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| 13 | <meta name="DC.Description" lang="en" content="Provides a user's guide to the Pulsar Data Archive." /> |
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| 19 | <title>ATNF Pulsar Data Archive: Users Guide</title> |
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| 21 | <?php include_once("header.html"); ?> |
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| 23 | <table class="top_menu" border="0px" frame="void"> |
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| 26 | <a href="index.php">Return to Query page</a> |
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| 28 | </tr> |
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| 29 | </table> |
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| 30 | |
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| 31 | <h1>ATNF Pulsar Data Archive: Users Guide</h1> |
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| 32 | |
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| 33 | <center><i>This page is still under construction!</i></center> |
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| 34 | |
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| 35 | <h2>Introduction</h2> |
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| 36 | |
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| 37 | <p>The ATNF Pulsar Data Archive exists to allow astronomers access to |
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| 38 | observations of pulsars made with the Parkes radio telescope in the |
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| 39 | last two decades.</p> |
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| 40 | |
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| 41 | <p>The data comes either from the Parkes Southern Pulsar Survey (the |
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| 42 | "70cm Survey", Manchester et al. 1996, MN 279, 1235), or from |
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| 43 | observations of known pulsars with one of the Parkes instruments (WBC, |
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| 44 | DFB, CPSR2). We hope to make available data from the Multibeam Survey |
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| 45 | at some point in the near future.</p> |
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| 46 | |
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| 47 | <h2>Using the archive</h2> |
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| 48 | |
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| 49 | <h3>Overview</h3> |
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| 50 | |
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| 51 | <p>The Pulsar Data Archive provides a means for accessing observational |
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| 52 | data. Queries are made according to position on the sky and can be |
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| 53 | filtered by parameters such as data type and date.</p> |
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| 54 | |
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| 55 | <p>To download data, selections are made from the query results. These |
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| 56 | are stored in a "cart" from which they can be downloaded as a tar |
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| 57 | file. </p> |
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| 58 | |
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| 59 | <h3>How to make queries</h3> |
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| 60 | |
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| 61 | <p>The data is queried primarily on positional information. The user |
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| 62 | gives either a pulsar name or a RA/Dec position, plus a search |
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| 63 | radius. The pulsar name takes precedence over the RA/Dec position |
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| 64 | given, so to search by RA/Dec, make sure the pulsar name field is |
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| 65 | empty.</p> |
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| 66 | |
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| 67 | <p>The search-by-name searches for files that either have the given |
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| 68 | pulsar name in their "src_name" field, or have an RA/Dec position |
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| 69 | within the given search radius of the pulsar. The pulsar's position is |
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| 70 | taken from the <a |
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| 71 | href="http://www.atnf.csiro.au/research/pulsar/psrcat/">ATNF Pulsar |
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| 72 | Catalogue</a>.</p> |
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| 73 | |
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| 74 | <p><b>Important:</b> When doing the position search, the beam size of |
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| 75 | the telescope is taken into account. For a given observation, there is |
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| 76 | a primary beam size, and if the primary beam intersects the search |
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| 77 | circle (i.e. the circle on the sky centred at the query position with |
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| 78 | radius equal to the search radius), then the observation is |
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| 79 | accepted.</p> |
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| 80 | |
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| 81 | <h3>Query options</h3> |
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| 82 | |
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| 83 | <p>The query can be refined according to a number of parameters: |
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| 84 | <ul> |
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| 85 | <li> Time: A time range for the observations can be specified. The |
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| 86 | default values for this are given by the extent of the archive |
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| 87 | (ie. the default "from" date is the earliest observation, and the |
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| 88 | default "to" date is the latest). |
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| 89 | <li> Obs Mode: The query can be restricted to only survey data (just |
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| 90 | the 70cm survey for the moment), or only timing data |
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| 91 | (ie. observations of a particular pulsar). The default is both |
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| 92 | types. |
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| 93 | <li> Data Type: One of the different instruments (WBC, DFB, CPSR2, |
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| 94 | FB_1BIT) can be selected. The default is all of them. |
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| 95 | <li> Frequency range: Multiple frequency bands can be selected from |
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| 96 | the list. |
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| 97 | </ul></p> |
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| 98 | |
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| 99 | <p>The list of options on the left hand side shows the possible |
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| 100 | parameters that can be returned with your query. Note that not all |
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| 101 | fields will have values for all observations.</p> |
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| 102 | |
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| 103 | <p>The list can be ordered according to a limited range of these |
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| 104 | parameters: distance (from the query position - the default), date of |
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| 105 | observation, frequency, and filename.</p> |
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| 106 | |
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| 107 | <p>Finally, it is possible to search for calibration observations that |
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| 108 | were taken within a given time period of the science observations. To |
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| 109 | do so, check the box under "DISPLAY OTHER DATA" and set the time limit |
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| 110 | in which to search for Cals (the default is 30 minutes).</p> |
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| 111 | |
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| 112 | <h3>Navigating around the archive</h3> |
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| 113 | |
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| 114 | <p>The first page returned when you submit your query is the list of the |
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| 115 | first (up to) 20 observations. Only 20 observations are displayed at a |
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| 116 | time. You can move through the list by clicking on the page numbers |
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| 117 | above or below the table.</p> |
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| 118 | |
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| 119 | <p>Note that a limit of 1000 results is returned for the query -- if you |
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| 120 | are getting more than this, perhaps you can afford to narrow your |
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| 121 | search!</p> |
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| 122 | |
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| 123 | <p>In the top right, you will find information on the number of files and |
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| 124 | total size of the cart, as well as a navigation icon. When the Query |
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| 125 | Results page is displayed, the icon shown is that of the cart. |
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| 126 | Alternatively, when the list of cart items is displayed, the icon |
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| 127 | shown is that of the results table. Clicking on the icon takes you to |
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| 128 | the page depicted.</p> |
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| 129 | |
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| 130 | <center> |
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| 131 | <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="200px" |
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| 150 | </tbody> |
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| 151 | </table> |
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| 152 | </center> |
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| 153 | |
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| 154 | <h3>Viewing profiles of pulsars</h3> |
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| 155 | |
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| 156 | <p>For some types of data, it is possible to view a pre-scrunched pulse |
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| 157 | profile. To do so, select the observations using the check boxes in |
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| 158 | the table, and select "View selected profiles" from the drop-down |
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| 159 | menu. This will display profile plots for all selected observations, |
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| 160 | unless they are unable to be pre-scrunched (for instance, survey |
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| 161 | observations).</p> |
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| 162 | |
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| 163 | <p>To return to the results table, click the table icon at top right.</p> |
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| 164 | |
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| 165 | <h3>Downloading data</h3> |
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| 166 | |
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| 167 | <p>Since there can be a large number of query results, spread over many |
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| 168 | pages, we have implemented the observation cart to act as a staging |
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| 169 | post for downloading data. Desired data is first saved to the cart |
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| 170 | using the drop-down menu, by selecting its check box. From the cart |
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| 171 | page, the drop-down menu offers the option of downloading either just |
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| 172 | the data or the data plus any cals that have been found. The data is |
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| 173 | returned in a tar file that can be saved to a local disk.</p> |
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| 174 | |
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| 175 | <h3>Caveats</h3> |
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| 176 | |
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| 177 | <p>The archive is still in a developmental stage, albeit a fairly |
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| 178 | complete one. The main area that needs some work is that many fields |
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| 179 | for a lot of the data files are not filled in. This will be rectified |
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| 180 | in the near future, but be aware that not all information will be |
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| 181 | present. Also note that not all fields <i>can</i> be filled in for |
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| 182 | each data file: e.g. survey data cannot have a period defined.</p> |
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| 183 | |
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| 184 | <h2>Acknowledgments</h2> |
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| 185 | |
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| 186 | |
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| 187 | |
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