Software for RAPID Data
This page gives a brief overview of the RAPID Software.
Raw data
The RAPID software operates on the raw data (level 1) files known as
MSF or Merged Science Files, which are nothing more than the
original raw data from ESOC packed in a more convenient form.
SCI Files
Processed data, containing particle fluxes, count rates, housekeeping information,
etc, are generated from the MSF files by means of the analysis program
msf2sci (which is really only one function contained in the all-purpose
generalized program named gcdc_pmgr).
This code is written in Fortran-77 (with Fortran-95 features gradually
slipping in) and some C modules. The software runs under Windows, Unix(Sun), and
Linux.
The processing requires various suppport (or system) files, such as calibration files,
caveat files, production control files.
These support files must be regularly updated,
especially for processing the latest data. They must be updated more regularly
than the software itself.
The processed data are written to SCI files (science files), one per
original product. These are written in an ascii format specific to the RAPID.
Users were originally expected to write their own software to read SCI files and
to analyse and plot the data. However, today the SCI files are used only internally
as intermediate files for the generation of the CEF files for CSA.
Cluster Science Archive (CSA) and CEF files
For the
Cluster Science Archive,
the RAPID data are converted from the SCI files to the CEF, Cluster
Exchange Format the universal format as used by all other Cluster
instruments for archiving. (This can be readily converted to CDF, the
Common Data Format maintained by
GSFC.)
We maintain a software package to convert SCI to CEF (sci2caa) which
is used to generate the CEF files delivered to CSA.
Note: the
Cluster Science Archive
(CSA) is the successor to the original
Cluster Active Archive (CAA), which is no longer available for data downloading as of 2014.
However, it is still available to the instrument teams as the interface for delivering data to CSA.
For more information on obtaining RAPID and other Cluster data, click
 here.
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