AIRY: a complete tool for the simulation and the reconstruction of astronomical images

The Software Package AIRY (acronym for Astronomical Image Restoration in interferometrY) is a software tool designed to perform simulation and/or deconvolution of images of Fizeau interferometers as well as of any kind of optical telescopes. AIRY is written in IDL and is a Software Package of the CADS Problem Solving Environment (PSE): it is made of a set of modules, each one representing a specific task. We present here the last version of the software, arrived at its sixth release after 10 years of development. This version of AIRY summarizes the work done in recent years by our group, both on AIRY and on AIRY-LN, the version of the software dedicated to the image restoration of LINC-NIRVANA (LN), the Fizeau interferometer of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). AIRY v.6.0 includes a renewed deconvolution module implementing regularizations, accelerations, and stopping criteria of standard algorithms, such as OSEM and Richardson-Lucy. Several modules of AIRY have been improved and, in particular, the one used for the extraction and extrapolatioThe Software Package AIRY (acronym for Astronomical Image Restoration in interferometrY) is a software tool designed to perform simulation and/or deconvolution of images of Fizeau interferometers as well as of any kind of optical telescopes. AIRY is written in IDL and is a Software Package of the CAOS Problem Solving Environment (PSE): it is made of a set of modules, each one representing a speci_c task. We present here the last version of the software, arrived at its sixth release after 10 years of development. This version of AIRY summarizes the work done in recent years by our group, both on AIRY and on AIRY-LN, the version of the software dedicated to the image restoration of LINC-NIRVANA (LN), the Fizeau interferometer of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). AIRY v.6.0 includes a renewed deconvolution module implementing regularizations, accelerations, and stopping criteria of standard algorithms, such as OSEM and Richardson-Lucy. Several modules of AIRY have been improved and, in particular, the one used for the extraction and extrapolation of the PSF. In addition, AIRY has modules dedicated to the simulation of interferometric images and utility modules for data reading, writing, and visualization. After a description of the implemented reconstruction methods and of the whole set of modules, we provide several example projects in order to give to the astronomical community a powerful tool for the preparation of the observations and for the real data deconvolution.n of the PSF. In addition, AIRY has modules dedicated to the simulation of interferometric images and utility modules for data reading, writing, and visualization. After a description of the implemented reconstruction methods and of the whole set of modules, we provide several example projects in order to give to the astronomical community a powerful tool for the preparation of the observations and for the real data deconvolution.

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