NAME

       mMakeImg - Generate synthetic FITS images

SYNOPSIS

       mMakeImg  [-d  level]  [-n  noise_level]  [-b  bg1 bg2 bg3 bg4] [-t tbl col width epoch mag] template.hdr
       out.fits

DESCRIPTION

       Generates synthetic FITS images, with varying levels of noise, from a table of  provided  point  sources.
       Each  source  is  treated  independently  and  its  flux is distributed on a source-specific point-spread
       function.

OPTIONS

       -d level
              Turns on debugging to the specified level (1-4).

       -n noise_level
              Specified random noise equal to noise_level will be added to image background.

       -b bg1 bg2 bg3 bg4
              Specifies the four corners for a 'tilted' background for the image. Each value is a floating point
              number specifying the background height at the corner.

       -f     Use uniform flat disk for sources rather than gaussians.

       -r     Replace pixel values rather than adding to them.

       -t tbl col width epoch mag
              Specifies  a  table of sources to be added to the raw image. tbl is the table filename, col is the
              column name which contains the source fluxes, width is a floating  point  number  determining  the
              point  spread  of  each  source,  epoch  is  the  coordinate system reference year, and mag is the
              reference magnitude of the source list. In addition, the source  table  should  have  ra  and  dec
              columns for the image positions.

              Several  input  tables  can  be  specified  if  desired  through  repeated  use of the -t flag and
              arguments.

ARGUMENTS

       template.hdr
              FITS header template, used to indicate the desired parameters of the output image

       out.fits
              Path of FITS image to be generated.

RESULT

       Synthetic FITS output image; sources in image will represent the values from the input table(s).

MESSAGES

       OK     [struct stat="OK"]

       ERROR  Can't open table table tbl

       ERROR  Can't find lon, lat columns

       ERROR  Can't find flux/magnitude column 'col'

       ERROR  Template file [template.hdr] not found

       ERROR  Output wcsinit() failed.  Exiting.

       ERROR  FITS library error

EXAMPLES

       $ mMakeImg -n 0.01 -b 0 1.0 1.0 0 -t sources.tbl J_MAG 5.0 2000 10.0 template.hdr out.fits
              [struct stat="OK"]

BUGS

       The drizzle algorithm has been implemented but has not been tested in this release.

       If a header template contains carriage returns (i.e., created/modified on a Windows machine), the cfitsio
       library  will  be  unable  to read it properly, resulting in the error: [struct stat="ERROR", status=207,
       msg="illegal character in keyword"]

       It is best for the background correction  algorithms  if  the  area  described  in  the  header  template
       completely encloses all of the input images in their entirety. If parts of input images are "chopped off"
       by the header template, the background correction will be affected. We  recommend  you  use  an  expanded
       header  for  the  reprojection  and background modeling steps, returning to the originally desired header
       size for the final coaddition. The default background matching  assumes  that  there  are  no  non-linear
       background  variations  in  the individual images (and therefore in the overlap differences). If there is
       any uncertainty in this regard, it is safer to turn on the "level only"  background  matching  (the  "-l"
       flag in mBgModel.

COPYRIGHT

       2001-2015 California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California

       If  your  research uses Montage, please include the following acknowledgement: "This research made use of
       Montage. It is funded by the  National  Science  Foundation  under  Grant  Number  ACI-1440620,  and  was
       previously funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Earth Science Technology Office,
       Computation Technologies Project, under Cooperative  Agreement  Number  NCC5-626  between  NASA  and  the
       California Institute of Technology."

       The  Montage  distribution includes an adaptation of the MOPEX algorithm developed at the Spitzer Science
       Center.