Science Tools Working Group
Did not meet this week. We probably will meet next on December 12.
The version of ScienceTools remains v7r6p1, which includes the first version of the HANDOFF IRFS.
The feedback from the GLAST Users Committee 'Beta Test' of the science tools was positive overall. The members of the committee made a number of suggestions, which Chris Shrader is compiling, but none that suggested that the science tools were off track.
I gave a talk last week at the SC workshop on future directions for science tools development, which drew from contributions to Science tool development directions
Data products: No news, although there should be. FT1 probably needs a tweak in the definition of the LIVETIME column. FT2 needs a little pruning - the DEADTIME column is not used and would not be missed.
Databases and related utilities
No news. Actually, it looks like Jim has updated the dataSubselector package (gtselect) to merge range cuts in the event files that it processes. I think that this means that where possible, like when a succession of cuts on the same quantity have been applied to an events file, gtselect will merge the DSS specifications of those cuts.
Likelihood analysis
No direct news. Jim has updated Likelihood to have it check only that the energy range of an exposure map encloses the energy range of the event file. Formerly I think that it required exact agreement.
GRB tools
No news.
Pulsar tools
Masa has incorporated some of the feedback from the GUC review in the 'action items' on the Pulsar tools Web page; see the proposal for a new tool, gtptest and for 'Barycentering-on-the-fly' (which relates to JIRA issue PULS-10). gtbary changes every time-related quantity that it can in a FITS file, including of course the event times in the TIME column. Depending on how you look at it, the changes are not huge (light travel time to the sun - minutes) but they do make confusion possible down the line - say, if the response functions are changed at a certain time and the file is used for likelihood analysis.
Observation simulation
No direct news. Toby has implemented a trial versions of 'Sun' and 'Moon' reference frames for diffuse sources. These have not been extensively tested yet.
User interface and infrastructure
No new news.
Source Catalog
Met this week. We had some discussions about variability measures and Jean presented final results on detectability of closely-spaced sources and on localization accuracy of the source detection algorithms using the DC2 data.