AOTOOLS reduces IR images from adaptive optics. It uses effective dithering, either sky subtraction or dark-subtration, and flat-fielding techniques to determine the effect of the instrument on an image of an object. It also performs bad pixel masking, degrades an AO on-axis PSF due to effects of anisoplanicity, and corrects an AO on-axis PSF due to effects of seeing.

Virtual Telescope predicts the signal-to-noise and other parameters of imaging and/or spectroscopic observations as a function of telescope size, detector noise, and other factors for the Next-Generation Space Telescope.

World Observatory visualizes S/N-versus-cost tradeoffs for large optical and near-infrared telescopes. Both mid-latitude and Arctic/Antarctic sites can be considered; the intent is a simple simulation to grow intuition for where major capital costs lie relative to key observatory design choices, and against expected scientific performance at various sites. User-defined unit costs for (a possibly "effective") roadway, enclosure, aperture, focal length, and adaptive optics can be scaled up for polar sites, and down for better seeing and lower sky brightness in K-band. Observatory models and results are immediately displayed side-by-side. Either point-source-detection S/N or recovery of bulge-to-total ratios in a simulated galaxy survey are divided by the total project cost, thus providing a universal metric.

The Global Extinction Reduction IDL codes compare optical photometry from the twin Gemini North and South Multi-Object Spectrographs (GMOS-N and GMOS-S) against the expected worsening of atmospheric transparency due to global climate change. Data from the Gemini instruments are first reduced by DRAGONS (ascl:1811.002). GER then calibrates them against the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and Gaia G-band catalogs; image rotation and alignment is accomplished via identification of sufficiently-bright stars in Gaia. A simple model of Gemini and their site characteristics is generated, including meteorology, cloudy-fractions, number of reflections, dates of re-coatings modulated by rate of efficiency decay, together with response of detectors and associated zeropoints, and can be compared with the decline of transparency due to rising temperature and associated humidity increase.

The IDL code Special-Blurring compares models of quantum-foam-induced blurring with the full dataset of gamma-ray burst localizations available from the NASA High Energy Astrophysics Science Research Archive (as of 1 November 2022). This includes GRB221009A, which was especially bright and detected in extremely high energy TeV gamma-rays. An upper limit of the parameter alpha (giving the maximal strength of quantum blurring) can be entered, which is scaled in the model of blurring (called "Phi") operating much like "seeing" from the ground in the optical, and those calculations are plotted against the observations.

show_cube displays the results of reducing, aligning and combining near-infrared integral field spectroscopy with the Gemini Observatory NIFS (Near-infrared Integral Field Spectrometer) instrument. Image slices are extracted from the raw data frames to make the input datacube. The code site also provides a tarfile containing all the raw NIFS FITS-format files for the observations of high-redshift radio galaxies 3C230, 3C294, and 4C+41.17, the last of which are reported, together with line-strengths using the MAPPINGS III (ascl:1306.008) shock models.

PDQ predicts the positions on the sky of high-redshift quasars that should provide photons that are both acausal and uncorrelated. The predicted signal-to-noise ratios are calculated at framerate sufficient for random-number generation input to a loophole-free Bell test, and are calibrated against a public archival dataset of four pairs of highly-separated bright stars observed simultaneously (and serendipitously) at 17 Hz with that same instrumentation in 2019 to 2021.

arctic_weather reports analysis of meteorological data recorded from High Arctic weatherstations (called Inuksuit) deployed on coastal mountains north of 80 degrees on Ellesmere Island Canada from 2006 through 2009, along with clear-sky fractions from horizon-viewing sky-monitoring cameras. The code calculates solar and lunar elevations, and so allows correlation of polar nighttime to the development of prevailing thermal inversion conditions in winter, and statistical comparison to other optical/infrared observatory sites.

allsky performs photometry of Polaris with the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) All-Sky Camera (PASI) to report transparency measurements, with comparison to conditions at other observatories worldwide. The code site provides a tarfile of PASI data obtained near Eureka, on Ellesmere Island Canada in darktime of 2008/09 and 2009/10 along with associated meteorological data. The code employs a simple atmospheric thermal inversion model, with a power-law fit to ice-crystal attenuation, allowing direct comparison of PEARL dark-time photometric-sky statistics to mid-latitude sites such as Maunakea.

arctic_mass_dimm reduces data from the Multi-Aperture Seeing Sensor (MASS) and Differential Image Motion Monitor (MASS) obtained from the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL), reporting seeing conditions, and comparing to other observatories. The code site provides a tarfile of all MASS and DIMM data obtained near Eureka, on Ellesmere Island Canada in 2011/12 along with associated meteorological data. The code employs a simple two-component atmospheric model to allow comparison of PEARL to mid-latitude sites such as Maunakea.

infrared_comparison compares the downwelling infrared radiation, or sky spectral brightness, of arctic/antarctic astronomical observing sites with the best mid-latitude mountain sites. The code site provides a tarfile of Fourier-transform spectra from 3.3 microns 20 microns, obtained near Eureka, on Ellesmere Island Canada, along with meteorological data. The code can compare these via an atmospheric thermal-inversion model to reported values for South Pole and other mid-latitude sites, such as Maunakea.