Visualization

A debugging tool to visualize the Campaign Manager's exposure model

Overview

The model viewer is a visualization tool written in Python that I built to verify that the exposure model is predicting reasonable magnitudes and exposure lengths for the B, V, R, and I filters. The choice of filters is arbitrary and there is no reason that the model would work for these filters but fail for others.

The tool has multiple sliders and buttons that modify the the model parameters and plot the predicted exposure lengths. The corresponding magnitudes for each filter are displayed in small windows to the right of the main plot window. There are also three buttons that each have different presets.

The source code for this tool is on my GitHub: github/viewer. The tool is part of a larger repo that I use for my PhD thesis. To use the tool, simply run the viewer.py script and the window will display. The only requirement outside of my custom classes is matplotlib.

Displays

Main Display

The main display is the large window that plots the modeled exposure lengths. There are four curves; one for each filter (B, V, R, and I). You'll also notice a green marker on the V-band curve. The marker moves along the V-band curve as you move the time slider left and right. There's no real purpose to the marker. I had a plan for it originally, but it ended up being unnecessary. I left it in because it's fun to watch the marker move along the curve, especially when the curve is non-linear.

Magnitude and Exposure Length Displays

The magnitude and exposure length displays are the four small white boxes to the right of the main display. As their names suggest they display the magnitudes and exposure lengths for each filter, though each box can only display one of the values at a time. To toggle between magnitudes and exposure lengths, simply click on the box and the other value is displayed. Each display is independent, so one you can have any combination of magnitudes and exposure lengths displayed.

Sliders

Time Slider

The time slider changes the time in minutes since the event trigger (the event trigger is defined as 0 seconds for this tool). This slider doesn't modify the model, instead, it allows you to see the modeled magnitude and exposure length values at any given time.

Temporal, Spectral, Reference Time, and Reference Mag Sliders

Each of these sliders function in an identical way. The only variance is the parameter that they modify and the bounds for their given parameter. Moving a slider changes the value of it's corresponding parameter and the model is immediately updated and redrawn in the main display. The magnitudes and exposure lengths are also updated in their windows in real-time accordingly.

Buttons

Reset Button

The reset button resets all of the parameters to their default values. The default values were selected as the values that we use when observing gamma-ray bursts.

PROMPT-5 and PROMPT-MO Buttons

The PROMPT-5 and PROMPT-MO buttons are named after two of our PROMPT telescopes. Clicking on either button will update the model using the efficiency for that telescope. A more efficient telescope should have shorter exposure lengths for the same magnitude object.