Modeling CUBES: from instrument simulation to data reduction prototype

We present a comprehensive overview of the collaborative efforts between the End-to-End (E2E) Simulator and the Data Reduction Software (DRS) team, focusing on the modeling of the U-band efficient Cassegrain spectrograph CUBES (ESO-VLT). The E2E model is a Python-based numerical simulator capable of rendering synthetic raw frames with high precision for both astronomical and calibration sources, starting from their 1-d radiation spectra up to the data produced by the detectors. Data from the E2E are processed by the prototype Data Reduction Software (pDRS), a Python library which implements the critical algorithms of the DRS. The PDRS performs wavelength calibration and extracts a 1-d spectrum from one or more reduced science exposures. The 1-d spectrum produced by the extraction routine is meant to be compared directly with the input spectrum fed to the E2E, actually “closing the loop” allowing for a real end-to-end assessment of the instrument capabilities.