Working with PAHFITcube results

Default visualizations

A default vizualization is offered via CubeModel.maps.plot_map which simply applies matplotlib.pyplot.imshow to the map data.

More complex vizualizations can be made by accessing the data stored in CubeModel.models and CubeModel.maps. The former is a dictionary of pahfit.Model objects, the latter is a class called MapCollection, in which the maps can be accessed using their names as dictionary keys. Below are a few examples

map_collection = cube_model.maps

# get a map array for a parameter
map_data = map_collection['PAH_15.9_powerz']

# plot a single map
map_collection.plot_map('PAH_15.9_power')

# plot overview of many maps
map_collection.plot_map_collage(['H2_O(3)_2.9_power', 'H2_O(4)_power', 'H2_O(5)_power'])

# make a WCS, and save as multi-extention fits file, which can be displayed in e.g. DS9
wcs = astropy.wcs.WCS(...)
map_collection.save(wcs, "maps.fits")

The maps.fits file can be loaded in DS9 by using the menu bar > file > open as > Multiple Extension Cube.

Exporting the results

If you would like to analyze your results in another tool, the results can be exported as either a multi-extension fits file containing all the maps (MapCollection.save()), or as a long table containing one row per pixel and one column per map (MapCollection.save_as_table(file_name.hdf5)).

The former is compatible with DS9 (if loaded as multi-extension cube). The latter can be easily loaded into Glueviz to quickly make scatter plots and inspect relations between groups of spaxels.