5,550 research outputs found
Finding faint HI structure in and around galaxies: scraping the barrel
Soon to be operational HI survey instruments such as APERTIF and ASKAP will
produce large datasets. These surveys will provide information about the HI in
and around hundreds of galaxies with a typical signal-to-noise ratio of
10 in the inner regions and 1 in the outer regions. In addition, such
surveys will make it possible to probe faint HI structures, typically located
in the vicinity of galaxies, such as extra-planar-gas, tails and filaments.
These structures are crucial for understanding galaxy evolution, particularly
when they are studied in relation to the local environment. Our aim is to find
optimized kernels for the discovery of faint and morphologically complex HI
structures. Therefore, using HI data from a variety of galaxies, we explore
state-of-the-art filtering algorithms. We show that the intensity-driven
gradient filter, due to its adaptive characteristics, is the optimal choice. In
fact, this filter requires only minimal tuning of the input parameters to
enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of faint components. In addition, it does not
degrade the resolution of the high signal-to-noise component of a source. The
filtering process must be fast and be embedded in an interactive visualization
tool in order to support fast inspection of a large number of sources. To
achieve such interactive exploration, we implemented a multi-core CPU (OpenMP)
and a GPU (OpenGL) version of this filter in a 3D visualization environment
().Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, 4 tables. Astronomy and Computing, accepte
The Iray Light Transport Simulation and Rendering System
While ray tracing has become increasingly common and path tracing is well
understood by now, a major challenge lies in crafting an easy-to-use and
efficient system implementing these technologies. Following a purely
physically-based paradigm while still allowing for artistic workflows, the Iray
light transport simulation and rendering system allows for rendering complex
scenes by the push of a button and thus makes accurate light transport
simulation widely available. In this document we discuss the challenges and
implementation choices that follow from our primary design decisions,
demonstrating that such a rendering system can be made a practical, scalable,
and efficient real-world application that has been adopted by various companies
across many fields and is in use by many industry professionals today
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