OGIPGENRSP - Create dummy response files

Ogipgenrsp is a script to generate a dummy (Gaussian) response file with a user provided effective area, energy scale and energy resolution. This is particularly helpful when creating responses for possible future missions. The resulting response file is in OGIP RSP format. If you need a spectrum and response in SPEX format based on this new matrix, you can run the SIMRES - Create simulation files based on existing response script in this package with the RSP file from this script as input.

Since the bin size of the response depends on the input resolution, the original binning of the ARF file may not be appropriate. Therefore, this script linearly interpolates the energies from the input ARF array to the new output grid.

  • Please note that this script creates a simple diagonal matrix with a Gaussian distribution function. Although this is usually a good approximation, X-ray detectors will have a much more complicated response in reality.

  • Please also note that this script creates a square matrix, which is usually not optimal. Optimal binning, as explained in Kaastra & Bleeker 2016, is still to be implemented.

The parameters of simres can be shown on the command line by the ‘-h’ flag:

ogipgenrsp -h

Energy dependent resolution

Instead of a constant spectral resolution (FWHM) for the entire band, it is also possible to make the resolution linearly depend on the energy. The linear dependence is implemented in data/response.py and integrated in the gaussrsp function. The resulting FWHM(E) for energy E in keV is calculated as follows:

FWHM(E) = FWHM(@1 keV) + DELTA_FWHM * (E - 1.0)

The FWHM(@ 1keV) is set by the –resolution flag (in eV) and DELTA_FWHM is set by the –resgradient flag (in eV per keV).

Example

In the example below, we create a new matrix for new mission with a spectral resolution of 1 eV and an energy range of 0.1 to 10 keV:

linux:~> ogipgenrsp --arffile athena.arf --resolution 1.0 --range 0.1:10 --rspfile newmission.rsp --overwrite
==================================
 This is ogipgenrsp version 0.2.8
==================================

Reading ARF file... OK
Reading ARF file... OK
Number of energy bins: 49500
Number of channels per group: 50
Calculate response matrix... OK
Check the created RSP matrix... OK
Write RSP to file... OK

The new matrix will contain 49500 bins and each response group will have 50 response elements for which the Gaussian response is calculated.

The resulting response file is in OGIP RSP format. If you need a spectrum and response in SPEX format based on this new matrix, you can run the SIMRES - Create simulation files based on existing response script in this package with the RSP file from this script as input.

Command-line arguments

See full documentation at: https://spex-xray.github.io/pyspextools

usage: ogipgenrsp [-h] --arffile ARFFILE --resolution RESOLUTION [--resgradient RESGRADIENT] [--range RANGE] [--sampling SAMPLING] --rspfile RSPFILE
                  [--no-area] [--overwrite] [--no-color] [--version]

Named Arguments

--arffile

Input Effective area file (.arf, required).

--resolution

Spectral resolution at 1 keV (FWHM, eV, required).

--resgradient

Energy dependence of spectral resolution (in eV per keV, see documentation).

Default: 0.0

--range

Energy range of the response files (in keV), for example –range 0.1:10.

Default: 0.1:10

--sampling

The number of channels per resolution element (FWHM) at 1 keV.

Default: 5

--rspfile

Output filename for the OGIP RSP file (.rsp required).

--no-area

Do NOT include effective area in response file (create .rmf).

Default: False

--overwrite

Overwrite existing rsp files with same name.

Default: False

--no-color

Suppress color output.

Default: True

--version

show program’s version number and exit