XTEMASTER - RXTE Master Catalog

Overview

This database table was created for the purpose of providing a comprehensive, accurate, and easily accessible tracking of Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) pointed observations. It does not list observations made during slews: those are listed in the XTESLEW database table. The XTEMASTER table includes both observations that have already completed and those still scheduled to be done.

Provenance

The XTEMASTER table is regenerated automatically on a quasi-regular basis whenever the RXTE Science Operations Facility (SOF) updates their short-term or long-term schedules and transfers the new version(s) to the HEASARC. At that time, it will also incorporate all the latest information on which targets have been observed (using the daily RXTE ObsCats at https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/FTP/xte/timelines/obscat/) and which observations have been archived in the public RXTE Data Archive at https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/FTP/xte/data/archive/.

Data Products

The XTEMASTER table has the following data products categories defined:

  Complete Data Directory of a Single XTE Observation (FULL OBSID)
	    This set contains the entire ObsID directory for each selected
	    observation. The ObsID directory contains all the data
	    products for each observation.

  Standard Products (including GIFs) of a Single RXTE Observation (STDPRODS)
	    Same as FULL OBSID except it contains only the "stdprod"
	    subdirectory in the data directory for each selected ObsID.
	    The processed GIFs are also included since they are in a
            subdirectory under the "stdprod" directory.

  GIF Standard Products of a Single RXTE Observation (GIFS)
	    Same as STDPRODS except it contains only the "gifs" subdirectory
	    under the data directory for each selected ObsID.

  PCA Summary Quicklook GIFs of a Single RXTE Observation (SUMMARY GIFS)
	    A subset of the GIFS category consisting of just two GIFs: the
	    PCA Net Cleaned Light Curve and the PCA Net Cleaned Spectrum.

  Merged Lightcurves (MERGEDPRODS)
	    This category contains lightcurves in FITS and GIF formats
	    constructed by combining all of the observation data from the
	    specified proposal for each target. Thus, these products are
	    derived from multiple ObsIDs usually. If the time period in which
	    the observations were made spans more than one detector gain
	    epoch, then there will be separate lightcurves for each epoch.

  RXTE Proposal Abstracts (ABSTRACTS)
	    A text file containing the abstract of the proposal to which
	    the observation belongs.

Parameters

PI_LName
The last name of the Principal Investigator (PI) for the RXTE Observation Request.

PI_FName
The first name of the Principal Investigator (PI) for the RXTE Observation Request.

PI_No
The PI number, a unique identifier created by the RXTE Project for each Principal Investigator.

Prnb
The (unique) RXTE proposal number.

Cycle
The RXTE Announcement of Opportunity (AO) phase (or Cycle) number.

Subject_Category
The subject category in which the target belongs, according to the following classification system:

    AGN                     (Active Galactic Nuclei)
    NORMAL GALAXIES
    BLACK HOLE CANDIDATES
    PULSARS
    SUPERNOVA REMNANTS AND GALACTIC DIFFUSE EMISSION
    STARS
    OTHER
    LMXB                     (Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries)
    CATACLYSMIC VARIABLES
    HMXB                     (High-Mass X-Ray Binaries)
    CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES AND SUPERCLUSTERS

Target_Name
The designation of the target of the observation.

Time_Awarded
The total observation time awarded by the RXTE Proposal Peer Review Committee, in seconds.

RA
The Right Ascension of the target.

Dec
The Declination of the target.

Priority
This parameter appears to be a flag that is set to 0 if the observation is of a Target of Opportunity (ToO), else it has a default value of 1.

Tar_No
The number of the target in the RXTE proposal under which the observation was performed.

ObsID
The first 14 characters of the unique RXTE observation identifier for the observation. In order to keep the number of entries in this table more manageable, the event flag is truncated and, in cases where multiple 15-character ObsIDs map to the same truncated 14-character ObsID, an effort has been made to coalesce some of the observation specifics into a single table entry. For some observation attributes, however, this is not possible. Note that the ObsID value is not assigned until the observation has been scheduled. The first five digits of the ObsID match the proposal number.

Time
If the observation has been already carried out, this is the start date and time of the observation. If it has not yet been performed but has been scheduled, then this is the scheduled date and time of the observation. If the observation has been neither carried out nor scheduled, then this field is set to null.

Duration
The literal duration of the observation segment, in seconds. This is calculated as the difference between the end and start times of the observations.

Exposure
The total amount of time an instrument was on-source during the observation, minus periods of Earth occultation and SAA passage, and not counting slews, scans, or observation segments which have gaps. (Earth occultation is defined as a period during which the RXTE elevation angle is less than 0; SAA passage is defined as the period during which RXTE instruments are turned off for passage through the South Atlantic Anomaly). It also sometimes referred to as the total "good-time" of the observation.

Status
Status of the observation: accepted, sched (long), sched (short), observed, processed, or archived.

Scheduled_Date
Scheduled start date of observation. If the target has already been observed, this will be the same as the observed_date.

Observed_Date
The start date of the observation (null if it has not yet been observed).

Processed_Date
The date on which the observation data were processed.

Archived_Date
The date on which the observation data were archived (made available to the public). Some dates may be in the future. In these cases, such dates should be considered approximations only and not a promise that the data will be made available on that date. Not all ObsIDs have an archived_date listed even though their status may indeed be 'archived.' Some ObsIDs, such as those for slews or Targets of Opportunity (TOOs) go public immediately after processing, and these will not have public dates listed.

HEXTE_AngleA
The HEXTE rocking angle a between the on-source and off-source (background) pointing.

HEXTE_AngleB
The HEXTE rocking angle b between the on-source and off-source (background) pointing.

HEXTE_DwellA
The HEXTE dwell time at the on-source position, in seconds.

HEXTE_DwellB
The HEXTE dwell time at the off-source (background) positions, in seconds.

HEXTE_EnergyA
The HEXTE Lower Level Discriminator (LLD) PHA channel number, defining the minimum acceptable energy level for a scintillation pulse.

HEXTE_EnergyB
The HEXTE Upper Level Discriminator (ULD) PHA channel number, defining the upper bound of the instrument.

HEXTE_ModeA
The selection for HEXTE mode or configuration A. This instrument has many possible modes, as discussed in Chapter 10 of the RXTE Technical Appendix. The time binning used is encoded in the value of this parameter, e.g., in the values of "E_8us_0_X06" and "B_2s_256S_0_255_DH" the "8us" and "2s" characters refer to time bins of 8 microseconds and 2 seconds, respectively.

These are the instrument configurations that the proposer selected. In many cases the actual instrument configuration used for the observation may be different. Query the XTEPROCESS table if you wish to discover the modes as they were observed.

HEXTE_ModeB
The selection for HEXTE mode or configuration B. This instrument has many possible modes, as discussed in Chapter 10 of the RXTE Technical Appendix. The time binning used is encoded in the value of this parameter, e.g., in the values of "E_8us_0_X06" and "B_2s_256S_0_255_DH" the "8us" and "2s" characters refer to time bins of 8 microseconds and 2 seconds, respectively.

PCA_Config1
The selection for PCA configuration (also known as Event Analyzer or EA mode) 1. The Experiment Data System (EDS) has many possible EA modes for the PCA, as discussed in Appendix 1 of the RXTE Technical Appendix. The time binning used is often (but not always) encoded in the value of this parameter, e.g., in the values of "B_1ms_4X_0_17_Q" and "B_31us_2X_0_49_Q" the "1ms" and "31us" characters refer to time bins of 1 millisecond and 31 microseconds, respectively.

PCA_Config2
The selection for PCA configuration (also known as Event Analyzer or EA mode) 2. The Experiment Data System (EDS) has many possible EA modes for the PCA, as discussed in Appendix 1 of the RXTE Technical Appendix. The time binning used is often (but not always) encoded in the value of this parameter, e.g., in the values of "B_1ms_4X_0_17_Q" and "B_31us_2X_0_49_Q" the "1ms" and "31us" characters refer to time bins of 1 millisecond and 31 microseconds, respectively.

PCA_Config3
The selection for PCA configuration (also known as Event Analyzer or EA mode) 3. The Experiment Data System (EDS) has many possible EA modes for the PCA, as discussed in Appendix 1 of the RXTE Technical Appendix. The time binning used is often (but not always) encoded in the value of this parameter, e.g., in the values of "B_1ms_4X_0_17_Q" and "B_31us_2X_0_49_Q" the "1ms" and "31us" characters refer to time bins of 1 millisecond and 31 microseconds, respectively.

PCA_Config4
The selection for PCA configuration (also known as Event Analyzer or EA mode) 4. The Experiment Data System (EDS) has many possible EA modes for the PCA, as discussed in Appendix 1 of the RXTE Technical Appendix. The time binning used is often (but not always) encoded in the value of this parameter, e.g., in the values of "B_1ms_4X_0_17_Q" and "B_31us_2X_0_49_Q" the "1ms" and "31us" characters refer to time bins of 1 millisecond and 31 microseconds, respectively.

PCA_Config5
The selection for PCA configuration (also known as Event Analyzer or EA mode) 5. The Experiment Data System (EDS) has many possible EA modes for the PCA, as discussed in Appendix 1 of the RXTE Technical Appendix. The time binning used is often (but not always) encoded in the value of this parameter, e.g., in the values of "B_1ms_4X_0_17_Q" and "B_31us_2X_0_49_Q" the "1ms" and "31us" characters refer to time bins of 1 millisecond and 31 microseconds, respectively.

PCA_Config6
The selection for PCA configuration (also known as Event Analyzer or EA mode) 6. The Experiment Data System (EDS) has many possible EA modes for the PCA, as discussed in Appendix 1 of the RXTE Technical Appendix. The time binning used is often (but not always) encoded in the value of this parameter, e.g., in the values of "B_1ms_4X_0_17_Q" and "B_31us_2X_0_49_Q" the "1ms" and "31us" characters refer to time bins of 1 millisecond and 31 microseconds, respectively.

LII
The Galactic Longitude of the target.

BII
The Galactic Latitude of the target.

Contact Person

Questions regarding the XTEMASTER database table can be addressed to the HEASARC Help Desk.

Page Author: Browse Software Development Team
Last Modified: Friday, 05-Nov-2021 18:45:34 EDT