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BeppoSAX U.S. Coordination Facility

BeppoSAX Data Archive :
Software for archival data



* LECS and MECS : clean events
The MECS and LECS clean event files have been generated running all the relevant stages (I-IV for the MECS and I-III for the LECS) of saxpipe , the main SAXDAS script that controls the pipeline. These files have all the necessary corrections applied and can be used for scientific analysis. Spectra, ligthcurves and images can be extracted reading the clean event file into XSELECT (distributed with FTOOLS) or in any other software capable to manipulate event files.

To create exposure maps or correct the arrival time of the events at the barycenter, the user needs to also download the housekeeping files and to install SAXDAS, which includes software to perform such tasks.

Most of the MECS file in the archive are not merged. A script mgmecs , that uses SAXDAS tasks, is available to merge the event files from MECS2, MECS3 and/or MECS1.
More informative guidelines of how to use the clean event files are available in the Cookbook (ps file).

The ~20 arcsec systematic error (see An improvement of BeppoSAX LECS and MECS source positioning accuracy" February 2002 ) that affects LECS and MECS can be corrected in the archived event file using the script saxposcor.

* LECS and MECS : raw events
The MECS raw event files and the Housekeeping have been generated running the stages I & II of saxpipe/mecspipe , the main SAXDAS script that controls the pipeline. The stage I merged all the events relative to the pointed position in one file, instead stage II converts the HK values in physical values, computes the gain and merged the files. The LECS raw event files and the Housekeeping have been generated running the stages I of the saxpipe/lecspipe , the main SAXDAS script that controls the pipeline. The stage I merged all the events relative to the pointed position in one file, converts the HK values in physical values, computes the gain and merged the files.
Before using these files for scientific analysis users needs to run the stage III and IV of the saxpipe/mecspipe for the MECS and the stages II and III (with IV optional) of the saxpipe/lecspipe , to produce a clean event file. This requires to download the raw event files, the HK files and the SAXDAS software. In practice unless there is a need of testing new calibration data or software modification it is recommanded to retrieve the clean event files from the archive.

* PDS
The PDS event files, Housekeeping and GTIs have been generated running the stages I & IV of saxpipe/pdspipe , the main SAXDAS script that controls the pipeline. The output files are event from all the PDS detectors selected by rise-time and gain corrected , an Housekeeping file and several GTI files all the events for both clusters. To extract spectra and lightcurves from this event file, users has to run the SAXDAS script pdprocuts . All the PDS GTI archived files and the event file are necessary to run the script.
The archived spectra and lightcurves can be used within XSPEC and XRONOS.



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This file was last modified on Wednesday, 20-Oct-2021 11:09:51 EDT