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Paper: Software Modelling of IFU Spectrometers
Volume: 394, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems (ADASS) XVII
Page: 187
Authors: Lorente, N.P.F.; Glasse, A.C.H.; Ramsay Howat, S.K.; Evans, C.J.
Abstract: Specsim has been developed to model, in software, the operation of Integral Field Unit (IFU) spectrometers, thus giving the science, engineering and operations teams responsible for designing, building and running such instruments a preview of the data products, before the system is operational. Specsim generates synthetic data frames approximating those which will be taken by the spectrometer. The program models user-defined astronomical sources and generates detector frames using the predicted and measured properties of the telescope and instrument. These frames can then be used to illustrate and inform a range of activities, including refining the instrument design, developing calibration strategies and the development and testing of data reduction pipelines. The software has been designed to be expandable. This allows one to incorporate, with relative ease, future instrument models into the program’s existing infrastructure, as required. Currently, Specsim is used to model the Medium Resolution Spectrograph on JWST-MIRI, KMOS on the ESO VLT, and is also employed in the E-ELT design studies.
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