PSRCORR

PSRCORR receives data from PKCCC1, and displays, processes and archives them. It MUST be run on the linux machine PEGASUS.

Log in (username from staff. N.B.: PEGASUS is not part of the unix system and has a different password. See a `pulsar person'.) Open an X-window and start PSRCORR:

$psrcorr ProjID

For real-time monitoring, select Online from the Mode menu.

Ensure the last processed file is set correctly. Insert an archive DLT in the drive /dev/nst0. On the Main Panel, click on Archive which brings up a control window. Click on Setup and select WBA and old tape or new tape as appropriate. Use resume for an old tape is in position at the end of the last file. The archive system automatically allocates the next tape number in the selected series for a new tape. Click on Activate. If the tape is not in position, an error message will appear, but the tape will spool to the correct position. Then click Activate again and the Archive window should disappear. The Archive setup window also allows you to view the tape log for the selected tape and to manually control the tape position. The tape log lives in /home/pulsar/runtime/psrcorr/db/tape.dat on PEGASUS.

When ready, check that the Previous Online File is in fact the latest one on the data disk (/nfs/PKCCC1_1) by clicking on the change button. If OK, hit Cancel; if not select the correct file and hit OK. Then select Aquire Start. PSRCORR will then wait for the next data file to appear in /DATA/PKCCC1_1/corr. The dispays are refreshed after each subint.

For offline operation, select Offline from the Mode menu.

This brings up an Offline Options window. Select the required file and a suitable Display interval (normally 10-20 sec). Then select Acquire Start to begin processing. Pulsar profiles may be displayed in raw, dedispersed or processed form. Dedispersion is done according to the DM in the file header, obtained from psrcat. Mean digitiser statistics for each cycle and the integrated bandpass for A and B channels are also displayed each subintegration.

PSRCORR also computes a processed file which is scrunched according to the parameters WBNCHN, WBTSUB and WBNBIN from psrcat. As for the TCS PSRCAT, psrcat uses the public database file psrcat.db and any database files linked to /psr1/runtime/psrcat/obs.db. If these parameters are not set, then default values of 16, 60 and the observed value are used for the number of sub-bands, the length of a subint in seconds and the number of bins in the processed file.

At the end of each observation the raw data files are written to the archive tape and the file details recorded in the tape log which is located in /psr1/runtime/psrcorr/db/tape.log .

Files which are not automatically archived can be archived later using the off-line program PSRMARC. First quit from PSRCORR. Then run PSRMARC from a PEGASUS window, bringing up a glish interface. This allows you to select an archive tape and the file(s) to be archived (from PKCCC1_1) and to write these files to the tape. Details are logged as usual in the tape log. Processed files are placed in /export/raid5/wbcorr/datapool and /export/raid5/wbcorr/calpool according to the observation mode. These directories have environment variables WBDATA and WBCALS respectively.