SlicerAstro Roadmap

Objective: general description

• 1) Proper visualization of astronomical data cubes: using data astronomical data formats, such as FITS, and astronomical world coordinates system (WCS);
• 2) Quantification: visualization of the beam, interactive histograms, contours, statistics linked with the 2D/3D views, masking volumes with segmentations, flux density profiles, moment maps and position-velocity diagrams;
• 3) Enabling interactive smoothing in all three dimensions;
• 4) Interactive HI data modeling coupled to visualization;
• 5) Skill to overlay observations at different wavelength and to plot catalogs info on data;
• 6) Interoperability with Topcat, and other virtual observatory (VO) tools and catalogs.

Progress (1):

• FITS reader and AstroVolume done;
• WCS included in AstroVolume;
• Added AstroLabelMapVolume (WCS compatible) for reading Masks;
• Generalization of qSlicerUnits;
• Slicer dataProbe module overridden with the AstroDataProbe one;
• First design of the AstroVolume interface done;
• Added WCS axis in the 2D views;
• Customization of 2D and 3D Views;
• Welcoming to SlicerAstro and AstroSampleData modules implemented;

Progress (2):

• Beam information:
  • visualization in 2D views (XY);
  • report beam values for the gaussian filter in the smoothing module;
  • recovery from HISTORY fits keywords;
• Interactive histogram;
• Contours over 2D and 3D Views;
• Statistics in a ROI/segmentation;
• Cropping/masking datacubes with ROI/segmentations;
• Global flux density profiles;
• Moment maps;
• PVSlice orientation preset and 2D PV WCS axis;
• Linking PVSlices with projected rotation curves from models;
• Tool to interactively visualize a PVSlice (linear selection with two points);
• Tool to interactively create a PVDiagram (data saved in a fits file, multiple points, Slice from curvilinear selection).

Progress (3):

• module created;
• interface designed;
• Logic methods implemented on CPU (OpenMP);
• Logic methods implemented on GPU (OpenGL);

Progress (4):

• implementing CloudLasso (3D Lasso) effect in the segmentation editor;
• implementing interface for easy conversion of AstroLabelMapVolume to/from SegmentationNode;
• adding tilted-ring model routine (^3DBarolo);

Progress (5):

• skill to overlay observations at different wavelength (i.e. different WCS and gridding);
• skill to load catalogs (e.g., HI sources info) and overlay markups fiducials over data (e.g., optical images).

Progress (6):

• implementing SAMP protocol in SlicerAstro;

Additional TO DO:

• Add Developer documentation;
• Improve SlicerAstro modules automated tests;
• Add 3D View linking (similar to the 2D) in the Slicer infrastructure. Link.

Additional TO DO from feedback SlicerAstro kapteyn tutorial (08/12/2017)

• Add yt-3d color function preset;
• Simple interface for contouring in AstroVolume widget;
• Add Ronekers, Heat, Velocity field 2D color functions;
• Add custom non-linear (log), inverted and reverse 2D color functions.

General NOTE

• Datacubes with NAXIS>3 are not supported (N.B. cases with NAXIS=4 and NAXIS4=1 are converted to NAXIS=3).
• SlicerAstro is not aware of the CELLSCAL keyword.
• In August 2018 financial support (ERC Grant Agreement nr. 291-531) for SlicerAstro development has ended. The software will be maintained at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute of the University of Groningen, but further development is currently on hold. If you have any query, pull request and/or ideas you can still contact us or submit a ticket.