TIMING analysis mode

The TIMING mode of spiros is again easy to use as it does not search for sources but gets their locations from an input catalog as in SPECTRAL mode. The idea is that the user will bin count data over some observation period in as many energy bins as desired and that spiros will calculate source flux values at a sequence of MJD times over some integration time interval to be given by the user. Note that the data at this level are already grouped into pointings, thus no timing analysis can be performed on time scales shorter than the pointing duration.

At present TIMING mode has three forms of analysis

• QUICKLOOK
  This computes the flux for all sources and background in small groups of pointing exposures covering the integration time interval, in parameter source-timing-scale, and in each count spectrum energy bin.

• WINDOW
  This mode assumes a mean count modulation model (MCM), or known background variations and computes source flux values simultaneously in a sequence of integration time intervals spanning the period of observation. For a large number of integration intervals and energy bins this might take some time to calculate.

• TRANSIENT
  This upgraded mode is similar to WINDOW mode but allows the removal of the discontinuous nature of the HAT like time bin functions to return an implicitly smoothed light curve. The integration time intervals spanning the period of observation are used here to create a sequence of splining nodes, or knot points, which will define a sequence of piecewise or smoothly continuous B-spline functions.
  Select either TRANSIENT-HAT, TRANSIENT-LINEAR, TRANSIENT-QUADR, or TRANSIENT-CUBIC. If no -XXXX function is appended a simple HAT type is selected and the results should be the same as in WINDOW mode.
  These functions are actually created by taking a HAT function covering each time interval and smoothing it with a HAT filter several times over to create LINEAR, QUADRATIC or CUBIC B-spline functions, a sequence which will tend towards a Gaussian shape with each further smoothing.