Every photon captured by world-class spectrographs like HARPS, UVES, and JWST/NIRISS carries precious information about stellar atmospheres, exoplanet compositions, and cosmic chemistry. But raw echelle spectra are riddled with instrumental signatures, cosmic rays, and systematic noise that can bury the astrophysical signals astronomers desperately need. This is where the meticulous art of spectroscopic data reduction becomes crucial—and PyReduce makes it accessible to the Python generation.
Built on the legendary REDUCE package that has powered two decades of high-precision spectroscopy, PyReduce delivers a complete pipeline for transforming raw observations into science-ready spectra. The toolkit handles bias subtraction, flat fielding, order tracing, wavelength calibration, and extraction with the same algorithms trusted by radial velocity surveys hunting Earth-like exoplanets. Version 0.7 brings major improvements including streamlined CLI commands, flexible plotting controls for both interactive analysis and automated processing, and robust support for modern Python environments. The pipeline outputs standard FITS files with comprehensive headers, ensuring compatibility with downstream analysis tools.
From ground-based giants tracking stellar wobbles to space telescopes probing atmospheric compositions, PyReduce serves observatories worldwide seeking reproducible, high-fidelity spectral reductions. Its Python foundation opens doors for integration with machine learning pipelines, cloud computing workflows, and the broader astronomical Python ecosystem—transforming how we extract cosmic stories from starlight.
⭐ Stars: 8
💻 Language: Python
🔗 Repository: ivh/PyReduce