Changes and updates to XTE NRA software

[Alan Smale <alan@osiris.gsfc.nasa.gov>]

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           Changes and updates to XTE NRA software
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XTENEWS#3                                           7th March 1995


We'd like to bring you up to date about a few changes to items in the
/xte/nra area on the FTP site on legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov. These changes
include: upgrading the PIMMS2 and HEXTEmporize tools; updating the
Appendix F Errata document; fresh copies of the HEXTE response
matrices.

** Proposers should pay particular attention to the changes in the
HEXTE output from PIMMS2. **


PIMMS2.
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We have produced a new version of the HEXTE effective area curve file
for use with pimms2.  There are two changes from the previous version:

(1) It now properly accounts for the default discriminator setting of
HEXTE, i.e., no counts in PHA channels 0-14 and 251-255.  The earlier
version overpredicted the total HEXTE count rates for sources, while
the background rate was correct.  Therefore the 5-sigma detection time
was underestimated for the total HEXTE band.  For some soft sources,
the choice of including or not including channel 0-14 changed the
count rate by as much as a factor of 2.

(2) In the earlier version, the effective area curves for the
canonical bands had a 1-channel offset, resulting in slightly
incorrect estimates.

If you have already installed pimms2, simply copy xte_hexte_.area
(dated Mar 03, 1995) from /FTP/xte/nra/software/pimms to your
pimms/data directory.  If you have not installed pimms2, simply copy
pimms2b.tar.Z and follow instructions in the readme file.


HEXTEmporize v1.33
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A new version of HEXTEmporize was placed in /xte/nra/software/hextemporize 
on March 6, 1995.  The new version fully supports the selection of
Multiscalar Bin channel boundaries.  For example, using the "Verify"
option on an M-S bin configuration will now give a detailed breakdown
of count rates in each spectral band.


Appendix F Errata Document
--------------------------
The Errata Document is occasionally updated as errors and
discrepancies in Appendix F are brought to our attention.  It was last
updated on March 1, 1995.  Be sure to take a look at it.  Also, some
frequently asked questions about the XTE NRA may be answered by
looking here.  You'll find the document as a postscript file in
/xte/nra/appendix_f/addenda/NRA_errata.ps.


HEXTE Response Matrix and Background Files
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Some people may have had difficulty reading the hexte_cluster.bak and 
hexte_cluster.rsp files in /xte/nra/responses/hexte.  The corrupted files 
have been replaced with clean copies.  There is no change to the real 
content of the files.

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