XMM-Newton SAS Home Page
XMM-Newton Science Analysis System


epchain (epchain-8.82.2) [xmmsas_20230412_1735-21.0.0]

Parameters

This section documents the parameters recognized by this task (if any).

ParameterMand Type Default Constraints
 
General 
odfnostring$SAS_ODF 
input ODF directory name
 
odfaccessnostringoaloal/odf/name/all
how oal should access the ODF
 
schedulenostringSS/U
exposure schedule flag, only used if odfaccess=odf
 
datamodenostringIMAGINGIMAGING, TIMING, BURST or ALL
data modes to be processed
 
exposurenointeger1 
exposure number to be processed, see oal documentation
 
ccdsnostring1-121-12
list of CCDs to be processed, in a form like: 1,6-9,12 or 7,3,11
 
keepintermediatenostringnoneall/raw/cal/clean/
[1]notmerged/none
indicator which type of intermediate files should not be deleted, default is to delete all intermediate files during or at the end of the processing
 
withdefaultcalnobooleanYY/N
whether mode-dependent calibration-related settings should be used automatically, this will use for:
BURST: withrdpha=“N”, withxrlcorrection=“Y”, runepreject=“Y”, runepfast=“Y”
TIMING: withrdpha=“Y”, withxrlcorrection=“Y”, runepreject=“Y”, runepfast=“N”
IMAGING: withrdpha=“N”, withxrlcorrection=“N”, runepreject as user-supplied, runepfast=“N”
 
usecanonicalnamesnobooleanYY/N
auto-create output filenames ?
 
outsetnostringevents.fits 
name of output events file if usecanonicalnames=N
 
ingtisetnostring  
name of input HK GTI file [not active yet]
 
optloadingimagenobooleanNY/N
creation of diagnostic ADU 20-30 sky image to assess optical loading
 
optloadingimagesetnostringoptloading.img 
name of optical loading image
 
 
RadMon 
withradmonnobooleanNY/N
access EPIC Radiation Monitor files (ECX, ESX) ?
 
runradmonfixnobooleanYY/N
radmonfix: run radmonfix (if withradmon=Y)?
 
 
atthkgen 
runatthkgennobooleanYY/N
atthkgen: run atthkgen?
 
timestepnoreal1.0$>$0.0 s
atthkgen: Duration (in sec) of `step' through attitude quality information
 
 
epframes 
runepframesnobooleanYY/N
epframes: run epframes?
 
withsrccoordsnobooleanNY/N
whether to use user-supplied values for RA and DEC for TIMING and BURST modes, default is N. See the warning in epframes (Sect. [*])
 
srcranoangle0.00 .. 360
source right ascension (J2000)
 
srcdecnoangle0.0-90 .. +90
source right ascension (J2000)
 
withsrcrawynobooleanNY/N
whether to use user-supplied value for source RAWY position for TIMING and BURST modes, default is N, if both withsrccoords=N and withsrcrawy=N then the RA_OBJ and DEC_OBJ from the ProposalInfo are used. See the warning at withsrccoords!
 
srcpositionnointeger1901-200
epframes: source position for TIMING and BURST mode (in RAWY pixel coordinates)
 
withfinetimenobooleanYY/N
whether to apply fine time correction for TIMING and BURST modes by using source RAWY position, default is Y
 
lowerthresholdnointeger200-4095
disregard low-energy events (with amplitudes $<$ lowerthreshold [adu]) already at this stage, default lowerthreshold=0 preserves recommended (old) behavior. This may be useful when comparing early mission data with recent observations as the setup was different (lowertreshold=23 instead of 20 now)
 
wrongpixlimitnointeger100-100
epframes: allowed percentage of `wrong' events before sending a warning
 
mipmethodnostringonboardnone,sas,com,onboard
epframes: method to handle MIPs in raw events data (mainly for commissioning phase)
 
qualmaxnointeger  
epframes: maximum allowed value of the quality flag to keep event in list (mainly for commissioning phase)
 
ecntempqb1noreal-9999.9 
epframes: quadrant box temperature [deg C] E_Cn_TEMPQB1 [F1576 F1676 F1776 F1876], (temporary parameter mainly for calibration, overwritten by existing PAH file values)
 
f1294nointeger 0-31
epframes: quadrant wait states [F1294], defines the length of the Extended Full Frame Mode frame time, typical values are 0, 3, or 5 (temporary parameter, overwritten by existing summary file values)
 
f1118nostringUnknownUNKNOWN Open Closed Thin1 Thin2 Medium Thick CalOpen CalClosed CalThin1 CalThin2 CalMedium CalThick
epframes: filter name (temporary parameter, overwritten by existing summary file values)
 
anchopnointeger 0-255
epframes: An_CHOP [F1534 F1634 F1734 F1834] (temporary parameter, overwritten by existing summary file values)
 
automodenobooleanNY/N
try to determine mode from the data itself [not implemented yet]
 
autofilternobooleanNY/N
try to determine filter from the data itself [not implemented yet]
 
odfoknobooleanYY/N
epframes: assume a correct/complete ODF
 
hkoknobooleanYY/N
epframes: assume correct/complete HK files
 
guessdeltapnobooleanNY,N
whether to estimate the shift of the PN oscillator frequency due to temperature and ageing effects from HK data, could be used to estimate SAS_JUMP_TOLERANCE (divide by 6).
 
showauxnobooleanNY/N
epframes: increase internally verbosity for AUX-related output
 
showccxnobooleanNY/N
epframes: increase internally verbosity for CCX-related output
 
showpmhnobooleanNY/N
epframes: increase internally verbosity for PMH-related output
 
showpahnobooleanNY/N
epframes: increase internally verbosity for PAH-related output
 
ancmcorrnointeger5120-4095
epframes: An_CMCORR F1525 F1625 F1725 F1825
 
aneamipselnointeger10-63
epframes: An_EAMIPSEL F1536 F1636 F1736 F1836
 
anmaxmipnointeger630-4095
epframes: An_MAXMIP F1527 F1627 F1727 F1827
 
anmipnointeger35120-4095
epframes: An_MIP F1526 F1626 F1726 F1826
 
ccfoknobooleanYY/N
epframes: Is this correct/nominal ODF/SDF ?
 
witheventmapnobooleanNY/N
epframes: Create several event CCD maps ?
 
eventmapsetnofile./eventmap##.dat 
epframes: Name of output event CCD map file
 
f1052nointeger324000-32767
epframes: DTIMAUTRSTPREVAL coarse time reset [s]
 
mipdistnobooleanNY/N
epframes: Create MIPDIST columns and MIPHIST extension in output ?
 
mipthresholdnointeger30000-4095
epframes: maximum PHA for non-MIP events [adu]
 
photonmapsetnofile./photonmap##.dat 
epframes: Name of output photon CCD map file
 
setupbpxnostringnom6cal4/nom0/nom1/ nom2/nom3/nom4/ nom5/nom6/none
setup for badpix/offset correction vector (used only if ccfok=N)
 
showvenobooleanNY/N
epframes: Display valid event intervals ? (not in use yet)
 
 
badpixfind 
runbadpixfindnobooleanYY/N
badpixfind: run badpixfind?
 
badpixsetnostring./bpxf_##.fits 
badpixfind, badpix: path of bad pixel set, the substring ## will internally be replaced with the CCD number currently in use (two digits)
 
 
badpix 
runbadpixnobooleanYY/N
badpix: run badpix?
 
getuplnkbadpixnobooleanYY/N
badpix: get uplinked bad pixels (from CCF)?
 
getotherbadpixnobooleanYY/N
badpix: get non-uplinked bad pixels (from CCF)?
 
getnewbadpixnobooleanYY/N
badpix: get new pixels from task badpixfind? Not applicable (active) for TIMING and BURST mode
 
emptyextensionnobooleanNY/N
badpix: create an empty BADPIX extension?
 
windowfilternobooleanNY/N
badpix: just get pixels within input file X/Y window?
 
 
epreject 
runeprejectnobooleanNY/N
epreject: run epreject?
 
badcolumnsetnostringbadcolumn.tab 
optional bad column list (ascii)
 
sigmanoreal4.0 
sigma threshold for offset correction
 
noiseparametersno13 $\times$ real0.98 12 $\times$ 1.0 
noise fraction parameters (cutoff parameter and 12 chip specific correction factors; only for expert use)
 
withoffsetlistnobooleanno 
enables use of list of offset maps to calculate energy shifts
 
odilistnodatasetodilist.asc 
Name of optional ASCII file containing pairs of $<$ccd nr.$>$ $<$offset map file$>$ (one per line). See Sect.3.6.
 
withxrlcorrectionnobooleanNY/N
execute X-ray loading correction code (for TI+BU modes) ?
 
withsoftflarescreeningnobooleanNY/N
execute soft flare screening code (for TI mode) ?
 
softflarethreshold1noreal10.0 
threshold 1 for flare screening (unit: counts/0.1 s)
 
softflarethreshold2noreal1.0 
threshold 2 for flare screening
 
softflaresmoothnostringBOXBOX GAUSS FLARE
smoothing method for flare screening
 
softflareenergyrangeno2 $\times$ integer40 50 
energy range for flare screening (ADU)
 
softflaresmoothparamsnoreal2.0 1.0 1.0 
smoothing parameters
 
 
epnoise 
runepnoisenobooleanNY/N
epnoise: run epnoise?
 
identifynoisyframesnobooleanYY/N
Identify Noisy Frames
 
sigmacutnoreal3.0 
sigma cut for bright sources
 
applyfilternobooleanYY/N
Keep output of filtering process?
 
savemasksnobooleanNY/N
Save CCDs mask to a file
 
 
epxrlcorr 
runepxrlcorrnobooleanNY/N
epxrlcorr: run epxrlcorr?
This task (for IMAGING modes) requires an offsetmap to be present in the ODF, which was generally not the case in the first years (it would stop then).
 
withxrlimagenobooleanNY/N
epxrlcorr: create a diagnostic X-ray loading image?
 
 
epevents 
runepeventsnobooleanYY/N
epevents: run epevents?
 
withphotonmapnobooleanNY/N
epevents: whether to create diagnostic photon map file with 4 image extensions
 
reemissionthreshnointeger  
epevents: selection parameter: trigger threshold (in adu) for preceding events
 
randomizepositionnobooleanYY/N
epevents: yes, if the computation of physical camera detector coordinates is done with randomization
 
randomizeenergynobooleanYY/N
epevents: yes, if the raw amplitudes should be randomized within a pulseheight bin
 
gainctiaccuracynointeger20-2
epevents: Accuracy of gain/cti correction
 
patternanalysisnobooleanYY/N
epevents: no, if pattern recognition has been done already (future development)
 
withoutoftimenobooleanNY/N
epevents: yes, if “out-of-time events” file should be created instead of “normal events” file (only meaningful for IMAGING modes) (considered as experimental)
 
withctisrcposnobooleanNY/N
epevents: yes, if not the RAWY coordinates but the source position SRCPOS should be used in the energy correction routines (only meaningful for IMAGING modes) (considered as experimental). See Sect.3.2.
 
withbackgroundgainnobooleanYY/N
epevents: yes, if background gain corrections should be applied
 
backgroundtresnobooleanYY/N
yes, if time resolved (rather than averaged discarded line value) shall be used for background gain corrections
 
backgroundtbinnoreal100.00-150000
time bin for averaging time-resolved background level data
 
withpatternoffsetnobooleanYY/N
epevents: yes, if pattern energy offset corrections should be applied
 
withctilongtermnobooleanYY/N
epevents: yes, if long-term CTI increase corrections should be applied
 
ctilongtermsoftnobooleanYY/N
epevents: yes, if special soft energy function should be included in the long-term CTI increase corrections (considered as experimental)
 
ctilongtermynobooleanYY/N
epevents: yes, if special Y dependence should be included in the long-term CTI increase corrections
 
withccdoffsetsnobooleanNY/N
epevents: yes, if CCD offset corrections should be applied (considered as experimental)
 
withtempcorrectionnobooleanYY/N
epevents: yes, if temperature-gain corrections should be applied
 
withgainburstnobooleanYY/N
epevents: apply special gain if BURST mode ?
 
withgaintimingnobooleanYY/N
epevents: apply special gain if TIMING mode ?
 
withgainffnobooleanNY/N
epevents: apply special gain if FULL FRAME mode ?
 
withgaineffnobooleanYY/N
epevents: apply special gain if EXTENDED FULL FRAME mode ?
 
withphagaincolumnnobooleanNY/N
epevents: Whether to create intermediate column PHA_GAIN. If set to “Y" then propagatecolumns is reset to “all".
 
lowgainenergyscalenobooleanNY/N
epevents: When switching on the energy correction for low-gain mode data then most of the events will fall outside the 2-byte-limit for the PI column (i.e. $> 32757$ eV) as the energy range is then about $2-280$ keV; if one is interested in this full range the setting “N" should be used and energy values be multiplied later with 18.4 to obtain “real" event energies. Only effective for the few low-gain mode exposures, of course.
 
checksasmipnobooleanNY/N
yes, if the MIP rejection information obtained by task epframes shall be printed (only meaningful if on-board rejection is switched off, i.e. for SW, TI, BU modes).
 
withrdphanobooleanYY/N
yes, if a correction for rate-dependent PHA effects for TI and BU modes should be applied. The logical keyword PHA_RDCO indicates whether this correction has been applied or not. If applied, then the keyword PHA_RDCB gives the scaling factor B used in the correction, derived from block RDPHA_DERIV in the CTI.CCF.
 
rdphatimebinsizenoboolean100 
time-bin size for rate-dependent PHA correction for TI and BU modes [s]
 
withframectinobooleanNY/N
yes, if TIME-derived frame numbers should be used in CTI correction for non-imaging modes (TI, BU) instead of the ODF frame numbers. For FF, eFF, LW, SW modes internally always the TIME-derived frame numbers instead of the dummy ODF numbers are used (should not be changed).
 
testenergywidthnobooleanYY/N
yes, if use non-standard energy bin width (i.e., 1 eV instead of previously used 5 eV binning in output PI column
 
 
attcalc 
runattcalcnobooleanYY/N
attcalc: run attcalc?
 
attitudelabelnostringahfahf/fixed/om
attcalc: source of attitude data
 
refpointlabelnostringnomnom/obj/pnt/user
attcalc: source of celestial coordinates of central reference point
 
fixedranoreal  
attcalc: S/C's attitude (RA) in the equatorial, earth-centred reference frame (if attitudelabel=fixed)
 
fixeddecnoreal  
attcalc: S/C's attitude (DEC) in the equatorial, earth-centred reference frame (if attitudelabel=fixed)
 
fixedposanglenoreal  
attcalc: S/C's attitude (PA) in the equatorial, earth-centred reference frame (if attitudelabel=fixed)
 
nominalranoreal  
attcalc: celestial coordinate RA of central reference point (if refpointlabel=user)
 
nominaldecnoreal  
attcalc: celestial coordinate DEC of central reference point (if refpointlabel=user)
 
imagesizenoreal0.36 
attcalc: half-size of final image (in degrees)
 
 
time and exposure 
runepexposurenobooleanYY/N
epexposure: Run epexposure ?
 
screenexposurenobooleanYY/N
epexposure: remove all columns in EXPOSUnn extensions that are beyond the ICD
 
spatialexposurenobooleanYY/N
epexposure: yes, if spatial exposure inhomogeneities (CCD columns) should be determined and to be taken into account by subsequent SAS tasks (not yet implemented)
 
randomizetimenobooleanYY/N
epexposure: yes, if the event arrival times should be randomized within a readout frame
 
 
event screening 
screennobooleanYY/N
reject all events with rejection flags and below low-energy threshold
 
runscreennobooleanYY/N
perform the screening (otherwise use existing files)
 
screenlowthreshnoreal150 
reject all events with lower (recombined) energies [eV]
 
screenrejectednobooleanNY/N
reject all events with rejection flags (apply #XMMEA_EP in screening)
 
 
evlistcomb 
runevlistcombnobooleanYY/N
evlistcomb: run evlistcomb?
 
memorymodelnostringhighlow/highlow/high
memory model for task evlistcomb, all other tasks are controlled via SAS_MEMORY_MODEL [current SAS default: high]
 
withmedianpntnobooleanYY/N
evlistcomb: Get median values from atthkgen file (otherwise mean)?
 
othertablesnolist of uppercase stringsBADPIX EXPOSUREnone
evlistcomb: names of secondary tables or arrays to propagate
 
epnimgcolnamesnolist of uppercase stringsTIME RAWX RAWY DETX DETY X Y PHA PI FLAG PATTERN PAT_ID PAT_SEQnone
evlistcomb: columns to propagate in main table (IMAGING mode)
 
epnimgcoltypesnolist of stringsdouble int16 int16 int16 int16 int32 int32 int16 int16 int32 int8 int16 int8int8/int16/int32/single/
[1]double/boolean/string
evlistcomb: output type of IMAGING mode columns
 
epntimcolnamesnolist of uppercase stringsTIME RAWX RAWY DETX DETY X Y PHA PI FLAG PATTERN PAT_ID PAT_SEQnone
evlistcomb: columns to propagate in main table (TIMING mode)
 
epntimcoltypesnolist of stringsdouble int16 int16 int16 int16 int32 int32 int16 int16 int32 int8 int16 int8int8/int16/int32/single/
[1]double/boolean/string
evlistcomb: output type of TIMING mode columns
 
propagatecolumnsnostringautoauto/imaging/subset/
[1]icd/all
how many columns should be propagated to the final event file for TIMING and BURST modes: “auto” means values via epntimcoltypes and epntimcolnames, “imaging” uses the values as for epnimgcolnames and epnimgcoltypes, “subset” similar to “imaging” but without X, Y, and PAT_SEQ, whereas “icd” uses only the columns that are explicitly mentioned in the Data Products ICD, and “all” uses all output columns of epevents for IMAGING and TIMING modes
 
 
final GTI screening 
runevselectnobooleanYY/N
evselect: run evselect?
 
 
RDCTI correction 
runepfastnobooleanNY/N
run epfast for rate-dependent CTI (RDCTI) corrections in TI+BU modes? Ignored if withrdpha=“Y” or if IMAGING mode.
 
 
pattern distribution 
withpatplotnobooleanNY/N
run epatplot to create pattern plot and FLAG=0 masks
 
modifyinsetnobooleanYY/N
if N: skip writing of header keywords to increase speed
 
 
background lightcurve 
runbackgroundnobooleanYY/N
create background lightcurve?
 
withmasknobooleanYY/N
use masks for lightcurve?
 
masksetnostring./mask_##.fits 
path of point source mask set, the substring ## will internally be replaced with the CCD number currently in use (two digits). Energy range: 0.2-10.0 keV. Not applicable (active) for SMALL_WINDOW, TIMING, and BURST mode
 
withhardmasknobooleanYY/N
use hard energy band for maskset instead of soft ?
 
hrdmsksetnostring./hrdmask_##.fits 
same as above but for energy range 7.0-15.0 keV
 
ratesetnostringrate_bkg.fits 
name of background lightcurve file
 
specsetnostringspec_bkg.fits 
name of background spectrum file
 
timebinsizenoreal0.0 
time bin for background lightcurve [s], if set to 0 then the task chooses default values according to the instrument mode and energy range: withhardmask=Y 100 [s] for FF eFF modes, 200 for LW, 350 for SW, and 100 for TI BU modes, withhardmask=N 10 [s] for FF eFF modes, 20 for LW, 350 for SW, and 10 [s] for TI BU modes
 
ParameterMand Type Default Constraints

XMM-Newton SOC -- 2023-04-16