Skip to the navigation links
Last modified: 11 December 2023

URL: https://cxc.cfa.harvard.edu/ciao/releasenotes/ciao_4.0_release.html

CIAO 4.0 Release Notes


[New] (8 Sep 2008) CALDB has been patched to version 3.5.0. The How CALDB 3.5.0 Affects Your Analysis section has information on the release.

[New] (16 Apr 2008) CIAO has been patched to CIAO 4.0.2 on Mac OS X Intel only. This patch enables CIAO to run on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Intel; it is optional for 10.4 (Tiger) Intel. The patch should not be applied to Linux, Solaris, or Mac PowerPC installations of CIAO.

CIAO 4.0.2 Release Notes


CIAO 4.0 is a full installation of the CIAO software. It contains all the enhancements and bug fixes since CIAO 3.4, including those which were made available in the 4.0 Beta releases.

The most notable change to the CIAO tools in version 4.0 is that the ACIS dead area correction is turned on by default; refer to the How CIAO 4.0 and CALDB 3.4.2 Affect Your Analysis section for details. There is a new version of tgextract - named tgextract2 - which provides similar functionality, but allows large and asymmetric regions for better determination of background counts. Significant work has been done on the tool wavdetect, which has two new parameters. The sso_freeze tool has been enhanced so that it can create object-centered aspect solutions which allows an object-centered exposure map to be generated. A number of bug fixes to the Data Model library and several CIAO tools are also included.

The Data Model library now supports an ASCII kernel. This kernel allows users to generate ASCII format files for use within Data Model enabled tools (e.g. dmlist, dmcopy), and apply the suite of Data Model capabilities to those files via its extended filename syntax. The ASCII kernel is considered beta for this release.

The CIAO 4.0 release includes a new, more powerful version of ChIPS, the CIAO plotting package. It can be used during data analysis - e.g. to plot a lightcurve - and to create publication-quality figures. Details and documentation on the new system is available from the ChIPS website.

This release also features an experimental (beta) version of the new Sherpa, the CIAO modeling and fitting package. Details and documentation on the new system are available from the Sherpa website.

CIAO 4.0 is fully GPL compliant. OTS (off-the-shelf) software have been updated to current versions. A set of "smoke test" scripts are included to aid users in verifying installation of the release.



Python and IPython Caveats

Python

IPython


How CALDB 3.5.0 Affects Your Analysis

This section of the release notes describes how the CALDB 3.5.0 release (08 September 2008) will affect your analysis. The changes are arranged by instrument and grating configuration.

(CALDB 3.5.0 is the first public release since CALDB 3.4.5.)

ACIS -120 C Imaging and Grating Data

ACIS -110 C Grating Data


How CALDB 3.4.5 Affects Your Analysis

This section of the release notes describes how the CALDB 3.4.5 release (23 June 2008) will affect your analysis. The changes are arranged by instrument and grating configuration.

(CALDB 3.4.4 was not released to the public.)

ACIS Imaging and Grating Data


How CALDB 3.4.3 Affects Your Analysis

This section of the release notes describes how the CALDB 3.4.3 release (31 March 2008) will affect your analysis. The changes are arranged by instrument and grating configuration.

ACIS Imaging and Grating Data


How CIAO 4.0 and CALDB 3.4.2 Affect Your Analysis

Some tool changes and calibration files released in CIAO 4.0 and CALDB 3.4.2 affect analyses in progress, i.e. a tool or calibration file default has been changed. This section of the release notes describes those changes and which tasks are affected. The changes are arranged by instrument and grating configuration.

ACIS Imaging Data

ACIS Grating Data


Tools

acis_build_badpix

acis_process_events

acis_run_hotpix

aconvolve

acrosscorr

apowerspectrum

arestore

ascii2fits

asphist

axbary

celldetect

csmooth

destreak

dmappend

dmarfadd

dmcontour

dmcoords

dmdiff

dmextract

dmfilth

dmimg2jpg

dmimgpick

dmimgthresh

dmjoin

dmmakereg

dmmerge

dmpaste

dmsort

dmstat

dmtcalc

dmtype2split

get_src_region

hrc_dtfstats

hrc_process_events

lightcurve

mkacisrmf

mkarf

mkgarf

mkinstmap

mkoif

mkwarf

psf_project_ray

specextract

sso_freeze

tg_create_mask

tg_resolve_events

tgdetect

tgextract

tgextract2

vtpdetect

wavdetect

wtransform


Parameter Files

The CIAO 4.0 software establishes a separate local parameter file directory, ~/cxcds_param4. This allows users to run both CIAO 3.4 and CIAO 4.0 without having to worry about parameter file conflicts.

A summary of parameter files changes is provided in this section. Refer to the Tools section of these release notes for complete details.

ciao.par

hrc_dtfstats

mkacisrmf

mkarf

mkgarf

mkinstmap

mkwarf

specextract

sso_freeze

wavdetect

wtransform

kernel parameter


Data Model

ASCII Kernel

Bug Fixes

Enhancements

Transform Library


User Interface

firstlook and filtwin


Libraries

cxcparam

dslib

psflib

regionlib

tcdlib


S-Lang

S-Lang has been updated to version 2.1.1. The S-Lang release notes contain a description of the features and changes in this version.

VARMM replaced

paramio


Environment Modifications

Wrapper Scripts


Analysis Scripts

The CIAO contributed scripts package is available from the Scripts page and is considered a required part of the installation. The script installation instructions explain where the scripts should be unpacked within the CIAO directory tree.

acis_bkgrnd_lookup v2.0

acis_fef_lookup v1.21

acisspec v4.1

add_grating_orders v2.4

add_grating_spectra v3.3

analyze_ltcrv.sl v1.6

fullgarf v4.1.1

get_sky_limits v1.9

lc_clean.sl v1.10

merge_all v3.8

psextract v4.0.1

Missing Scripts

Obsolete Scripts


Documentation

ChIPS Website

Sherpa Website

Download pages

Ahelp

Analysis Threads

Missing Threads

Obsolete Threads