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RELEASE NOTES FOR HEASOFT 6.0.5
April 26, 2006
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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.
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ATTITUDE
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attjumpcorr [NEW TASK]-
Correct Swift attitude for jumps
tristarid -
Reworked match disambiguation
Assorted refinements to catalog loading
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CFITSIO
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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.
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fv
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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.
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HEASARC
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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.
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SWIFT
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Swift software v 2.4:
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BAT specific tools
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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
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UVOT specific tool
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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
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XRT specific tool
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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
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Swift/General
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barycorr -
Handles gaps in orbit files and ignores 'tolerance' parameter (Swift only)
Clarified documention: ra/dec parameters may only be expressed in decimal degrees
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XRONOS
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efold -
Bug Fix in the normalization calculation when multiple intervals are requested.