Installation

A detailed description of the installation process is described in Tutorial 1.  The tutorials after that can then walk you through the basics of how to use PhoSim.  A very brief summary is also described below.

The code can be obtained through the PhoSim Repository using an appropriate tagged version. It is easiest to simply download a tarball of the latest version. First, unzip and untar the code in the desired installation directory.

Then to configure the code and installing the two dependencies (cfitsio and fftw) by:

./configure

Then, to build the code simply do:

make

Note PhoSim requires python >= 2.6 and a c++ compiler that supports the c++14 standards. To test with a simulation of a single star and no background:

./phosim examples/star -c examples/nobackground

To activate the graphical user interface (GUI) simply do:

phosim_gui

Note: to run the GUI you may need to have tkinter installed.

Usage

The default usage is: 

phosim instanceCatalog

The instanceCatalog specifies the configuration of the observation and the astrophysical inputs.

For more complex usage:

phosim instanceCatalog -c physicsCommands -i instrumentSiteDirectory<generic>

The physicsCommands modify the default (realistic) physics.

The instrumentSiteDirectory points to the instrument and site characteristics files. A number of implemented observatories are currently included in PhoSim.

This library of SEDs can be used with the simulator that are curated at the Spanish Virtual Observatory and the Space Telescope Institute. Put the SEDs into the directory data/SEDs after untarring.

The output is a stream of FITS files.

For larger simulations, there are two options for parallelization. One that parallelizes at the chip level will run N copies of the raytrace portion of the calculation.

phosim instanceCatalog -p N

This is only useful when simulating a catalog covering more than one chip. Another multi-threads the calculation in the raytrace on a per astronomical source basis:

phosim instanceCatalog -t M

These options could even be used together in a complementary manner. To see a speed up, you should have N*M cores available.

To only simulate a specific chip or group of chips (e.g. "chipname1|chipname2|chipname3") use the -s option:

phosim instanceCatalog -s chipname

To have PhoSim instantly open the simulated file(s) when they are completed with ds9 use the --ds9 option:

phosim instanceCatalog --ds9

To override the current site and move the telescope/camera to another location use:

phosim instanceCatalog --site=x

where x is the site from data/standard/location.  Note the .txt extension is not used (e.g. --site=new_york_city)

To print the phosim version, use:

phosim -v

The output can also be saved with the command:

phosim example/star >& output

For a series of tutorials to get started, please follow the PhoSim Tutorials.

If you don't want to run PhoSim, you can also download some sample images.

This code is also developed for use on large-scale grid computing using CONDOR with the -g condor option. Use phosim -h for a full listing of options. There is also the PhoSim visualizer for plotting the rays in 3-d, which is useful for implementing new telescopes.

Detailed Information

More detailed information can be found in the technical references.

Current Release Notes and Limitations

Detailed release notes for specific version can be found on the release notes page.