National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The Online Data Area

Starting October 1st, 1999, the RXTE GOF began to make fully-processed production data available online to Guest Observers. This online service replaced the previous system of sending RXTE data tapes to GOs by postal mail.

The online RXTE FITS data are packaged by obsID, and PGP-encrypted to preserve their security. The PGP key is identical to that provided to you by the RXTE SOF when your observations were scheduled.

Automatic Email Notification

When we accept each data delivery from the processing pipeline at XSDC, we create the PGP-encrypted tarfiles, and then generate Email notifications for the relevant RXTE PIs. In each message we list all the obsIDs recently processed and received under a given proposal. Thus, a PI will receive a maximum of one Email message per day per proposal, which in most cases should prove to be a minimal amount of Email traffic.

Downloading and Decrypting Data

Creating an Appropriate FMI

XDF, and a number of the data analysis recipes and scripts, assume a certain hierarchical directory structure for RXTE FITS data, with obsIDs grouped in a single proposal directory with a FITS Master Index file. As our online delivery system treats data on an obsID by obsID basis, you'll need to reconstruct the relevant Master Index files for the obsIDs you've obtained so far. To do this:

• Enter your proposal directory and copy up an FMI file from any subdirectory to the main level, e.g.:

  
            cd P40066
            cp 40066-01-01-00/FMI .
  

  Update this FMI file to cover all obsIDs in the directory:

  
            recofmi overwrite=yes .
  

  (don't miss the "dots" at the end of the above two commands; these are the second argument in each case).

  Note that if you later add new obsIDs (subdirectories) to your main directory, you'll need to rerun the 'recofmi' step to update your FMI, so XDF and other software will recognize the new data.