Spectrum Explorer (spEXplore)
spEXplore is an astronomical spectrum exploration and analysis tool designed primarily for the study of supernova spectra. It assists with spectral line identification, line-profile fitting, and measurements of line properties such as wavelength, equivalent width (pEW), full width at half maximum (FWHM), and redshifted or blueshifted line velocities.
Spectrum Visualization
- Load astronomical spectra from ASCII-format file.
- Apply de-redshift corrections and display both observed and rest-frame wavelength axes.
- Smooth noisy spectra by binning.
- Interactively zoom into regions of interest.
- Delete and restore selected spectrum sections interactively.
Line Identification
- Mark multiple spectral features using their rest wavelengths, with customizable labels and colors.
- Shift line markers by specifying either line velocity or observed wavelength.
- Adjust velocities individually for selected lines or collectively for all marked lines.
- Line wavelengths and velocities can be interactively adjusted with sliders.
- Select line labels and rest wavelengths directly from the built-in spectral line database.
Spectral Line Fitting
- Interactively fit sloped Gaussian profiles to spectral features.
- Measure line parameters including central wavelength, FWHM, and equivalent width.
- Specify rest wavelengths for fitted features to calculate blueshifted or redshifted line velocities.
- Automatically associate fitted features with the nearest previously marked line identifications, including line labels and rest wavelengths. For best results, it is recommended to first mark spectral features before performing profile fitting.
- Compile measurements from all fitted lines into a single results table, and can be downloaded in CSV or JSON format.
- Optionally combine multiple fits of the same spectral line by calculating mean parameter values. When averaging measurements, the standard deviation is automatically computed and reported as the measurement uncertainty.
Entire analysis session can be saved to a file, as it is in the current view, which can be loaded later to continue analysis.