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                           RELEASE NOTES FOR HEASOFT 6.0.5
                                  April 26, 2006
    ******************************************************************************
    
    The HEASoft 6.0.5 release is primarily driven by the release of the Swift
    software version 2.4, but also includes updates to several tasks in the
    attitude subpackage and to the FTOOLS and XANADU utilities 'xselect',
    'extractor', 'efold' and 'fv', which have been revised to mirror the
    current development versions in use at the HEASARC. This release also
    includes CFITSIO v3.006.
    
    As before, configuration-related changes thoughout the package means that
    users who already have HEASoft v6.0X installed will need to completely
    replace their software installation; there is no clean way to simply
    overlay this new release or to update an existing installation.
    
    ******************************************************************************
                                    ATTITUDE
    ******************************************************************************
    
    
    attjumpcorr [NEW TASK]- 
       Correct Swift attitude for jumps
    
    tristarid -
       Reworked match disambiguation
     
       Assorted refinements to catalog loading
    
    
    ******************************************************************************
                                     CFITSIO
    ******************************************************************************
    
    Version 3.006 - 20 February 2006  -(first full release of v3)
    
      - enhanced the 'col' extended filename syntax to support keyword name
        expressions like
           [col error=sqrt(rate); #TUNIT# = 'counts/s'],
        in which the trailing '#' will be replaced by the column number
        of the most recently referenced column.
    
      - fixed bug in the parse_data iterator work function that caused it
        to fail to return a value of -1 in cases where only a selected
        set of rows were to be processed. (affected Fv)
    
      - added code to fitsio.h and cfortran.h to typedef LONGLONG to
        the appropriate 8-byte integer data type.  Most compilers now
        support the 'long long' data type, but older MS Visual C++
        compilers used '__int64' instead.
    
      - made several small changes based on testing by Martin Reinecke:
        o in  eval.y, change 'int undef' to 'long undef'
        o in getcold.c and getcole.c, fixed a couple format conversion
          specifiers when displaying the value of long long variables.
        o in fitsio.h, modified the definition of USE_LL_SUFFIX in the
          case of Athon64 machines.
        o in fitsio2.h,  defined BYTESWAPPED in the case of SGI machines.
        o in group.c, added 'include unistd.h' to get rid of compiler warning.
    
    
    *****************************************************************************
                                      fv 
    ******************************************************************************
    
    Version 4.3 April 2006
    
    New features/Bug fixes since V4.2 include:
    
        * Add capability to invoke future HERA modules.
        * Add capablity to calculate Flux on region.
        * Add capability to handle "Physical" attribute in region file.
        * Add capability to center (and resize) of ROI (region of interest) when
        * the image is zoomed.
        * Add capability to allow parameters editor to stay until user decided to
        * cancel.
        * Fix running FTOOLS tools not copying physical par file problem.
        * Fix sorting Fits table but displaying wrong slice image problem.
        * Fix rotation of coordinates results in wrong region specification
        * problem.
        * Fix plotting of selected rows from FITS table problem.
        * Fix ploygon region handle placement and dragging mechanisms problem.
    
    
    ******************************************************************************
                                      HEASARC
    ******************************************************************************
    
     extractor v4.62 -
    
       Fixed bug that causes light curves from Swift UVOT data to have a TSTART
       keyword of zero and hence incorrect TELAPSE keyword.
    
     xselect v2.3 -
    
       Corrected failure to propagate MJDREFI/F everywhere it was required which
       led to incorrect label at the top of lightcurve plots.
    
       Fix so that FILTER TIME FILE works for files whose EXTNAME is either GTI
       or STDGTI. Previous version worked for GTI only, which gave an error when
       using output from maketime.
    
       Fixed so looks for the first GTI extension instead of just assuming it
       is the first extension when doing a filter time file.
    
       Fix for bug under Linux in the plot mkf command. The xparm string was being
       overwritten leading to junk being passed to plt as the label for the X axis.
    
    
    ******************************************************************************
                                      SWIFT
    ******************************************************************************
    
    Swift software v 2.4:
    
    ----------------------
    BAT specific tools
    ----------------------
    
    batbinevt -
       BUG FIX regarding the calculation of energy bins; the *top-most*
       bin only would miss a 0.1 keV slice of the data
    
       Improved checking for overlapping energy bins
    
       Checking if input is a DPH of cleaned RESIDUALs (prevents erroneous
       statistical uncertainties from being calculated)
     
       Work around a BUG in XSPEC which transforms small error bars into
       big (occurs when using a PREDICTED map)
    
       Remove some Chandra Data Model keywords that become erroneous after
       binning
    
    batcelldetect -
       BUG FIX when 'nadjpix' > 1; should only affect the chi-square values
       reported
    
       New parameters 'inbkgmap' and 'inbkgvarmap' which allow pre-computed
       background information (saves computational time)
    
       New parameter 'carryover' which controls whether new sources are
       carried over to subsequent images in a multi-image analysis
    
       New PSF type: "TRUNCONE" for azimuthally averaged images
       Optimized for speed in the PSF-fitting stage
    
       Check for tangent-plane coordinate system in images is more
       complete now
    
    batdrmgen -
      Improved error checking
    
    baterebin -
       New parameter 'outmap' for optional output detmask, with values
       indicating various potential criteria for masking detectors
    
       New parameters 'lowecare' and 'highecare' that determine the energy
       range checked for two potential exclusion criteria
    
    batmaskwtevt -
       New parameter 'pcodethresh' which allows far off-axis sources to be
       removed (instead of having very noisy points)
    
    batoccultgti -
       Revise the parameter handling so that the use does not need to 
       know about, or delete, the required scratch files unless they want to
     
       Correct behavior for the region file coordinate system designation
    
       Add exception handling routines
    
    batoccultmap -
       Now uses the new version of WCSLIB
    
    batphasyserr -
       The task now adds some HISTORY information
    
       Add exception handling routines
    
    battblocks -
       Internal code clean-up
    
    batupdatephakw -
       The task now adds some HISTORY information
    
       Add exception handling routines
    
    Tasks batevt2dpi, batgse2dpi, batgse2dph, and batmasktagpha are
    considered obsolete, and/or not for end users.
    For more information on BAT analysis issues see the BAT Digest Page at:
      http://swift.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/swift/analysis/bat_digest.html
    
    --------------------
    UVOT specific tool
    --------------------
    
    uvotaspcorr [NEW TASK]- 
       Simplify finding/applying aspect corrections to UVOT sky images.
    
    uvotexpcorr [NEW TASK]- 
       Check and/or correct the EXPOSURE keyword in UVOT images.
    
    uvotdetect -
       Several updates to SExtractor parameters including new output columns based 
       on aperture photometry RATE_APER[12]*
      
       Corrected background mean and sigma estimates and how they are by SExtractor
      
       Fixed RATE_ERRs when an exposure map is provided
    
    uvotexpmap -
       Updated how RAW to SKY transform is determined to match swiftxform
    
    uvotimage -
       Update time keywords in primary output HDU
    
    uvotimgrism -
       Changed units of sourcex/y to input image pixels
    
       More verbose description of positions in various coordinate systems
    
       Generate a region file showing important locations in the input image
    
       ZERODET[XY] now give physical pixels instead of input image pixels
    
    uvotimsum -
       Modified exclude parameter to support excluding HDUs on the basis of
       the presence/value of the ASPCORR keyword
    
       By default, HDUs without ASPCORR keyword are excluded from sum
    
    uvotmag -
       Added parameters for frame time, source aperture and whether dead time
       correction has already been performed
    
       Write saturated column
    
    uvotmaghist -
       Added frametime parameter
    
    uvotskyfield -
       Added parameter to scale output image
    
    uvotsource -
       Added output in mJy
       Changed default value of output parameter to ALL
    
    --------------------
    XRT specific tool
    --------------------
    
    xrttdrss2 [NEW TASK] - 
       Process new XRT TDRSS messages (XRT telemetry patches f and g support)
    
    xrttdrss - 
       Added messages to display the beginning and the end time of the script execution.
    
       Use of IMPOSERR HDU instead of TDPOSERR to calculate position error.
    
    xrtinstrmap -
       Implemented WT handling.
    
       Added OBS_MODE, DATAMODE, OBS_ID and XRTNFRAME keywords in output file.
      
       Changed output images datatype to handle different duration of the WT frame.
    
    xrtexpomap - 
       Implemented the generation of the exposure map for WT mode
    
       Gzipped output temporary files if cleanup=no.
    
       Added obsmode, datamode and windowed in the output filename root.
    
       Used TCRVALn instead of RA_PNT and DEC_PNT for 'swiftxform' call.
    
    xrtmkarf - 
       Implemented ARF correction using  exposure maps for WT mode.
    
    xrtflagpix - 
       Modified to handle TDRSS Photon Counting format.
    
    xrttimetag -
       Added new input parameter 'colfile' to correct telemetered RAWX and 
       add and fill RAWXTL column if needed.
    
    xrtwtcorr -
       Added 'colfile' input parameter.
    
       Added check on 'XRAWXCOR' keyword and shift the BiasRow RAWX if the keyword is set to TRUE.
    
    xrtfilter -
       Added parameter 'gtiexpr' to generate GTIs based on the attitude for mkf screening.
    
    xrtpipeline - 
       Changes to support Build 18
    
    xrtproducts - 
       Added handling of WT exposure maps.
    
    (libswxrt) -
       Modified maximum number of columns supported in FITS Bintable to handle new header
       fits file format
    
    --------------
    Swift/General
    --------------
    barycorr -
       Handles gaps in orbit files and ignores 'tolerance' parameter (Swift only)
    
       Clarified documention: ra/dec parameters may only be expressed in decimal degrees
    
    ******************************************************************************
                                      XRONOS
    ******************************************************************************
    
     efold - 
        Bug Fix in the normalization calculation when multiple intervals are requested.
    

    HEASoft / FTOOLS Help Desk

    If FTOOLS has been useful in your research, please reference this site (https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/ftools) and use the ASCL reference for HEASoft [ascl:1408.004] or the ASCL reference for the original FTOOLs paper [ascl:9912.002]:

    Blackburn, J. K. 1995, in ASP Conf. Ser., Vol. 77, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems IV, ed. R. A. Shaw, H. E. Payne, and J. J. E. Hayes (San Francisco: ASP), 367.

    Web page maintained by: Bryan K. Irby


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    Last modified: Tuesday, 23-Oct-2007 16:44:01 EDT