HESSI Quicklook Image Widget

Click here to see the entire HESSI GUI Guide

The HESSI Quicklook Image Widget is a tool for viewing the quicklook images in the HESSI data files. 

During the process of creating the HESSI FITS data files, the data are automatically scanned for solar flares.  For each flare detected, a set of images is reconstructed over the 4 seconds at the peak of the flare using the Clean algorithm.  Usually four images are created in the energy bands 3-6 keV, 6-12 keV, 12-25 keV, and 25-50 keV, but if the flare has higher energy photons, more images are made in higher energy bands.  These reconstructed images are stored in the HESSI FITS data files.

The quicklook image widget is activated when you  click File / 'Retrieve/Process Data' / 'Quicklook Images' in the Main GUI Window.  It can also be run standalone by typing
hsi_ui_qlimage
at the SSWIDL command line.  The environment variable HSI_DATA_ARCHIVE must be set to point to the directory containing the HESSI FITS files (this is usually done in your $SSW/site/setup/setup.hessi_env file).

In the quicklook image widget, select a time interval by entering times directly, or select a flare time interval by typing a flare number directly or clicking the 'Flare Selection' button.  Once the time interval is set, click the 'Refresh List' button to retrieve and list the quicklook images available during that time interval.  You can restrict which images are listed by selecting particular energy bands.  Highlight the images you want to see and click 'Plot Selected Images' to view them.  (Press shift while left-clicking to select multiple entries; press control while left-clicking to add to your selection.)

If you change the time interval, remember to click 'Refresh List' to update the list for that time interval.

Note: The first time you retrieve a list from a particular FITS file (each contains about 90 minutes of data) it will take a while.  Subsequent retrievals from that same FITS file will be faster.

Once the images are plotted, you can focus on one of the plots by clicking in the plot (a red box around the plot will indicate which plot is active) and using the options under the Plot_Control pull-down menu to alter the display.

Each plot is saved as a plot panel in the main HESSI GUI with the name
HESSI QL Image, Flare: x, keV: y - z (HH:MM:SS)
where x is the flare number, y and z are the energy range, and (HH:MM:SS) is the time you generated the plot.  You can replot a panel at any time by selecting the panel name under the Window_Control pulldown menu in the main GUI.