Collaborative Research: A Data Reduction Tool for iSHELL

现代天体物理仪器提出了一个挑战，它能够产生非常丰富的数据：需要复杂的软件来补充硬件，以便在合理的时间长度内理解数据的含义。 良好的数据简化工具或程序对研究成功的重要性不亚于它们所支持的工具。 一个新的仪器是iSHELL，一个令人兴奋的近红外光谱仪在IRTF（红外望远镜设施），一个3米望远镜在莫纳克亚山，在夏威夷。 iSHELL将通过该项目获得一个数据简化和分析工具，该工具将是对在该光谱仪的早期版本上证明的非常成功的软件包的修改。 iSHELL将取代单阶中阶梯光栅摄谱仪CSHELL。CSHELL在1993年获得了第一个光;尽管它的年龄和小的同时波长范围（约0.006微米在2.2微米），CSHELL仍然平均约1 - 5%的可用望远镜时间，因为它是为数不多的1-5微米阶梯光栅摄谱仪的可比分辨率提供给观测者在北方半球。利用光谱仪光栅和红外阵列的技术发展，iSHELL将提供比CSHELL更大的能力。 CSHELL的单次波长把握能力将是iSHELL的50倍，分辨率高达两倍（R= 70，000）。 iSHELL有一个非常强大的核心科学案例，从行星大气和彗星，到原恒星盘和恒星物理。 iSHELL的通用功能还支持各种其他科学。 然而，要充分利用这一能力，需要计划的数据简化系统，以有效地减少和校准复杂的交叉分散的数据格式。IRTF服务于广大社区的科学家在主要的研究中心，大学和小型学院，大量的学生参与。 早期的软件已被用于几个主要仪器的数据，预计同样的情况也适用于根据该奖项开发的软件。该项目的资金由NSF的天文科学部通过其先进技术和仪器计划提供。

Modern astrophysical instrumentation presents a challenge inherent in the very wealth of data it is capable of producing: sophisticated software is needed to complement the hardware, in order to understand what the data mean in a reasonable length of time. Good data reduction tools, or programs, can be as important to research success as the instruments they support. One new instrument is iSHELL, an exciting near-infrared spectrograph at the IRTF (Infrared Telescope Facility), a 3-meter telescope on Mauna Kea, in Hawaii. iSHELL will receive through this project a data reduction and analysis tool that will be a modification of a highly successful software package proven on the earlier-generation version of this spectrograph. iSHELL will replace CSHELL, a single-order echelle spectrograph. CSHELL achieved first light in 1993; despite its age and small simultaneous wavelength range (about 0.006 microns at 2.2 microns), CSHELL still averages about 15% of available telescope time because it is one of only a few 1-5 micron echelle spectrographs of comparable resolution available to observers in the northern hemisphere. Capitalizing on technological developments in spectrograph gratings and infrared arrays, iSHELL will provide greatly improved capabilities over CSHELL. CSHELL will have up to 50 times the single-shot wavelength grasp of iSHELL, with up to twice the resolving power (R=70,000). iSHELL has a very strong core science case ranging from planetary atmospheres and comets, to protostellar disks and stellar physics. A wide variety of other science is also enabled with iSHELL's general-purpose capabilities. However, to fully exploit this capability requires the planned data reduction system to efficiently reduce and calibrate complicated cross-dispersed data format.The IRTF serves a broad community of scientists at major research centers, universities, and small colleges, with substantial student involvement. The earlier generation of software has been used on data from several major instruments, and the same is expected to be true for the software developed under this award.Funding for this project is being provided by NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences through its Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation program.