ACIS Observations taken at -110 C

Calibration | Reprocessing the Data | Imaging spectroscopy: creating RMFs

The ACIS focal plane temperature was lowered from -110 C (163 K) to -120 C (153 K) on 2000 January 29. While the CIAO threads are applicable to both temperatures, this document highlights details particular to analyzing data taken at -110 C.

The focal plane temperature and observation date are recorded in the header of the event file:

unix% dmkeypar acis_evt1.fits FP_TEMP echo+
163.952042

unix% dmkeypar acis_evt1.fits DATE-OBS echo+
1999-12-31T03:22:39

Calibration

There are gain files for -110 C observations, which are used to compute the PHA, ENERGY and PI values reported for the events. However:

there is no CTI Correction available
there is TGAIN calibration data for the ACIS-S1 (ccd_id=5) and S3 (ccd_id=7) back-illuminated chips only

Reprocessing the Data

The TGAIN calibration files for -110 C were released for the first time in CALDB 3.4.3 (31 March 2008).

The detector name and CALDB version used in standard data processing are recorded in the header of the event file:

unix% dmkeypar acis_evt1.fits DETNAM echo+
ACIS-456789

unix% dmkeypar acis_evt1.fits CALDBVER echo+
1.6

Since this is an older observation which uses both the S1 and S3 chips, it should be reprocessed to apply the TGAIN correction. The Create a New Level=2 Event File thread show how to run the tool acis_process_events to apply the new calibration.

The tool will print a warning because the CTI calibration data does not exist for -110 C data:

unix% acis_process_events
Input event file or stack (acis_evt1.fits):
Output event file name (acis_new_evt1.fits):
aspect offset file ( NONE | none | <filename>) (pcad_asol1.fits):

# acis_process_events (CIAO 4.1): WARNING: problem reading ctifile,
cti adjustment will not be applied. Changing apply_cti=yes to apply_cti=no.

This is only a warning; the tool still produces a usable level=1 event file. Complete the rest of the thread to create a new level=2 event file.

Imaging spectroscopy: creating RMFs

Users have to choose which RMF tool to use based on which chip(s) are used in the analysis. Using the wrong tool will result in mismatched calibration and unreliable results.

Back-illuminated chips S1 and S3, with the TGAIN correction: use mkacisrmf.
Back-illuminated chips S1 and S3, without the TGAIN correction: use mkrmf.
Front-illuminated chips (I0-3, S0, S2, S4-5): always use mkrmf

Using specextract or psextract

The two spectral extraction scripts, specextract and psextract, will both use the tool mkrmf to create the RMF files for -110 C data. In this case, run the script to create the spectrum and ARF files, then run mkacisrmf independently to create a new RMF.

Running mkacisrmf

When running mkacisrmf on -110 C data, the infile parameter must be set to the version N0005 P2_RESP file:

unix% pset mkacisrmf \
      infile=$CALDB/data/chandra/acis/p2_resp/acisD2000-01-29p2_respN0005.fits

For more information, refer to the ACIS -110 C Data section of the Creating ACIS RMFs with mkacisrmf thread.