Add decliniation line support in production grid by tobiaskleiner · Pull Request #2075 · gammasim/simtools

tobiaskleiner · 2026-03-12T12:05:07Z

Adds RA/Dec declination-line support to production grid generation and introduces a new plotting utility to visualize production-grid points in both local Alt/Az and equatorial RA/Dec projections.

…uction-grid-radec

Copilot

Pull request overview

Adds RA/Dec declination-line support to production grid generation and introduces a new plotting utility to visualize production-grid points in both local Alt/Az and equatorial RA/Dec projections.

Changes:

Extend GridGeneration to support coordinate_system="ra_dec" with (a) native declination-line/hour-angle sampling and (b) explicit RA/Dec axes mode.
Add ProductionGridPlotter plus new CLI entrypoint simtools-plot-production-grid, including docs and integration configs.
Add/extend unit tests and test resources for RA/Dec grid generation and production-grid plotting.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 14 out of 14 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
`src/simtools/production_configuration/generate_production_grid.py`	Adds RA/Dec grid generation modes and lookup-table interpolation path for RA/Dec workflows.
`src/simtools/production_configuration/plot_production_grid.py`	New plotting module for production-grid sky projections with optional RA/Dec guide tracks.
`src/simtools/applications/plot_production_grid.py`	New CLI application wiring site metadata + plotter invocation.
`src/simtools/applications/production_generate_grid.py`	Updates CLI docs/help to describe new RA/Dec behavior.
`tests/unit_tests/production_configuration/test_generate_production_grid.py`	Adds RA/Dec-mode unit tests and refactors GridGeneration setup in tests.
`tests/unit_tests/production_configuration/test_plot_production_grid.py`	New unit tests covering normalization, inferred tracks, and output generation.
`tests/resources/production_grid_generation_axes_definition_radec.yml`	New RA/Dec axes definition fixture for tests/integration.
`tests/integration_tests/config/production_generate_grid_radec.yml`	New integration workflow for RA/Dec grid generation.
`tests/integration_tests/config/plot_production_grid.yml`	New integration workflow for plotting production grids.
`docs/source/user-guide/applications/simtools-plot-production-grid.rst`	New user-guide stub for the plotting CLI.
`docs/source/user-guide/applications.md`	Adds the new plotting CLI to the applications list.
`docs/source/api-reference/production_configuration.md`	Adds API docs entry for `production_configuration.plot_production_grid`.
`pyproject.toml`	Registers `simtools-plot-production-grid` console script.

tobiaskleiner · 2026-03-31T08:20:49Z

Example plot:

tobiaskleiner · 2026-04-07T14:24:07Z

@GernotMaier thanks for the review and suggestions. I think I have adressed your points above. This got a bit bigger than I had hoped, but I have changed now all the instances where previously dictionaries where used for the grid points to tables. Time is now optional, and is taken from the grid file metadata, but can be also supplied if one wants to see the coverage in alt/az for a specific time for the given grid points. Naming is improved, tel ids are now consistently used as full name, utc time used, coverage increased . Please let me know if there is anything else.

GernotMaier

A couple more mostly minor responses, not too much. After that we should merge and then do a discussion round with our user (Orel) - there might be a couple of items / use cases to do then.

Thanks for all the changes!

GernotMaier · 2026-04-07T18:16:15Z

-    observation_time : str
-        Observation time in ISO format.
+    observation_time : str, optional
+        Observation time in UTC ISO format. If None, metadata from the grid file is used.


Need help to understand this: the grid file contains pointings calculated for a given observation time. How can a user set a different observation time for the plotting? If it is only for some markers on the plot, please clarify the docstring.

@tobiaskleiner - help me with this question please.

GernotMaier · 2026-04-07T18:21:37Z

        raise ValueError(f"Unknown common identifier {common_identifier}") from exc


+def normalize_array_element_identifier(array_element_identifier):


Is this used to convert sim_telarray telescope IDs to telescope name strings? Note the common identifiers are not sim_telarray telescope IDs but numerical IDs used by some CTAO software (e.g., ARCADA). Or are these the CTAO numerical IDs?

Ah I was assuming this is the same as the sim_telarray id. Don't we have also a function to convert between these two?

simtools/src/simtools/simtel/simtel_io_metadata.py

Line 116 in 41f2fb9

def get_sim_telarray_telescope_id_to_telescope_name_mapping(file):

Did you fix this?

GernotMaier · 2026-04-07T18:30:30Z

+    """
+    identifier_str = str(array_element_identifier).strip()
+    try:
+        common_identifier = int(identifier_str)


Should work but feels wrong if you e..g it is "float" -> str(float) -> int(str(float)) -> ValueError?
Would using isdigit make it a bit cleaner?

Any answer here?

Using isdigit is exactly what the code is already doing (with optional lstrip), so I think this is already the clean approach. non-integer strings return early before int conversion.

GernotMaier · 2026-04-08T09:47:11Z

+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+    simtools-plot-production-grid \


This example gives me:

simtools-production-generate-grid --site North --model_version 6.0.2 --axes tests/resources/production_grid_generation_axes_definition_radec.yml --coordinate_system ra_dec --observing_time "2017-09-16 00:00:00" --lookup_table tests/resources/corsika_simulation_limits/corsika_simulation_limits_lookup_01.ecsv --telescope_ids MSTN-15 INFO: Log messages will be written to: simtools-output/production_generate_grid_20260408T094331Z.log INFO: simtools: 0.28.1.dev112+ga6a91c19e DB: CTAO-Simulation-Model v0.14.0 CORSIKA: 78010 sim_telarray: v2025-11-30-rc Traceback (most recent call last): File "/workdir/env/bin/simtools-production-generate-grid", line 6, in <module> sys.exit(main()) ^^^^^^ File "/workdir/external/simtools/src/simtools/applications/production_generate_grid.py", line 184, in main grid_gen = GridGeneration( ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/workdir/external/simtools/src/simtools/production_configuration/generate_production_grid.py", line 85, in __init__ self._prepare_lookup_table_limits_for_point_interpolation() File "/workdir/external/simtools/src/simtools/production_configuration/generate_production_grid.py", line 164, in _prepare_lookup_table_limits_for_point_interpolation key: LinearNDInterpolator( ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "scipy/interpolate/_interpnd.pyx", line 306, in scipy.interpolate._interpnd.LinearNDInterpolator.__init__ File "scipy/interpolate/_interpnd.pyx", line 97, in scipy.interpolate._interpnd.NDInterpolatorBase.__init__ File "scipy/interpolate/_interpnd.pyx", line 310, in scipy.interpolate._interpnd.LinearNDInterpolator._calculate_triangulation File "scipy/spatial/_qhull.pyx", line 1889, in scipy.spatial._qhull.Delaunay.__init__ File "scipy/spatial/_qhull.pyx", line 356, in scipy.spatial._qhull._Qhull.__init__ scipy.spatial._qhull.QhullError: QH6214 qhull input error: not enough points(3) to construct initial simplex (need 5) While executing: | qhull d Qz Qbb Qt Qc Q12 Options selected for Qhull 2020.2.r 2020/08/31: run-id 1772452772 delaunay Qz-infinity-point Qbbound-last Qtriangulate Qcoplanar-keep Q12-allow-wide _pre-merge _zero-centrum Qinterior-keep _maxoutside 0

This is due to not enough points for triangulatio, added explicit RA/Dec sparse-lookup handling that catches triangulation failures and raises ValueError. Documentation now points to the merged file that contains enough points for operation.

GernotMaier · 2026-04-08T09:48:50Z

+    output_file: grid_output_radec.json
+    output_path: simtools-output
+    site: North
+    telescope_ids: []


Can you start a list of things to discuss with @orelgueta ? I think we might want to derive a production grid of pointings without the derivation of energy thresholds / scatter max values, etc. But let's check exactly the use case.

GernotMaier · 2026-04-08T10:14:28Z

 coordinate system is 'ra_dec'.

+For ``coordinate_system='ra_dec'``, the underlying grid generation supports a
+native all-sky direction sampling mode (declination lines with hour-angle spacing)


Still don't understand the native. There is one plot in alt/az and one in ra/dec. Which one is native?

GernotMaier · 2026-04-08T10:14:56Z

+-------
+To plot grid points on a sky projection:
+
+.. code-block:: console


Would be nice, yes!

GernotMaier · 2026-04-08T10:15:53Z

+        }
+
+    def _generate_grid_radec_mode(self):
+        """Generate grid points for RA/Dec mode using uniform declination lines."""


OK - so maybe add this to the docstring (as it is not clear)

…uction-grid-radec

tobiaskleiner · 2026-04-09T08:09:28Z

@GernotMaier somehow can't directly answer to your last 4 comments:

Yes I can start a list: In this case however one could simply provide a dummy lookup table and ignore the resulting columns in the grid table.
By ‘native’ I mean the coordinate system used to generate the grid points in the file, not one of the two panels. The plot always shows both Alt/Az and RA/Dec views, ‘native RA/Dec’ only means the input grid itself contains explicit RA/Dec columns
implemented
added to docstring

Please let me know if there is anything else.

ctao-sonarqube · 2026-04-09T08:12:40Z

Quality Gate passed

Issues
0 New issues
0 Fixed issues
0 Accepted issues

Measures
0 Security Hotspots
94.8% Coverage on New Code
0.0% Duplication on New Code

See analysis details on SonarQube

GernotMaier · 2026-04-09T08:39:30Z

Could you improve the docstring with the native? Always best to react on questions like this and clarify things.

tobiaskleiner · 2026-04-09T09:26:58Z

@GernotMaier The docstring has been updated alread and the explanation about native has been addded to the application plot_production_grid docstring. Please let me know if this is fine with you.

GernotMaier · 2026-04-09T09:35:26Z

I am still trying to understand why need

--site North --model_version 6.0.2  --observation_time "2025-06-01 00:00:00"

for plotting. Could that be simplified by adding ra/dec columns to the output table generated by simtools-production-generate-grid?

tobiaskleiner · 2026-04-09T09:50:48Z

I am still trying to understand why need
--site North --model_version 6.0.2  --observation_time "2025-06-01 00:00:00"
for plotting. Could that be simplified by adding ra/dec columns to the output table generated by simtools-production-generate-grid?

So plotting both panels still needs transforms, which is why site + time inputs are still required. The simplification idea would be to always write both Alt/Az and RA/Dec (plus metadata) in the grid output. Should I add this now or in a follow up PR?
Currently zen/az mode stores alt/az columns and no ra/dec, and ra/dec mode stores no alt/az in the output.

GernotMaier

Thanks for this @tobiaskleiner

GernotMaier · 2026-04-09T09:53:48Z

Fine with me to do this in a follow up approach. I do think it is better to keep plotting apps simple without requiring a lot of additional input. Approved!

tobiaskleiner · 2026-04-09T10:07:06Z

Thank you for the review @GernotMaier, will open a separate PR for the follow up.

tobiaskleiner added 9 commits March 11, 2026 11:43

add application for plotting grid

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radec grid generation and add example yaml for radec definition

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update methods

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add plotting class for alt az and radec grid points

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integration tests

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entry point

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tobiaskleiner marked this pull request as draft March 12, 2026 12:05

tobiaskleiner added 7 commits March 12, 2026 13:05

Merge branch 'main' of https://github.com/gammasim/simtools into prod…

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Merge branch 'main' into production-grid-radec

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tobiaskleiner marked this pull request as ready for review March 24, 2026 09:18

Merge branch 'main' into production-grid-radec

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tobiaskleiner requested a review from Copilot March 31, 2026 08:22

tobiaskleiner added 11 commits April 7, 2026 11:46

update

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Merge branch 'main' into production-grid-radec

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some more changes to formatting and writing

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tobiaskleiner requested a review from GernotMaier April 7, 2026 14:24

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Merge branch 'main' of https://github.com/gammasim/simtools into prod…

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…uction-grid-radec

GernotMaier approved these changes Apr 9, 2026

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tobiaskleiner merged commit 34d6f68 into main Apr 9, 2026
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tobiaskleiner deleted the production-grid-radec branch April 9, 2026 10:07

		raise ValueError(f"Unknown common identifier {common_identifier}") from exc


		def normalize_array_element_identifier(array_element_identifier):

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