Newtonian.py: Overflow protection needed

pygwinc/gwinc/noise/newtonian.py:47: RuntimeWarning: overflow encountered in power coeff = 1/(1 + 3**(gamma*(f-fk)))

Perhaps the function should just suppress this warning. The overflow occurs because 3**f blows up at high frequencies -- where this noise is negligible.

Boo! Fie!

If you prefer, the overflow can be avoided by rescaling numerator and denominator by 3**-f. But it's harmless anyway (it is caught and set to Inf). The same thing happens in matgwinc, we just don't get a notice about it.

Best to avoid numerical underflows and overflows; just seems like good coding practice not to put in warning workarounds.

The warning is not a workaround; it's just coming from numpy. The way to avoid is precisely to do what @christopher.wipf is suggesting to rescale.

I certainly agree that the warning is annoying and we should get rid of it. But I think we can just suppress it right around where we know it should be showing up and we're ok with it.

mentioned in merge request !29 (closed)

Of course the warning is not a workaround; I think you just mis-read my comment. I am just suggesting we fix the overflow rather than hide a warning.

Ah. I'm not sure what we can do to "fix" the overflow though. The noise is dropping so fast that I don't see how we can every represent the true value at the top frequencies. As Chris points out, it is actually doing the "right" thing, by setting the 3**f values to Inf, which then go to zero when inverted. I'm not sure it's worth putting too much time into.

mentioned in commit a898974f

mentioned in merge request !30 (merged)

closed via commit 284eac98

closed via commit a898974f

closed via merge request !30 (merged)