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______________________________________________________________________ * * * INTEGRAL OSA 8.0 Software Release * * * ______________________________________________________________________ INTEGRAL Off-line Scientific Analysis 8.0 ========================================= Version 8.0 of the offline scientific analysis (OSA) of INTEGRAL data is now ready for download at: http://www.isdc.unige.ch/integral/download/osa_sw with the corresponding documentation available at: http://www.isdc.unige.ch/integral/download/osa_doc The main focus of this release is the JEM-X instrument with major improvements in image reconstruction. There are however also minor changes for the IBIS and SPI instruments. Please note that this OSA release is the last one for both the Solaris and MacOS/X PowerPC platforms. Future OSA releases will be on Linux and MacOS/X on Intel. Please update the calibration database (see below) to the latest version when upgrading the software to OSA 8. JEM-X changes ------------- The JEM-X software has been completely revised for the OSA 8 release. The changes have lead to an important reduction in the systematics uncertainties on the flux measurements. These improvements are implemented in the sky image reconstruction tool, which also provides the reference fluxes for spectral extraction. JEM-X software now takes into account the measured electronic efficiencies of both JEM-X units, as well as systematics effects - like those due to the collimator - which have been redetermined experimentally. Improved energy calibrations and gain determinations are achieved by taking into account the effect of detector temperature. With these changes the ancillary response functions of each instrument are valid over the whole mission. SPI changes ----------- The gamma-ray spectrometer SPI had a third detector failure in February 2009 at the beginning of revolution 776. Despite intensive effort by the SPI team and MOC, the detector #5 could not be recovered. SPI is currently working with 16 out of its 19 Germanium detectors. Following this third detector failure, the SPI software has been updated in OSA 8.0 to ignore the dead detectors immediately after their failures. As for the two previous failures, a new response file (IRF) has been provided by the NASA/GSFC team to take this change into account in the SPI analysis. The response file is currently under testing and will be delivered in an updated version of the IC tree. The SPI team at the MPE in Garching provided a new software package for SPI spectral extraction. This is included in OSA 8.0 to give the users an alternative method for analyzing SPI data. The new script is called "spimodfit_analysis" and complements the usual analysis using the "spiros" iterative source extraction method. IBIS changes ------------ The IBIS/ISGRI energy calibration depends on the total dose received by the detector pixels in form of charged particles. This is measured by the INTEGRAL radiation environment monitor (IREM) aboard the spacecraft. This radiation dose is collected mainly during perigee or during strong solar flares. The calibration database include an IREM dose file that needs to be updated regularly otherwise the software performs some interpolation. The interpolation implemented in OSA 8 is much better than before. To take into account the effects of new solar flares, we recommend users to update their calibration database regularly as described below. In addition, the ISGRI code was cleaned for uninitialized variables and the analysis scripts were updated for a proper PICsIT analysis in all situations. ______________________________________________________________________ Update of the calibration database ================================== INTEGRAL calibration files are stored in the repository branch for instrument characteristics (ic/). You can easily upgrade them to the most recent version by running the following command to download the latest release to your local directory where the INTEGRAL data are installed, which is defined in the $REP_BASE_PROD environment variable: rsync -Lzrtv isdcarc.unige.ch::arc/FTP/arc_distr/ic_tree/prod/ $REP_BASE_PROD The "rsync" command is part of most commonly used Linux distributions. If you run the command repeatedly, only the additional or updated IC data files will be downloaded into the $REP_BASE_PROD/ic/ and $REP_BASE_PROD/idx/ic/ directories. ______________________________________________________________________ Next OSA release ================ The next OSA release is planned for later this year and will include a much improved source cleaning for ISGRI allowing to create deeper images than available up to now. ______________________________________________________________________ Improved time correlation ========================= A new time correlation has been derived from the beginning of the mission up to revolution 791. It is used for the complete reprocessing of the data that is going on at the ISDC. These reprocessed archive will be made available in some months. Until then users requiring precise timing can download the new time correlation information and auxiliary information at: http://www.isdc.unige.ch/integral/download/osa_sw ______________________________________________________________________ |
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