The flag column for both the minbar and minbar-obs tables is intended to indicate various analysis conditions. Multiple conditions can be present for the same entry, and so this many-to-many relationship is encoded by setting the relevant bit of the flag value. For example, a burst with flag=10 can be decoded as
10 = 23+21
i.e. flag condition "3" (data gaps) and "1" (offset pointing) apply to this event. I also list below the letter which corresponds to the label provided in the RXTE/MIT burst catalog.
minbar flag values
| bit | flag | label | description |
|---|
| | 0 | | No significant analysis issues |
| 0 | 1 | a | The burst was observed during a slew, and thus offset from the source position.; flux and fluence have been scaled by $ 1/(1-\Delta\theta) $ RXTE |
| 1 | 2 | b | The observation was offset from the source position; flux and fluence have been adjusted via setting the source position for response matrix generation RXTE |
| 2 | 4 | c | The origin of the burst is uncertain; the burst may have been from another source in the field of view. If the origin is not the centre of the FOV, the flux and fluence have been adjusted by calculating the response for the assumed source position RXTE |
| 3 | 8 | d | Buffer overruns (or some other instrumental effect) caused gaps in the high time resolution data |
| 4 | 16 | e | The burst was so faint that only the peak flux could be measured, and not the fluence or other parameters; or, alternatively, that the burst was cut off by the end of the observation, so that the fluence is an underestimate |
| 5 | 32 | f | An extremely faint burst or possibly problems with the background subtraction, resulting in no fit results. |
| 6 | 64 | g | The full burst profile was not observed, so that the event can be considered an unconfirmed burst candidate. Typically in these cases the initial burst rise is missed, so that the measured peak flux and fluence are lower limits only |
| 7 | 128 | | Number of PCUs on changed during the burst; likely no analysis results RXTE; no events |
| 8 | 256 | h | High-time resolution modes don't cover burst, preventing any time-resolved spectroscopic results |
minbar-obs flag values
The following flags were not used in the RXTE catalog, as the observation database was not part of that release.
The flags below are adapted from the categories identified for the RXTE version, but modified to incorporate new attributes and/or additions to the workflow. For example the flag=1 cases in the RXTE database (indicating offset pointing) can now be identified via the angle attribute.
| bit | flag | RXTE flag | label | description |
|---|
| | -1 | | | Invalid observation, not for science use; retained for archival purposes only |
| | 0 | 0 | - | No significant analysis issues |
| 0 | 1 | 16 | a | Multiple sources active in the field, but sources other than the named source contribute negligible flux RXTE |
| 1 | 2 | 16 | b | Multiple sources active in the field and sources other than the named origin contribute non-negligible flux RXTE |
| 2 | 4 | 16 | c | Multiple sources active in the field and no information is available about the relative intensities RXTE |
| 3 | 8 | 32 | d | Could not constrain persistent flux in the spectral fit; flux value is 3-sigma upper limit (replaced "No active sources detected in the field", but these are not included in MINBAR) |
| 4 | 16 | 64 | e | Standard filtering left no good times RXTE |
| 5 | 32 | 128 | f | No Standard-2 data RXTE, or no spectrum available JEM-X |
| 6 | 64 | 256 | | Data processing failed RXTE |
| 7 | 128 | | g | No FITS data available in archive; possibly a re-assigned obsid, or observation |
back to the MINBAR-bursts page
