NAME

correctlc -- Corrects RXTE lightcurves for the effect of having PCUs turning on and off during the observation.

USAGE

        correctlc infile filtfile outfile method pculist clobber

DESCRIPTION

This tool is designed to process a RXTE light curve FITS file and correct it to account for individual PCUs which may have turned on and/or off during the observation. The PCU on/off history is obtained by reading in a standard RXTE filter file which contains PCUn_ON columns during the observation. The corrected light curve is output in a separate (user-specified) FITS file; the original light curve file remains untouched. Three different correction methods are available: the default is "max", which determines the maximum number of PCUs on at any time during the observation and scales up those periods of the light curve when fewer PCUs were on. (If the maximum number is ambiguous the program will exit with a warning). The other two methods available are "one", which scales the entire light curve to a single, average PCU and "user", which corrects to a user-specified PCU list. In all cases both the RATE and ERROR columns are modified by the same factor to preserve the relative error.

PARAMETERS

infile [string - file name]

The name of the input FITS file containing the RXTE lightcurve to be corrected.

filtfile [string - file name]

The name of the RXTE filter file containing the PCU on/off information relevant to the input lightcurve.

outfile [string - file name]

The name of the FITS file containing the corrected lightcurve.

method = max [string - correction method]

Describes the method to be used in correcting the lightcurve. Legal choices are "max" (default) which scales the entire lightcurve to the maximum number of PCUs on at any time during the observation, "one" which scales to a single, mean PCU, and "user" which indicates that the tool should examine the pculist parameter for further info.

pculist [string - PCUs to which to scale the lightcurve]

This parameter is ignored unless the method parameter is set to "user" (see above). In that case the tool will correct the entire lightcurve to the specified list of PCUs. The format is reasonably free.

(clobber = no) [boolean]

Tells if an existing file having the same name should be overwritten.

(mode = ql) [string]

FTOOLS internal -- users should not need to change.

EXAMPLES

1. Correct a lightcurve file to what it would have looked like if only PCUs 0, 1, and 3 were on during the observation:

        correctlc infile=raw.lc filtfile=myobs.xfl outfile=corrected.lc method=user pculist=013

2. Correct raw.lc to a single, mean PCU (ie, counts/sec/PCU):

        correctlc infile=raw.lc filtfile=myobs.xfl outfile=corrected.lc method=one

NOTES:

This tool replaces and improves upon an earlier Perl script of the same name.

BUGS

SEE ALSO

CATEGORY