Multi-Station Comparison

The Multi-Station Comparison workspace displays dynamic spectra from several stations in vertically stacked panels with a shared time axis, so that the same event can be compared across stations, receivers and frequency ranges (Figure 12.1). It is opened from View > Multi-Station Comparison... or with the Compare button of the downloader (Chapter 11).

The workspace follows the rendering mode of the application: in Modern mode the panels are hardware-accelerated when available, and in Classic mode they are drawn with Matplotlib.

Stations and files

The Stations / Files group lists the loaded files as station – date – file name. Add Files... adds FITS files from disk, Remove removes the selected entry and Clear removes all entries. Files that can be combined are merged automatically before display: each station’s files are combined in time, in frequency, or as a complete time $\times$ focus-code grid (Section 5.3), so a mixed-station selection yields one panel per station. Hovering over an entry shows any warning raised while reading it.

Display controls

Display controls of the Multi-Station Comparison.
Group	Control	Function
View	Time alignment	UT clock aligns the panels on Universal Time; Seconds from file start aligns each panel on its own start. UT alignment requires `TIME-OBS` in every file; otherwise the workspace switches to seconds and says so.
Appearance	Units	Digits or dB.
	Colormap	Color map of all panels.
	Color scale	Shared scale (one scale for all panels), Per-station auto scale, or Manual scale with Low and High limits.
Noise Reduction	Target	All panels or one panel.
	Method	None, Mean background, Median background, Robust background or Noise clipping.
	Colormap	Color map of the noise-reduced panels.
	Thresholds	With Noise clipping, Lower threshold and Upper threshold sliders and a Logarithmic Threshold Scale option, as in the main window.

Display range and view configurations

The Actions group contains:

Set Range...: enter a shared time and frequency range for all panels.
Reset Range: return to the full range of the data.
Load View Config...: apply a .efaview.json view configuration (Section 7.2.2). The visual settings are applied; when the files differ in date, set UT bounds with Set Range....
Export...: export the comparison (Section 12.5).

Ruler measurement

In the Measurement group, Start Ruler activates a ruler: click two points in one panel to measure the duration, frequency drift and slope, shown under Readout. Clear removes the measurement.

Exporting a comparison

Export... opens the Export Comparison dialog (Figure 12.2):

Visible View: exports the comparison exactly as it appears in the window.
Grid / Table Layout: exports a compact publication-style matrix of all panels, with a shared time axis, each station’s native frequency range and a white background. Its options are the number of Columns (Auto or a fixed number), an Overall title, and the Raster resolution (DPI) for bitmap formats.

The figure can be saved as PNG, PDF, EPS, SVG or TIFF.

The Export Comparison dialog. — **Figure 12.2.** The **Export Comparison** dialog.