Introduction

This document describes the Astro-WISE data reduction environment, AWE or the Astro-WISE Environment. It is aimed at both the beginning and the advanced user with reference for administrators (these more advanced topics will be indicated). Don’t be fooled by the term developer. Any user who has ever looked into a source file and made even minor modifications is considered a developer here. There are things in this manual for all levels of user/developer, from beginner to advanced.

The first part of this document describes data processing in AWE, quality control in AWE, concepts for developing AWE code, database tasks, and AWE interface background. The second part consist of HOW-TOs: short, task-specific manuals showing how various aspects of the system work. The HOW-TOs will be referenced throughout the document.

New users should read this introduction chapter then move on to either the data reduction cookbook for a step-by-step walk-through, or go straight to the HOW-TOs for a task-by-task approach.