ATNF Pulsar Data Archive: Users Guide

This page is still under construction!

Introduction

The ATNF Pulsar Data Archive exists to allow astronomers access to observations of pulsars made with the Parkes radio telescope in the last two decades. The data comes either from the Parkes Southern Pulsar Survey (the "70cm Survey", Manchester et al. 1996, MN 279, 1235), or from observations of known pulsars with one of the Parkes instruments (WBC, DFB, CPSR2). We hope to make available data from the Multibeam Survey at some point in the near future.

Using the archive

How to make queries

The data is queried primarily on positional information. The user gives either a pulsar name or a RA/Dec position, plus a search radius. The pulsar name takes precedence over the RA/Dec position given, so to search by RA/Dec, make sure the pulsar name field is empty.

Query options

The query can be refined according to a number of parameters:

Time: A time range for the observations can be specified. The default values for this are given by the extent of the archive (ie. the default "from" date is the earliest observation, and the default "to" date is the latest).
Obs Mode: The query can be restricted to only survey data (just the 70cm survey for the moment), or only timing data (ie. observations of a particular pulsar). The default is both types.
Data Type: One of the different instruments (WBC, DFB, CPSR2, FB_1BIT) can be selected. The default is all of them.
Frequency range: Multiple frequency bands can be selected from the list.

The list of options on the left hand side shows the possible parameters that can be returned with your query. Note that not all fields will have values for all observations. The list can be ordered according to a limited range of these parameters: distance (from the query position - the default), date of observation, frequency, and filename. Finally, it is possible to search for calibration observations that were taken within a given time period of the science observations. To do so, check the box under "DISPLAY OTHER DATA" and set the time limit in which to search for Cals (the default is 30 minutes).

Navigating around the archive

The first page returned when you submit your query is the list of the first (up to) 20 observations. Only 20 observations are displayed at a time. You can move through the list by clicking on the page numbers above or below the table. Note that a limit of 1000 results is returned for the query -- if you are getting more than this, perhaps you can afford to narrow your search! In the top right

Viewing profiles of pulsars

For some types of data, it is possible to view a pre-scrunched pulse profile. To do so, select the observations using the check boxes in the table, and select "View selected profiles" from the drop-down menu. This will display profile plots for all selected observations, unless they are unable to be pre-scrunched (for instance, survey observations). To return to the results table, click the table icon at top right.