Stingray : A Library of Time Series Methods

Haroon Rashid
Aug 23, 2017 · 2 min read

GSoC’17 has finally come to an end, what has been an exciting experience of couple of months.

Project Introduction

My project was to make a library of Time Series methods for astronomical X-ray data. Software Package called Stingray aims to provide a dedicated package for astronomers to carry out their research. It provides library methods for data analysis, simulations and models to fit data among several other features. Goal of my project was to implement methods for data analysis on Lightcurves which is an astronomical jargon for time series. And with the help of my mentors Matteo Bachetti and Daniela Hupponkothen, almost all the milestones set for the project has been accomplished 🎉.

Code Links

My Project involved contributions to two repositories:

  1. Stingray Repository
  2. Notebooks Repository

Summary of Contributions

List of Methods Implemented in Stingray during GSoC includes:

  1. Cross Correlaation
  2. Auto Correlation
  3. Bispectrum
  4. Window Functions
  5. 2D Windows for Bispectrum
  6. Rebining for Dynamical Powerspectrum

Each module implemented is also accompanied by a tutorial on how to use it in the notebooks repository.

Pull Requests and Commits

During the project, I opened total of 13 pull requests (both stingray and notebook repository). Some of Pull requests involved fixing some issues, while most of them implemented a new algorithm.

Pull Requests in Stingray

Links to major Pull requests in stingray repository:

Pull requests in Notebooks Repo

Total of about 70 commits were made during the last couple of months.

Link to all commits made in Stingray Repository.

Link to all commits in Notebooks Repository.

Experience with Timelab

It has been a wonderful experience into the world of open source software development so far, with a lot of learning and fun along the way. My experience with timelab and python software foundation has been exceptional, particularly, because of my mentors. Mentors helped me all along the way, providing their valuable insights into any issue I had and suggested a suitable solution to a problem whenever I had one. They kept on providing me with proper literature references to the algorithms that I had to implement thanks to their expertise in the domain. I am extremely lucky to be a part of this community and hope to continue my associations with stingray and time lab. For all the future gsocers out there, Time Lab and python is highly recommended. Join our slack channel to start contributions 💻.

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Haroon Rashid

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