Frequently Asked Questions

1. The fluxes are all in physical units not magnitudes, right?

   Yes.

   
   

2. Does any of the light curves need to overlap with the other light curves?

   In principle the code does not require that.

   However, it would be better that the different datasets have some overlap periods, otherwise, the code just effectively align the means of all datasets with the reference dataset. It is worth mentioning that different datasets DO NOT need to have exactly same epochs.

   
   

3. Should the codes of continuum and emission-line light curves be same?

   Yes. The orders of the codes appearing in the input data also should be exactly same.

   A dataset is permitted to have zero points.

   
   

4. Can PyCALI only merge continuum light curves?

   Yes. Switch off the option for lines.

   
   

5. Can PyCALI only merge line light curves?

   Yes. One can treat line light curves as continuum and fix the shift factor (to zero).

   
   

6. Can PyCALI fix some specific codes?

   Yes. Use the option fixed_codes in Python version or FixedCodes in binary version. See Detailed Usage for more information.

   
   

7. Can PyCALI fix the scale of some specific codes?

   Yes. Use the option fixed_scalecodes in Python version or FixedScaleCodes in binary version. See Detailed Usage for more information.

   
   

8. PyCALI uses the DRW process to describe the variability of the light curve. Does this means that the intercalibration results are model-dependent?

   Simulation tests show that the scale and shift factors are largely independent of the variability model used.