BATSE SOLAR FLARE CATALOG Kim Tolbert May 29, 1991 Revised February 10, 1992 Revised July 22, 1992 Revised September 24, 1992 The BATSE Solar Flare Catalog contains parameters characterizing the solar flares observed by the BATSE Large Area Discriminators (DISCLA). For every flare, the catalog contains start time, duration, peak rate and time, total counts, and burst trigger time (if any), and may be expanded in the future to include additional parameters. On a daily basis, a data technician scans the quicklook orbital plots for count rate increases due to solar flares. She examines potential flares by studying the time profile, the correlation between intensity and angle from the sun, and the correlation with events observed by the GOES satellite. If she determines the event to be solar in origin, she enters the flare parameters in the catalog. On day n, the catalog is usually complete through day n-3. The catalog itself is a binary file and must be accessed through the BATSE software, but ASCII files containing the events for each calendar day are also available called YYMMDD.EVENTS (e.g. BATSE$DATA:920203.EVENTS). These files can be accessed through TYPE or COPY (DECnet users) or ftp (Internet users). The syntax is described in the general help file. Select option 2 from the main BATSE menu to enter the Flare List Program which allows you to search the Catalog for flares that meet specified criteria and list the flare parameters. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using the Flare List Program: On entering the program, the user is presented with a menu displaying the current settings of parameters and the available commands. The user either accepts the default value of a parameter, or changes the value by typing the first 3 letters of the parameter description, comma, the new value. When the parameters are set as desired, the user issues a command (again, the first 3 letters are sufficient). Upper or lower case may be used for input. A detailed description of the parameters and commands is given below. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sample session: To select flares with peak rate greater than 1000 counts/sec that occured between 0 UT and 12 UT on February 3, 1992, direct the flare list to a file (so you don't have to wait while it prints on screen), and answer yes to mail the file to sdac::kim, your input to the program would be: sta,92/2/3,0 end,92/2/3,1200 peak,1000,1.e8 out,file sele y sdac::kim - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A. BATSE Flare List Program Parameters: Note: All times are entered in the format YY/MM/DD,HHMM:SS.XXX Seconds and fraction of seconds (SS.XXX) are never necessary, and year, month, and day (YY/MM/DD) aren't necessary when entering subsequent times on the same day. SOURCE FLARE FILE - Selects whether to search entire BATSE Flare Catalog (ALL) or use an input file that contains a subset of the Catalog. This file must have already been created as the DESTINATION FLARE FILE in this program in a previous select operation. Example: SOU,PEAK_GT_1000.DAT SOU,ALL DESTINATION FLARE FILE - Selects whether to save the flares selected in an output file or not. This file can then be used as the input file (SOURCE FLARE FILE parameter) in subsequent searches. Example: DES,PEAK_GT_1000.DAT DES,NONE START DATE AND TIME - Lower time limit for flare selection. Default value is 91/04/19,0000 (the earliest BATSE data available). Example: STA,91/4/23,1200 STA,ALL No restriction on start time END DATE AND TIME - Upper time limit for flare selection. Default value is 99/01/01,0000. Example: END,91/4/27,1200 END,ALL No restriction on end time TIME OF DAY - Restricts the peak time of flares selected to the specified hours of the day. Example: TIM,5,21 Accept flares with peak times between 5:00 and 21:00 TIM,ALL No restriction on time of day FLARE NUMBER - Restricts flare numbers selected. Example: FLA,10,30 Accept flares with numbers between 10 and 30 FLA,ALL No restriction on flare number BURST TRIGGER NUMBER - Restricts burst trigger numbers of flares selected. Example: BUR,1,100 Accept flares with burst triggers between 1 and 100 BUR,ALL No restriction on burst trigger number BUR,VALID Accept flares with valid burst trigger numbers, i.e. between 1 and the highest recorded burst trigger number. (Rejects burst trigger numbers of 0 which indicates no burst trigger corresponding to flare.) DURATION - Restricts duration of flares selected. Example: DUR,0,40 Accept flares with durations less than 40 seconds DUR,ALL No restriction on duration PEAK RATE - Restricts peak rate of flares selected. Example: PEA,100,200 Accept flares with peak rates between 100 and 200 counts/second PEA,ALL No restriction on peak rate TOTAL COUNTS - Restricts total counts of flares selected. Example: TOT,0,1.e3 Accept flares with less than 1000 counts total TOT,ALL No restriction on total counts OUTPRINT - Output device for PRINT and SELECT command. Options are Terminal, Printer, and File. If File is selected, you will be notified of the file name. Default is TERMINAL. Example: OUT,PRI EMAIL ADDRESS - Address for mailing ASCII output. The first time the user opts to have a file mailed to himself, he is prompted for his email address. For the rest of the session, that address will be used instead of prompting the user for an address each time. To mail to a different address, reset this parameter. Example: EMA,SDAC::RICHARD - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - B. BATSE Flare List Program Commands: DEFAULTPARAMS - Reset all selection criteria to accept all flares. For example, PEAK RATE minimum and maximum are set to the lowest and highest peak rates in the Catalog. EXIT - Exit Flare List Program. HELP - Display this help file on screen. You will prompted for whether to mail this help file to yourself. LISTMENU - Display the menu. PRINTFLARES - Re-print the result of the last SelectFlares command issued. (whatever is stored in file BATSE_FLARES.OUT) on the device specified by the OUTPRINT parameter. (See the SELECTFLARES command.) You will be prompted for whether to mail this information to yourself. SELECTFLARES - Search the BATSE Flare Catalog for all flares that meet selection critera established by the user (through START, END, TIME, etc. parameters) and for the selected flares, display a tabulation of the flare parameters on the device specified by the OUTPRINT parameter. The tabulation is always saved in a file called BATSE_FLARES.OUT on the user's current directory. You will be prompted for whether to mail this information to yourself. SORTBYITEM - Same as SELECTFLARES command except that the resulting tabulation of flares will be sorted in ascending order. You will be prompted for the flare parameter to sort by. TYPEFLARE - User is prompted for flare number. Information on this flare is extracted from the BATSE flare catalog and printed on the terminal. USERSELECTFLARES - Same as SELECTFLARES command except that instead of using the Flare Catalog or a user input file to determine the set of flares to test, you will be prompted for a list of flares. The flares in this list that meet the selection critera are tabulated. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (This information is stored in file BATSE$DATA:HELP_CATALOG.TXT.)