BEMERGE (Nov95)                ftools.xte                BEMERGE (Nov95)



NAME
    bemerge -- merges XTE binned event spectral files.
    
    
USAGE
    bemerge in_fil1 in_fil2 out_file slop timeint_fil clobber mode
    
    
DESCRIPTION
    The task will merge two XTE spectral files such that the CPIX values
    are continuous. The two input files should have  CPIX  values  which
    are  continuous  and  do  not  overlap.  If  there  is  a gap at the
    boundary a new channel is added such  that  it  spans  the  gap  and
    inserts  zero  counts.  A warning is given. If the elements overlap,
    an error message is given and the program aborts.
    
    
    
PARAMETERS
    
    in_fil1 = input file_name [string]
        The name of the first XTE binned event spectral FITS  file  that
        will be processed.
    
    in_fil2 = input file_name [string]
        The  name of the second XTE binned event spectral FITS file that
        will be processed.
    
    out_file = output file_name [string]
        The name of the resulting output FITS  file  to  be  created  by
        merging  the  first two files. This file will contain all of the
        same  information  in  the  input  files,  with  all   pertinent 
        keywords modified to reflect this merger.
    
    slop =  percentage of acceptable error (0.01 default) [real]
        An acceptable error percentage that is applied to checks for the
        EXPOSURE, TSTART, TSTOP keywords in the two input  files.  These
        keywords  should contain the SAME values, if they differ by more
        than the slop parameter a warning  message  is  issued  and  the
        smaller  of the two values is used in writing the output file. A
        warning is stored in a HISTORY keyword as well. Note  that  RATE
        files  are  all  modified such that the time used in calculating
        the rate is the smaller of the two EXPOSURE values.
    
    timeint_fil = output file_name (timeint_fil default) [string]
        This file is ONLY created if the GTI's for the two  input  files
        differ.  The  output file created will have the first file's GTI
        extension copied onto it. And  an ASCII file is created with the
        default  name  of  "timeint.fil". This file should be input into
        SA(SE)EXTRCT as the "timeint" value (via usage of  @timeint.fil)
        and  the  two  files  that  created  the two original XTE binned
        event spectral files, should be reprocessed.  This  will  ensure
        that the GTI's for the two files are identical.
    
    clobber = yes [boolean]
        Tells if existing output files are to be overwritten.
    
    mode = ql [string]
        This  option  allows  the  PAR  file  to  be  updated  with each
        successful completed run so that the defaults are changed.
    
    
EXAMPLES
    1.  Merge two XTE binned event spectral files, in_fil1 and  in_fil2,
    to create out_file.
    bemerge in_fil1 in_fil2 out_file
    
    
NOTES:
    This is the beta version of BEMERGE, but is fully functional.
    
    
BUGS
    
    Version BEMERGE_V3.4
    
    Please report problems to xtehelp@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov. 
    
    
SEE ALSO
    SAEXTRCT, and SEEXTRCT