MOPEX User's Guide - IRSA

MOPEX User’s Guide
MOPEX: Basic Calibrated Data (BCD) images, the associated uncertainty image, and the
associated bad pixel mask. See Table 3.1 for the recommended filenames for each instrument.
3.1.2 Additional Mask Files
In addition to the Status Mask Files that come with your Spitzer data (which flag the temporary
bad pixels in each frame) there are two other types of mask file that can be input into MOPEX.
The first is the mask of permanently damaged pixels (PMask). The PMasks for the IRAC
instrument are updated every few months, depending on solar activity. They can be found in the
/cal directory, or on the Spitzer website. The applicable PMask depends on the
observation date of your data - check your FITS headers for the keyword DATE_OBS (not
DATE, which is the date the file was written). See the pmasks.README file in the PMasks
directory for the date range for which each PMask should be applied. PMasks for the MIPS
instrument are updated less often.
The final set of images that can be input into MOPEX are RMask files, which are masks of pixels
rejected as outliers in each frame. Typically, the user will generate RMasks as a product of outlier
rejection during mosaicking (see §8.2), so they are not provided as input. However, it is possible
to use RMasks as input, either from an earlier reduction, or from the automated Spitzer pipelines
(which use MOPEX). They can also be specified as input into APEX Multiframe to ensure that
outlier-rejected pixels are not used when running the PRF fitting on the individual BCDs.
Table 3.1: BCD data, uncertainty and mask filenames for each instrument
Instrument Default BCD BCD Uncertainties DCE Status Mask
IRAC bcd.fits or cbcd.fits bunc.fits or cbunc.fits bimsk.fits
IRS PU-16 bcdb.fits uncb.fits mskb.fits
IRS PU-22 bcdr.fits uncr.fits mskr.fits
M IPS-24 bcd.fits bunc.fits bbmsk.fits
M IPS-Ge (70 & 160) bcd.fits or fbcd.fits bunc.fits bmask.fits
MOPEX Input 20
MOPEX Input Images