Frequently Asked Questions

Data Requests

• Where do I get IMAPS archival data?

Data Analysis

• How do I read a IMAPS FITS file?
• How do I extract data from IMAPS images?

Data Requests

• Where do I get IMAPS archival data?
  At the end of the mission, Princeton provided the raw IMAPS-1 data to the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) in the form of IDL unformatted data sets. NSSDC staff converted these files to FITS format. The FITS headers were later modified by personnel from the Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics (LASP) at Goddard Space Flight Center and the modified FITS files are now available from the Multi-mission Archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute (MAST). Princeton also produced IDL data sets of coadded and corrected IMAPS-1 data. These data sets have been converted to FITS format by LASP personnel and will be available from MAST.

  IMAPS-2 data has not yet become available to the general community.
  
  

Data Analysis

• How do I read a IMAPS FITS file?
  The raw data sets are basic FITS primary array files and should be readable by any FITS reader or FITS viewer. The corrected, coadded files contain a primary array, but also have wavelengths stored in a binary table, and the image filter in an image extension. See Reading IMAPS Files for more information.
  
  
• How do I extract data from IMAPS images?
  An IDL routine called EXTRACT5 was written for extracting spectral data from the corrected IMAPS FITS files. More information on EXTRACT5 will be available soon.