What's new ?

7 December 2012 - FESTIVAL 5.0 :

• Support for AIA data
  • FESTIVAL 5.0 supports AIA / SDO data.
  • The user can either visualize AIA files already present on its computer, or acces data remotely via the MEDOC archive or the VSO.


• Support for SWAP / PROBA2 data
  • FESTIVAL 5.0 supports SWAP / PROBA 2 data.
  • The user can either visualize SWAP files already present on its computer, or acces data remotely via the VSO.


• Support for COR1 & COR2 / SECCHI TB double exposures
  • When searching for COR1 and COR2 total brightness (TB) images, FESTIVAL now includes doubles exposures (TB images computed on-board from two polarized images taken back to back). Up to now FESTIVAL was returning only the polarization triplets. As double exposures are taking more often to compensate for the decrease of SECCHI telemetry as the distance to the Earth increases, this restriction was limiting the effective cadence of COR1 / COR2 sequences.


• Enhanced search options for STEREO / SECCHI
  • Searches for SECCHI data based on the X-Y image dimensions can now include "greater than" and "smaller than" conditions in addition to the strict equality. As more binned images are taken to compensate for the telemetry decrease, tthis new flexibility allows to include a range of binning sizes in the search results.
    

• New differences options GUI
  • Allows easy creation of base difference images and of N - x running differences.
  • Possibility to make stars-shifted difference images for HI 1 & 2. This dramatically reduces the star background.
  • Possibility to compensate for the solar rotation betwen images for EIT, EUVI, AIA & SWAP.


• New System - MEDOC / VSO options tab
  • A new tab in the System GUI allows customization of the data access via MEDOC and the VSO. It is possible to turn ON or OFF the download status bars and to automatically delete from your hard disk the downloaded FITS files after use.

• Several generic improvements
• Possibility to select full FOV images for EIT, LASCO C2 and C3.
• Clearer Projection GUI.
• Faster redraw of the Carrington and Stonyhurst grids.
• Faster catalogue search for SECCHI data.
• Faster catalogue search for LASCO data.
• Keyboard shortcut added to the Masking GUI.
• Several minor bugs fixed.

24 February 2009 - FESTIVAL 4.1 :

• Removed search for SECCHI data in the PB and RT trees
  • Earlier versions of FESTIVAL were collapsing the SECCHI LZ, PB and RT data trees. This mechanism was suppressed as all the data of scientific interest are now located in the LZ tree.


• Interpolation of SECCHI backgrounds
  • The interpolate keyword is now set by default when calling scc_getbkgimg. This prevents intensity jumps when switching from one background to another.


• Accurate coalignment without SPICE calls on 64 bit machines
  • Coalignment errors were occuring due to SPICE restrictions on 64 bit machines. Accurate coalignment is now achieved without calling SPICE..


• No X-server needed anymore in batch mode
  • An X-server was needed in batch mode, preventing users to run FESTIVAL while disconnected. This is now fixed.

12 December 2008 - FESTIVAL 4.0 :

• Command line mode (batch)
  • FESTIVAL can now be run directly from an IDL command line without the graphic user interface. Imagine you regularly want to make an EUVI/COR1 movie. You can now create a configuration file that contains all the parameters of the view (instruments and wavelengths selected, centering of the view on the Sun to view, cadence, etc.) and then run FESTIVAL in batch mode using the configuration to create your movie easily from the command line whenever you want without having to adjust the parameters again. See the user's manual for more details.


• Postprocessing options
  • Automatic timestamping: it is now possible to add timestamps to the saved images (and sequences of images). The position, and color of the timestamps can be modified.
  • Automatic pasting: when saving images or sequences in linked mode (e.g. STEREO A & B & SOHO), it is now possible to automatically paste the saved images into a single image. This feature works also with the timestamping option turned on.


• New, more flexible compact mode
  • In compact mode, you can now specify on wich instrument you want to sync the cadence of a sequence. This is an elegant way to solve the problem of different cadences between instruments. For example, in a compact mode EUVI/COR1 movie, FESTIVAL was going through all EIT/COR1 couples of images. Now, you can chose to either sync your movie on EUVI, or on COR1 in which case only the EUVI images closest in time to the COR1s will be computed.


• System options
  • Several options that affect the behaviour of FESTIVAL are now directly accessible via the new system GUI. For example, you can adjust the size of the history stack, disable /enable hardware acceleration, adjust the mouse wheel zoom factor, etc.


• SECCHI options file
  • The secchi_prep routine used to calibrate SECCHI data comes with many options. Instead of having a busy interface with many options, you can document the parameters or keyword values in a configuration file. This way, FESTIVAL will always be able to use the latest secchi_prep options without having to modify the FESTIVAL interfaces. The same mechanism will be extened to all instruments. Workarounds are in the works.


• Support for TRACE and XRT data
  • FESTIVAL is now able to handle TRACE and XRT data. Queries can be made locally or through VSO. Warning: we are still experiencing alignment issues on some images from these two instruments. These seem to be due to incorrect pointing information in the TRACE and XRT headers.


• New enhancement capabilities
  • It is now possible to assign different enhancement properties (min, max and enhancement curve) to each combination of filter, wavelength and visualization mode (intensity or running difference). By default, FESTIVAL now automatically switches to linear scaling and gray scale when the running difference mode is called.


• New overlays
  • NOAA active regions numbers can now be overlayed on the images. Access this option from the context menus (right click, Overlays -> NOAA Active Regions)


• Keyboard shortcuts
• Most menus are now quickly accessible through keyboard shortcuts (e.g. shift+E to bring up the enhancement GUI). This is very convenient when the visualization GUIs are maximized. You don't have to bring up the selection GUI anymore to access the menus.


• Precise sizing of windows
• It is now possible to specify the exact size of the visualization GUI windows from the context menus. You can specify one on the preset sizes, a fully custom size, or force one GUI to be the same size as another one. This option is very convenient to make sure that your saved movies have the exact desired size.


• Library of ready-to use advanced filters
  • Several filters are now distributed as examples of the advanced data processing capabilities of FESTIVAL. They include radial filtering, star removal in HI running difference images and filling of EIT images missing data blocks.

 

5 May 2008 - FESTIVAL 3.0 :

• Brand new query engine
  • The query engine has been completely recoded to enable local files and VSO search. Go to the Options-> Search Directory Options menu, where for each instrument you can chose either SSW, local or VSO search.
  • The standard data directory structure is not imposed anymore! You can search through data located anywhere on your disk.
  • Virtual Solar Observatory queries and downloads work with EIT, LASCO, SECCHI and MkIV data. VSO is now the default search option for MkIV data. Support for MkIV requires gzip for Windows users. Warning: you still neeed the SolarSoftware Database (SSWDB) to process EIT data and to have the LASCO and SECCHI coronagraphs background models.
    
• Local files management
  • A FESTIVAL_PROJECT directory is created at startup to store downloaded data, configuration files and sequences of images.
    
• Support of EIT files at NRL

9 November 2007 - FESTIVAL 2.2b :

• Planets overlays
• FESTIVAL is now able to display the nine planets, the Moon, the four gallilean satellites of Jupiter and Titan on top of the images. See the user's manual fore more information.
• Addition of a temporary correction of the pointing and roll for the HI images
  • As of November 9, 2007, the headers of the HI images do not contain the proper pointing and roll information. Temporary correction factors are applied by the mapping engine of FESTIVAL until the headers are reprocessed. The correction parameters were determined by the procedure described there.

 

23 October 2007 -The new features in FESTIVAL 2.2 include:

• SECCHI background models
  • FESTIVAL can now subtract the SECCHI daily or monthly background models. This requires the SECCHI_BKG environment variable to be properly set (see the data installation page).
  • The way FESTIVAL handles the backgrounds can be adjusted in the Calibration GUI.
• Enhanced support of beacon data
  • The new "Space Weather only" checkboxes in the Search Options GUI are handy for people who want to work only with beacon data.
  • The background models can be used with the beacon images.
• Mk IV coronagraph data
  • Thanks to the contribution of Leonard Sitongia (HAO), FESTIVAL is now able to display data from the MkIV coronagraph. These data can be put in any directory, just tell FESTIVAL where they are using the search directory dialog. This mechanism will soon be extended to all the other instruments.
• More robust auto-scaling algorithm
  • The auto-scaling algorithm now gives good visual scaling for most SECCHI and EIT/LASCO images. It is naturally still possible to manually adjust the visualization enhancement parameters.
• Improved mapping engine
  • Several improvements in the spherical geometry computations were implemented.
  • The optical distortion in C2, C3, HI1 and HI2 is now taken into account when the projection is on in the Projection GUI.
• Automatic encoding of image sequences
  • FESTIVAL can now encode the saved sequences of images for you. This new functionality requires that you install mencoder, a full-featured freeware multi-platform encoder.
• Advanced filter capabilities
  • In the Filter GUI, you can now pass on the "header" variable in addition to the "image" array. Access to the image header widens the range of what can be done with filters.
• Stars overlays
• FESTIVAL is now able to display the HIPPARCOS stars on top of the images.

4 August 2007 - FESTIVAL 2.1 brings in a number of new functionalities:

• New color management:
  • It is now possible to individually assign a different color palette to different wavelength/filters and to different visualization modes (intensity/running difference). FESTIVAL is now able to display EUVI and EIT images with the proper color code !
• More instruments are supported:
  • Data from the Nancay Radio Heliograph can now by displayed in the SOHO/Earth viewpoint.
  • The addition of other instruments (e.g. XRT/Solar B) is in the works ...
• Improved 3D support:
  • Better management of the simultaneous display of STEREO A, B & SOHO data for improved 3D visualization.
• Friendlier interface:
  • Most parameters (like the min/max adjustments) can now be automatically set to be the same in STEREO A & B.
  • You can set the list of instruments that appear in all the GUIs. If you never use, say, LASCO/C1 data, then just remove it from the list of instruments for a clearer interface!
• New overlays:
  • In addition to the sky grid coordinates, it is now possible to overlay a Carrington grid and/or a Stonyhurst grid, and/or a polar grid. These three grids facilitate the identification of identical structures in STEREO and SOHO data. These options are conveniently accessible from the contextual menu.
• Wrapper functions:
  • FESTIVAL can now be run with only one instrument branch of the SSW tree installed. For example, if you want to work only with SECCHI data, you do not have to have the SOHO tree installed any more (before, FESTIVAL would not compile). This is obtained by using wrapper functions for some SECCHI and SOHO specific routines. This saves a lot of installation time if you are not interested in using all the possible instruments.

Note: FESTIVAL no longer calls EUVI_POINT, COR1_POINT, etc. as it was a source of instability for many users. FESTIVAL now assumes that the correct pointing information is included in the reprocessed headers.

What's new in FESTIVAL 2.0:

• Processing of SECCHI COR1 and COR2 polarization triplets:
  • FESTIVAL is now able to compute polarized brightness images, total brightness images, polarization angle images and percent of polarization images from COR1 and COR2 data. Of course, FESTIVAL is still able to display individual polarized images.
• New search options:
  • Search of STEREO pairs only: select only images that are part of a STEREO pair.
  • Image list subsampling: select only 1 image out of 2, 1/4, 1/8, etc.
  • Beacon Data: include or exclude the Beacon data from a search result.
  • Image size: select images of a given size.
• 3D ready: scale matching between images of different probes:
  • This option automatically compensates the difference in distance between the probes and the Sun so that the visualization scale of, say, EUVI A image is matched to that of EUVI B images, and vice versa. This lets you easily create stereoscopic image pairs. It also works between STEREO and SOHO.
• Synchronization of the zooming and panning between the visualization GUIs :
• A new mode lets you pan and zoom in a visualization GUI (e.g. STEREO A) and have the same pan and zoom in the others (e.g. STEREO B or SOHO). This is very useful in combination with the scale matching.
• Saving movies :
  • This functionality lets you save at once a full sequence of composite images in one of the supported image formats (jpeg, tiff, png, etc.). You can then assemble this sequence into a movie (MPEG, AVI, animated GIF, etc.) with your favorite movie encoder (i.e. Windows movie maker under Windows XP or mencoder under Linux). Check out a few examples of animations built with FESTIVAL !
• Saving images:
  • FESTIVAL now supports the PNG format.
• Configuration files:
  • You can now save your favorite settings, like enhancement functions, color tables, windows sizes and positions, in configuration files.
• Contextual menus:
  • A number of functionalities are now accessible via right-click contextual menus:
    • Coordinate grid
    • Header content
    • etc.
• User's manual:
  • All the documentation is now part of the FESTIVAL distribution and is accessible directly from the user interface.