• 1: SOC HOMEPAGE
• 2: MLI CORRECTION
• 3: CLOCK CORRECTION
• 4: BACKGROUND FILTERING

NuSTAR Data Analysis Software and Calibration history

CALDB release history

This list does not include releases that are only for updates to clock correction files that occur approximatly every two weeks. Click on the version number for the release notes and click HERE for a combined ASCII file of all CALDB releases.

Release date	Version	Description
2025-03-04	20250224	This release adjusts the MLI correction in the FPMA ARF for observations performed after 2018-01-01. Details on the MLI issue can be found here: https://nustarsoc.caltech.edu/NuSTAR_Public/NuSTAROperationSite/mli.php    and here https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.00569 If you have any questions or concerns about how this may affect your analysis, please contact the NuSTAR SOC at    nustar-help _at_ srl.caltech.edu This release includes an update to the list of bad pixels that should not be used for scientific analysis.
2024-03-26	20240325	This release resolves the issues of incorrect calibration files in the 20240229 and 20240311 versions of the NuSTAR CALDB. We recommend downloading this CALDB, which also includes the intended CALDB updates for the 20240229 release. If you have any questions or concerns about how this may affect your analysis, please contact the NuSTAR SOC at nustar-help@srl.caltech.edu This release includes a new release of the CLOCKFILE, v179
2024-03-21	20240311a	This release was done to re-release valid versions of the following files into the NuSTAR CALDB: $CALDB/data/nustar/fpm/bcf/detabs/nuAdetabs20100101v004.fits $CALDB/data/nustar/fpm/bcf/detabs/nuBdetabs20100101v004.fits $CALDB/data/nustar/fpm/bcf/vign/nuBvign20100101v008.fits $CALDB/data/nustar/fpm/bcf/vign/nuAvign20100101v008.fits $CALDB/data/nustar/fpm/cpf/rmf/nuAcutdet1_20100101v003.rmf $CALDB/data/nustar/fpm/cpf/rmf/nuBcutdet0_20100101v003.rmf $CALDB/data/nustar/fpm/cpf/rmf/nuAcutdet0_20100101v003.rmf $CALDB/data/nustar/fpm/cpf/rmf/nuBcutdet1_20100101v003.rmf $CALDB/data/nustar/fpm/cpf/rmf/nuAcutdet3_20100101v003.rmf $CALDB/data/nustar/fpm/cpf/rmf/nuBcutdet2_20100101v003.rmf $CALDB/data/nustar/fpm/cpf/rmf/nuAcutgrprmf20100101v003.fits $CALDB/data/nustar/fpm/cpf/rmf/nuAcutdet2_20100101v003.rmf $CALDB/data/nustar/fpm/cpf/rmf/nuBcutdet3_20100101v003.rmf Invalid versions of these files were released on Feb 29, 2024 and were present in the NuSTAR CALDB through March 21, 2024. Released at the HEASARC: 2024-03-20
2024-02-29	20240229	DO NOT USE THIS CALDB RELEASE - Invalid versions of some calibration files were released in this version (20240229). Use CALDB release version 20240311a and later for the most up-to-date versions of NuSTAR calibration files. However, the following notes about the updated calibration are correct. This release adjusts the long-term gain calibration for FPMA DET0. This release is only for FPMA and only affects the gain calibration for that detector. This change corrects a small 0.2% drop in the line energy calibration from 2020 to 2022 on FPMA DET0. Details of the analysis can be found in the calibration memo:    https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/caldb/nustar/docs/fpm/index.html While the most up-to-date version of this analysis is found on the arXiv here:    https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.04058 ARF: Removing the FPMA Effective Area Temperature Dependence This patch prevents the incorrect use of the temperature-dependent ARF correction introduced in the NuSTAR CALDB 20200813 and NuSTARDAS v2.0.0. After December 2022, the thermistor used to select the temperature-dependent MLI correction is no longer operating correctly. This can result in an incorrect effective area produced by nuproducts if the  mlicorr=yes  keyword is set. The impact is a small (few %) apparent 'tail' in NuSTAR spectra when comparing results from FPMA and FPMB The updated CALDB removes the ability to perform a temperature-dependence correction so that  mlicorr=yes  and  mlicorr=no  should result in identical output ARF files. There is no update to NuSTARDAS required to utilize CALDB v20240229. This update includes Clock Correction file v177.
2022-05-10	20220510	This update adjusts the long-term gain calibration for FPMA DET2. This release is only for FPMA and only affects the gain calibration for DET2. This changes corrects a total 2% drop in the line energy calibration from 2015 to 2022 on this detector. Details of the analysis can be found in the calibration memo (CAL_NuSTAR_20220510.pdf) available on the NuSTAR calibration webpage at the HEASARC:    https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/caldb/nustar/docs/fpm/index.html There is no update to NuSTARDAS required to utilize CALDB v20220510. This update includes Clock Correction file v139.
2021-10-26	20211020	This CALDB release contains a major update in the calibration of the NuSTAR observatory based on detailed analysis of more than nine years of observations of the Crab, utilizing both focused and stray light measurements. Details of the analysis are presented in Madsen et al. (2021) JATIS, in prep. (arXiv), which is also available via the HEASARC CALDB documentation page. A detailed summary of this update is also available on the CALDB 20211020 SOC webpage. The overall changes between the previous (CALDB v20211004 and earlier) and this new calibration are primarily off-axis dependent. Users of the updated calibration may see the following changes compared to previous analysis: • A flux increase of ~5% for sources < 1' off-axis      □ A flux increase of ~10% for sources 1' to 2' off-axis      □ A flux increase of ~15% for sources > 4' off-axis • Slopes of power law model components may change by ~0.04 depending on off-axis angle • More accurate high-energy and high off-axis angle corrections • A better agreement in the FPMA and FPMB flux measurements We expect that for most NuSTAR observations this calibration update will have little or no practical change in interpretation results, especially for analysis of low signal-to-noise spectra. This CALDB release also contains an update to the tracking of the NuSTAR detector gain. Details are available in the calibration memo Grefenstette et al. (2021). There is no update to NuSTARDAS required to utilize CALDB v20211020.
2021-02-23	20210210	This CALDB release contains an update to NuSTAR alignment calibration to improve observatory astrometry bringing the source positions on both Focal Plane Modules into better agreement with one another and closer to the J2000 source coordinates. The update is in the CALDB only (no NuSTARDAS update required) and affects the source position of events only and not the energy of events. This alignment update primarily improves observations taken after August 2017, but also adds some improvements across the entire mission lifetime. Before 2017, the astrometric improvement is on the order of a pixel (~2.5 arcsec). From 2017 onwards, the adjustment of the source coordinates steadily increases from one pixel in 2017 up to a possible 4-5 pixels (8 - 10 arcsec) in late 2020. This release also contains an update to the NuSTAR Clock Correction file (v116) as well as a file describing the attenuation due to the beryllium (Be) window covering the detectors. This file is useful for some users performing analysis of stray light (either stray light due to the cosmic X-ray background or stray light due to off-axis, bright X-ray sources) but is not directly used by NuSTARDAS.
2020-11-03	20201101	This CALDB release contains an update to the NuSTAR Clock Correction file that corrects for previous gaps in NuSTAR instrument engineering files. Affected sequenceID's have been reprocessed and redelivered to the NuSTAR archive. A list of these sequenceID's can be found on the DLOG update webpage. The clock correction file in this release (v111) was produced based on the updated engineering files and is expected to provide improved performance than the previous clock file, especially for observations that occurred during the previous gaps.
2020-08-13	20200813	This CALDB update contains required files for the NuSTARDAS v2.0.0 update which implements a new temperature-dependence during the ARF generation. v108 (and later) Clock correction files contain an improvement of the clock offset model that corrects for a ~5ms systematic shift in absolute alignment to UTC time. Corrects for time intervals with no temperature measurements.
2020-05-06	20200429	High resolution clock correction files implemented MLI correction of ARF for FPMA
2019-12-19	20191219	Patch for release 20191213 which updated the gain and badpixel files
2019-12-13	20191213	Update for long term gain tracking and badpixel files
2017-08-21	20170727	CALDB files used for SAA filtering saamode=3
2016-06-06	20160606	Update gain, effective area, line of sight absorption gain v007, DETABS v003, VIGN v007
2016-05-02	20160502	Defines how CHU combinations are split with nusplitsc   requires NuSTARDAS v1.6.0 or later SAAPAR update
2015-03-20	20150316	Gain calibration improvement over the entire mission
2014-07-01	20140414	Adjusted CLC files to improve gain calibration
2014-01-17	20131223	VIGN adjustment (69.5 keV W edge)
2013-11-25	20131007	ARF adjustment to match XMM/Swift/Chandra fluxes (NuSTAR flux -15%) Updates to INSTRMAP, PIXPOS, energy dependent PSF Updated hkrange files
2013-08-14	20130509	Initial CALDB release




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