Develop Reference

Converting pixels into wavelength using 2 FITS files

I am new to python and FITS image files, as such I am running into issues. I have two FITS files; the first FITS file is pixels/counts and the second FITS file (calibration file) is pixels/wavelength. I need to convert pixels/counts into wavelength/counts. Once this is done, I need to output wavelength/counts as a new FITS file for further analysis. So far I have managed to array the required data as shown in the code below.
import numpy as np
from astropy.io import fits
# read the images
image_file = ("run_1.fits")
image_calibration = ("cali_1.fits")
hdr = fits.getheader(image_file)
hdr_c = fits.getheader(image_calibration)
# print headers
sp = fits.open(image_file)
print('\n\nHeader of the spectrum :\n\n', sp[0].header, '\n\n')
sp_c = fits.open(image_calibration)
print('\n\nHeader of the spectrum :\n\n', sp_c[0].header, '\n\n')
# generation of arrays with the wavelengths and counts
count = np.array(sp[0].data)
wave = np.array(sp_c[0].data)
I do not understand how to save two separate arrays into one FITS file. I tried an alternative approach by creating list as shown in this code
file_list = fits.open(image_file)
calibration_list = fits.open(image_calibration)
image_data = file_list[0].data
calibration_data = calibration_list[0].data
# make a list to hold images
img_list = []
img_list.append(image_data)
img_list.append(calibration_data)
# list to numpy array
img_array = np.array(img_list)
# save the array as fits - image cube
fits.writeto('mycube.fits', img_array)
However I could only save as a cube, which is not correct because I just need wavelength and counts data. Also, I lost all the headers in the newly created FITS file. To say I am lost is an understatement! Could someone point me in the right direction please? Thank you.
I am still working on this problem. I have now managed (I think) to produce a FITS file containing the wavelength and counts using this website:
https://www.mubdirahman.com/assets/lecture-3---numerical-manipulation-ii.pdf
This is my code:
# Making a Primary HDU (required):
primaryhdu = fits.PrimaryHDU(flux) # Makes a header # or if you have a header that you’ve created: primaryhdu = fits.PrimaryHDU(arr1, header=head1)
# If you have additional extensions:
secondhdu = fits.ImageHDU(wave)
# Making a new HDU List:
hdulist1 = fits.HDUList([primaryhdu, secondhdu])
# Writing the file:
hdulist1.writeto("filename.fits", overwrite=True)
image = ("filename.fits")
hdr = fits.open(image)
image_data = hdr[0].data
wave_data = hdr[1].data
I am sure this is not the correct format for wavelength/counts. I need both wavelength and counts to be contained in hdr[0].data

If you are working with spectral data, it might be useful to look into specutils which is designed for common tasks associated with reading/writing/manipulating spectra.
It's common to store spectral data in FITS files using tables, rather than images. For example you can create a table containing wavelength, flux, and counts columns, and include the associated units in the column metadata.
The docs include an example on how to create a generic "FITS table" writer with wavelength and flux columns. You could start from this example and modify it to suit your exact needs (which can vary quite a bit from case to case, which is probably why a "generic" FITS writer is not built-in).
You might also be able to use the fits-wcs1d format.
If you prefer not to use specutils, that example still might be useful as it demonstrates how to create an Astropy Table from your data and output it to a well-formatted FITS file.

H5Py and storage

I am writing some code which needs to save a very large numpy array to memory. The numpy array is so large in fact that I cannot load it all into memory at once. But I can calculate the array in chunks. I.e. my code looks something like:
for i in np.arange(numberOfChunks):
myArray[(i*chunkSize):(i*(chunkSize+1)),:,:] = #... do some calculation
As I can't load myArray into memory all at once, I want to save it to a file one "chunk" at a time. i.e. I want to do something like this:
for i in np.arange(numberOfChunks):
myArrayChunk = #... do some calculation to obtain chunk
saveToFile(myArrayChunk, indicesInFile=[(i*chunkSize):(i*(chunkSize+1)),:,:], filename)
I understand this can be done with h5py but I am a little confused how to do this. My current understanding is that I can do this:
import h5py
# Make the file
h5py_file = h5py.File(filename, "a")
# Tell it we are going to store a dataset
myArray = h5py_file.create_dataset("myArray", myArrayDimensions, compression="gzip")
for i in np.arange(numberOfChunks):
myArrayChunk = #... do some calculation to obtain chunk
myArray[(i*chunkSize):(i*(chunkSize+1)),:,:] = myArrayChunk
But this is where I become a little confused. I have read that if you index a h5py datatype like I did when I wrote myArray[(i*chunkSize):(i*(chunkSize+1)),:,:], then this part of myArray has now been read into memory. So surely, by the end of my loop above, have I not still got the whole of myArray in memory now? How has this saved my memory?
Similarly, later on, I would like to read in my file back in one chunk at a time, doing further calculation. i.e. I would like to do something like:
import h5py
# Read in the file
h5py_file = h5py.File(filename, "a")
# Read in myArray
myArray = h5py_file['myArray']
for i in np.arange(numberOfChunks):
# Read in chunk
myArrayChunk = myArray[(i*chunkSize):(i*(chunkSize+1)),:,:]
# ... Do some calculation on myArrayChunk
But by the end of this loop is the whole of myArray now in memory? I am a little confused by when myArray[(i*chunkSize):(i*(chunkSize+1)),:,:] is in memory and when it isn't. Please could someone explain this.

You have the basic idea. Take care when saying "save to memory". NumPy arrays are saved in memory (RAM). HDF5 data is saved on disk (not to memory/RAM!), then accessed (memory used depends on how you access). In the first step you are creating and writing data in chunks to the disk. In the second step you are accessing data from disk in chunks. Working example provided at the end.
When reading data with h5py there 2 ways to read the data:
This returns a NumPy array:
myArrayNP = myArray[:,:,:]
This returns a h5py dataset object that operates like a NumPy array:
myArrayDS = myArray
The difference: h5py dataset objects are not read into memory all at once. You can then slice them as needed. Continuing from above, this is a valid operation to get a subset of the data:
myArrayChunkNP = myArrayDS[i*chunkSize):(i+1)*chunkSize),:,:]
My example also corrects 1 small error in your chunksize increment equation.
You had:
myArray[(i*chunkSize):(i*(chunkSize+1)),:,:] = myArrayChunk
You want:
myArray[(i*chunkSize):(i+1)*chunkSize),:,:] = myArrayChunk
Working Example (writes and reads):
import h5py
import numpy as np
# Make the file
with h5py.File("SO_61173314.h5", "w") as h5w:
numberOfChunks = 3
chunkSize = 4
print( 'WRITING %d chunks with w/ chunkSize=%d ' % (numberOfChunks,chunkSize) )
# Write dataset to disk
h5Array = h5w.create_dataset("myArray", (numberOfChunks*chunkSize,2,2), compression="gzip")
for i in range(numberOfChunks):
h5ArrayChunk = np.random.random(chunkSize*2*2).reshape(chunkSize,2,2)
print (h5ArrayChunk)
h5Array[(i*chunkSize):((i+1)*chunkSize),:,:] = h5ArrayChunk
with h5py.File("SO_61173314.h5", "r") as h5r:
print( '/nREADING %d chunks with w/ chunkSize=%d/n' % (numberOfChunks,chunkSize) )
# Access myArray dataset - Note: This is NOT a NumpPy array
myArray = h5r['myArray']
for i in range(numberOfChunks):
# Read a chunk into memory (as a NumPy array)
myArrayChunk = myArray[(i*chunkSize):((i+1)*chunkSize),:,:]
# ... Do some calculation on myArrayChunk
print (myArrayChunk)

How to append chunks of 2D numpy array to binary file as the chunks are created?

I have a large input file which consists of data frames (a data series (complex64), with an identifying header in each frame). It is larger than my available memory. The headers repeat, but are randomly ordered, so for example the input file could look like:
<FRAME header={0}, data={**first** 500 numbers...}>,
<FRAME header={18}, data={first 500 numbers...}>,
<FRAME header={4}, data={first 500 numbers...}>,
<FRAME header={0}, data={**next** 500 numbers...}>
...
I want to order the data into a new file that is a numpy array of shape (len(headers), len(data_series)). It has to build the output file as it reads the frames, because I can't fit it all in memory.
I've looked at numpy.savetxt and the python csv package but for disk size, precision, and speed reasons I would prefer for the output file to be binary. numpy.save is good except that I can't figure out how to make it append to an unknown array size.
I have to work in Python2.7 because of some dependencies needed to read these frames. What I have done so far is made a function able to write all of the frames with a matching header to a single binary file:
input_data = Funky_Data_Reader_that_doesnt_matter(input_filename)
with open("singleFrameHeader", 'ab') as f:
current_data = input_data.readFrame() # This loads the next frame in the file
if current_data.header == 0:
float_arr = np.array(current_data.data).view(float)
float_arr.tofile(f)
This works great, but what I need to extend it to be two dimensional. I'm starting to look at h5py as an option, but was hoping there is a simpler solution.
What would be great is something like
input_data = Funky_Data_Reader_that_doesnt_matter(input_filename)
with open("bigMatrix", 'ab') as f:
current_data = input_data.readFrame() # This loads the next frame in the file
index = current_data.header
float_arr = np.array(current_data.data).view(float)
float_arr.tofile(f, index)
Any help is appreciated. I thought this would be a more common use-case to read and write to a 2D binary file in append mode.

You have two problems: one is that a file contains sequential data, and the other is that numpy binary files don't store shape information.
A simple way to start solving this would be to carry through with your initial idea of converting the data into files by header, then combining all the binary files into one large product (if you still feel the need to do so).
You could maintain a map of the headers you've found so far to their output files, data size, etc. This will allow you to combine the data more intelligently, if for example, there are missing chunks or headers or something.
from contextlib import ExitStack
from os import remove
from tempfile import NamedTemporaryFile
from shutil import copyfileobj
import sys
class Header:
__slots__ = ('id', 'count', 'file', 'name')
def __init__(self, id):
self.id = id
self.count = 0
self.file = NamedTemporaryFile(delete=False)
self.name = self.file.name
def write_frame(self, frame):
data = np.array(frame.data).view(float)
self.count += data.size
data.tofile(self.file)
input_data = Funky_Data_Reader_that_doesnt_matter(input_filename)
file_map = {}
with ExitStack() as stack:
while True:
frame = input_data.next_frame()
if frame is None:
break # recast this loop as necessary
if frame.header not in file_map:
header = Header(frame.header)
stack.enter_context(header.file)
file_map[frame.header] = header
else:
header = file_map[frame.header]
header.write_frame(frame)
max_header = max(file_map)
max_count = max(h.count for h in file_map)
with open('singleFrameHeader', 'wb') as output:
output.write(max_header.to_bytes(8, sys.byteorder))
output.write(max_count.to_bytes(8, sys.byteorder))
for i in range max_header:
if i in file_map:
h = file_map[i]
with open(h.name, 'rb') as input:
copyfileobj(input, output)
remove(h.name)
if h.count < max_count:
np.full(max_count - h.count, np.nan, dtype=np.float).tofile(output)
else:
np.full(max_count, np.nan, dtype=np.float).tofile(output)
The first 16 bytes will be the int64 number of headers and number of elements per header, respectively. Keep in mind that the file is in native byte order, whatever that may be, and is therefore not portable.
Alternative
If (and only if) you know the exact size of a header dataset ahead of time, you can do this in one pass, with no temporary files. It also helps if the headers are contiguous. Otherwise, missing swaths will be zero-filled. You will still need to maintain a dictionary of your current position within a header, but you will no longer have to keep a separate file pointer around for each one. All-in-all, this is a much better alternative than the original solution, if your use-case allows it:
header_size = 500 * N # You must know this up front
input_data = Funky_Data_Reader_that_doesnt_matter(input_filename)
header_map = {}
with open('singleFrameHeader', 'wb') as output:
output.write(max_header.to_bytes(8, sys.byteorder))
output.write(max_count.to_bytes(8, sys.byteorder))
while True:
frame = input_data.next__frame()
if frame is None:
break
if frame.header not in header_map:
header_map[frame.header] = 0
data = np.array(frame.data).view(float)
output.seek(16 + frame.header * header_size + header_map[frame.header])
data.tofile(output)
header_map[frame.header] += data.size * data.dtype.itemsize
I asked a question regarding this sort of out-of-order write pattern as a consequence of this answer: What happens when you seek past the end of a file opened for writing?

How to read and extract values from a binary file using python code?

I am relatively new to python. As part of my astronomy project work, I have to deal with binary files (which of course is again new to me). I was given a binary file and a python code which reads data from the binary file. I was then asked by my professor to understand how the code works on the binary file. I spent couple of days trying to figure out, but nothing helped. Can anyone here help me with the code?
# Read the binary opacity file
f = open(file, "r")
# read file dimension sizes
a = np.fromfile(f, dtype=np.int32, count=16)
NX, NY, NZ = a[1], a[4], a[7]
# read the time and time step
time, time_step = np.fromfile(f, dtype=np.float64, count=2)
# number of iterations
nite = np.fromfile(f, dtype=np.int32, count=1)
# radius array
trash = np.fromfile(f, dtype=np.float64, count=1)
rad = np.fromfile(f, dtype=np.float64, count=a[1])
# phi array
trash = np.fromfile(f, dtype=np.float64, count=1)
phi = np.fromfile(f, dtype=np.float64, count=a[4])
# close the file
f.close()
The binary file as far as I know contains several parameters (eg: radius, phi, sound speed, radiation energy) and its many values. The above code extract the values 2 parameters- radius and phi from the binary file. Both radius and phi have more than 100 values. The program works, but I am not able to understand how it works. Any help would be appreciated.

The binary file is essentially just a long list of continuous data; you need to tell np.fromfile() both where to look and what type of data to expect.
Perhaps it's easiest to understand if you create your own file:
import numpy as np
with open('numpy_testfile', 'w+') as f:
## we create a "header" line, which collects the lengths of all relevant arrays
## you can then use this header line to tell np.fromfile() *how long* the arrays are
dimensions=np.array([0,10,0,0,10,0,3,10],dtype=np.int32)
dimensions.tofile(f) ## write to file
a=np.arange(0,10,1) ## some fake data, length 10
a.tofile(f) ## write to file
print(a.dtype)
b=np.arange(30,40,1) ## more fake data, length 10
b.tofile(f) ## write to file
print(b.dtype)
## more interesting data, this time it's of type float, length 3
c=np.array([3.14,4.22,55.0],dtype=np.float64)
c.tofile(f) ## write to file
print(c.dtype)
a.tofile(f) ## just for fun, let's write "a" again
with open('numpy_testfile', 'r+b') as f:
### what's important to know about this step is that
# numpy is "seeking" the file automatically, i.e. it is considering
# the first count=8, than the next count=10, and so on
# as "continuous data"
dim=np.fromfile(f,dtype=np.int32,count=8)
print(dim) ## our header line: [ 0 10 0 0 10 0 3 10]
a=np.fromfile(f,dtype=np.int64,count=dim[1])## read the dim[1]=10 numbers
b=np.fromfile(f,dtype=np.int64,count=dim[4])## and the next 10
## now it's dim[6]=3, and the dtype is float 10
c=np.fromfile(f,dtype=np.float64,count=dim[6] )#count=30)
## read "the rest", unspecified length, let's hope it's all int64 actually!
d=np.fromfile(f,dtype=np.int64)
print(a)
print(b)
print(c)
print(d)
Addendum: the numpy documentation is quite explicit when it comes to discouraging the use of np.tofile() and np.fromfile():
Do not rely on the combination of tofile and fromfile for data storage, as the binary files generated are are not platform independent. In particular, no byte-order or data-type information is saved. Data can be stored in the platform independent .npy format using save and load instead.
Personal side note: if you spent a couple of days to understand this code, don't feel discouraged of learning python; we all start somewhere. I'd suggest to be honest about the obstacles you've hit to your Professor (if this comes up in conversation), as she/he should be able to correctly assert "where you're at" when it comes to programming. :-)

from astropy.io import ascii
data = ascii.read('/directory/filename')
column1data = data[nameofcolumn1]
column2data = data[nameofcolumn2]
ect.
column1data is now an array of all the values under that header
I use this method to import SourceExtractor dat files which are in the ASCII format.
I believe this a more elegant way to import data from ascii files.

python sparse matrix creation paralellize to speed up

I am creating a sparse matrix file, by extracting the features from an input file. The input file contains in each row, one film id, and then followed by some feature IDs and that features score.
6729792 4:0.15568 8:0.198796 9:0.279261 13:0.17829 24:0.379707
the first number is the ID of the film, and then the value to the left of the colon is feature ID and the value to the right is the score of that feature.
Each line represents one film, and the number of feature:score pairs vary from one film to another.
here is how I construct my sparse matrix.
import sys
import os
import os.path
import time
import numpy as np
from Film import Film
import scipy
from scipy.sparse import coo_matrix, csr_matrix, rand
def sparseCreate(self, Debug):
a = rand(self.total_rows, self.total_columns, format='csr')
l, m = a.shape[0], a.shape[1]
f = tb.open_file("sparseFile.h5", 'w')
filters = tb.Filters(complevel=5, complib='blosc')
data_matrix = f.create_carray(f.root, 'data', tb.Float32Atom(), shape=(l, m), filters=filters)
index_film = 0
input_data = open('input_file.txt', 'r')
for line in input_data:
my_line = np.array(line.split())
id_film = my_line[0]
my_line = np.core.defchararray.split(my_line[1:], ":")
self.data_matrix_search_normal[str(id_film)] = index_film
self.data_matrix_search_reverse[index_film] = str(id_film)
for element in my_line:
if int(element[0]) in self.selected_features:
column = self.index_selected_feature[str(element[0])]
data_matrix[index_film, column] = float(element[1])
index_film += 1
self.selected_matrix = data_matrix
json.dump(self.data_matrix_search_reverse,
open(os.path.join(self.output_path, "data_matrix_search_reverse.json"), 'wb'),
sort_keys=True, indent=4)
my_films = Film(
self.selected_matrix, self.data_matrix_search_reverse, self.path_doc, self.output_path)
x_matrix_unique = self.selected_matrix[:, :]
r_matrix_unique = np.asarray(x_matrix_unique)
f.close()
return my_films
Question:
I feel that this function is too slow on big datasets, and it takes too long to calculate.
How can I improve and accelerate it? maybe using MapReduce? What is wrong in this function that makes it too slow?

IO + conversions (from str, to str, even 2 times to str of the same var, etc) + splits + explicit loops. Btw, there is CSV python module which may be used to parse your input file, you can experiment with it (I suppose you use space as delimiter). Also I' see you convert element[0] to int/str which is bad - you create many tmp. object. If you call this function several times, you may to try to reuse some internal objects (array?). Also, you can try to implement it in another style: with map or list comprehension, but experiments are needed...
General idea of Python code optimization is to avoid explicit Python byte-code execution and to prefer native/C Python functions (for anything). And sure try to solve so many conversions. Also if input file is yours you can format it to fixed length of fields - this helps you to avoid split/parse totally (only string indexing).