I'm trying to create a Gaussian random field, by creating a grid in Fourier space and then inverse Fourier transorming it to get the random field. For this, the inverse Fourier transformed image needs to be real valued. I seem to be getting residuals in the imaginary part of the grid of the order 10^-18 - -22, so I expected this to be numerical errors in the FFT. The real part of the image displays a weird checkerboard pattern on pixelscale though, where the pixels jump from positive to negative. To see if the FFT functions correctly I tried transforming a Gaussian, which should give back another Gaussian and again the checkerboard pattern is present in the image. When taking the absolute value of the image, it looks fine, but I also need it to allow for negative values for my Gaussian random field.
For the Fourier transformation of the Gaussian I use the following code:
#! /usr/bin/env python
import numpy as n
import math as m
import pyfits
def fourierplane(a):
deltakx = 2*a.kxmax/a.dimkx #stepsize in k_x
deltaky = 2*a.kymax/a.dimky #stepsize in k_y
plane = n.zeros([a.dimkx,a.dimky]) #empty matrix to be filled in for the Fourier grid
for y in range(n.shape(plane)[0]):
for x in range(n.shape(plane)[1]):
#Defining coordinates centred at x = N/2, y = N/2
i1 = x - a.dimkx/2
j1 = y - a.dimky/2
#creating values to fill in in the grid:
kx = deltakx*i1 #determining value of k_x at gridpoint
ky = deltaky*j1 #determining value of k_y at gridpoint
k = m.sqrt(kx**2 + ky**2) #magnitude of k-vector
plane[y][x] = m.e**(-(k**2)/(2*a.sigma_k**2)) #gaussian
return plane
def substruct():
class fougrid:
pass
grid = fougrid()
grid.kxmax = 2.00 #maximum value k_x
grid.kymax = 2.00 #maximum value k_y
grid.sigma_k = (1./20.)*grid.kxmax #width of gaussian
grid.dimkx = 1024
grid.dimky= 1024
fplane = fourierplane(grid) #creating the Fourier grid
implane = n.fft.ifftshift(n.fft.ifft2(fplane)) #inverse Fourier transformation of the grid to get final image
##################################################################
#seperating real and imaginary part of the Fourier transformed grid
##################################################################
realimplane = implane.real
imagimplane = implane.imag
#taking the absolute value:
absimplane = n.zeros(n.shape(implane))
for a in range(n.shape(implane)[0]):
for b in range(n.shape(implane)[1]):
absimplane[a][b] = m.sqrt(implane[a][b].real**2 + implane[a][b].imag**2)
#saving images to files:
pyfits.writeto('randomfield.fits',realimplane) #real part of the image grid
pyfits.writeto('fplane.fits',fplane) #grid in fourier space
pyfits.writeto('imranfield.fits',imagimplane) #imaginary part of the image grid
pyfits.writeto('absranfield.fits',absimplane) #real part of the image grid
substruct() #running the script
Does anyone have any idea how this pattern is created and how to solve this problem?