getsources is a powerful multi-scale, multi-wavelength source extraction algorithm. It analyzes fine spatial decompositions of original images across a wide range of scales and across all wavebands, cleans those single-scale images of noise and background, and constructs wavelength-independent single-scale detection images that preserve information in both spatial and wavelength dimensions. getsources offers several advantages over other existing methods of source extraction, including the filtering out of irrelevant spatial scales to improve detectability, especially in the crowded regions and for extended sources, the ability to combine data over all wavebands, and the full automation of the extraction process.

getimages performs background derivation and image flattening for high-resolution images obtained with space observatories. It is based on median filtering with sliding windows corresponding to a range of spatial scales from the observational beam size up to a maximum structure width X. The latter is a single free parameter of getimages that can be evaluated manually from the observed image. The median filtering algorithm provides a background image for structures of all widths below X. The same median filtering procedure applied to an image of standard deviations derived from a background-subtracted image results in a flattening image. Finally, a flattened image is computed by dividing the background-subtracted by the flattening image. Standard deviations in the flattened image are now uniform outside sources and filaments. Detecting structures in such radically simplified images results in much cleaner extractions that are more complete and reliable. getimages also reduces various observational and map-making artifacts and equalizes noise levels between independent tiles of mosaicked images. The code (a Bash script) uses FORTRAN utilities from getsources (ascl:1507.014), which must be installed.

getsf extracts sources and filaments in astronomical images by separating their structural components, and is designed to handle multi-wavelength sets of images and very complex filamentary backgrounds. The method spatially decomposes the original images and separates the structural components of sources and filaments from each other and from their backgrounds, flattening their resulting images. It spatially decomposes the flattened components, combines them over wavelengths, and detects the positions of sources and skeletons of filaments. Finally, getsf measures the detected sources and filaments and creates the output catalogs and images. This universal and fully automated method has a single user-definable free parameter, which reduces to a minimum dependence of its results on the human factor.