Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to common CIAO questions, including explanation of often-seen warnings and error messages.
General
Data Products
- When was my observation performed?
When was the file created?
What version of data processing was used? - What does the CREATOR header keyword mean?
- What was the aimpoint of the observation?
- What is the difference between the RA and DEC NOM, TARG, and PNT header keywords?
- What is the focal plane temperature for my observation?
- Why are there sometimes multiple asol1.fits files for
my observation?
How do I treat these in my analysis? - What is the CYCLE keyword?
Should I be concerned if it's missing from my data?
Parameter Files
-
Why does the tool does not execute when I get the
following error(s)?
pget: parameter not found...
parammatch : can't find parameter PARAMNAME in reference list parameter error?
- Why should I delete my parameter files after upgrading CIAO?
- How do I run multiple instances of a CIAO tool without clobbering the parameter file?
- The tool is failing because ")sval" has somehow shown up in the parameter value.
Data Model
-
How do I change the MEM parameter when I get this
error?
# DMCOPY (CIAO 4.2): WARNING: Creating large image: 134 MB. Current max set at 50 MB. Increase maximum using [opt mem=n] or increase blocking to reduce size.
- How can I define a region around a single chip?
- Why should I filter on sky coordinates rather than the CCD_ID column?
- How do I copy a block from one file to another?
ARDLIB
-
Why am I getting an ARDLIB error about a bad pixel
file from a different ObsID?
***ARDLIB error: Unable to find data file acisf01842_000N002_bpix1.fits[BADPIX7]
-
What does this warning mean?
***ARDLIB warning: Filename some_file.fits does not specify an extension. Assuming the first "interesting" extension.
- How can I tell CIAO to use a different HRMA effective area file?
Computer Environment
Miscellaneous
- Which CALDB version is installed on my system?
- What is the limiting file size for CIAO?
- What is the maximum size region file that CIAO can process?
User Interface
ds9
- Can I use a newer version of ds9 than the one packaged with CIAO?
- How do I build polygon regions in ds9?
- How do I rotate a region in ds9?
- How do I display a source list on my data?
Tools
acis_process_events
- Why hasn't the CALDBVER keyword been updated after I run this tool?
- Why is my level 2 event file larger than the one from the pipeline?
-
What does this warning mean?
# acis_process_events (CIAO 4.2): The following error occurred 26941 times: dsAFEBADPCNTERR -- WARNING: Event island contains 1 or more bad pixels.
-
What does this warning mean?
# acis_process_events (CIAO 4.2): WARNING: problem reading ctifile, cti adjustment will not be applied. Changing apply_cti=yes to apply_cti=no.
-
What does this warning mean?
# acis_process_events (CIAO 4.2): The following error occurred 31 times: WARNING: pulse height is less than split threshold when performing serial CTI adjustment.
acis_classify_hotpix / acis_run_hotpix
-
What does this warning mean?
# acis_classify_hotpix (CIAO 4.2): WARNING: File /tmp/hotpixel_list.fits does not have any rows.
aprates
-
What does this warning mean?
# aprates (CIAO 4.2): WARNING: Large number of counts, just using Gaussian pdf
asphist
-
What does this error mean?
# asphist (CIAO 4.2): The difference of 2 asp_file counters should be 0 or 1.
dmcopy
dmextract
- How do I extract many spectra with one command?
-
Why do I get a parse error with this region file?
# Region file format: CIAO version 1.0 -rotbox(4055.375,4165.5674,4.6747966,4.4715447,63.400002) annulus(4059.5601,4163.4399,2.0325203,7.113821)
- Why does dmextract convert arcseconds to arcminutes when I use pset?
dmimgthresh
dmstat
dmtcalc
hrc_process_events
-
What does this warning mean?
# hrc_process_events (CIAO 4.2): The following error occurred 2482 times: dsHPEEVENTSEQERR -- WARNING: Out of sequence events discovered in hrc_evt1.fits.
-
What does this warning mean?
# hrc_process_events (CIAO 4.2): The following error occurred 224 times: WARNING: can't find a proper degap value for this raw coord. in hrc_evt1.fits.
mkacisrmf
- Since none of the files that are passed to mkacisrmf are aware of the date of my observation, how is the time-dependent gain included in the RMF?
-
Why do I get this error?
# mkacisrmf (CIAO CIAO 4.2): ERROR: No non-zero pixels map to valid chip coordinates in the supplied wmap='src.pi[WMAP]' file
-
What does this warning mean?
WARNING: Did not find 'GRATTYPE' in supplied header, skipping it
mkexpmap
-
What does this warning mean?
*** Warning: CYCLE not found or invalid in /tmp/imap_3.fits --- assuming 'P'
mkgarf
-
What does this warning mean?
*** WARNING: The ARF was computed to be zero at all the specified energies. This is probably due to an incorrect source position
-
What does this warning mean?
*** Warning: CYCLE not found or invalid in file.fits --- assuming 'P'
mkwarf
-
What does this warning mean?
Couldn't determine chip position for pixel: (1013.000000,0.000000) with value=1.000000. Skipping pixel
tg_create_mask
tg_resolve_events
-
What does this warning mean?
# tg_resolve_events (CIAO 4.2): The following error occurred 38950 times: WARNING: Event chip position is outside of valid range. Grating coordinates not computed for this event.
-
What does this warning mean?
# tg_resolve_events (CIAO 4.2): The following error occurred 10000 times: dsTREUNKNOWNINCOLERR -- WARNING: Not loading data from unrecognized level 1.5 input column.
Scripts
fullgarf
-
Why do I get the following error?
*** ERROR: aspect histogram acisf00459_ah4.fits[ASPHIST] contains no rows
-
Why do I get the following warnings?
WARNING: OSIP file contains invalid data for the region 512<=CHIPX<=768 608<=CHIPY<=640 at 0.1 keV. WARNING: OSIP file contains invalid data for the region 512<=CHIPX<=768 608<=CHIPY<=640 at 0.277 keV.