December 1994 Volume 2, No. 11
IUE DATA ANALYSIS CENTER NEWSLETTER
This is an electronic newsletter edited by the IUE Data
Analysis Center (IUEDAC)intended to inform the numerous remote
and local users of the IUEDAC software of recent
software updates and project changes.
CHANGES IN GODDARD SECURITY
During the past few months there have been several reported
cases of computer and other equipment disappearing from
Goddard offices. As a result, Goddard security has asked
employees to lock all rooms after normal business hours,
including common areas such as the IUEDAC terminal room.
This may mean that IUEDAC visitors will have trouble
accessing the IUEDAC terminal room during off-hours,
particularly when the VILSPA observing shift occurs during
these times. As an additional security measure, cardkey
card readers are expected to be installed on the outside
doors to Building 21 which will be locked regularly
on weekends, government holidays, and weekdays from 6 PM
to 6 AM.
Arrangements are being made with Goddard security to have
visitor cards available at the main gate for IUE observers
and IUEDAC users who may need off-hour access. The IUE
project is also looking into the possibility of installing
a card reader on the terminal room door which would be
compatible with the card reader installed on the outside
doors. More information will be distributed once final
decisions are made.
rwt
CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS: NEWSIPS BASED
RE-EXAMINATIONS OF OLDER IUE PROGRAMS
The IUEDAC is developing a variety of documentation to
facilitate the use of IUE Final Archive data among both
veteran and novice investigators. In an effort to foster
research activities with these data, we would like to
request that long term users of IUE data volunteer to
rerun their early research programs using the data
processed with NEWSIPS. We would like to work with the
volunteers to get them acquainted with the new data set,
and to receive from the volunteers something akin to a
lab report describing in detail how they went about their
research, which analysis tools they used, etc.
From these lab reports we would develop tutorials as
examples of how a beginner would approach a research
problem using IUE data. These would go into various
documentation media including the World Wide Web. The
volunteer would be listedas first author on the document.
The IUE Project cannot provide any financial support or
resources of any kind EXCEPT to provide technical support
in using the data. This support will be provided as archival
researcher support by IUEDAC personnel. We would greatly
appreciate any help in this matter, and would like to be able
to provide tutorials representing the full range of
investigations undertaken using IUE data.
trm
TELESCOPE OPERATIONS NEWS
In the last newsletter we neglected to send our best wishes
to Dr. Ron Pitts, who left the IUE project to work at the
Space Telescope Science Institute in September. Ron was a
resident astronomer with IUE for over 10 years, and his
experience will be sorely missed by the IUE project.
mtc
IUE IMAGE PROCESSING NEWS
Holiday Backlogs
'Tis the season to be jolly... and also for backlogs to
develop in the IUE Image Processing Center. So there may
be some delays, on the order of a week, in processing your
newly obtained IUE data. As always, if you need priority
processing or if you would like your data loaded to your
IUEDAC account, please ask your RA to fill out a priority
processing request during your observing shift. We will
make sure your data are available as soon as possible.
IUESIPS Frequently Asked Questions
Q: I get my data electronically through the IUEDAC, so
I do not need those 9-track GO tapes you keep sending me.
Can I request to NOT receive them?
A: Sure. Contact your RA, Cathy Imhoff
(imhoff@iuegtc.gsfc.nasa.gov), or Karen Levay
(levay@iuegtc.gsfc.nasa.gov) before your shift and
let them know.
Q: Could you send me my data on Exabyte tape instead of
9-track tapes?
A: Sorry but no. We don't have an Exabyte drive. We
are trying to set up a system by which GOs can retrieve
their data electronically.
Q: I put in a request for IUESIPS reprocessing several
months ago. Why haven't you processed the data yet?
A: Sorry, but we do archival reprocessing on a "time available"
basis. Because of the ongoing cutbacks at NASA, we process
during only one 8-hour shift now instead of the two shifts
we used to have. We will do our best. Please let us
know if the need for the data becomes urgent.
Progress on the IUE Final Archive
The Image Processing Center continues to make good progress in
processing archival IUE images with the NEWSIPS software.
So far we have processed over 13,000 SWP images.
We expect to complete the first set of SWP data (low dispersion
images taken by NASA before 1990) in the next several weeks.
We have also started processing LWP data (low dispersion images
taken by NASA before 1990). Thanks to some newly added disk
space, we are processing and archiving data at more than twice
the rate we had previously attained.
In addition, we have ported the NEWSIPS software to run on an
Alpha. Tests so far show that a low-dispersion image runs
about 4 times faster on the available Alpha than our
DECstation5000. We expect to start using this system in the
next week or so to further increase our processing throughput.
Nearly all the NASA SWP low dispersion images
(image numbers < 37929) are now available from the NSSDC's
NDADS system. As noted above, we have just started processing
the LWP data. If you have some LWP low dispersion images (NASA
images with image numbers < 17058) you would like to have
processed through NEWSIPS, you can request them through our
new automated GO request utility (see below).
NEWSIPS Software to Be Made Available
The IUE Project is making the NEWSIPS processing software
available. The software will be placed in an ftp account
at the IUEDAC and will be available to the public on January
15, 1995. Some documentation will be provided with the software,
which runs under portable MIDAS on many platforms. However
little support will be available due to resource limitations.
Details will be published in the next IUEDAC newsletter, after
the account, software, and documentation have been set up.
For further information concerning the software, please
contact Joy Nichols (nichols@iuegtc.gsfc.nasa.gov,
or 301-794-1410).
Final Archive Processing on Request Now Available
(Full description published in NASA IUE Newsletter No. 54)
Are you interested in analyzing the new IUE Final Archive
data but your favorite image has not been processed yet?
We are now accepting requests to put your images at the
front of the processing queue. In order to handle your
images quickly and accurately, we have devised an automated
method to put your request into our processing database. To
do this, send an e-mail message in the correct format to
USRREQ@IUEGTC.GSFC.NASA.GOV.
Currently you may request NEWSIPS processing for SWP and
LWP low-dispersion images taken at Goddard before January 1,
1990 (SWP image numbers < 37929, LWP image numbers < 17058).
As other datasets become available, they will be added to our
request service.
The IUEDAC has a new procedure, USRREQ, to format your request
properly and submit it. The procedure USRREQ is much like the
procedure IUEFX. Just type
USRREQ,DUMMY
If not supplied, name, email address, phone number,
and affiliation will be prompted for. The most basic
mode will then prompt the user for the camera name, image
number, and dispersion for each image. For assistance with
USRREQ, please contact a member of the IUEDAC staff.
You may also send the request by e-mail directly. The
request must be in the following format.
NAME Joe Astronomer
EMAIL_ADDRESS joe@some.computer.edu
PHONE 555-555-5555
SPONSOR University of Life
IMAGELIST
SWP01234L
SWP12345L
LWP09876L
ENDOFLIST
When your request is received, it will be placed into
the automated system. You will receive an e-mail message
listing the status of each of your requested images.
The possible status of an image is (1) already processed,
(2) will be queued for rapid processing, (3) can not be
processed at this time, or (4) A image, will not be processed
at Goddard. When your request is completed, you will receive
a second e-mail message.
Processed data will be archived on the NSSDC's NDADS system.
The NEWSIPS files should be available within a week or two.
You may use the IUEDAC routine IUEFX to retrieve the data,
or you may retrieve the files using the NSSDC ARMS utility
(see NASA IUE Newsletter, No. 52, pg. 70, for a brief
description).
For further information, please contact Cathy Imhoff
(imhoff@iuegtc.gsfc.nasa.gov, or 301-794-1470).
cli
IUE REFERENCE MATERIAL
IUE Image Processing Manuals
We have available copies of both the IUESIPS Image
Processing Manual (Version 2.0) and the NEWSIPS Image
Processing Manual (Version 1.0). Please contact Cathy
Imhoff for a copy.
IUE Atlases Available
We have two very useful IUE spectral atlases available
on request.
"IUE Ultraviolet Spectral Atlas" by C.-C. Wu et al.
1991, NASA IUE Newsletter, No. 43.
Plots IUE spectra, tabulates fluxes for MK standard
stars.
"IUE Ultraviolet Spectral Atlas of Selected Astronomical
Objects" by C.-C. Wu et al. 1992, NASA Ref. Publ.
No. 1285 Plots IUE spectra, tabulates fluxes for
planets, variable stars, galaxies, etc.
If you would like a copy or two, please contact Cathy Imhoff at
imhoff@iuegtc.gsfc.nasa.gov or (301) 794-1470.
cli
PR IMAGES AVAILABLE IN GIF FORMAT
Many of the Public Relation images formerly only available
in PostScript format are now also available in gif format.
Please see the README file in the pub/images subdirectory of
iuesn1.gsfc.nasa.gov's anonymous ftp account for further
information. A WWW browser of these GIF images will be made
available in the near future.
pjl & mtc
TEXTRONIX TERMINAL EMULATION
Many IUEDAC remote users work from personal computers using
commercially available terminal emulation programs. Since
remote X-window sessions may be inefficient on multi-user
systems such as IUE, staff members generally recommend
programs which emulate Tektronix 4010-4015 terminals for
those users who want graphics-capability. (If graphics is
not required, any DEC VT-xxx emulation or X-window device
should suffice.) Currently more than 20 vendors produce
terminal emulation programs which can run under DOS, Microsoft
Windows and/or Apple computers. A review of these programs
was included in the September and October issues of Digital
News and Review.
We occasionally receive comments from users regarding problems
running specific IUEDAC routines using these emulation programs.
Most of the problems seem to deal with the routines which use
interactive cursor commands. If any users recommend specific
programs, we would be interested in hearing about it, and
will make the information available to other users. Also,
now that staff members have access to a PC and a Mac, we hope
to evaluate some of these products and determine why any
problems exist.
rwt
IUEDAC SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE UPDATES
Recent System Changes:
11/23/94 - MultiNet version 3.3 revision C installed on
cluster.
Recent Software Changes:
21-NOV A new version of IUESPEC was added to the
experimental library which uses more informative
error messages, allows version numbers for vms
input files, and does not abort when extensions
are specified with the input file name.
21-NOV Experimental versions now exist for all IUEDAC
programs in which the system logicals and
environment variables will be replaced by IDL
system variables. The changes should be transparent
to users.
21-NOV The IUE merged log was updated. Goddard entries
through Nov. 10th are included.
23-NOV Following experimental routines were implemented:
IUESPEC - improved error messages, allows extensions
& version numbers in input file name
NEWCALIB - includes NEWSIPS LWP low dispersion
calibrations and corrections for read gain
IFITSWRT - properly removes any blank lines after
END keyword
IUEPRECESS - defaults to FK5 rather than FK4 system
CON_SAV - supports Multinet block mode
CURESTR - allows IUEDAC routines to process LWP low
dispersion NEWSIPS data
23-NOV The IUEJRNL and ALIAS database tables have been
updated. IUE images referenced in papers published in
1985 have been included.
09-DEC A new routine called BOXCAR is available in the
experimental library which allows users to extract
fluxes from either IUESIPS ELBL or NEWSIPS SILO files
using a boxcar slit extraction.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notice: In order to improve software portability, all IUEDAC
programs currently using system logicals or
environment variables will be modified to use IDL
system variables instead. The database routines have
already been modified. All changes should be
transparent to users, but small changes in the IUEDAC
software installation procedure will be required at
remote sites.
rwt
NEW VERSION OF BOXCAR PROCEDURE
There is now a program called BOXCAR in our experimental
library which performs customized boxcar extractions of
spectra from SILO files. It will also work on IUESIPS
line-by-line files. Those who were using this program
before should now use the version in the experimental
library. The Chebyshev background fitting works properly
now, and a bug (wrong default center line for the large
aperture in SILO files) was fixed.
llt
MERGED OBSERVING LOG UPDATES AND CHANGES
The IUE Merged Log (IUELOG) database has been updated and is
now current for observations through the 10th November 1994.
The IUEFES database is current for observations through the
23rd of May 1994. The sun_mergelog.tar.Z and
ultrix_mergelog.tar.Z files are in the pub/software
subdirectory of iuesn1.gsfc.nasa.gov's anonymous ftp account.
The updated documentation file, iuelog.txt is available in
the pub/beta subdirectory. Please see the README files in
each directory for further information.
IUELOG now includes the Final Archive processing date.
The fields `nproc_date' and `nprocjdate' give the date
in day-month-year and Julian date formats respectively.
The IUESIPS processing date fields, `proc_date' and
`procjdate', have been renamed to `iproc_date' and
`iprocjdate' respectively. The new versions of the
procedures to handle this change are available in the
pub/beta subdirectory of iuesn1.gsfc.nasa.gov's anonymous
ftp account. Please see the README file for further
information.
The new Final Archive Status Flag (field fa_status in IUELOG)
of `1' has been added to the code and documentation.
pjl
IUE REFERENCE DATABASE UPDATES
The IUE Reference databases (IUEJRNL, IUECAOU, and ALIAS)
have been updated. The IUE images used and objects observed
information has been added for the articles published in
1985. This version has articles through 1993. The IUE
images used and objects observed information is complete
through 1985 and for the years 1990 through 1992. The
sun_ref.tar.Z and ultrix_ref.tar.Z files are in the
pub/software subdirectory of iuesn1.gsfc.nasa.gov's
anonymous ftp account. The updated documentation files -
iuejrnl.txt, iuecoau.txt, and iuealias.txt - are available
in the pub/beta subdirectory. Please see the README files
in each directory for further information.
The sun_stdstars_db.tar.Z and ultrix_stdstars_db.tar.Z
compressed tar files in iuesn1's anonymous ftp account
(subdirectory pub/software) now contain the new ALIAS table.
pjl
UPDATES TO THE STANDARD STAR SPECTRA DATABASE
A modified version of the IUEDAC IDL procedure HFIX has been
run on all the IUE Standard Star spectra that the IUEDAC keeps
on line. The program added the ITF flag, exposure time, and the
THDA sensitivity correction flag to allow IUESPEC to be run
without the user being prompted for this information. Note the
LWR degradation flag was turned off so users could run RBSENSCOR
after IUESPEC. The sun_stdstars.tar.Z and ultrix_stdstars.tar.Z
files in the pub/software subdirectory of iuesn1.gsfc.nasa.gov's
anonymous ftp account now contains these corrected files.
pjl
REMINDER ABOUT IUESN1 ANONYMOUS FTP ACCESS
Please note, iuesn1's anonymous ftp account is also accessible
via the World Wide Web. Using the Web allows you to read
the README files without needing to transfer them to your
system. To access the anonymous ftp account via the Web
you may start at the IUEDAC homepage (the URL is:
http://iuesn1.gsfc.nasa.gov/iue/iuedac.html), then
select the `IUEDAC Unix/Ultrix Analysis Software Library' item.
You will be placed the pub subdirectory of iuesn1's anonymous
ftp account.
pjl
COMMENTS ON OPERATIONS COSTS
The IUE Project wishes to comment on the statement concerning
cost for observatory operations made by the Senior Review panel,
dated November 16, 1994; "the panel notes that operations and
staff expense are relatively high for the specialized range of
problems now being conducted". The Project wishes to note that
the budget for IUE has been historically lower when compared
with other comparably sized operating missions, several of
which were included in the review. The Project has expanded
its capabilities and services including the major efforts of
rehosting of Science Operations, both hardware and software,
without an augmentation to its budget. The Project has
constantly been striving for increased efficiencies and
has decreased its operational costs for the past two episodes.
The IUE budget for FY 95 is $3.71M, which includes science
and spacecraft operations, data processing and distribution,
all guest observer services including the IUEDAC, the Final
Archive program, and spacecraft operations support during the
ESA-Vilspa shift. The low cost is especially significant
considering the oversubscription rate for US1 and US2
shifts that continues to be high, even though Guest Observer
grants were eliminated in Episode 16. Finally, although a few
of the important science programs were highlighted for the
Senior Review as examples of significant research still
being done with IUE, the broad scope of science being done
with the instrument continues.
am
Editor: Dr. Michael Carini
Contributors: Mr. Randy Thompson
Dr. Tom Meylan
Ms. Pat Lawton
Ms. Lyla Taylor
Dr. Cathy Imhoff
Dr. Andrew Michalitsianos
Web Curator:
Dr. Michael Carini, Science Programs, Computer Sciences Corporation.
Responsible NASA organization/official:
Dr. Don West, IUE Operations Scientist.