Data Reduction for Integral Field Spectrographs: Past, Present, and Future

Integral Field Spectrographs have become mainstream on optical/NIR telescopes. The Australian National University has a long history with these instruments. ANU designed and built NIFS for Gemini North and WiFeS for the 2.3m telescope at Siding Spring, both of which are in active use. Building on this success ANU is designing GMTIFS, a combined NIR AO-assisted IFS and Imager for the Giant Magellan Telescope. Past experience has shown that an accurate, robust, and responsive data reduction pipeline is essential for the successful early exploitation of IFS instruments. Data reduction for NIFS (and initially also for WiFeS) was performed within the IRAF environment. While this approach provided high quality data products, it was difficult to maintain and improve. The python-based PyWiFeS pipeline has provided a user-friendly data processing solution. Based on PyWiFeS, a prototype data simulator and reduction pipeline has been developed for GMTIFS. We provide an overview of the three instruments, their data reduction pipelines, and discuss the future of IFS data reduction.