XMM-Newton Science Analysis System


rgssources (rgssources-6.3.3) [xmmsas_20230412_1735-21.0.0]

Prime source.

The prime source is used in the pipeline by rgsangles as a reference to calculate approximate corrections for attitude variation errors in the BETA values of events. rgssources always selects one member of its output list to be the prime source and stores the INDEX column value of this source in the source-table keyword PRIMESRC.

rgssources also calculates a confusion value between every other source and the prime source (see subsection 5.2); these values are stored in the column CONFUSION.

The prime source can be designated in five ways, via a number of different parameters:

• The previous value can be retained.
• The user-supplied source can be designated as the prime source.
• The brightest source can be designated as the prime source.
• The prime source can be designated via one the parameters primelabel, primeindex or primeexpression, given the appropriate setting of primestyle.
• The task can be allowed to choose the best candidate (see the following subsection).

To see how these interact in detail, see the algorithm in section 7, also the examples in section 6; however the order of precedence is roughly as the entries appear in the list above.