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ASAD Program Documentation This documentation has been made for version 2.0.0 of ASAD. This program can be used in two

ways: either the graphical user interface (GUI) method, or the command line interface (CLI) method.

If there is anything missing or if you have any questions please feel free to contact raasad@aus.edu.

Part 1: ASAD Program Using GUI Documentation

1. Download the latest version of ASAD program by clicking on this link:

[https://randaasad.wordpress.com/reseach-interests/asad-package/]

2. After downloading, extract the file using a file extracting software (eg: WinRaR, 7zip, etc.) and

move the inner folder to Desktop to make things simple.

3. Download the following software before proceeding –

Notepad ++ (shown in fig 1): https://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v6.8.8.html

Figure  1  Notepad++  link  

If the mentioned link does not work, download notepad++ from another site.

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4. Install the above mentioned software. ‘Notepad++’ is used to view the output files and will be

instrumental when working with ASAD.

5. Before running the program:

a. Place the required model files in the folder named ‘models’ as shown in figure 2.

(asadàdataàmodels).

b. Place the observation files in the ‘observations’ folder, the location of which is also shown in

figure 2. (asadàdataàobservations)

6. Now we are ready to run the ASAD program with the model and observation files in place. Double

click on the file named ‘gui’ in the ‘asad’ folder. The following window should appear (figure 3).

The black window in the background is basically showing you the steps ASAD program executes.

Click on ‘Next’.

Figure  2  Location  of  models  and  observations  folders

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Figure  3  Window  showing  

what  is  seen  when  you  open  

ASAD  

 

 

Note: If figure 4 (or anything similar) appears, click on ‘Run’. Ignore this if it doesn’t appear.

 

Figure  4  Security  warning  

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7. Select the folder in which your observations are present by clicking on ‘Browse’ beside the ‘Input

Directory’ field (figure 5). By default, the directory for this will be the ‘observations’ folder in the

‘asad’ folder. If you have copied all your observations in this directory itself, then ignore this. (Only

one observation file has been used in this run) Enter the other parameters according to specifications

and then click on ‘Next’.

Figure  5  Observation  window  

8. As shown in figure 6, click on ‘Browse’ beside the ‘Input File’ option and select the model file

among the ones you have copied in the ‘models’ folder (SSPPadova.z008 is the file used here). Enter

the required values in the various fields. This step will generate a file which the program will use to

compare the observations with. Click on ‘Next’.

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Figure  6  Model  window  

9. This step will combine the Model and Object files to find the best match in order to estimate the

age and reddening of the cluster. It will take time depending on the number of observation files.

Simply click on ‘Next’.

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Figure  7  Combined  model  and  object  window  

10. Click on ‘Output Format’ (figure 8) to choose the format of graphs which will be rendered.

Format examples include ‘png’, ‘jpeg’, ‘pdf’, ‘eps’, and ‘bmp.’ Then, click on ‘Finish’. The program

will now generate graphs based on the results. Avoid clicking on the window.

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Figure  8  Plot  window  

11. After the graphs have been generated, figure 9 will appear. Click on the cancel button or press

Figure  10  Final  results Figure  9  Plots  folder  with  graphs

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any key to close the window.

12. To view the graphs generated, go to the ‘plots’ folder as shown in figure 10 (asadàdataàplots).

Four plots are generated for each observation file.

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13. To view the result files, open ‘objects’ folder (asadàdataàobjects) and open the files with

‘result’ as a prefix (e.g.result_of_smoothed_Yg.dat_smoothed_SSPPadova.z008) using notepad++ or

any similar software. This file gives a comprehensive outlook of the configuration used and the result

obtained, as shown in figure 11.

Note: Before running the program again, there are a few things which must be done:

a. From the ‘model’ folder, move the file which has ‘smoothed’ as a prefix in it (e.g. -

smoothed_SSPPadova.z008). If not done, an error saying ‘File Already exists’ will appear.

b. Move all the files from the observations folder, unless the same observation files will be used the

next time (move all the files with ‘normalized_smoothed’ and ‘smoothed_smoothed’ as prefix).

Figure  11  Result  obtained

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Part 2: ASAD Program Using Command Line Interface Documentation

1. Complete steps 1-5 in part 1. After doing that, double click on ‘run’ instead of gui to open the

command line interface. It should appear as shown in figure 12:

Figure  12  

2. Press Enter to continue. In this step, the program will read files from the observation folder and

display it on the screen. For the purpose of this documentation, consider a test file named

NGC1651.dat as shown in figure 13.

Figure  13  

Test  file  

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3. Enter ‘Y’ (Y for yes, n for no) if you wish to specify a wavelength range. You should see

something similar to what is shown in figure 14

Figure  14  

4. If the Smoothing step of the observation needs to be changed, enter ‘Y’ and enter a value

manually. You can also output the smoothed file if you want by choosing ‘Y’ when asked “Output

observations.”

5. Proceed ahead by entering ‘Y’ or ‘n’ and enter the required values for wavelength end, reddening,

and the wavelength where you want to normalize the spectrum.

Note: The values in square brackets show the value that was chosen the last time the program was

run, which will be selected in case no value is entered. For example: In figure 14, if no (wavelength

start) would have been entered, the program will choose 54 as the wavelength start.

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6. Once all the parameters are set, the following figure will appear (figure 15).

Figure  15  

You can choose from the following models-

- GALAXEV: uses models by G. Brusal & S. Charlot. 2003.

(http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/344/4/1000)

- MILES: uses models by A. Vazdekiz. 2010.

(http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/404/4/1639.short)

- DELGADO: uses models by G. Delgado. 2005.

(http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/357/3/945.short)

- INTERMEDIATE: Any model file provided by the user in the form shown in figure 15:

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Figure  16  INTERMEDIATE  MODEL  

The first row contains various reddening values, while the first column (starting from 3626)

contains the various wavelength values. The corresponding columns contain the flux values

for each reddening value respectively. (For example, for the wavelength 3626, the flux value

is 1.738779 with reddening value of 6.8, 1.921597 with reddening value of 6.9, and so on).

7. After this you will see figure 16. If the model path you want is shown on the screen, click enter. If

not, place the model file in data/models and type in - data/models/<model_file_name>. If the model

location is not typed in correctly, the program will show an error.

Figure  17  

Model  file  name  

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8. Figure 17 shows what happens when the program has successfully read the model file. A summary

of the parameters that you set are also shown.

Figure  18  

 

Figure  19  

9. If you want to save the output model, press ‘Enter’. (figure 18) If you want to change the directory

of the output, specify it by typing the location of the folder/directory after ‘Output directory.’

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10. The window will now look like figure 19:

Figure  20  

The Reddening/Ages file is the file containing the observation corrected for each value of reddening

as well as the model for the specified wavelength range. If you want to output them, press ‘y’ and

specify the directory in the next step (or press enter for default folder).

11. After making all the necessary adjustments, the window will now look like figure 20:

Figure  21  

After selecting the output directory of the object files, select the type of statistical analysis method

you want to apply on the data, either the χ² minimization test or the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test (ks).

12. The window should appear like figure 21 now (χ² minimization test was used in the example as

the method of statistical analysis):

Figure  22  

Enter ‘y’ to output the result file, which contains the best match of the age and reddening of the

cluster. By default, the program creates a separate result file for each observation. If you want the

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program to output all the results in one single file, then specify a path for the text file where you want

the results to be written in.

13. If you want to obtain the plots of your results, type in the format of the plots/graphs needed (refer

to figure 22). The available formats are – ‘png’ ‘jpeg’ ‘pdf’ ‘eps’ ‘bmp’

 Figure  23

14. For the prompts which follow, enter ‘y’ or ‘N’ depending on which type of plot you want the

ASAD program to produce. (The options available are surface plot, best spectra match plot, residual

plot, and surface tile plot) At each step, the program will ask you to specify the directory for the

plots. The default folder for this is the ‘plots’ folder so you can just press enter every time instead of

specifying the directory. The window at the end will appear like figure 23. To check the plots just go

to asadàdataàplots.

Note: For the best spectra match plot, if you want to plot a specific age model spectrum with a

specific reddening corrected observed spectrum, enter ‘y’ for Custom age and reddening pairs and

specify the values wanted

 Figure  24  Final  result

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You have now successfully used ASAD program! Press any key to abort the window.

This documentation has been prepared by:

Name: Adnan Shahpurwala

E-mail ID: b00055159@aus.edu

(Student  at  American  University  of  Sharjah)  

Rewritten by:

Name: Hussain Abbasi

Email ID: b00063271@aus.edu

(Student at American University of Sharjah)