Vth School of Astroparticle Physics
23 - 28 May 2016
OHP, Saint Michel l'Observatoire

Physics of the Universe in X-rays

General introduction, catalogs, archives, event lists

Natalie WEBB
  Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP)

Course

This lecture will describe the most common data format for high enery data (FITS, the Flexible Image Transport System) and will present data reduction and analysis for high energy data. As a practical part of the session, there will be an introduction into how to use high energy archives and catalogues both online and using distributed software such as "Topcat".

This course will use the catalogue manipulation software Topcat. It can be retrieved here : http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/topcat/#install
The installation instructions are also on the same page. Topcat works on all platforms and only requires java.
Outline
  1. High energy data and FITS data files
  2. High energy data reduction steps, detection of point sources
  3. High energy data archives/catalogues
  4. Exploiting high energy archival data on line or with the software "Topcat"

Context

High energy observations of the sky have been made for over 50 years now and there is a wealth of high energy data that is freely available. Knowing how to reduce and analyse this data correctly, as well as how to manipulate the huge catalogues of high energy detections, allows the interested scientist to access more than a million sources across the sky.


 

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