Data Products of the XRT

XRT will produce images at a high cadence with a variable FOV. The following data products have been identified:

(1)    Quick look data – several images per day will be downloaded for the purpose of verifying instrument health and safety, for planning purposes and for calibration. The images will be taken at sun center and all filters will be used. Stored as level-0 data.

(2)    Science data – the majority of XRT observations will be taken as part of science observing sequences. The basic science data set will be cubes of images taken with a particular filter while tracking a solar feature. Tools will be needed to: align data (XRT – XRT, XRT – EIS, XRT – SOT); calibrate images (reduce to photon/pixel/s); forward model XRT images; easily create movies combining data from different telescopes and images with different FOV (embedded images, multiple images). Stored as level-0 data.

(3)    Public outreach data – each day observes will select a set of data (movie) for distribution to the general public. The movies may highlight a particular solar event or build upon previous observations to create a mission long coronal movie. Data will be available in several forms: mpeg, QuickTime, JavaScript ... different compression levels will available. Stored as level-1 data.

(4)    XRT mission catalogue – a searchable data base of XRT observing plans, observations (as run), science goals, solar events, availability of other data sets etc. Building this catalogue is key to maximizing the output of the Solar-B mission. The instrument catalogues are similar to each other and link through a mission level catalogue. Level – 2 data

 

Data Levels: we define the data levels a follows

Level – 0 digitized data with standard headers. Stored as FITS or TRACE-like multiple file FITS files. This is the standard input data for science analysis programs.

Level – 1 calibrated data with descriptive headers or associated text file. Can be in a wide variety of formats (FITS, JPEG, MPEG, QuickTime ...).

Level – 2 meta data: Combinations of Solar B level – 1 data sets, mission objectives and external (e.g. GOES) data in a variety of formats (data bases linked to data archive, html ...).