******************************************************************************** RELEASE NOTES FOR HEASOFT 6.15.1 January 28, 2014 ******************************************************************************** The HEASoft 6.15.1 release is driven by updates to the NuSTAR and Swift/XRT data analysis software. ******************************************************************************** HEAGEN ******************************************************************************** - barycorr: Updated keywords were {RA,DEC}_NOM, now changed to {RA,DEC}_OBJ to avoid interference with operation of Swift and NuSTAR software; no known impact to RXTE or Chandra; add new keywords TREFPOS & TREFDIR which adhere to new Rots et al. draft standard for timing keywords. ******************************************************************************** NUSTAR ******************************************************************************** NuSTARDAS version 1.3.1: Major changes introduced in this version: - nuexpomap: addition of the keyword 'PIXBIN' and 'PERCENT' to the header of the output sky exposure maps. - nulccorr: update of the value of the 'DEADAPP' keyword to 'True' in the output light-curve - nupipeline: 1) addition of the new input parameters 'barycorr', 'clockfile', 'srcra_barycorr' and 'srcdec_barycorr'; 2) modified the call to the module 'nuproducts' to enable the barycenter correction - nuproducts: 1) addition of the new input parameter 'barycorr' to optionally apply the barycenter correction to output files with internal runs of the multi-mission FTOOL 'barycorr'; 2) addition of the energy filtering of the output sky images through the input parameters 'pilow' and 'pihigh'. Summary of changes: * nupipeline/nuproducts: Allows the pipeline to produce barycenter corrected event files and lightcurves via a new keyword passed to the "nuproducts" script. The user may set the RA/DEC of the object using the 'srcra_barycorr' and 'srcdec_barycorr' keywords to nupipeline and/or nuproducts. Output sky images are now filtered using the "pilow" and "pihigh" keywords. Previously only the lightcurve was filtered and the images produced by nupipeline/nuproducts were always "full band" images and the user was required to use to XSELECT or "extractor" to produced energy-band images. This has been changed for simplicity. * nulccorr: Some lightcurve analysis suites (e.g. lcurve) read the "DEADAPP" keyword to determine whether or not the deadtime correction has been applied. Previously, the "DEADAPP" keyword had not been set, which could result in livetime corrections being applied twice (once in the bin-by-bin by nulccorr and then the average livetime correction across the lightcurve by lcurve or other XRONOS FTOOLs). DEADAPP is now correctly set if nulccorr has been called on a lightcurve and livetime corrections have been applied. * nuexpomap: The "PIXBIN and "PERCENT" option keywords have been added to the header of the exposure maps to improve self-documentation. ******************************************************************************** SWIFT ******************************************************************************** XRTDAS_v292: Major Changes to tasks: * xrttam - Added check of the 'ATTFLAG' keyword of the input attitude file. * xrtfilter - Added check of the 'ATTFLAG' keyword of the input attitude file. * xrttdrss2 - Added check of the 'ATTFLAG' keyword of the input attitude file. * xrtpccorr - Added check of the 'ATTFLAG' keyword of the input attitude file. * xrthkproc - Added check of the 'ATTFLAG' keyword of the input attitude file. * xrtlccorr - Added check of the 'ATTFLAG' keyword of the input attitude file. * xrtexpomap - Added check of the 'ATTFLAG' keyword of the input attitude file. * xrttimetag - Added check of the 'ATTFLAG' keyword of the input attitude file. * xrtpipeline - Added check of the 'ATTFLAG' keyword of the input attitude file. - Use of the "pat" attitude file by default for data in SETTLING mode.