Improved Attitude Correction and Pileup Estimation for Suzaku Data

Download Requirements:

Both aeattcor.sl and pile_estimate.sl are written as S-lang scripts that use features found in S-lang versions > 2.1.0. They use ISIS as the run environment, and require an ISIS version >= 1.4.9. (There are many reasons why you should be doing your spectral analysis with ISIS anyway, and new reasons arise every day.)

The following is a complete dependency list, and suggested order of builds. Although the list at first blush might seem a bit daunting, almost all of the software builds with relative ease on Linux systems, and binaries of DS9, and SLgtk are available for several platforms. (Note that ISIS can be configured to build off of existing cfitsio and pgplot libraries. This is our recommended method of building.) Furthermore, beyond the Suzaku tools discussed here, the programs below allow a great deal of sophisticated analyses to be performed, as we discuss in our paper "Beyond XSPEC: Towards Highly Configurable Analysis", by M. Noble and M. Nowak, 2008, PASP.

1. The cfitsio library, current version >= 3.24. (Webpage) (Or build using the cfitsio library in HEASOFT/XSPEC.)
2. The pgplot library, current version >= 5.2. (Webpage) (Or build using the pgplot library in HEASOFT/XSPEC.)
3. The S-lang scripting language, current version >= 2.2.2 (>2.1.0 required) (Webpage)

   Optional: The XSPEC analysis package, current version >=12.6.0. (Webpage)
   (This is not required for these Suzaku scripts. However, should you wish to later use ISIS for data analysis while invoking standard XSPEC models, it is best to build XSPEC at this point. Also, cfitsio and pgplot builds are most easily done by building them via HEASOFT/XSPEC.)

4. The ISIS analysis application, current version >= 1.5.0-22 (required version >= 1.4.9). (Webpage)
5. The XPA communications library, current version >= 2.1.12. (Webpage)
6. The SAOds9 image display tool, current version >= 6.0. (Webpage)

   The remaining S-lang module dependencies are also grouped together at the S-Lang Modules Packages webpage.

7. The S-lang xpa and DS9 module, current and required version >= 0.5. (Webpage)
8. The S-Lang Gtk module (which includes the VWhere utility that is used by pile_estimate.sl), current version >= 0.7.5. (Webpage)
   
   The S-lang Gtk module is requried for full functionality of the pile_estimate.sl tool (partial functionality is obtainable without it), but is not required for the aeattcor.sl tool.
   
   Gtk can be very difficult to build from source. Therefore we recommend that users download and install the Gtk module as a binary, rather than a source build. (The SLGtk module is self-contained, and should have all library dependencies already incorporated into it.)
   
   

   The following are ASCII files, downloadable from this web site. They're just scripts! No builds required! (However, you might have to edit the first line to point toward your own location of /usr/bin/env.)

9. The aeattcor.sl script, current version 0.2.0.
10. The pile_estimate.sl script, current version 1.0.0.

The most difficult platforms to build the above software on are Apple machines, which can be quirky (especially if one is also trying to build XSPEC and incorporate XSPEC local models). See the advice here.

Note that although the above modules are required for the tools to function, detailed knowledge of their inner workings are not required to utilize the tools.