Reference Documents
Key Local Link Link
FITS_home FITS NASA Support Office Home Page
FITS standard_dict.html FITS Keyword Standard
WCS ~jsoc/keywords/FITS_and_WCS/ Representations of world coordinates in FITS
SOLAR coordinates.pdf Bill Thompson WCS for Solar
SSW ssw_standards.html SolarSoft Keyword Description
MDI MDI_lev1.5.txt MDI Level1.5 Keywords
MDI_2 l2_vel.txt MDI level2 Keywords, older than "MDI" list above but more complete documentation
SOHO SoHO.FITS_keywords.pdf Original SOHO Keywords
         
Base set of FITS keys that define external format n means 1 or more digits
Class DRMS Keyword FITS Export for SSW Ref Note Meaning
    SIMPLE FITS   FITS required, file type tag. Always "T" for DRMS
    NAXIS FITS   FITS required, rank
    NAXISn FITS   FITS required, nth axis dimension
    EXTEND FITS   Not used by DRMS FITS writer
    BITPIX FITS   FITS required, data storage type
    BSCALE FITS   FITS required, for int types, scale to physics units
    BZERO FITS   FITS required, for int types, offset to physics units
    BLANK FITS   FITS required, for int types missing data value
    END FITS   FITS required, end of header
FITS Standard keywords that describe the data processing  
Class DRMS Keyword FITS Export for SSW Ref Note Meaning
    COMMENT FITS can have multiple instances FITS commonly used, comment text, may be multiple instances
    DATE FITS ISO8601 FITS commonly used, Date file written, not data date.
    ORIGIN FITS   FITS commonly used, Insititution, e.g. JSOC
    FILENAME FITS   FITS commonly used, redundant on disk or tar images
           
    HISTORY FITS can have multiple instances FITS commonly used, processing comments
FITS Standard keywords that describe the data acquisition  
Class DRMS Keyword FITS Export for SSW Ref Note Meaning
    DATE-OBS FITS MDI DATE-OBS is mean time as if at Earth.  See T_OBS The time and date of the start of the observation, in UT at the observatory or spacecraft, in CCSDS ASCII Calendar Segmented (ISO 8601). Example: 1988-01-18T17:20:43.123
    DATE_OBS SOHO Not used DATE_OBS was DATE-OBS + EARTH_DT, i.e. time as if SOHO was at the center of the Earth.  For SDO same as DATE-OBS.
    DATE-END FITS not used, DATE-OBS + EXPTIME  
  duration EXPTIME     The duration of the observation, in seconds (floating point). 
    TELESCOP FITS   set to SDO
    INSTRUME FITS   one of HMI, HMI_V, HMI_M, AIA, AIA_xx where xx is 1,2,3,4 for camera number or code for wavelength, TBD
    OBJ_ID SSW    
    SCI_OBJ SSW    
    OBSERVER FITS    
    OBS_PROG SSW    
    WAVELNTH SSW   HMI: 617.3, AIA: list options here.
    OBJECT FITS    
  T_OBS   MDI MDI DSDS data uses T_OBS same as DATE-OBS - EARTH_DT Same as DATE-OBS + EXPTIME/2.0, but may be corrected past level-0.  I.e. DATE-OBS will be the onboard time but T_OBS may be corrected if onboard time dirfts.
FITS Standard general array index mapping to physical coordinate units i is axis in "world space", j is axis in raw image space, c means 0 or 1 letter for the case where multiple mappings are given.
Class DRMS Keyword FITS Export for SSW Ref Note Meaning
           
    CDi_j WCS NOT used, use PCn_n and CRPIX  
    CDELTi WCS float unit of increment on ith axis after any rotation.
    CRPIXjc WCS int Reference pixel, center of rotation and applicable pixel for CRVAL.
    CRVALic WCS float world coordinate value at CRPIX
    CTYPEic WCS string Axis type, should be from CTYPE list below.
    CUNITic WCS string Physical units of CRPIX, CRVAL
    PCi_jc WCS floats Rotation matrix
    CROTAj WCS float, consider PCi_j instead.   Amount, in degrees, to rotate the image plane, + is CCW.  Note this is opposite to the astronomical position angle convention.
    WCSAXES WCS    
SSW Solar image location in array    
Class DRMS Keyword FITS Export for SSW Ref Note Meaning
    XCEN SSW This defn implies CTYPE1 = SOLAR_X East-West FOV center of image relative to sun center in CDELT1 units, positive West. If SDO_ROLL = 0 then XCEN is related to the above FITS keywords by: XCEN = CRVAL1 + CDELT1 * [(NAXIS1+1)/2 - CRPIX1 ] - show full formula here
    YCEN SSW This defn implies CTYPE2 = SOLAR_Y North-South FOV center of image relative to sun center in CDELT2 units, positive North. If SDO_ROLL = 0 then YCEN is related to the above FITS keywords by: YCEN = CRVAL2 + CDELT2 * [(NAXIS2+1)/2 - CRPIX2 ] - show full formula here
           
           
           
MDI Solar image location in array    
Class DRMS Keyword FITS  MDI Ref Note Meaning
  R_SUN R_SUN      
  X0 X0      
  Y0 Y0      
           
           
SDO Attitude and FDS data, Instrument constants.
Class DRMS Keyword FITS Export for SSW Ref Note Meaning
  SDO_ROLL SDO_ROLL JSOC   Commanded (lev < 1) or Actual (lev >= 1) SDO roll wrt the projection of the solar rotation axis onto the "y" axis of the instruments CCD.  In degrees, positive is CCW roll of SDO when viewed from behind looking toward the Sun
  D_SUN       Distance from Sun center to SDO in km
  SUN_RAD       Assumed radius of Sun in km TBD but ~ 696000
  IM_SCALE       Plate scale in arc-sec per pixel assuming square pixels.  For HMI is about 0.5.  Fixed for lev < 1 but computed from R_SUN, D_SUN, and SUN_RAD for lev >= 1.  For AIA fixed value per telescope.
           
           
           
           
CTYPE list
TYPE Authority Meaning Reference
SOLAR_X SSW east-west on the Sun in arc-sec from CM, + is to west.  For SOLAR_X to be used the rotation CROTAj or PCi_j must be such that the solar rotation axis projects onto a column of the rotated image.  SOLAR_X should be applied to CTYPE1. http://www.lmsal.com/solarsoft/ssw_standards.html
SOLAR_Y SSW north-south on Sun in arc-sec from disk center, + is north.  For SOLAR_Y to be used, the rotation CROTAj or PCi_j must be such that the solar rotation axis projects onto a column of the rotated image.  SOLAR_Y should be used for CTYPE2. http://www.lmsal.com/solarsoft/ssw_standards.html