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NOTICE:
This Legacy journal article was published in Volume 1, May 1992, and has not been
updated since publication. Please use the search facility above to find regularly-updated
information about this topic elsewhere on the HEASARC site.
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Foreword
N. E. White
HEASARC
This is the first issue of Legacy, a biannual Journal published by the High
Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center, HEASARC. This new journal
provides both up-to-date information about activities at the HEASARC and
articles on high energy data research including, e.g., calibration reports,
analysis techniques, and data format standards. Contributions to Legacy are
solicited from both within the HEASARC and from members of the community who
wish to make available information about high energy data.
This issue of Legacy provides an overview of the HEASARC functions, and initial
activities. The HEASARC is using FITS as a standard for data distribution and
analysis. The FITSIO package written by Bill Pence to provide a simple
interface to read and write FITS files was released last summer and has proven
a popular package in the astronomical community as a whole. This issue contains
an article about the HEASARC FITS effort. The Astro-D mission will be the next
major imaging X-ray astronomy mission and one of the data sets to be placed in
the HEASARC archive; there is an article describing the data analysis and
archive plans. As a precursor to Astro-D the HEASARC has constructed an
observation log for the previous Japanese mission, Ginga, and this is described
in this issue.
An important component of Legacy will be calibration articles and this first
issue is no exception. There are updates to the EXOSAT ME and LE calibrations,
and a description of the Einstein Solid State Spectrometer calibrations. We
encourage instrument groups with calibration reports to submit them for
publication in Legacy.
The HEASARC will promote a multi-mission approach to data analysis. This issue
describes the multi-mission spectral analysis package XSPEC. Other articles on
useful, public domain, software packages are welcome for future issues.
The HEASARC data holding can be accessed either on-line, or by visiting GSFC.
There is a brief description of the HEASARC on-line service here which allows
users to remotely login, browse, and extract data. Data sets that are
available now include HEAO 1, HEAO 2 (Einstein), EXOSAT, Ginga plus numerous
catalogs. The HEASARC also welcomes visitors and there are instructions on how
to book the facility.
Legacy will be published in the spring and fall of each year. Articles for each
issue should be submitted to the editors by March 15 or September 15.
Editors: Karen M. Smale
Nick White
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