Gene 2

After a couple of false starts and delays, we have finally updated the
operational IPP to the latest version.

The regular processing is now being performed with the IPP tag
ipp-20101029 (the Black Friday tag...).  This can be found in our svn
tree at:

https://svn.pan-starrs.ifa.hawaii.edu/repo/ipp/tags/ipp-20101029

This update incorporates a number of changes that have been in the
works and in testing since the meeting at Belfast.  Here is a summary
of the most important changes and improvements:

* new output formats : PS1_V3 and PS1_DV2, with a number of new fields.  see:
 http://svn.pan-starrs.ifa.hawaii.edu/trac/ipp/wiki/CMF_PS1_V3
 http://svn.pan-starrs.ifa.hawaii.edu/trac/ipp/wiki/CMF_PS1_DV2

* the Star likelihood measurement and the Cosmic Ray detection are
improved, see the discussion at:
 http://svn.pan-starrs.ifa.hawaii.edu/trac/ipp/wiki/StarGalaxySeparation

* Cosmic Rays are now masked in the chip-stage output images

* Some improvements to both the DUAL and SINGLE convolution analysis,
discussed at the following link (more discussion to be added soon):
 http://svn.pan-starrs.ifa.hawaii.edu/trac/ipp/wiki/ppSubModifications_201009

* Stack masking now includes information about the cause of masked
pixels, as well as information about suspicious pixels.  see:
 http://svn.pan-starrs.ifa.hawaii.edu/trac/ipp/wiki/Stack

* Fixes to the bright star masking:  The size of the bright star
circles was OK for very bright stars (-23 inst mags), but too small
for stars at or just beyond the saturation limit.  This is now fixed.
Also, the w-band images used too small of a zero point for the over
all scaling.

* STACK-STACK processing now uses SINGLE convolution of the template
instead of DUAL convolution

* addressed a couple of low-level bugs that caused errors in the
calculation of centroids or screwed up the peak positions in some
chips

* for faint sources, where we do not perform a full non-linear fit for
the position, we are now reporting the position and position errors
based on the centroids rather than on the peak in the detection image.
 With the fix above, this gives much more reliable values for the
position and errors on these faint sources.

* for forced photometry, we are now keeping the supplied position (the
code had been letting the position be reset by the pixel analysis,
which is definitely wrong).

This release includes some fixes to psphotStack, which is used for the
'static sky / deep stack' photometry, but there are a few outstanding
concerns that have not yet been addressed.  This release also does not
address the STS desire for forced photometry in the diff images of the
input image sources.

Also note that MOPS will continue to receive the old format tables
until they are ready; the detections are being generated at the diff
stage with the new format (PS1_DV2), but the publication process is
producing the old format.

Finally, this is NOT the final IPP version release before the Great
Reprocessing.  Aside from the issues listed above, there are some
other things to be addressed.  We will be producing sample
re-processing of MD04 and SAS data, among others, for feedback.  I
suspect it will be 2 - 3 weeks before everything else that needs to be
addressed before the Great Reprocessing can be addressed.

aloha
gene