ADAPTSMOOTH serves to smooth astronomical images in an adaptive fashion in order to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N). The adaptive smoothing scheme allows taking full advantage of the spatially resolved photometric information contained in an image in that at any location the minimal smoothing is applied to reach the requested S/N. Support is given to match more images on the same smoothing length, such that proper estimates of local colors can be done, with a big potential impact on multi-wavelength studies of extended sources (galaxies, nebulae). Different modes to estimate local S/N are provided. In addition to classical arithmetic-mean averaging mode, the code can operate in median averaging mode, resulting in a significant enhancement of the final image quality and very accurate flux conservation.
Include "This work has made use of the adaptive smoothing code adaptsmooth, developed by Stefano Zibetti and available at the URL https://www.ict.inaf.it/gitlab/stefano.zibetti/adaptsmooth " & cite https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009arXiv0911.4956Z