ROSAT Status Report #109:
November 14, 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 heasarc.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 heasarc.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.
Please send comments and questions to ftoolshelp@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov
Status Report #108
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Curator:
Michael Arida (ADNET)
HEASARC Guest Observer Facility
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