The Simulation Tools for Roman are still being developed as our understanding of the observatory and instrument capabilities are refined through ground-testing and decisions made during the Core Community Surveys definition program. This article is designed to provide some insight on future developments to assist users in the best course of action for their science goals. 

Identified Improvements for Simulation Tools

The Roman Space Telescope is still being completed. Some of the detailed understanding of how the Wide Field Instrument (WFI) will be operated (e.g., detectors reading patterns), as well as its detailed throughput measurements and detectors characterization are still active areas of research. As a result, many Simulation Tools will be updated during the preparation for launch as decisions are made and instruments are fully characterized. This page is meant to inform users of planned improvements or significant developments to existing Simulation Tools. 

Table of Development Planned for SOC Simulation Tools

Simulation Tool	Current Status	Future Status
WebbPSF	An approximation to the Roman primary mirror polishing errors is included based on those from HST.	Polishing errors will be updated to values measured from ground characterization of the actual Roman mirror.
STIPS	There are dependencies on both WebbPSF and Pandeia .	As WebbPSF and  Pandeia are improved, the results from  STIPS will also improve.
Roman I-Sim	Not yet documented on RDox.	Development for this tool is ongoing and occurs in an open framework, but the tool is still under very active development. RomanISim will simulate Level 1 (L1) images with full instrumental effects.
Pandeia	Multi Accumulation tables are adopted from JWST.	Multi Accumulation tables will be updated to those used by WFI. While the final tables have not been selected, they will differ from those used in JWST because resultants will not always be evenly spaced.
	The current best throughput curves are implemented.	Throughput estimates will be updated based on ground characterization of the instruments.
	Only accessible by installing the python code-base (and dependencies).	A web-based tool will be developed for easier access to ETC calculations.
Development Utilities:
pysiaf		No major changes are anticipated.
synphot	The current best throughput curves are implemented.	Throughput estimates will be updated based on ground testing of the instruments.

Software Versions Used in this Documentation

• This documentation is written for  WebbPSF version 1.2.1 (released on August 11, 2023).
• This documentation is written for STIPS version 2.1.0 (released on November 15, 2023).
• This documentation is written for  Pandeia version 3.1 (released on December 11, 2023).

Caveats

Users should also refer to the Caveats sections for each tool to review both to limitations and known issues with the Simulation Tools. Some, but not all, of the known limitations for each Simulation Tool correspond to future areas of development. 

Links to Caveats Articles in RDox for Simulation Tools

Simulation Tool	Link to Caveats Article in RDox
WebbPSF	Caveats of using WebbPSF for Roman
STIPS	Caveats of using STIPS for Roman
RomanISim	Not yet documented in RDox
Pandeia	Caveats for using Pandeia for Roman

For additional questions not answered in this article, please contact the Roman Help Desk at STScI.