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| Paper: |
An IRAF-Based Pipeline for Reduction and Analysis of Archived ROSAT Data |
| Volume: |
61, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems III |
| Page: |
371 |
| Authors: |
Rhode, K.; Fabbiano, G.; Mackie, G. |
| Abstract: |
A pipeline is being developed for the reduction and analysis of ROSAT Position-Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC) and High-Resolution Imager (HRI) pointed observations. The pipeline, which is part of a NASA Long Term Space Astrophysics project entitled ``An X-ray Perspective on the Components and Structure of Galaxies'' (P.I. G.Fabbiano), is designed for the purpose of determining structural and spectral characteristics of a large sample of both catalogued and serendipitous galaxies. The ROSAT data for this project are being obtained from the U.S. ROSAT Data Archive at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The Archive will eventually contain several hundred PSPC and HRI data sets, each containing about half a dozen files which are of interest to us. The large volume of data required for this project makes it necessary to develop a system of software that will perform basic reduction and analysis tasks in an automated fashion. In order to utilize the many existing IRAF/PROS tools designed for analysis of ROSAT data, we chose IRAF as the basis of our pipeline. The pipeline's main calling routine is an IRAF script task to which a list of ROSAT observations is given as input. Using tasks from the XRAY, STSDAS, and FTOOLS packages, the pipeline performs image reduction, source detection, and (for the PSPC) spectral reduction of the data; among the results it produces are plots of Guide Star Catalog objects in the field, contour plots, surface brightness profiles, spectra, and hardness ratios. Where necessary, the main pipeline script invokes AWK and Unix scripts to perform detailed data formatting, file manipulation, and other specialized functions. Final processing results are tabulated for input into Unix ``rdb'' databases. In this poster we discuss the development and use of our processing pipeline, and show examples of the outputs and results it produces. Finally, we discuss plans for improvements to the pipeline, including the use of XANADU/XSPEC for fitting of extracted spectra, and the incorporation of overlays of the CD-ROM STScI Guide Star (Digitized Schmidt Plate) Survey. |
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