v0.26.0

This release of simtools, the simulation toolkit for the CTA Observatory, includes the following main changes:

API Changes

• Changes in the environment variables set in the .env file.

  Added explicit setting of the simulation software branches:

  • CORSIKA: e.g., SIMTOOLS_CORSIKA_PATH=/workdir/simulation_software/corsika7
  • sim_telarray: e.g., SIMTOOLS_SIMTEL_PATH=/workdir/simulation_software/sim_telarray

  Added explicit setting of the interaction models:

  • high-energy interaction model: e.g., SIMTOOLS_CORSIKA_HE_INTERACTION=qgs3
  • low-energy interaction model: e.g., SIMTOOLS_CORSIKA_LE_INTERACTION=urqmd

  For images generated before this change, it is enough to set one single variable:

  SIMTOOLS_SIMTEL_PATH=/workdir/sim_telarray/sim_telarray

  (#1917)

• Change in naming of simtools docker images:

  • CORSIKA image is called e.g. ghcr.io/gammasim/corsika7:0.26.0-78010-avx512f
  • sim_telarray image is called e.g. ghcr.io/gammasim/sim_telarray:0.26.0-<sim_telarray version>
  • simtools-dev image is called e.g. ghcr.io/gammasim/simtools-dev:latest (safe to use the latest tag here)
  • simtools-prod image is called e.g. ghcr.io/gammasim/simtools-prod:0.26.0-corsika<corsika version>-<avx flag>-simtel<sim_telarray version>

  (#1954)

• Changed path to sim_telarray to SIMTOOLS_SIM_TELARRAY_PATH (from SIMTOOLS_SIMTEL_PATH). Requires changes by the users to their .env files. (#1957)

New Features

• Add integration tests for newly added flasher types MSFx-NectarCam, MSFx-FlashCam, LSFN-design, LSFS-design. (#1817)

• Improve handling of model parameters with output schema definition: introduce a legacy model parameter handler. (#1910)

• Allow output of flasher angular distribution tables for Lambertian distribution. (#1916)

• Refactoring the image building process (CORSIKA/sim_telarray/simtools):

  • separate images for CORSIKA and sim_telarray
  • simtools image combined both plus adds for the development image the QGSJet tables
  • main directory changed to /workdir/simulation_software/ with e.g.
    • /workdir/simulation_software/corsika
    • /workdir/simulation_software/sim_telarray
  • simulation software packages pulled from git repositories
    • CORSIKA7 from KIT gitlab and CORSIKA build configuration from CTAO gitlab
    • sim_telarray, hessio, and stdtools from CTAO gitlab
  • new build process for CORSIKA7 using coconut and configuration files

  (#1917)

• • Introduce central settings module for configuration args, db_config, and path definitions.
  • Use new settings.config``for simtel_pathusage through all modules.
  • Introduce corsika_path and corsika_he_interaction , corsika_le_interaction settings to indicate CORSIKA installation path and interaction models.
  • Ensure backwards compatibility to legacy simtools images for paths and build opts configuration files.

  (#1921)

• Allow to fill and plot simulated event distributions from both CORSIKA and sim_telarray output files.
  Add simple plotting application simtools-plot-simulated-event-distributions. (#1934)

• Use adjustText for the labels in the array layout plot to avoid overlapping labels. (#1937)

• Improved functionality to plot Cherenkov photon distributions read from CORSIKA IACT files:

  • allow to compare distributions from different files
  • additional 1D and 2D distributions with improved plotting
  • several bug fixes in relation of weighting and density calculation

  This includes a complete refactoring of the class with focus on plotting.

  (#1939)

• Add building workflow for simtools-prod image.
  Update docker files and building workflows for CORSIKA, sim_telarray, and simtools.
  Simplify package naming. (#1954)

• Add integration test run to updated production image building. Reuse existing integration tests and simplify building steps. (#1955)

• Improved version and build info handling:

  • simtools application prints at startup now the simtools, database, CORSIKA, and sim_telarray versions
  • simtools applications output full build information for log level DEBUG
  • added two new command line options:
    • --build_info to print detailed build information of the application
    • --export_build_info EXPORT_BUILD_INFO export build information to file (json or yaml format)
  • removed applications simtools-print-version (above functionality replaces it)
  • Changed path to sim_telarray to SIMTOOLS_SIM_TELARRAY_PATH (from SIMTOOLS_SIMTEL_PATH). This is consistent with the naming of the simulation software packages and the schema values.

  (#1957)

Maintenance

• Integrate the new unified flasher pulse shape parameter flasher_pulse_shape (now a 3-element list [shape, width_ns, exp_decay_ns]). (#1900)
• Allow test_generate_production_grid.py::test_convert_altaz_to_radec_and_coordinates to xfail due to intermittent network issues. (#1914)
• Add logfile pattern checks for full flasher simulations, update integration test files and add a pulse shape mapping. (#1924)
• Replace db_config by settings.config.db_config throughout all modules. (#1927)
• Moved simtel_io_event_* modules to sim_events submodule and renamed eventio_handler to file_info.
  Updated imports and class names across dependent modules to reflect generalized event file handling. (#1936)
• Add ERA (Found commented-out code) to ruff configuration (used with precommit). (#1942)
• Add PERF settings to ruff (used by pre-commit) for improved maintainability. (#1943)
• Update pylint configuration to be more aligned with SonarQ requirements. (#1944)
• Move and rename application simtools-write-array-element-positions-to-repository to simtools-maintain-simulation-model-write-array-element-positions.
  Add integration and unit tests. (#1958)
• Minor code quality improvements reported by GitHub Code QL. (#1959)
• Fixed failing unit tests for test_visualize by adding missing plt.close(). (#1967)

Simulation model

• Change default simulation models version to 0.12.0. (#1918)