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