Mapping the SKA Simulated Skies with the S3-Tools

TL;DR

This paper introduces S3-Tools, Python routines for accessing and visualizing the SKA Simulated Skies, aiding in the design and testing of radio telescope observations.

Contribution

It provides practical methods to generate radio images from S3 simulations, facilitating their use in instrument simulation and observational planning.

Findings

Accessible web-based database of S3 simulations

Tools for creating radio images from simulations

Supports SKA technical and observational assessments

Abstract

The S3-Tools are a set of Python-based routines and interfaces whose purpose is to provide user-friendly access to the SKA Simulated Skies (S3) set of simulations, an effort led by the University of Oxford in the framework of the European Union's SKADS program (http://www.skads-eu.org). The databases built from the S3 simulations are hosted by the Oxford e-Research Center (OeRC), and can be accessed through a web portal at http://s-cubed.physics.ox.ac.uk. This paper focuses on the practical steps involved to make radio images from the S3-SEX and S3-SAX simulations using the S3-Map tool and should be taken as a broad overview. For a more complete description, the interested reader should look up the user's guide. The output images can then be used as input to instrument simulators, e.g. to assess technical designs and observational strategies for the SKA and SKA pathfinders.