Science Windows, Science Window Groups, & Observation Groups

Because of the dithering of the INTEGRAL satellite (see Section 2.3), an observation is made of many pointings of about 30 minutes separated by slews. Each pointing and slew, or a part of them if they are too long, is called a ``Science Window''.

Usually, the Observation consists of several Science Windows. For each Science Window, a few hundred data structures are grouped together in a compound object called a ``Science Window Group'' containing all the data belonging to this Science Window. At first, it consists of raw and prepared science data and housekeeping data. Housekeeping (HK) data consist of technical information related to the instruments, as for instance instrumental temperatures or voltages. During the Science Analysis of the data newly created files are attached to the group. Since an observation consists of many pointings, an ``Observation Group'' is defined as being a collection of many science window groups. An Observation Group contains all the data belonging to a given observation.