Documentation and code updates clarifying the behavior of the in_memory flag

[emolter]

#8782 added a pipeline-level in_memory flag to calwebb_image3 that governs the on_disk status of the ModelLibrary that is passed through all the pipeline steps. The same PR updated the outlier detection step to figure out whether the compute the median in-memory or using memory-saving options based on the on_disk status of the input ModelLibrary. This is generally a good thing, because it means that the pipeline-level in_memory flag actually does enforce doing all computations in memory. However, it also means that the step-specific in_memory flag for the OutlierDetectionStep is ignored when running the entire pipeline.

This PR updates the documentation to clarify the interaction between the pipeline-level and step-level in_memory flags for outlier detection.

This PR also removes unnecessary passing of the in_memory flag into ResampleData because that flag doesn't actually do anything in this context and passing it explicitly is therefore confusing.

No JIRA ticket or issue. Discovered during conversation with @tapastro

Tasks

• request a review from someone specific, to avoid making the maintainers review every PR
• add a build milestone, i.e. Build 11.3 (use the latest build if not sure)
• Does this PR change user-facing code / API? (if not, label with no-changelog-entry-needed)
  • write news fragment(s) in changes/: echo "changed something" > changes/<PR#>.<changetype>.rst (see below for change types)
  • update or add relevant tests
  • update relevant docstrings and / or docs/ page
  • start a regression test and include a link to the running job (click here for instructions)
    • Do truth files need to be updated ("okified")?
      • after the reviewer has approved these changes, run okify_regtests to update the truth files
• if a JIRA ticket exists, make sure it is resolved properly

news fragment change types...

• changes/<PR#>.general.rst: infrastructure or miscellaneous change
• changes/<PR#>.docs.rst
• changes/<PR#>.stpipe.rst
• changes/<PR#>.datamodels.rst
• changes/<PR#>.scripts.rst
• changes/<PR#>.fits_generator.rst
• changes/<PR#>.set_telescope_pointing.rst
• changes/<PR#>.pipeline.rst

stage 1

• changes/<PR#>.group_scale.rst
• changes/<PR#>.dq_init.rst
• changes/<PR#>.emicorr.rst
• changes/<PR#>.saturation.rst
• changes/<PR#>.ipc.rst
• changes/<PR#>.firstframe.rst
• changes/<PR#>.lastframe.rst
• changes/<PR#>.reset.rst
• changes/<PR#>.superbias.rst
• changes/<PR#>.refpix.rst
• changes/<PR#>.linearity.rst
• changes/<PR#>.rscd.rst
• changes/<PR#>.persistence.rst
• changes/<PR#>.dark_current.rst
• changes/<PR#>.charge_migration.rst
• changes/<PR#>.jump.rst
• changes/<PR#>.clean_flicker_noise.rst
• changes/<PR#>.ramp_fitting.rst
• changes/<PR#>.gain_scale.rst

stage 2

• changes/<PR#>.assign_wcs.rst
• changes/<PR#>.badpix_selfcal.rst
• changes/<PR#>.msaflagopen.rst
• changes/<PR#>.nsclean.rst
• changes/<PR#>.imprint.rst
• changes/<PR#>.background.rst
• changes/<PR#>.extract_2d.rst
• changes/<PR#>.master_background.rst
• changes/<PR#>.wavecorr.rst
• changes/<PR#>.srctype.rst
• changes/<PR#>.straylight.rst
• changes/<PR#>.wfss_contam.rst
• changes/<PR#>.flatfield.rst
• changes/<PR#>.fringe.rst
• changes/<PR#>.pathloss.rst
• changes/<PR#>.barshadow.rst
• changes/<PR#>.photom.rst
• changes/<PR#>.pixel_replace.rst
• changes/<PR#>.resample_spec.rst
• changes/<PR#>.residual_fringe.rst
• changes/<PR#>.cube_build.rst
• changes/<PR#>.extract_1d.rst
• changes/<PR#>.resample.rst

stage 3

• changes/<PR#>.assign_mtwcs.rst
• changes/<PR#>.mrs_imatch.rst
• changes/<PR#>.tweakreg.rst
• changes/<PR#>.skymatch.rst
• changes/<PR#>.exp_to_source.rst
• changes/<PR#>.outlier_detection.rst
• changes/<PR#>.tso_photometry.rst
• changes/<PR#>.stack_refs.rst
• changes/<PR#>.align_refs.rst
• changes/<PR#>.klip.rst
• changes/<PR#>.spectral_leak.rst
• changes/<PR#>.source_catalog.rst
• changes/<PR#>.combine_1d.rst
• changes/<PR#>.ami.rst

other

• changes/<PR#>.wfs_combine.rst
• changes/<PR#>.white_light.rst
• changes/<PR#>.cube_skymatch.rst
• changes/<PR#>.engdb_tools.rst
• changes/<PR#>.guider_cds.rst

[codecov]

Codecov Report

All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests ✅

Project coverage is 61.79%. Comparing base (fb3c2cd) to head (4e740ca).
Report is 2 commits behind head on main.

Additional details and impacted files

@@           Coverage Diff           @@
##             main    #8851   +/-   ##
=======================================
  Coverage   61.79%   61.79%           
=======================================
  Files         377      377           
  Lines       38834    38834           
=======================================
  Hits        23999    23999           
  Misses      14835    14835           

☔ View full report in Codecov by Sentry.
📢 Have feedback on the report? Share it here.

[braingram]

Thanks! LGTM.

[tapastro]

One small request, not necessary: add a comment to the spec block in outlier_detection_step for the in_memory entry reiterating "ignored if run as part of pipeline". LGTM either way 👍