Bugs: acisspec

acisspec is not a CIAO tool; it is a script which is available for download from the Scripts page.

Users are encouraged to use specextract in place of acisspec for new analyses, noting that specextract does not yet offer the option to coadd spectra as acisspec does; refer to the specextract thread for more information.

Caveats

1. Script failed to create weighted RMF (.wrmf) files

2. The script will fail if it is run on any of the ACIS "blank-sky" datasets obtained directly from Maxim's page.

3. exclude filters cannot be used with the source file parameters

Bugs

1. The script exits with misleading error if it cannot find one of the input files.

Caveats

1. Script failed to create weighted RMF (.wrmf) files

   If the script ends without producing any .wrmf files, it is possible that the mkrmf step was not completed. Check for an error log named .psp.mlog which may contain information on why the tool failed.

2. The script will fail if it is run on any of the ACIS "blank-sky" datasets obtained directly from Maxim's page.

   The script will fail if it is run on any of the ACIS "blank-sky" datasets obtained directly from Maxim's page. This is due to the fact that they do not have completely valid header information, in particular that TSTART = 0. quizcaldb doesn't understand this incorrect value, causing it (and therefore acisspec) to quit.

   Workaround:

   Add a sensible TSTART value to the header with dmhedit. Try setting TSTART to match that of the observation and TSTOP = TSTART + EXPOSURE (of the background file), rounded up to the nearest second. The rounding is just to make sure that TSTOP-TSTART >= EXPOSURE; it could be rounded to the highest 100 or 1000 seconds.

   The "blank-sky" files that have been incorporated into the CALDB have had the headers corrected, but it is worthwhile to check that the TSTART value has been altered properly.

3. exclude filters cannot be used with the source file parameters

   When the script appends an energy filter and binning specification to make the WMAP, it violates the DM rule that exclude and other filters can't be mixed. It exits with an error message:

   Failed to open virtual file 
   events.fits[exclude sky=region(zero.reg)][energy=300:2000][bin det=8]
   Parse error: cannot mix EXCLUDE and FILTER
    
   Error when running
     dmcopy "events.fits[exclude sky=region(zero.reg)][energy=300:2000][bin det=8]" 
     outfile="exclude_sou1.wmap_tmp" clobber=no
   

   Workaround:

   Use the exclude statement with dmcopy to create a new event file before running acisspec.

Bugs

1. The script exits with misleading error if it cannot find one of the input files.

   A typo in a filename may lead to a message like:

   Error. The primary source file is a spectrum, but no associated WMAP
   has been provided. If the WMAP is stored in the WMAP extension of the
   spectrum, please input it as a virtual file in the souwmap1 paramater.
   

   when the input file is an event list not a spectrum.

   If acisspec prints an error message that does not make sense, check your input parameters for typos in the data and region filenames.