ROSAT Status Report # 109

[REQUEST@rosat.gsfc.nasa.gov]

		ROSAT Status Report # 109
		      Nov 14th 1994



Dear ROSAT PIs,

It is possible to analyze your ROSAT data using the XSELECT and FTOOLS
software. This software reads the FITS events files directly, and writes 
out FITS data products directly (spectra, images etc), allowing a quick and 
clean approach to data analysis.

A ROSAT Users Guide to data analysis using XSELECT and FTOOLS is
available in postscript and latex form from the legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov
anonymous FTP area under rosat/doc/xselect_guide/ 

A new release of the FTOOLS (version 3.2) and XSELECT (version 1.2) is now
available via this anonymous FTP site in the directory: 

   software/ftools/release


The new software release contains several new enhancements and bug fixes as
described below: 


<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< SOFTWARE  RELEASE  ANNOUNCEMENT >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
                    ---------------------------------
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< FTOOLS  VERSION 3.2  DISTRIBUTION >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< XSELECT VERSION 1.2  DISTRIBUTION >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

How:   Anonymous FTP from legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov
Where: software/ftools/release/ directory
What:  *** FTOOLS Source and Data...(get both!) ***
       ftools.v3.2.tar.Z   -  Source Code Distribution for all platforms
       refdata.v3.2.tar.Z  -  Minimal subset of Calibration Database

       *** Compressed Postscript Documentation ***
       Develop.v3.2.ps.Z    -  Developer's Guide
       Install.v3.2.ps.Z    -  Installation Guide
       Users.v3.2.ps.Z      -  User's Guide
       TechRef.v3.2.ps.Z    -  Complete User's Guide and help pages

Supported Platforms: (See Installation Guide for details)
       unix         ALPHA/OSF, DEC/ULTRIX, SUN/SunOS, Sun/Solaris,
                       MODCOMP/REALIX,
       vms          ALPHA/VMS, VAX/VMS


                       FTOOLS VERSION 3.2 SUMMARY

The underlying command line interpreter for the host version of FTOOLS
changed in version 3.0 from the SAO Host interface to XPI. Most of the
modification in this 3.2 release bring the XPI interface closer to the
earlier SAO Host interface. 

A "core" subset of the FTOOLS made up of the futils, fimage and time
subpackages can be installed instead of the full package.  Note that
the refdata.v3.2.tar.Z file is not needed by this "core" subset.

All the source code necessary to build the FTOOLS is included in this
release. No binary libraries are included except for the MODCOMP.

New tasks available:

   ascaeffmap - Generates an ASCA detector efficiency image file for an
                   input PHA file
     ascaexpo - Very Beta (contact Eric Gotthelf for details)
    ascii2pha - Creates an OGIP FITS PHA file from an ASCII dataset
     gevt2rdf - Converts a German _events dataset to RDF _bas format
       mkqsrc - adds extra fields for quality screening to ROSAT source
                   file
       pcfilt - Creates a ROSAT PSPC makefilter file

Bug fixed: GISRTI in version 3.0 of FTOOLS rejected valid events. This
has now been fixed.


                       XSELECT VERSION 1.2 SUMMARY

New Commands:

* The FILTER TIME command has changed altogether. Cursor selection is
  now done using FILTER TIME CURSOR. Added are FILTER TIME
  {MJD,SCC,UT} which allows you to enter timing filters by HAND in MJD,
  Spacecraft Clock time, or UT, respectively. The old FILTER TIME
  command is now FILTER TIME FILE.

* The SAVE commands associated with the time filters are now grouped
  into SAVE TIME CURSOR and SAVE TIME KEYBOARD. The corresponding
  CLEAR commands are grouped under CLEAR TIME.

* The commands set SET XYCENTER and SET XYSIZE allow you to move the
  image center and resize the image.

Bug Fixes:

* SET IMAGE will now work if you have no region filter.

New Features:

* There is now (at least provisional) support for EINSTEIN IPC and HRI

* Make obscat now works with ROSAT and EINSTEIN ( though you may need to
  set the MISSION_INSTRUMENT_lststr variable to your file naming
  convention )

* Files with TLMIN > TLMAX for the ENERGY column will now be rejected at
  the CHOOSE stage. You will be warned that this is happening. 

* SAVE SPECTRUM for ROSAT PSPC truncates to 256 channels (this is
  settable).

* There are mission-specific MKF file names.


                           ROSAT FTOOLS NEWS

There are three new ROSAT FTOOLS which are available with FTOOLS 3.2: 

      pcfilt - Creates a ROSAT PSPC makefilter file for data screening
                  with Xselect (ROSAT).
    gevt2rdf - Converts a German _events dataset to RDF _bas format.
      mkqsrc - Adds extra fields for quality screening to ROSAT source
                  file.

and three new ROSAT Perl scripts:

   mk_allevt - Combines accepted and rejected events into one table.
fix_rev0_pha - This is a temporary script for fixing up PHA files
                  made from Rev0 data using the current extractor.
      extpha - Extracts some  or all  of the extensions from a _src 
                  file and makes individual PHA files out of them.


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Please send comments and questions to ftoolshelp@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov