Hi,

Please update your RHESSI software:

A bunch of new software for the RHESSI quicklook data has been put
online. There are a number of changes, the most important one is that
the quicklook data is no longer appended to the level0 data files.
Instead this data is accumulated in separate files, 1 for each
day: files called hsi_obssumm_yyyymmdd_nnn.fits contain the "Observing
Summary": count rates, modulation, ephemeris data, roll period, roll
angle, pointing data, flare list and the quicklook summary page. Files
called hsi_inslog_yyyymmdd_nnn.fits contain the "Instrument Log": total
rates for each detector, monitor rates, and packet rates for the
different knid of telemetry packets. For access to the quicklook data,
use the HSI_OBS_SUMMARY object, see
http://hesperia.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssw/hessi/doc/guides/obs_summ_access.htm.

For the present, this will only affect data from 2002-09-18
on. Previous files with qlook data appended will still be used. Daily
files will eventually be created for the whole mission though. Note also
that this will not cause any change in the level0 files, so you do not
need to download new versions of those files.

If you are here at SSL, or at GSFC or ETH, with an automatically updated
archive you should not notice any difference when you access the data
(e.g., when you push the "plot observing summary data" button on the
RHESSI GUI). If you are working without the updated archive, then the
appropriate qlook data can be automatically downloaded in the same
manner as level0 data, by setting the SKIP_NETWORK_SEARCH env varible to
0 in your setup.hessi_env file, or in the IDL session. These are small
files, approximately 1.3 Mbytes per day, so this should not slow things
down. This feature has not yet been tested, since the daily files have
not been available, so let us know if there are problems.

If there are problems, and you would like to download these files, they
are found at: http://hesperia.gsfc.nasa.gov/hessidata/metadata/catalog 
In your setup.hessi_env file, define the env variable
HSI_CATALOG_ARCHIVE to the directory that will contain the quicklook
data.

A preliminary whole-mission flare list will be online by Monday. It is
not complete, the flare position is not yet available, and active region
and GOES class have not been found for these flares.  There are a number
of false flares, due to background particles.  Most of these have been
weeded out, but it is a good idea to look at a GOES light curve if you
are not sure about a given flare. There are also large gaps in the data,
which will be filled in as needed. Most of the flares in 
the list are very small, but there are some large ones. An updated flare
list document: 
http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/~jimm/hessi/hsi_flare_list.html
will hopefully be available next week too.
(Note that all of these links are available via the Rhessidatacenter web
site.)

Also there are new Quicklook countrate plots; in addition to the 
current plots, e.g., 
http://hesperia.gsfc.nasa.gov/hessidata/metadata/2002/09/18/
hsi_20020918_175040_rate.png

There are plots of "corrected" count rates, with the jumps due to
attenuator state and rear segment decimation taken out, e.g., 

http://hesperia.gsfc.nasa.gov/hessidata/metadata/2002/09/18/
hsi_20020918_175040_corrected_rate.png.

These are easier to look at. Plots for the mission before 2002-09-18
will be regenerated. 

The software is online, though. You can get a corrected count rate plot
using the plot method for the hsi_obs_summ_rate object (see how to get
this plot in the obs summary document referenced above) by setting the
keyword /corrected in your call to the plot method. Try it out on some X
flare with a bunch of attenuator state changes, it seems to work pretty
well.

Please do not use the corrected rates for any real science, they only
exist to make clean plots without all of the ups and downs caused by
instrument configurations.

That's all i can think of for now, i'm sure that i'll be notified of any
omissions or errors in the morning...

jm