SAS watchout page

SAS watchout page

In this page some issues concerning SAS and XMM-Newton data analysis are reported, along with recommended workarounds and/or solutions, and useful tricks and tips.

Many of the items below are extracted from the SAS HelpDesk questions database, and frequently updated. If a SAS topic of interest is not reported in this page, users are invited to search in the HelpDesk database before contacting the XMM-Newton HelpDesk.

Actual SAS Version related issues

SAS 9.0.0

• pn_back not available under esas -- Info
• Problems to run epspllitter on non-imaging mode PN observations? Please check -- here how to solve it.
• Have you installed SAS 9 on Mac OS X Leopard before 30 June? Please update a library -- Info

SAS 8.0.0

• Performing absolute timing analysis of data taken in 2009? Please update a file -- Info
• MacOS X Leopard: the syndrome of the ghost file -- Info
• On MacOs versions, tasks get sometimes kill signals from system -- Info
• Some problems with the new task epiclccorr -- Info

Evergreen tips and tricks

• Should I care about the binning of EPIC spectra? -- Answer
• How can I correct for time sensitivity degradation of the OM detector? -- Answer
• These long parameter names are really annoying ... -- Answer
• How do I compare two Calibration Index Files? -- Answer
• How do I calculate the BACKSCAL keyword for my EPIC spectra? -- Answer
• Can I generate EPIC response matrices with all types of spectral binning? -- Answer
• Are there any differences between "standard" and SAS-generated EPIC response matrices? -- Answer
• Can I estimate the pile-up level in my observation? -- Answer
• Can I perform the barycentric correction on OM data in Fast Mode? -- Answer
• How can I convert from OM count rates to fluxes? An update -- Answer
• My grace window seems not to start. Is there anything wrong with the SAS? -- Answer
• Rectangular grace windows: how to get them? -- Answer
• Dealing with MOS1 data in Timing Mode: I heard that one column in MOS1 Timing Mode is affected by "high offset", can I still analyze the data? -- Answer

ODF

• Problems with Time Correlation files in period Oct.2007-July 2008 -- Info
• Why does it take so long to produce an ODF? -- Answer

PPS products

• How do I know which CCF were used to reduce my event list? -- Answer
• I do not find EPIC (or OM) processed data in my PIPEPROD directory. Did something go wrong with the pipeline processing? -- Answer

SciSim

• Is the outcome of SciSim (V4.0) really a realistic representation of science data obtained with XMM-Newon? -- Answer

Previous SAS Version related issues

SAS 7.1.2

• SAS GUI commands do not run on Mac OS X Leopard, PowerPC and Intel. How to make them work? -- Answer

SAS 7.1.0

• When SAS is initialized first and then HEASOFT/HEADAS, SAS programs do not work anymore. Why? -- Answer
• Some tasks which produce output in postscript, do not work and give an error. Why? -- Answer
• rgsproc: error (ParamNotInRange), Parameter 'entrystage' or rgsproc: error (ParamNotInRange), Parameter 'finalstage' -- Answer
• No labels and tick marks are shown up on plots made from some SAS tasks. What is the problem and how to fix it? -- Answer
• I have built HEADAS 6.3 from source code and I am initializing it before SAS. Now when I run any HEADAS command, it fails with the error ...xmmsas_20070708_1801/libextra/libgcc_s.so.1: version `GCC_4.2.0' not found (required by /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6) . What is the problem and what can I do? -- Answer

SAS 7.0.0

• Is it true that lccorr is unreliable? -- Answer
• Artifacts in XMM-Newton time series analysis? -- Answer
• There is no labelling of the axes in the rgsimplot output. Why? -- Answer
• Why is the BACKSCAL value wrong in TIMING mode? -- Answer
• On-line documentation on rgsproc and rgsregions parameters xpsfincl, xpsfexcl and pdistinc default values differs from their tasks default values. What is correct? -- Answer
• On RHEL 4 update 4, omichain (and omfchain) fail to run properly due to a changed version of ghostscript. -- Answer

SAS 6.5.0

• I cannot filter on the TIME an RGS event file produced with a former SAS version. What am I doing wrong? -- Answer
• Why does "atthkgen" fail due to "time correlation" related problems, working with the MacOS version of SAS? -- Answer
• Quadrant in PN with fewer events than expected? ? -- Answer
• Is it safe to use SAS 6.5 under a Mac OSX 10.4 (Tiger)? -- Answer
• What is about the patch to SAS 6.5? Do I need new calibration files? -- Answer
• Why do I get the error "UnsupportedAlgoId" when processing MOS data? -- Answer
• Can I use my old scripts in SASv6.5, which include calls to the very much refurbished emproc / epproc? -- Answer
• I get a segmentation fault when trying to run rgssuperrmf. Am I doing something wrong? -- Answer

SAS 6.1.0

• Why do I get bad MOS spectral fits now using SAS 6.0 and SAS 6.1? -- Answer
• Can I use SASv6.1 with any processed event lists? -- Answer
• Reprocessing pn data with SASv6.1 yields event lists with less photons than with SASv5.4.1. Am I doing something wrong? -- Answer
• Bug in tabgtigen -- Answer
• My BACKSCAL (or effective area) has crazy values: help! -- Answer
• Can I use arfgen for spectra extracted from regions of arbitrary shape? -- Answer
• I get the error: "Subscript 1 of PATTFRACTION (value 1) is out of range (1:0)" with rmfgen -- Answer
• My exposure maps are identically null everywhere. Am I doing something wrong? -- Answer
• How far can I trust the results of my timing analysis? -- Answer
• The OM chains fail saying that an OM exposure mode is "UNDEFINED" in the ODF. However, ... -- Answer

Old SAS versions

6.0.0

• I have a problem running rgsproc, because a library is missing. How can I solve it? -- Answer
• My SunOS workstation cannot run SAS v6.0 due to ``missing libraries'' ... -- Answer
• If I close (Exit) the xmmselect GUI, the X display is suddenly restarted. What can I do? -- Answer
• Can I run old SAS scripts with the new SAS v6.0, given its new parameter interface? -- Answer
• Shall I update my calibration files with SASv6.0? -- Answer
• My odfingest run complaints about TimeOutOfRange. Is my ODF healthy? -- Answer
• Are there any software requirements on the analysis of MOS/RGS post-cooling data? -- Answer
• I get an error when processing my pn data with epframes. Any clues? -- Answer
• The coordinates of regions I import in xmmselect from ds9 are fully out-of-bounds. Am I doing something wrong? -- Answer
• The emission line energies in my MOS spectrum seem a bit too low. Any calibration issues? -- Answer
• I observe a shift in time between OM and other light curves. -- Answer

5.4.1

• I do not find a SAS v5.4.1 version for Red Hat 7.2 -- Answer
• Running SAS v5.4.1 for Red Hat 7.2, some programs crash mysteriously. Anything wrong with the SAS? -- Answer
• My SAS seems not to recognize my Red Hat Perl version. Is there something I can do to tame it? -- Answer
• I have Red Hat 8.0 installed on my workstation. Can I use the SAS? -- Answer
• Does BACKSCAL take into account all the "blank areas" in a spectrum extraction region? -- Answer
• Can I use evigweight on all types of event lists? -- Answer

5.3.0

• A library error prevents me from running any SAS tasks. What have I done wrong? -- Answer
• I get a FITSIO or DAL error when I try to read an event list file. What's happening? -- Answer
• My MOS data get strangely screened by emproc. Am I doing something wrong? -- Answer
• I am unable to analyze RGS products, created with SAS v5.0, using later versions of SAS. Is there a workaround? -- Answer
• Are there any incompatibilities between CCF constituents and SASv5.3.0? -- Answer
• My SAS seems to be inconsistent with a MOS redistribution CCF. What can I do? -- Answer
• LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH, EXTENDED ... how do I get "the" EPIC PSF from calview? -- Answer
• ONTIME is much shorter than the elapsed time. Am I doing something wrong? -- Answer
• xmmselect does not seem to recognize the screening criteria used to generate a filtered event list -- Answer
• I get strange edge-like features in my pn spectrum. Is therefore something I need to know? -- Answer

5.2.0

• SAS seems not to recognize the ASCII summary file pointed by SAS_ODF. Am I doing something wrong? -- Answer
• Good start! odfingest (or cifbuild) complaints that the summary file does not have the CONFIGURATION record ... -- Answer
• Extracting a scientific product with xmmselect/evselect I get a warning concerning the exposure time. Should I worry? -- Answer
• The circular annulus region in ds9: annulus(x,y,rinner,router) gets imported by xmmselect as annulus(x,y,0,rinner). What is wrong? -- Answer
• rgsproc crashed with an out-of-range error on betabinning. Is it a bug? -- Answer