NAME

sachip -- create filtered RXTE spectra and light curves by simple command or Q/A session

USAGE

         sachip -[bcdghilmopt]

DESCRIPTION

sachip is a script to allow the user to create filtered spectra and light curves from XTE/SA data with either a single command-line entry, or a simplified Q/A session.

SACHIP is a Perl script which allows the user to create and plot spectra and light curves for a given list of XTE Science Array files, taking into account (optional) time and energy filter information. All necessary information can be supplied by the user as switches on the command line, and the script can/will take sensible defaults in the absence of overriding user input. Alternatively, the script can be run interactively, in which case the user will be prompted for important parameters not supplied as switches.

PARAMETERS (actually SWITCHES/FLAGS) (grouped by function):

-i {file}

provide name of ASCII file containing list of XTE/SA files (assumed default: 'fits_files.txt').

-p {file}

provide root filename for product files - i.e., 'sachip -p paris' will create files paris.lc, paris.pha. (assumed default: 'sachip_out').

-b {number}

provide requested binning for light curve file - i.e. 'sachip -b 1.0' will create 1-second bins. (assumed default: 32 seconds).

-c "{channels}"

provide range of ORIGINAL (not binned) channel filters to be used in the accumulation, e.g. "10-20,40-100".

-t "{times}"

provide range of times to be used to filter the data (additional to those already present in the GTI extension) when accumulating, e.g. "48798400.0-48798900.0".

-m

Resultant spectra/curves will contain separate columns for each of the good data columns in the input files.

-o

Resultant spectra/curves will contain the sum of all the good data columns (the default).

-d

Take default values for all parameters not set on the command line.

-g

Take all GOOD columns (this is not only the current default, but your only option at the moment).

-s

Device to plot on (assumed default: '/xterm').

-l

Logfile switch. Currently, logging is the default (in a file sachip.log), and -l will disable this logging.

-h Print this help information.

EXAMPLES

sachip -b 8.0 -m -p torres -d

will create and plot one spectra and one light curve file, The output files will be called torres.lc and torres.pha, and will contain one column per input good data column. The light curve will have 8-sec binning. Sensible defaults taken for all other values.

sachip -i kim.txt -t "{times}" -c "{channels}" -b 1000.0 -og

will look in file 'kim.txt' for the list of input files, apply time and channel filter ranges as applied, and create and plot a 1000-sec binned light curve and a single spectrum, to be found in sachip_out.lc and sachip_out.pha. Values not provided will be prompted for (in this case, the root for the product file).

sachip -d

will take fits_files.txt and plot a spectrum and light curve for all the data with 32-sec resolution and put the data in sachip_out.lc and sachip_out.pha.

sachip

will prompt the user for each parameter.

NOTES

SACHIP is intended as a 'fast' tool to minimize the amount of FTOOLing around for the user with straightforward data analysis requirements. It is not intended to replace or reproduce the full functionality available from the individual FTOOLS. However, I'm open to suggestions about how to improve the script to meet commonly-occuring data analysis needs. Future versions will include calls to XTEFILT and MKTIME to apply simple data cleaning.

BUGS

Please report problems to xtehelp@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov.

SEE ALSO

SAEXTRCT and FPLOT for more information.

CATEGORY