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Update README to reflect the readthedocs
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gmzsebastian authored Sep 29, 2022
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Expand Up @@ -12,29 +12,34 @@ For documentation and installation instructions please visit https://stsci-stips

## Overview

STIPS is the Space Telescope Imaging Product Simulator. It is designed to create simulations of
full-detector post-pipeline astronomical scenes for any telescope. Currently STIPS has modules for
WFC3 IR (F110W and F160W only), JWST (NIRCam Short, NIRCam Long, and MIRI), and Roman (WFI). STIPS
has the ability to add instrumental distortion (if available) as well as calibration residuals
(currently flatfield residuals, dark current residuals, and cosmic ray residuals). It automatically
includes Poisson noise and readout noise. It does not include instrument saturation effects. In
addition, STIPS has the ability to generate its own scenes, consisting of stellar populations and
background galaxies (implemented as Sersic profiles).
STIPS is the Space Telescope Imaging Product Simulator. It is designed to create
simulations of full-detector post-pipeline astronomical scenes for the Nancy Grace Roman
Space Telescope's Wide-Field Instrument (WFI). STIPS has the ability to add
instrumental distortion (if available) as well as calibration residuals from flatfields,
dark currents, and cosmic rays. It automatically includes Poisson noise and readout noise.
It does not include instrument saturation effects.

## Why use STIPS?

STIPS is intended for cases where an ETC (e.g. Pandeia) does not provide enough detector area (e.g.
testing photometry code, quick looks at dither patterns or multi-detector observations of a scene).
For JWST and Roman, it obtains its background count levels and instrumental throughput levels from
Pandeia internally, so it should produce output within 10% of output produced by Pandeia.

If extremely good instrumental accuracy is needed, STIPS is not the ideal choice. Instead, the
various instrument design teams have produced much more detailed simulators. STIPS is intended to
run reasonably quickly, and to make scene generation and observation as easy as possible.

Developed by Brian York ([@york-stsci](https://github.com/york-stsci)) and
Robel Geda ([@robelgeda](https://github.com/robelgeda)).

STIPS is intended to produce quick simulations of Level 2 (L2) images, and is provided for
cases where [Pandeia](https://pypi.org/project/pandeia.engine) does not
provide a large enough simulation area (e.g., full-detector or multiple-detector
observations). STIPS obtains its Roman instrument and filter values from
Pandeia, so it should produce output within 10% of output produced by Pandeia.

STIPS does not start with Level 1 (L1) images and propagate instrumental calibrations
through the simulations. While it does have the ability to add error residuals (representing
the remaining uncertainty after pipeline calibration), these residuals are not validated
against actual pipeline calibrations of L1 images. STIPS is not the ideal choice if
extremely good instrumental accuracy is needed. Pandeia is the preferred tool for
high-accuracy observations.

Developed by Brian York ([@york-stsci](https://github.com/york-stsci)),
Robel Geda ([@robelgeda](https://github.com/robelgeda)), and
O. Justin Otor ([@ojustino](https://github.com/ojustino)).
Python ePSF code developed by
Sebastian Gomez ([@gmzsebastian](https://github.com/gmzsebastian)) based on Fortran code
developed by Andrea Bellini ([@AndreaBellini](https://github.com/AndreaBellini)).

![Alt text](docs/roman_figures/stips_demo.png?raw=true "Roman WFI Image of a Star Cluster and Background Galaxies")

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