Description

The TraP is a pipeline for detecting and responding to transient and variable sources in a stream of astronomical images. Images are initially processed using a pure-Python source-extraction package, 'PySE', which is currently bundled with the TraP. Source positions and fluxes are then loaded into a SQL database for association and variability detection. The database structure allows for estimation of past upper limits on newly detected sources, and for forced fitting of previously detected sources which have since dropped below the blind-extraction threshold. The TraP was originally developed with LOFAR data in mind, but has already been used with data from other radio observatories. Source extraction is currently optimised for radio-synthesis images, but extension to optical images has been suggested as a future addition.