position angle in degree from North in [0,360]

  • 4/ Separation in pixel

  • 5/ Separation in arcsec

  • 6/ x position in pixel

  • 7/ y position in pixel

  • 8/ row index

  • 9/ column index

import csv
from pyklip.kpp.detection.detection import point_source_detection

detec_threshold = 3 # lower SNR to consider
pix2as = 1 # platescale (pixel to arcsecond)
mask_radius = 15 # Size of the mask to be applied at each iteration
maskout_edge = 10 # Size of the mask to be applied at the edge of the field of view. Works even if the outskirt is full of nans.

candidates_table = point_source_detection(SNR_map, center,detec_threshold,pix2as=pix2as,
                                         mask_radius = mask_radius,maskout_edge=maskout_edge,IWA=None, OWA=None)

The table can optionally be saved on disk:

savedetections = os.path.join(outputDir,"detections.csv")
with open(savedetections, 'w+') as csvfile:
    csvwriter = csv.writer(csvfile, delimiter=';')
    csvwriter.writerows([["index","value","PA","Sep (pix)","Sep (as)","x","y","row","col"]])
    csvwriter.writerows(candidates_table)