A Quicklook Notebook for Analysis of NANOGrav Pulsar Data

NANOGrav is a collaboration of scientists that times rapidly rotating neutron stars, called pulsars, in order to detect gravitational waves, ripples in spacetime produced by accelerating massive objects. Used by NANOGrav, Quicklook is a Python Jupyter notebook used to quickly visualize pulsar observation data. The Quicklook program can be run on files from a pulsar observation and generates graphs showing various features. Among its many purposes, Quicklook is most commonly used for detecting any unusual astrophysical events or any problems that might have occurred during observation. In our project, we are expanding the Quicklook Jupyter notebook by adding two new graphs displaying different aspects of the observation. One of the graphs shows any variation in the intensity profile of a pulsar from average results. The second plot graphs values of the dispersive delay, caused by travel through the interstellar medium, to allow for any major changes to become apparent. As well, we are enhancing the program by making it run automatically after each observation. These additions will help NANOGrav scientists in the future see any intensity or dispersive delay changes more rapidly, to enable more rapid follow-up observations.