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James reports that through the end of last week "James and Masa continued work on the blind period search tool, modifying the search classes to allow selected frequency ranges to be displayed and output." Masa reports that this week was given over to preparations for presentations to the GUcGUC.
Observation simulation
From Jim: "I added the capability of giving an arbitrary spectral model from an ascii file to the SpectralTransient class, so now it can take two template files, one for the light curve and one for the spectrum. Using it in this mode, however, does not allow for spectral variability as a function of time. This work was to support Solar flare modeling for the Service Challenge run. It will either be generalized to support spectral variability or this functionality will be moved to TransientTemplate where it would be more appropriate."
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James reports: "James analyzed differences between the behavior of 4 parameter interfaces (legacy Ftools interface, PIL, the Ciao interface and the new Ape interface), and met with the HEASARC development team to determine a set of changes to Ape that maximize backward compatibility." Ape will be our new PIL at some point.
Source Catalog
Met yesterday. Jean presented interesting results on likelihood analysis of the test pattern files using results from the optimal filter source detection algorithm as input. He also made further investigations of biases in the measured fluxes of sources. And if you are interested, you will have to look.