README File for CALDB 4.7.9 Full Download Instructions 26 June 2018 DE Graessle, Chandra CALDB Manager Includes brief Intro, Download instructions, Unpacking instructions, Pointers for further assistance. To learn more about the Chandra CALDB, and to find this information on the WEB, you are referred to http://cxc.harvard.edu/caldb/index.html. For Release Notes to the Chandra CALDB4, and specifically CalDB 4.7.9, see http://cxc.harvard.edu/caldb/downloads/releasenotes.html CalDB 4.7.9 requires CIAO 4.5 (or later version) because of an upgrade to the caldb4 software that was included since the release of CIAO 4.5 in December of 2012. The caldb4 upgrade in question provides for the proper selection of time-displaced CalDB files with overlapping validity date ranges, which does not exist in earlier CIAO versions. CalDB 4.7.9 is optimized for CIAO 4.8 (or later version) which includes an upgrade to the acis_process_events tool (a-p-e) for handling CC-mode observations, specifically to perform the CTI-correction properly for them. As a result, the EDSER SUBPIX algorithm is now applied in a-p-e to CC-modes, where it had not been before. Condensed Release Notes for CalDB 4.7.9 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I. INTRODUCTION CalDB 4.7.9 is an upgrade to the Chandra CalDB, which includes the following items: * ACIS CONTAM Version N0011 * HRC-I QE N0011 (26 new time-dependent files) * HRC-S QEU N0009 (23 new time-dependent files) For the CIAO 4.10 / CalDB 4.7.9 release notes see How CalDB 4.7.9 Affects Your Analysis at http://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao/releasenotes/ciao_4.10_release.html#HowCALDB4.7.9AffectsYourAnalysis ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ II. SUMMARY OF CHANGES A. ACIS CONTAM Version N0011 Location: $CALDB/data/chandra/acis/contam/ Filename: acisD1999-08-13contamN0011.fits The ACIS Calibration Team continues to monitor and react to variations in the affects of the Optical Blocking Filter (OBF) contamination layer with mission elapsed time. Most recently, it has come to their attention that the current CONTAM model file in CalDB (version N0010) is overestimating the effect since early 2018, particularly for ACIS-I, and still significantly for ACIS-S. While a modification for the ACIS-S model is still under development, the calibration team has elected to release an upgrade to the ACIS-I configuration's CONTAM model with the version N0011 file listed above. Additionally, while the ACIS-S model remains unchanged, the time base for all ten chips included in CONTAM N0011 has been extended to the end of Calendar Year 2021, to allow for predictive effective area estimates for proposal planning purposes and the like. See the technical details section (in the on-line CalDB 4.7.9 Release Notes) for further information on the upgrade to the ACIS-I model, as well as the updated time base. See the ACIS QE CONTAMINATION why page for more general information on the ACIS OBF. CIAO SCRIPTS/TOOLS AFFECTED: See the script fluximage, which uses mkinstmap See the script specextract, which uses mkwarf See the script fullgarf, which uses mkgarf THREADS AFFECTED: For exposure-corrected imaging analysis with ACIS, see the threads: Single Chip ACIS Exposure Map and Exposure-corrected Image Multiple Chip ACIS Exposure Map and Exposure-corrected Image For imaging spectroscopy, see the threads: Extract Spectrum and Response Files for a Pointlike Source Extract Spectrum and Response Files for an Extended Source Extract Spectrum and Response Files for Multiple Sources For grating spectroscopy, see the threads: HETG/ACIS-S Grating ARFs LETG/ACIS-S Grating ARFs B. HRC-I QE N0011 (26 new time-dependent files) Location: $CALDB/data/chandra/hrc/qe/ Filenames: hrciD1999-07-29qeN0011.fits hrciD2000-07-23qeN0011.fits hrciD2001-04-19qeN0011.fits hrciD2001-10-16qeN0011.fits hrciD2002-04-14qeN0011.fits hrciD2002-10-25qeN0011.fits hrciD2003-04-25qeN0011.fits hrciD2003-10-06qeN0011.fits hrciD2004-04-05qeN0011.fits hrciD2004-11-05qeN0011.fits hrciD2005-05-15qeN0011.fits hrciD2005-11-01qeN0011.fits hrciD2006-04-25qeN0011.fits hrciD2006-11-21qeN0011.fits hrciD2007-09-16qeN0011.fits hrciD2008-09-11qeN0011.fits hrciD2009-09-15qeN0011.fits hrciD2010-09-16qeN0011.fits hrciD2011-09-29qeN0011.fits hrciD2012-09-29qeN0011.fits hrciD2013-10-05qeN0011.fits hrciD2014-10-03qeN0011.fits hrciD2015-08-09qeN0011.fits hrciD2016-06-15qeN0011.fits hrciD2017-02-20qeN0011.fits hrciD2017-08-20qeN0011.fits It has been known for some time that the HRC-I quantum efficiency has been declining systemmatically, and considerably more rapidly since ~2011 or so. Up until now, there has been no time-dependent correction for the mean QE for HRC-I. It has become timely therefore to release the above time-displaced HRC-I mean QE files into the CalDB to correct for this decline. See the technical details section (in the CalDB 4.7.9 release notes) for more details on the nature and derivation of these QE corrections. CIAO SCRIPTS/TOOLS AFFECTED: See the script fluximage, which uses mkinstmap THREADS AFFECTED: For exposure-corrected imaging analysis with HRC-I, see the thread: HRC-I Exposure Map and Exposure-corrected Image C. HRC-S QEU N0009 (23 new time-dependent files) Location: $CALDB/data/chandra/hrc/qeu/ Filenames: hrcsD1999-07-22qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2000-01-01qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2001-01-01qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2002-01-01qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2003-01-01qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2004-01-01qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2005-01-01qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2006-01-01qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2007-01-01qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2008-01-01qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2009-01-01qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2009-08-08qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2010-09-14qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2012-03-29qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2012-10-05qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2013-09-21qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2015-02-17qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2016-02-22qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2016-07-28qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2017-01-23qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2017-06-05qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2017-09-26qeuN0009.fits hrcsD2018-01-19qeuN0009.fits Within the past year, the LETGS calibration team has recognized an accelerated rate of decay in the quantum efficiency as a function of wavelength (i.e. displacement along the length of the HRC-S three-plate detector array. Hence they have elected to replace the current set of time dependent QE Uniformity (QEU) files (version N0008) with a new set of files, version N0009. Furthermore, the new set extends in effective dates only through January 2018, and the predictive QEU files extending from 2019-2022 have been removed from the CalDB distribution and the index. See the technical details section (in the on-line CalDB 4.7.9 Release Notes) for illustrations and details of the derivation of these new QE Uniformity corrections. See also the HRC-S QE/QEU why page for more general information on the HRC-S QE/QEU corrections in the CalDB. CIAO SCRIPTS/TOOLS AFFECTED: See the script fluximage, which uses mkinstmap THREADS AFFECTED: For exposure-corrected imaging analysis with HRC-S, see the thread: HRC-S Exposure Map and Exposure-corrected Image For grating spectroscopy with the LETG/HRC-S, see the thread: LETG/HRC-S Grating ARFs ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- III. Instructions for MANUALLY Downloading and Unpacking CALDB 4.7.9 NOTE: The installation of CalDB 4.7.9 may be done automatically by using the new ciao-install routine, as a matter of course, when installing or upgrading CIAO. See the instruction at "Downloading CIAO ", http://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao/download/ Instructions for Downloading (Manually): Download all files into the same directory, where you intend to install your Chandra CALDB 4.7.9. You will need at least 15 GBytes free to download and unpack the basic structure. The ACIS & HRC background files are now packaged separately, so you don't have to install it to get the basic package. The background files add another 5.2 GB to the space you need. See the following ftp links to acquire the CALDB download tar files for version 4.7.9. MAIN CALDB DIRECTORY AND FILES: 1. ftp://cda.harvard.edu/pub/arcftp/caldb/caldb_4.7.9_main.tar.gz The ACIS and HRC-I background files (blank-field files) are now packaged separately, so if you want to use them you will need files 2 and 3. You need these files if you are going to run reproject_events to generate background files for your ACIS or HRC-I observations. 2. The ACIS BKGRND files tar ball was most recently upgraded with CalDB 4.7.6, 18 Aug 2017 to include version N0002 of the Group G event lists (effective 2012-01-01 through the present.) ftp://cda.harvard.edu/pub/arcftp/caldb/acis_bkgrnd_4.7.6.tar.gz 3. The HRC-I BKGRND files tar ball has been newly upgraded in CalDB 4.7.7 (14 Dec 2017), to include the new background files effective for 2015-2017 calendar years, respectively. ftp://cda.harvard.edu/pub/arcftp/caldb/hrc_bkgrnd_4.7.7.tar.gz TABLE 1: Files and sizes: FILE FILENAME Ship Size(byte) Unpacking space md5sum 1 caldb_4.7.9_main.tar.gz 3,466,743,798 7.4 GB 9ff9f153edea034c594163a3f78e5e14 2 acis_bkgrnd_4.7.6.tar.gz 1,387,251,364 2.9 GB 192d4871813c9d5d3e857726195d1261 3 hrc_bkgrnd_4.7.7.tar.gz 2,323,747,030 3.2 GB 3c9b4e5d6966929793d726b12ae4a4b2 Instructions for unpacking: 1. Locate a place for your CALDB. Designate an empty directory to be assigned to the value of $CALDB. Unpack file 1 above from that location. 2. It is not necessary to edit the ./software/tools/caldbinit.* files. When you install or load CIAO, the location of the CalDB gets set up to the appropriate directory. 3. Unpack the ACIS "background" files (File 2 in the table above) if you expect to use them. The files take up a large amount of space. 4. Unpack the HRC "background" files (File 3 in the table above) if you expect to use them. The files take up a large amount of space. 5. Delete the tar files. The latest versions will be maintained online at CXC at all times. -- Chandra CALDB Manager