HESSI Data Analysis Software

Contents

• User's Guides
• Software Reference Manuals
• Imaging Documentation
• Spectroscopy Documentation
• Object Documentation
• Developers' Pages
• Software Installation Instructions

Look also at the data analysis software pages on the GSFC HESSI site for additional information on software.

User's Guides

• The Overview of the HESSI Command Line Interface describes how to use the HESSI software at the level of the IDL command line user interface. (Chris Johns-Krull)
• The HESSI Data Analysis Graphical User Interface Overview describes how to use the HESSI IDL GUI. (Kim Tolbert)
• The Test Data Access Guide describes how to access the HESSI simulated data files. (Kim Tolbert)
• The HESSI Analysis Guide describes how to analyse HESSI data (User Guide) and discusses the instrument (Instrument Guide). (Bob Bentley)
• HESSI Data Analysis Software Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) (Kim Tolbert)

Software Reference Manuals

• The State of Health Documentation describes the objects and commands to use spacecraft state of health information. (David Ardila)
• The File Database Documentation describes the filedb structure and commands to query the HESSI file database. (Jim McTiernan)
• The Flare List Documentation describes the contents of the HESSI flare list, and how to access it. (Jim McTiernan)
• The Observing Summary Documentation describes the contents of the HESSI Observing Summary, and how to access it. (Jim McTiernan)
• The HSI_SIM_Flare Documentation, describes the procedure to simulate a HESSI flare, and write the data into a FITS file. (Jim McTiernan)
• The HESSI Objects Quick Reference describes how to use HESSI object classes, and access any HESSI data types. (André Csillaghy)
• The HESSI Objects Reference Manual describes all the details of the HESSI objects.(André Csillaghy)

Imaging Documentation

• Back Projection
• Clean (Säm Krucker)
• Forward Fit, Pixelized (Markus Aschwanden)
• Forward Fit, Unpixelized (Ed Schmahl)
• Maximum Entropy (Jun Sato)
• Maximum Entropy with Visibilities(Andrew Conway
• Pixon (Tom Metcalf)

Spectroscopy Documentation

• The HESSI Spectrometer (David Smith)

Objects Documentation

• The Object-Oriented Data Analysis Software Concepts explains how HESSI objects are build and how to build your own objects using a framework.

Developers' Pages

• Markus Aschwanden
• Andrew Conway
• André Csillaghy
• Chris Johns-Krull
• Jim McTiernan
• Tom Metcalf
• Ed Schmahl
• Richard Schwartz

Software Installation Instructions

The HESSI software requires IDL Version 5.3 or higher.

The HESSI IDL software exists as part of the Solar SoftWare (SSW) package. Access to the following SSW directories is required to run the HESSI software:

• hessi
• gen
• packages/xray
• packages/spex

The HESSI SSW directory contains both the current version of software under development and the most recent release of software. You can choose which environment to run under by setting your path appropriately (described separately for UNIX and Windows below).

On UNIX platforms, and now Windows platforms as well, scripts can be run for easy installation as well as automatic mirroring on a regular basis.

However, scripts to set up the IDL environment (environment variables to define the IDL path, data directories, and more) are available only for UNIX.  In UNIX,  shell scripts are used to define these environment variables before entering IDL.  In Windows, environment variables must be set up manually by adding commands to the IDL startup file.  Scripts for automating the setup to work more like the UNIX setup are being developed.

Note: The HESSI data analysis software is experimental. It is important that you report any software bug you may find.

UNIX installation

1. Install IDL Version 5.3 or higher.
2. Install the SSW tree on your machine. Follow the ssw installation instructions. In the installation form, be sure to select the following instruments:
• Instruments - HESSI
• Packages - BINARIES, SPEX, XRAY
Also follow the instructions for either automatic or manual SSW upgrades.
3. Your .login file should define the SSW (top SSW directory) and SSW_INSTR (a list of instruments whose software should be included in the path) environment variables and run the default setup script. For example the following lines might be in your .login file:

setenv SSW /service/soho-archive/home/solarsoft
setenv SSW_INSTR 'hessi xray spex'
source $SSW/gen/setup/setup.ssw

4. Select HESSI software version. The default version is the latest Release. To select the current development version instead, copy the file $SSW/hessi/setup/setup.hessi_env to your $HOME directory and edit it to look like:

#!/bin/csh -f
#set the top level for the SSW hessi directory
setenv SSW_HESSI $SSW/hessi
setenv SSWDB_HESSI $SSW_HESSI/dbase


5. Start IDL using the command sswidl.
6. Now you should be able to use the HESSI software. Try it by typing hessi_image, which will run a demo.

Note: If the SSW tree NFS-mounted, skip step 2 above.

Windows installation

Procedures to automate the installation and maintenance of SSW on Windows have been developed recently.  Setup scripts equivalent to the UNIX setup.ssw are currently in progress.

1. Install IDL Version 5.3 or higher.
2. Follow these instructions  to install the SSW tree on your machine and set up your IDL startup file.

Note: If the SSW directories are NFS-mounted from a Unix server, you only need to follow the steps pertaining to the idl_startup_windows.pro file.