PySE: Software for Extracting Sources from Radio Images

PySE is a Python software package for finding and measuring sources in radio telescopeimages. The software was designed to detect sources in the LOFAR telescopeimages, but can be used with images from other radio telescopesas well. We introduce the LOFAR Telescope, the context within which PySE was developed, the design of PySE, and describe how it is used. Detailed experiments on the validation and testing of PySE are then presented, along with results of performance testing. We discuss some of the current issues with the algorithms implemented in PySE and their inter- action with LOFARimages, concluding with the current status of PySE and its future development.