source: trunk/htdocs/pulsar_archive_guide.html

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[189]1<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"><html>
[169]2<html>
3<head>
[193]4<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles/standard.css" />
[189]5<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles/atnf.css" />
6<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8759-1" />
[201]7<meta name="DC.Creator" lang="en" content="personalName=Whiting,Matthew" />
[189]8<meta name="ATNF.Maintainer" content="contactName=Webmaster,the" />
9<meta name="DC.Title.alt" lang="en" content="" />
10<meta name="DC.Subject" lang="en" content="pulsar" />
[201]11<meta name="DC.Description" lang="en" content="Provides a user's guide to the Pulsar Data Archive." />
[189]12<meta name="DC.Date.created" scheme="ISO8601" content="2002-12-12" />
13<meta name="ATNF.Site" content="Marsfield" />
14<meta name="ATNF.AccessPermission" content="Public" />
15<meta name="ATNF.MetaVersion" content="1.0" />
[169]16</head>
[189]17<title>ATNF Pulsar Data Archive: Users Guide</title>
[169]18<body>
[214]19<?php
[244]20include_once("header.html");
[214]21include_once("constants.php");
22?>
[193]23
[214]24<div class="bodycontents">
25
[201]26<table class="top_menu" border="0px" frame="void">
27  <tr class="top_menu">
28    <td class="top_menu"  align="left" width="30%">
29      <a href="index.php">Return to Query page</a>
30    </td>
31  </tr>
32</table>
33   
[198]34<h1>ATNF Pulsar Data Archive: Users Guide</h1>
[193]35
[198]36<center><i>This page is still under construction!</i></center>
[193]37
[198]38<h2>Introduction</h2>
[193]39
[200]40<p>The ATNF Pulsar Data Archive exists to allow astronomers access to
[198]41observations of pulsars made with the Parkes radio telescope in the
[200]42last two decades.</p>
[193]43
[200]44<p>The data comes either from the Parkes Southern Pulsar Survey (the
[198]45"70cm Survey", Manchester et al. 1996, MN 279, 1235), or from
46observations of known pulsars with one of the Parkes instruments (WBC,
47DFB, CPSR2). We hope to make available data from the Multibeam Survey
[200]48at some point in the near future.</p>
[198]49
50<h2>Using the archive</h2>
51
[199]52<h3>Overview</h3>
53
[200]54<p>The Pulsar Data Archive provides a means for accessing observational
[199]55data. Queries are made according to position on the sky and can be
[200]56filtered by parameters such as data type and date.</p>
[199]57
[200]58<p>To download data, selections are made from the query results. These
[199]59are stored in a "cart" from which they can be downloaded as a tar
[200]60file. </p>
[199]61
[213]62<h3>Data access and availability</h3>
63
[214]64<p>ATNF pulsar data has a <?php echo PROPRIETRY_PERIOD_MONTH; ?> month
65proprietary period. All data older than this is publicly available,
66but access to proprietary data is restricted to those involved in the
67project under which the data was taken.</p>
[213]68
69<p>To manage the access to data, we have two forms of access to the
70archive. Anonymous access allows access only to the non-proprietary
71data. Proprietary data from a project you were involved in is obtained
72by logging in with your email and OPAL password, with the same OPAL
73account you use for proposals. This will then verify that you were
74involved in the project (by use of the Project ID), and allow you
75access.</p>
76
[214]77<p><b>Note (Feb 18):</b> At present, the use of OPAL authentication
78has not been enabled, and anonymous access is the only option (unless
79you obtained a login for the testing version of the archive). This
80will be rectified in the very near future.</p>
[213]81
[198]82<h3>How to make queries</h3>
83
[200]84<p>The data is queried primarily on positional information. The user
[198]85gives either a pulsar name or a RA/Dec position, plus a search
86radius. The pulsar name takes precedence over the RA/Dec position
87given, so to search by RA/Dec, make sure the pulsar name field is
[200]88empty.</p>
[198]89
[201]90<p>The search-by-name searches for files that either have the given
91pulsar name in their "src_name" field, or have an RA/Dec position
92within the given search radius of the pulsar. The pulsar's position is
93taken from the <a
94href="http://www.atnf.csiro.au/research/pulsar/psrcat/">ATNF Pulsar
95Catalogue</a>.</p>
96
97<p><b>Important:</b> When doing the position search, the beam size of
98the telescope is taken into account. For a given observation, there is
99a primary beam size, and if the primary beam intersects the search
100circle (i.e. the circle on the sky centred at the query position with
101radius equal to the search radius), then the observation is
102accepted.</p>
103
[198]104<h3>Query options</h3>
105
[200]106<p>The query can be refined according to a number of parameters:
[193]107<ul>
[198]108  <li> Time: A time range for the observations can be specified. The
109  default values for this are given by the extent of the archive
110  (ie. the default "from" date is the earliest observation, and the
111  default "to" date is the latest).
112  <li> Obs Mode: The query can be restricted to only survey data (just
113  the 70cm survey for the moment), or only timing data
114  (ie. observations of a particular pulsar). The default is both
115  types.
116  <li> Data Type: One of the different instruments (WBC, DFB, CPSR2,
117  FB_1BIT) can be selected. The default is all of them.
118  <li> Frequency range: Multiple frequency bands can be selected from
119  the list.
[200]120</ul></p>
[193]121
[200]122<p>The list of options on the left hand side shows the possible
[198]123parameters that can be returned with your query. Note that not all
[200]124fields will have values for all observations.</p>
[198]125
[200]126<p>The list can be ordered according to a limited range of these
[198]127parameters: distance (from the query position - the default), date of
[200]128observation, frequency, and filename.</p>
[198]129
[200]130<p>Finally, it is possible to search for calibration observations that
[198]131were taken within a given time period of the science observations. To
132do so, check the box under "DISPLAY OTHER DATA" and set the time limit
[200]133in which to search for Cals (the default is 30 minutes).</p>
[198]134
135<h3>Navigating around the archive</h3>
136
[200]137<p>The first page returned when you submit your query is the list of the
[198]138first (up to) 20 observations. Only 20 observations are displayed at a
139time. You can move through the list by clicking on the page numbers
[200]140above or below the table.</p>
[198]141
[200]142<p>Note that a limit of 1000 results is returned for the query -- if you
[198]143are getting more than this, perhaps you can afford to narrow your
[200]144search!</p>
[198]145
[200]146<p>In the top right, you will find information on the number of files and
[199]147total size of the cart, as well as a navigation icon. When the Query
148Results page is displayed, the icon shown is that of the cart.
149Alternatively, when the list of cart items is displayed, the icon
[200]150shown is that of the results table. Clicking on the icon takes you to
151the page depicted.</p>
[198]152
[200]153<center>
[201]154<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="200px"
155  cellhalign="center" frame="void">
[200]156  <tbody>
157    <tr>
158      <td align="center">
159        <img alt="Cart icon" border="0" title="Cart icon" src="/images/cart_30px_white.png"></img>
160      </td>
161     <td align="center">
162       <img alt="Table icon" border="0" title="Table icon" src="/images/table_30px_white.png"></img>
163     </td>
164   </tr>
165   <tr>
166   <td align="center">
167     Cart Icon
168   </td>
169   <td align="center">
170     Table Icon
171   </td>
172  </tr>
173 </tbody>
174</table>
175</center>
176
[198]177<h3>Viewing profiles of pulsars</h3>
178
[200]179<p>For some types of data, it is possible to view a pre-scrunched pulse
[198]180profile. To do so, select the observations using the check boxes in
181the table, and select "View selected profiles" from the drop-down
182menu. This will display profile plots for all selected observations,
183unless they are unable to be pre-scrunched (for instance, survey
[200]184observations).</p>
[198]185
[200]186<p>To return to the results table, click the table icon at top right.</p>
[198]187
188<h3>Downloading data</h3>
189
[200]190<p>Since there can be a large number of query results, spread over many
[199]191pages, we have implemented the observation cart to act as a staging
192post for downloading data. Desired data is first saved to the cart
193using the drop-down menu, by selecting its check box. From the cart
194page, the drop-down menu offers the option of downloading either just
195the data or the data plus any cals that have been found. The data is
[200]196returned in a tar file that can be saved to a local disk.</p>
[198]197
198<h3>Caveats</h3>
199
[200]200<p>The archive is still in a developmental stage, albeit a fairly
[199]201complete one. The main area that needs some work is that many fields
202for a lot of the data files are not filled in. This will be rectified
203in the near future, but be aware that not all information will be
204present. Also note that not all fields <i>can</i> be filled in for
[200]205each data file: e.g. survey data cannot have a period defined.</p>
[198]206
207<h2>Acknowledgments</h2>
208
[214]209</div>
[198]210
[193]211<?php include_once("footer.html"); ?>
[169]212</body>
213</html>
214
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