Recipe Parameters and the Science Archive

When processing jobs are submitted to the science archive ORAC-DR is configured to load a specialist recipe parameter file associated with the project. This can be used by PIs or surveys to tune processing to their liking. The idea is that PIs or survey teams send us their recipe parameter files and we then make sure that the processing jobs use them.

This week I've updated the recipe parameter system to allow tuning based on the object name as well as the recipe name. In some projects the objects are completely different so a single parameter file was not useful. Hopefully this change will encourage more people to send us parameter files.

To use the object based scheme simply append the object name to the recipe name in the file along with a colon. No spaces in the object name.

  [REDUCE_SCAN:M82]
  PAR1 = A
  PAR2 = B

If there is also a recipe-based entry those parameters will be merged in

  [REDUCE_SCAN]
  PAR1 = Aprime
  PAR3 = C

So in this example if the object name is "M82" PAR1, PAR2 and PAR3 will be set and PAR1 will have a value "A". If the object is no "M82" only PAR1 and PAR3 will be set and PAR1 will have value "Aprime".

This change is currently on the stardev rsync server, or if you have git installed you can update your own ORAC-DR distribution.