From: Shawn Brooks [sbrooks@sp18.jpl.nasa.gov]
In general, I think that the archive of the 28 Sagitarii
occultation data is very good. The archive is well laid out and
logically organized. The consistency of the files generated from
each of the six observations, in general, is an asset. And, the
fact that the most important of these files are in ASCII format
(all but the BROWSE files) insures that they are readily and
easily readable. Given that the raw data and calibration data are
unavailable, one has to assume that all of the resampling and
processing of the occultation profiles was done consistently and
well enough that no artifacts have been introduced. Perhaps it is
just a personal preference, but I do like having access to the raw
data. However, no problems associated with the processing of the
products available in this archive are apparent and there are no
major changes that I would suggest.
BROWSE directory:
Within the 'BROWINFO.TXT' file under the 'BROWSE' directory, the
line:
"Within the plot horizontal dashed lines indicate the values of zero optical (top) and tau_max (near the bottom)."
should be replaced with the following text:
"Within the plot horizontal dashed lines indicate the values of zero optical depth (top) and tau_max (near the bottom)."
Done.
This text is located near line 109. I also was unclear about the
difference between the "computed tabulated points" and the "fitted
values", as discussed under the heading "Description of the plots
of ancillary geometry information", but this just may be my own
ignorance. Which of these two is provided in the 'GEOMETRY'
files?
DATA directory:
The files have been set up with an eye to consistency from
observation to observation and I think this is a strength.
However, instances where this consistency is lacking can be
frustrating. One example of this has to do with the ESO 1-meter
and ESO 2.2-meter data. I really believe that it would be helpful
if the ESO data also contained seven columns of numbers, as do the
data for the other four observations. One can argue that only
three columns are necessary since none of the data are 'good' (see
below) and the other four columns are inapplicable, but I think it
would be helpful if four columns of dummy values were included. I
wrote a short code to read in these data, but, since the
formatting on these two data sets are different from the other
four, different code must be written to examine these data. I
suppose the user could add in four dummy value columns on his end,
but re-formatting the archive files as such would be in keeping
with the consistency of the archive as a whole.
Done.
It might also be helpful if the explanation of the data quality
flag was a little more specific. In particular, I found myself
wondering what the difference is between the 'bad' and 'non-
photometric' flags.
Replaced Ôbad dataÕ with
Ôcorrupted dataÕ
GEOMETRY directory:
I also found myself curious as to why there is no geometry
information associated with LICK 1-meter observations included in
the archive. If an explanation of this is included within the
data archive, I could not find it.
The data providers did not
have geometry information for the Lick observations nor sufficient information
to be able to generate the data.
AAREADME.TXT file:
In section 3.1 of the AAREADME.TXT file, it might make sense to
mention the *.DAT and *.OUT files among the various ASCII files
contained within the data archive.
Done.
In section 4.1 of the AAREADME.TXT file, the file names under the
DATA, GEOMETRY and BROWSE subdirectories are described as such:
"In the subdirectories of the DATA, GEOMETRY, and BROWSE directories, filenames are in the form: AAA_BCD.XXX where
AAA is a three letter identifier for the observatory,
B is either E (egress) or I (ingress)
C is either G (geometry) or P (profile)
D is either B (browse), D (data), or G (geometry)
XXX is PDF (PDF file), PS (Post Script file), TAB (PDS table file)
or LBL (PDS label file)."
However, I could find no cases among the files in these
subdirectories where D = G. Maybe this line should be changed to
read "D is either B (browse) or D (data)."
The ÒGÓ files are in the GEOMETRY
subdirectories.
Within the 'AAREADME.TXT' file and in the 'INDXINFO.TXT' file in
the 'INDEX' subdirectory, the individual index files are all
described as being of the form "AAA_INDEX.TAB", whereas they are
actually of the form AAAINDEX.TAB. It's not terribly important,
but maybe warrants a change.
Corrected the file names.
This data archive has, in general, been assembled quite well. The
information necessary to interpret and analyze these data have
been included and, more importantly, are placed logically. The
data set is not a terribly complex one and should be simple for
any scientist to use.