GEN_CALIB

This directory collects all calibration frames that are associated to your science data, and that have been measured as part of the regular calibration plan. It also contains their pipeline products and calibration frames of a general nature (like static line tables). Calibrations that have been measured by user-defined OBs and that have been used for pipeline processing of science data may be included here in addition. The directory has three subdirectories, two of which have further fine-structure:

GEN_CALIB
raw	proc	gen
IMG_FLAT IMG_OTHER SPEC_FLAT SPEC_OTHER	IMG_FLAT IMG_OTHER SPEC_FLAT SPEC_OTHER

GEN_CALIB/raw

Raw calibration files. Find a description of VISIR raw calibration data here.

GEN_CALIB/proc

Calibration products derived from the raw calibrations. Find a description of VISIR product calibration data here. The CALIB products are renamed. The renaming scheme can be found here.

GEN_CALIB/logs

Association Blocks, association logs and processing logs for the calibration files under GEN_CALIB.

GEN_CALIB/gen

General calibration data of static nature.

Additional or missing raw calibration files may be retrieved anytime from the generic ESO Archive form.

Calibration data are public while SCIENCE data have a proprietary period of one year.

GEN_INFO

This directory hosts some general information which is described under list files. It has the following subdirectories:

DIRECTORY	CONTENT
ObservingReports	nightlogs, OB report (HTML files)
scripts	executable scripts (presently one: print_all_reports)

 

You will find the following list files:
 

FILE	CONTENT	WHERE
ServiceMode.html	this file	top
product_codes.html	a table describing the naming scheme for product files	top
README.txt	short additional information	top
archive_<RUN_ID.txt	list of all proprietary files (SCIENCE, attached CALIBs) as read from the archive	GEN_INFO
qc0_<RUN_ID>.txt	log containing the comparison between the constraint set (airmass, moon distance, etc) and the actual values	GEN_INFO
NIGHTLOG.html	set of html files with nightlog and OB information	GEN_INFO/ObservingReports
list_sciRaw_<OBS_ID>.txt etc.	summary of the fits files in each directory (these files are provided in text [*.txt] and PostScript format)

The executable script print_all_reports under GEN_INFO/scripts will print all ps files in your package.

Archive summary file: archive_<RUN_ID>

While the above listings are about files on the DVDs, the archive summary listing is the result of a query to the ESO Archive. It is useful as a check on the completeness of the ServiceMode package. All files created by OBs which have been generated by the PI are listed here. The list includes all SCIENCE files, and the attached calibrations, and acquisitions, if applicable. This list is the result of a query to the archive.

archive list
keyword table

QC0 summary file: qc0_<RUN_ID>

This file contains a report of quality control parameters ('QC level 0' where level 0 stands for Quality Control without pipeline processing) for your raw SCIENCE files. These parameters are airmass, seeing, moon distance, and fractional lunar illumination. They have been measured on site (column 'msrd'). They are compared to the required values as defined in your OBs ('targt') and flagged (OK/NOK).

The list is intended to give a rough indication of whether or not the required constraints have been obeyed. They should not be interpreted in a too formal way, however. E.g., there may be cases where the seeing was worse than required, but this was compensated by a longer exposure time. Check the night reports for details.

Note that the seeing values reported here are DIMM seeing values, they are not measured on the frame. If the alarm flag ("NOK") is set in the SEEING column, the DIMM seeing value was larger than your seeing constraint during the indicated obseration. However, in many cases, the delivered seeing in the instrument focal plane is better than the DIMM seeing. Whenever possible, the on-site observer has measured the focal plane immediately after execution to determine the success or failure of your observation. Thus, your observation may have been completed within your specifications, even if the SEEING alarm flag is set. Please review the affected observation carefully.

 

QC0 summary file
keyword table

Night logs and OB logs

This is a set of html files with an extraction of night log information and OB information. All relevant information about the nights contained in your package is included, as well as information about each OB in your delivery.

Point your browser to GEN_INFO/ObservingReports/NIGHTLOG.html and navigate either per night (labeled as 1) or per OB (2).

The html files also come as stripped-down, printer-friendly versions. The files are organized to have a summary on top, and details below. The OB summary replace the previously delivered OB summary files.

You can use either the navigation bar to jump to a specific night/OB, or use the up/down arrows (night logs only) to browse sequentially. The OB navigation bar uses colour coding to give you a quick impression about OB grading.

There are additional links to ambient condition information.

NOTE:

• The external links (asm: seeing, sky transparency etc.) will only work with network connection.
• The asm links require java-enabled browsers.
• The navigation bars read best with style-sheets and java-enabled browsers.

 

Sample nightlog files
NIGHTLOG.html

 

PROBLEMS, ISSUES, HINTS

Currently the SCIENCE reduction by the VISIR pipeline DOES NOT include flat field correction.

Known reduction problems

• The VISIR pipeline recipe "visir_img_phot", that processes the standard star imaging observations, DOES NOT return the CONTRIBUTION_MAP product if there are only 2 input raw frames.

Known IRAF Problems

• Filename Length Problem. To display or manipulate the FITS files with older versions of IRAF (before 2.11), you can:
  - copy these FITS files to your hard-disk and rename them with filenames <= 32 characters in length;
  - create symbolic links with filenames <= 32 characters in length to your DVD files.
  
  
• Header Interpretation Problem. ESO FITS files use the ESO HIERARCH FITS keyword extensions standard to all ESO telescopes. Note that IRAF treats all ESO HIERARCH header lines as COMMENT lines, i.e. IRAF and IDL cannot automatically interpret the information provided in ESO HIERARCH header lines. The problem may be solved using the tool hierarch28. Find information about this tool here.
  
  
• RA, DEC. Please note that the RA and DEC keywords are recorded in degrees. To translate these keywords so that they can be used by IRAF you have to use the asthedit task in the noao.astutil package. The help file for this task gives an example of how to translate the ESO format to the IRAF format.

Stand-alone FITS handling tools