This document provides the researcher who plans to analyze images acquired with the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) with the information necessary to understand the raw data characteristics and image processing operations, and to interpret the processed output products for data processed with the New Spectral Image Processing System (NEWSIPS). The document also provides detailed descriptions of each procedure and algorithm in the image processing system, the techniques used to calibrate the data in wavelength and absolute flux, and a complete specification of output file formats.
Data acquired with the IUE satellite were originally processed with the IUE Spectral Image Processing System (IUESIPS) from the time of satellite launch. Over the years, IUESIPS underwent a number of enhancements and modifications, which were documented in the IUE Image Processing Information Manual Versions 1.0 (Turnrose and Harvel 1980), 1.1 (Turnrose et al. 1981), and 2.0 (Turnrose and Thompson 1984). These manuals are still the standard reference to be used with Guest Observer (GO) format data processed with IUESIPS. The NEWSIPS system described in this document is fundamentally different in algorithm and technique from the previous IUESIPS. For FITS format data processed with NEWSIPS, this document supersedes and replaces all previous versions of the IUE Image Processing Information Manual, as well as the IUE NEWSIPS Manual Version 1.0 (Nichols et al. 1993).