Gen TSO Documentation

Author

Patricio Cubillos

Published

June 11, 2026

Gen TSO

A general TSO simulator for exoplanets with JWST

NoteStatus

Gen TSO is up to date with Pandeia version 2026.2

Gen TSO is a graphical interface to simulate JWST time-series observations (TSO) of exoplanets. Gen TSO connects together:

Which combined, allow Gen TSO to offers an interactive interface to easily visualize, assess, and compare the JWST characterization capabilities for known exoplanets.

Gen TSO provides:

  • Instant access to system parameters of known exoplanet targets
  • Instant access to previous JWST programs of targets
  • Interactive visualization of target’s field of view with ESASky
  • Perform transit and eclipse S/N simulations for all JWST spectroscopic and photometric TSO modes
  • Perform target-acquisition simulations on science or nearby targets
  • Interactive visualization of transit, eclipse, and stellar SEDs spectra, observing modes, and simulated TSO spectra
  • A GUI-to-notebook button to instantly translate the current GUI state to a Python script

Install

Gen TSO is a Python3.9+ package available via the PyPI repository:

pip install gen_tso

Then, you can launch the Gen TSO application with this prompt command:

tso

Run with -h to display the full list of command line options:

tso -h
Click to expand command-line documentation 
usage: tso [-h] [-v] [-m PATH] [-t FILE] [--debug]

Launch the Gen TSO interactive application

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -v, --version         show Gen TSO version
  -m PATH, --models PATH
                        include custom SED and planet spectra from input path
  -t FILE, --targets FILE
                        include custom targets from input file
  --debug               run reloading the GUI when the source code is updated

Other functionality:
  usage: tso [--update_exo] [--update_programs] [--update_db]
             [--update_custom CSV] [--add_custom CSV]

  --update_exo          update NASA Exoplanet Archive
  --update_programs     update JWST TSO programs
  --update_db           check and update SED/synphot atlases
  --update_custom CSV   update custom targets from csv file
  --add_custom CSV      add new custom targets from csv file

This is Gen TSO version 1.4.0
Copyright (c) 2025-2026 Patricio Cubillos. GPL-2.0 license
Documentation at: https://pcubillos.github.io/gen_tso

JWST observing modes

These are the available TSO modes for each instrument:

Instrument Spectroscopy modes Wavelength range (μm)
miri lrsslitless 5.0 – 12.5
lrsslit 5.0 – 12.5
mrs_ts 5.0 – 28
nircam lw_tsgrism 2.4 – 5.0
sw_tsgrism 0.6 – 2.2
niriss soss 0.6 – 2.8
nirspec bots 0.6 – 5.2
Instrument Photometry modes Wavelength range (μm)
miri imaging_ts 5.0 – 30
nircam lw_ts 2.4 – 5.2
sw_ts 0.6 – 2.4
Instrument Acquisition modes
miri target_acq
nircam target_acq
niriss target_acq
nirspec target_acq

Citing

Please cite this paper if you found Gen TSO useful for your research:
Cubillos (2024): Gen TSO: A General JWST Simulator for Exoplanet Times-series Observations

BibTeX reference:

@ARTICLE{Cubillos2024paspGenTSO,
       author = {{Cubillos}, Patricio E.},
        title = "{Gen TSO: A General JWST Simulator for Exoplanet Times-series Observations}",
      journal = {\pasp},
     keywords = {Exoplanets, Time series analysis, Astronomy databases, 498, 1916, 83, Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics},
         year = 2024,
        month = dec,
       volume = {136},
       number = {12},
          eid = {124501},
        pages = {124501},
          doi = {10.1088/1538-3873/ad8fd4},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
       eprint = {2410.04856},
 primaryClass = {astro-ph.EP},
       adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024PASP..136l4501C},
      adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}

We welcome your feedback or inquiries, please raise issues on the Github repository or refer them to:
Patricio Cubillos (patricio.cubillos[at]oeaw.ac.at)

Find more information in the links below:


Install

Get Started

Tutorials

API
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