Spectra are extracted in sky coordinates from the filtered event files. Event files are combined if the spectra extracted from them would have the same response matrix and if they can be extracted using the same region filter. Specifically, SIS data with different CCD modes (1, 2 or 4) are kept separate, and GIS data with different numbers of PHA bins are kept separate. Also, data from different instruments or in different modes (BRIGHT BRIGHT2 FAST PH MPC), and data with different image resolutions are kept separate. The spectra are grouped to have a minimum of 40 counts per group.
GIS RMFs are static and can are just retrieved from a collection of pre-generated files. SIS RMFs depend on epoch and location on the chip so they must be generated using the FTOOL sisrmg. The following proceedure is used to generate SIS RMFs in 2 or 4 CCD mode:
An ARF is generated for each spectrum using "extended source mode".
Blank sky spectra are extracted for each instrument and source region file. The blank sky event files have been previously selected to have COR (cut-off rigidity) consistent with the selection criteria used to generate filtered event files. The GIS blank sky event files have been gisclean-ed. The spectra extracted from these blank sky event files may be used for background subtraction (with caution) in high galactic latitude sources.
Finally, each spectrum is plotted using xspec.
FTOOLS called: