ROSAT Guest Observer Facility


ROSAT Status Report #91:

April 22nd 1994


Enhancements and new Features for ROSAT Archival Data Access

Mike Corcoran and Nick White, HEASARC, LHEA/GSFC.

Overview

This note describes new HEASARC services available for accessing the ROSAT and other HEASARC archival data. These are:


Anonymous ftp Access

ROSAT archival data is now being copied to a dedicated jukebox system that is permanently mounted to the HEASARC anonymous ftp on heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov. The data can be found under the directory rosat/data/INSTRUMENT/processed_data/XXXXXX/YYYYYYYY, where

	INSTRUMENT 	= either hri or pspc
	XXXXXX		= sequence id group (from 100000 to 900000)
	YYYYYYYY	= sequence id
for example, data associated with the data set having sequence id rp300023 is located in the directory rosat/data/pspc/processed_data/300000/rp300023

As of today, about 84 percent of the data are available. We expect the remainder to be copied from NDADS by the end of next week (4/29/94). As new archival data is delivered it will be added immediately to the legacy ftp account.

To minimize storage space, the data are stored on the jukebox in UNIX compressed format. Users can uncompress the data automatically when ftp'ing. To do this, simply "get" the file by specifying the filename WITHOUT the .Z extension. An example is shown below:

barnegat% ftp heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov
Connected to heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov.
220 heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov FTP server (Version wu-2.3(6) Thu Apr 14 16:40:47 EDT 1 994) ready.
Name (heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov:corcoran): anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
Password:
ftp> cd rosat/data/pspc/processed_data/300000/rp300023
ftp> ls rp300023.fits.Z
rp300023.fits.Z
ftp> bin
ftp> get rp300023.fits
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for /bin/compress.
226 Transfer complete.
local: rp300023.fits remote: rp300023.fits
4726080 bytes received in 93 seconds (50 Kbytes/s)
ftp> quit
barnegat% ls -l rp300023*
-rw-r--r--  1 corcoran  4726080 Apr 22 09:19 rp300023.fits

This automatic uncompression will work for both VMS and UNIX systems. Users should note that automatic uncompression does NOT work with the ftp "mget" command.

The current ndads service will continue to be maintained, as before.

Due to popular demand, a new list of public ROSAT data is now available via anonymous ftp from the legacy machine in the directory rosat/doc/archive. The new list includes all the currently available public rosat data (for both US processed and MPE processed data sets) for both the PSPC and HRI and should make identification of public data much easier for users. The list is issued in sequence-ordered and position-ordered formats; these are named

rosarchive_yymm.pos (position ordered)
rosarchive_yymm.seq (ordered by sequence id)
where yymm is the year and month for which the archive list is current. This list replaces the lists

ppublic_data.seq
ppublic_data.date
ppublic_data.pos
hpublic_data.seq
hpublic_data.date
hpublic_data.pos
which no longer are used.

World Wide Web Access

The HEASARC has released a next generation BROWSE interface using the World-Wide-Web, WWW. Through the xmosaic interface (obtained from heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov in /software/www or from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu).

It is now possible to make coordinate and object name searches of all the various catalogs and databases currently available through the HEASARC Browse (including all the ROSAT tables and files). The data files can be both displayed and retrieved via this interface. This new release includes an interface to the SIMBAD name-coordinate resolver so that most astronomical names will be recognized, plus a new HEASARC name-coordinate resolver. Files can be downloaded or, by following the setup information, directly display: fits images, postscript and ascii text files. We encourage users to try this interface. The current capabilities are still quite limited compared to the original browse, but the ease of use of this point and click interface is a tremendous advance. The HEASARC plans to continue to add additional capability to this method of accessing its archival data. We are keen to receive feedback from users. To access the WWW HEASARC home page please open

http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/

The new browse interface can be accessed from this page by clicking on "browse". The rest is obvious....


Browse Features

To access ROSAT databases, visit Browse on the Web.

  1. The data in the anonymous ftp now can be directly accessed from Browse. Thus all the rosat public archive data can now be extracted.

  2. For large lists of coordinates it can be a bit tedious to type in all the coordinates. It is now possible to make searches by e-mail. A list of source positions and coordinates can be submitted and the results will be e-mailed back. This is particularly useful if e.g. you have a list of objects and want to check if rosat observed them and if they are in the archive. To use this service, send an empty e-mail message to hdbreq@heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov. Instructions will be sent back automatically by e-mail.

Changes to the ROSPUBLIC Database

The ROSPUBLIC database is being modified to make clearer which data are actually in the public archive. The new data table will contain only those data sets which are currently in the public domain, and the public date information given in the table will indicate the date the data actually entered the public domain. The previous usage of the public date in the ROSPUBLIC data table was incorrect in many cases and caused some confusion on the part of users.


ROSAT CD-Roms

All of the broad-band images from the mission will be distributed on cd rom. Volume 1, consisting of the first six months of data released to the archive, is now available. It was first distributed at the Washington AAS meeting in January. The cd rom can be browsed from xmosaic by opening:

http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/rosat/cdvol1/rosatcdvol1.html
The second volume will contain all the remaining archival images released up to December 1993. It is currently in production and if all goes well will be distributed at the June 1994 Minneapolis AAS meeting. If you would like to order a copy of either volume please send an email to ksmale@lheavx.gsfc.nasa.gov. Please include your name, address and which volumes you would like. Supplies are limited and will be sent on a first come first serve basis.


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Curator: Michael Arida (ADNET); arida@milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov
HEASARC Guest Observer Facility


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This file was last modified on Wednesday, 20-Oct-2021 11:07:05 EDT

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