2.4. Import UV/Optical data¶
For some applications it would be helpful to include non-X-ray data into the spectral fit. For example, this can be an optical/UV spectrum that the user wants to fit simultaneously with the X-ray spectrum using the models of SPEX.
For some instruments, namely the photometric filters of XMM-Newton’s OM and Swift’s UVOT, the data products are available in the same format as the X-ray data (i.e. the OGIP-standard PHA and response files). Therefore, for OM and UVOT filters, the user is recommended to convert the PHA and response files to SPEX format using TRAFO as normally done for the X-ray data.
Information about the instrumental response files of OM and UVOT filters can be found here:
https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/om-response-files
https://swift.gsfc.nasa.gov/proposals/swift_responses.html
However, for some other instruments the user may not know, or have access,
to the counts and instrumental response information. For example, the user
obtained optical/UV fluxes from NED or a table in a paper. In such cases
the user is recommended to first use the FTOOLS program called ftflx2xsp
to convert their data to the OGIP-standard PHA and response files. The
webpage of ftflx2xsp provides all the instructions with some useful examples:
https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/lheasoft/ftools/headas/ftflx2xsp.html
This program reads a text file containing the spectrum with the specified units, and creates the corresponding PHA and RSP files. These files can be then converted to SPEX format using TRAFO as usual.
The SPEX equivalent of ftflx2xsp is Uvtospex. Please follow
the link to find a brief manual for this tool. It creates a SPEX format spectrum
and response matrix based on the fluxes as function of wavelength stored in a
text file. The instrument resolution is needed in units of km/s (FWHM).
Note
There are some OM response matrices around that do not conform to the OGIP standard. The extension of the response matrix is then called ‘SPECTRESP MATRIX’ instead of the standard ‘SPECRESP MATRIX’.
trafoandogip2spexwill exit with an error when this name error is encountered. This can be solved by renaming the extension to ‘SPECRESP MATRIX’ in the rmf file. This can be done, for example, by using the HEASOFT taskfv.
