• WsoRaw

WSO Raw Observations and Log Files

WSO has since the 1970s made two basic kinds of observations, mean fields (meanfld) and magnetograms (magscan). In several early years Doppler Observations (dopobs) were collected as well.

Raw Observation Files

The raw observation files are named with the UT date and time, the kind of observation, and a daily sequence number, e.g.

• 0825:1939_MF07 is the seventh mean field (MF) taken on August 25
• 0825:2312_MG02 is the second magnetogram (MG) taken on August 25
• Observation files are created at WSO by the control computer in the directory /data/rawdata.
• The files are transferred to campus each day as part of the shutdown procedure for further reduction and moved to /data/moved. Files in /data/moved are managed by someone regularly and gzip'ed annually to provide an on-site archive of observations back to 2004.

Observation-File Format

• The raw observation files consist of a series of records of well-defined Types.

• Each record consists of a header followed by a number of Items.

• The number of Items depends on the record Type.

• The header indicates the Type of the record, the Record ID sequence number, and the Name_Time of the observation.

• Each Item is a multi-part structure that holds the value of one WSO-variable. The item kind specifies the kind of variable: short integer (probably 16-bit), long, real number, name, or a 'WSO time' structure.

• Each observation file begins with a standard Open record (Type 10).

• Each complete observation file ends with a standard Close record (Type 18).

• The records in between contain the measurements taken during the observation.

Record Header Information

• The Type defines the format and contents of the data in the record.

  • Type 10 is an Open record. It includes the values of the 100 WSO standard variables.

  • Type 12 is an All record. It includes the same list of 100 standard variables.

  • Type 14 is a short set of parameters recorded after each integration in a dopobs.

  • Type 16 is a set of 11 parameters recorded for each magscan pixel integration.

  • Type 18 is a Close record. Type 18 includes the same 100 variables.

• The Record ID increments by one for each record in the observation.

• The Name_Time is the time of the Open record in the observation.

WSO Observation Files

Meanfld

• A standard meanfld has 8 records. It starts with an Open record followed by six All records and a Close record. The observation takes 25-30 minutes to perform six 180-second integrations with

  • 5250 KDP Off
  • 5124 KDP Off
  • 5124 KDP On
  • 5250 KDP On
  • 5124 KDP On
  • 5247 KDP On

• A time critical meanfld has 6 records and takes about half the time making four integrations of 60 seconds with

  • 5250 KDP Off
  • 5124 KDP On
  • 5250 KDP On
  • 5124 KDP On

Magscan

• A standard magscan takes about 2.25 hours has 310 records. After centering the image, it starts with an Open record, followed by an All record with a 180s 5124 magnetic zero-level calibration; 89 Type-16 records for the smaller 5247 scan; an All record with a 5-minute 5250 velocity calibration; 195 Type-16 records comprising the 5250 full-disk scan, then 21 Type-16 records for the N-S Scan; an All record with the post-scan 300s 5250 velocity calibration, and a Close record with the results of the post-scan 5124 magnetic zero.

• A time-critical magscan skips the 5247 scan. [Verify]

Log Files at WSO

A variety of log files are created. All are text files.

Daily Observing Logs

• A new log file is created in /wso/logfiles on each day that observations are made. The logfile is named with the year, month, and day, e.g. 2019Jan25.log. The output from each observation is appended to the daily log file. The daily log file is transferred to campus as part of the daily shutdown procedure.

Preliminary MF Logs

• The preliminary mean field value is updated by the daily shutdown program in /data/moved/mfavg.day. A copy is kept in /wso/logfiles/mfavg.yesterday.
• The daily mean field value reports are appended to /wso/logfiles/mfavg.month.
• Individual mean field values are collected each day in /wso/logfiles/mfvalues and the previous day's values are moved to mfvalues.old.

Dome Logs

• Each day when the dome process begins information is recorded in /wso/logfiles/DOME_LOG.
• Each time the dome is moved or a new dome process started, the file is updated.
• Dome position information is recorded every 15 seconds when the dome control process is running in /wso/logfiles/Dome_out. The file grows and should be truncated every few months.

FTP and Transfer Logs

• A daily record is kept of the ftp session that transfers files to campus; e.g. /wso/logfiles/ftp2019Aug27.log. These are retained for about a year.
• The program that copies the daily files to campus (/data/moved/goodcopy) appends a record of its actions to /data/moved/Logfile. This file is transferred to campus each night and should be replaced from time to time to save transfer time. gzip'ed archives are kept in /data/move/logFiles.
• Yet another transfer log is kept in a daily .tlog file, e.g. /data/moved/2019Aug28.tlog

Other

• Wscantel -- lists the records in an observation -- ~wso/src/reductions
• Wlooktel -- lists all the variables in an observation -- ~wso/src/reductions

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