Information on Accessing the ROSAT Data Archive at GSFC
- Public Data access using BROWSE
- Public data via anonymous ftp from legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov
- Accessing the ROSAT Data Archives at MPE and Leicester
- Historical Notes
- For more Information
Public Data access using Browse
The ROSAT PUBLIC DATA lists can be accessed as a searchable data table using the HEASARC BROWSE interface. The ROSAT PUBLIC data table is called ROSPUBLIC in BROWSE. Users can:Use the HEASARC BROWSE WEB interface BROWSE to BROWSE the ROSPUBLIC database.
To do this:
- connect to the URL http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/W3Browse/w3browse.pl
- click on the ROSAT link
- Select Archival Data (ROSPUBLIC) from the list of ROSAT Catalogs.
- enter the name of the source or its coordinates and submit the search; you can also search on table parameters like exposure time or sequence identification if you desire.
A list of publically available sequences which have been archived in the US Data Archive will be returned. You can then download selected data sets and data products by following the BROWSE instructions.
Public data via anonymous ftp from legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov
Users can also access public ROSAT data directly from the anonymous ftp account.
- rosat/data/pspc/processed_data - public ROSAT datasets by sequence id. Data is divided into subdirectories from 100000 to 900000 based on the sequence id of the data. Thus the dataset rp500065n00, a PSPC pointing at Crab nebula, can be found in rosat/data/pspc/processed_data/500000/rp500065n00
- rosat/data/hri/processed_data - public ROSAT datasets by sequence id. Data is divided into subdirectories from 100000 to 900000 based on the sequence id of the data. Thus the dataset rh400344n00, an HRI pointing at the Vela Pulsar, can be found in rosat/data/hri/processed_data/400000/rh400344n00/
- rosat/doc/archive- archive user guide
Accessing the ROSAT Data Archives at MPE and Leicester
- The ROSAT Data Archive at MPE can be accessed online from the MPE ROSAT Science Data Center page, http://www.rosat.mpe-garching.mpg.de.
- The ROSAT Data Archive at Leicester can be accessed online from the UK ROSAT Guest Observer Center page( http://ledas-www.star.le.ac.uk/rosat-goc/index.html).
Historical Notes
Release of Data to the ROSAT DATA ARCHIVES
ROSAT pointed-phase data had aA Brief Word about ROSAT Data Formats
Until the start of REV2 processing in 1994, ROSAT data produced at the US Data Center at GSFC and data processed at the German Data Center at MPE were in different formats. That is to say, the files output used FITS as the basic file structure, but the details of the file structure differed depending on where the data were processed. These differences came about naturally as a result of the different analysis tools used on either side of the Atlantic: primarily MIDAS/EXSAS in Europe, and primarily IRAF/PROS in the US. As these data became public, they were released into the ROSAT Data Archives, with the result that tools which might work on one form of archived data might not work on the other form. This sometimes caused inconvenience to archive users who, for example, might want to compare US and German observations of the same object.With the start of REV2 processing, data were produced at the US and German data centers using a common data format, called the "Rationalized Data File" format. The RDF format uses FITS as the basic file structure, while specifying the details using approved multi-mission data structures and keywords. The REV2 data in RDF format represents the final ROSAT archive product. Eventually, all ROSAT data in all ROSAT Data archives will be in RDF format. That is to say, data previously released will be re-processed into the RDF format, and re-released to the archive, and the pre-RDF versions will be removed from the archives.
For more Information
Contact the ROSAT help desk via the Feedback form.
Page Author: Dr. Mike Corcoran
Last modified 2001-10-25
Please use the Feedback link if you have questions on ROSAT.