We use IDL, which is a programming language. Right now, I have a function with two variables* that I'm supposed to fit to the data we have, after I calibrated the data (basically turn it from 'number of electrons recorded at a given time' to 'the percent of starlight from a certain star shining through Saturn's rings at that time').
Except the function needs tweaking depending on things like orbital geometry of the spacecraft that took the data... and right now, there's not enough difference between the two variables, so it tends to give me results that don't look at all like the data, and that break the model.
* Basically relating to what sizes the chunks of ice are in Saturn's rings: one parameter is 'how many small particles for every big particle' and the other is related to the biggest and smallest particles. Some of the starlight gets bent by the ring particles (like how light is bent when there's water droplets in the air, giving you a rainbow), and the amount its bent by depends on what the ring is like.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 02:49 am (UTC)Except the function needs tweaking depending on things like orbital geometry of the spacecraft that took the data... and right now, there's not enough difference between the two variables, so it tends to give me results that don't look at all like the data, and that break the model.
* Basically relating to what sizes the chunks of ice are in Saturn's rings: one parameter is 'how many small particles for every big particle' and the other is related to the biggest and smallest particles. Some of the starlight gets bent by the ring particles (like how light is bent when there's water droplets in the air, giving you a rainbow), and the amount its bent by depends on what the ring is like.