TIDE 1-D (HTR) Spectrograms: Plot Description

The output plot filename has the standard format: tyymmddh1m1_h2m2.ext2.ext1.ptype where t stand for TIDE, yymmdd is the 2-digit year, month, and day-of-month of the plot start time, h1m1 are the start hour and minute, h2m2 are the stop hour and minute, ext2 is an optional file extension used to distinguish plots processed differently but with the same start/stop times, ext1 is the spectrogram extension, and ptype is the plot type. If h2m2 is smaller than h1m1, the plot crosses a day boundary.

The 1-D htr spectrogram plot file extension ext1 always end in htr. The htr is preceded by the dimension(s) that appear on the vertical axis of the panel(s) on the plot: polar channel is p, spin angle is s, and energy is e. htr spectrogram plot types and their file extensions include:

Plottype	Description
ehtr	counts summed over spin and polar angle, display as a function of energy and time, each panel is a mass
shtr	counts summed over energy and polar angle, display as a function of spin angle and time, each panel is a mass
phtr	counts summed over energy and spin angle, display as a function of polar angle and time, each panel is a mass
esphtr	one mass per page, panels are all three types of htr spectrograms
eshtr	one mass per page, panels are energy and spin angle htr spectrograms

The Total Ion (Stops) Summary plots found on the web are eshtr spectrograms. The ion (H+, He+, O+) Summary plots are esphtr spectrograms.

IDL creates gif (.gif) and postscript (.ps) plot types (ptype). A pdf (.pdf) file was created from the postscript file because the .pdf file is much smaller but provides the same resolution. Thumbnail jpeg (.jpg) were created from the .gif files.

As with most TIDE plots, there is some documentation at the bottom of the plot that includes the processing software version number; date the plot was created; plot filename; whether or not the minimum count was subtracted; the names for the sector sensitivity, calibration, and mass calibration files used in processing; source or value of the spacecraft potential used; and the names of the mask, attitude, orbit, and level-zero files used in the processing.

Above these are the time axis labels including time (hh:mm), Re, L-Shell, magnetic local time (mlt), magnetic (mlat) and invariant (invlat) latitude.

At the top left of the plot, the standard labeling includes the title line (POLAR TIDE/PSI), the start and stop times of the plot, the number of spins averaged, the data collapse option (see the TIDE Flight Software Requirements Document, page 10-13 for collapse option details), and a plotted indication of the operational status (operational, standby, off, or mirror stepping) of both TIDE and PSI. The flux color bar is on the upper right. In the top center are the ranges over which the flux sum or average was created. This is almost always the full range but it does not have to be.

On panels with spin angle as the vertical axis, an * is used on the axis to indicate the location of the sun pulse. The ram (x) and positive (+) and negative (-) magnetic field directions are indicated on the panel image in white.

The time axis is set up to display as much data as possible. The time axis is made up of a series of spin-averaged sets of data, one spin average per pixel. The maximum number of pixels on a plot is 1800 (based on a 6-inch axis displayed on a 300 dot/per/inch printer). A single spin is 6 seconds long so up to 3 hours of data can be displayed with no spin averaging. Note: when IDL creates gif images, it drops out some pixels from an image so only the pdf files will have full resolution. The number of spins averaged is the modulo of the total time in hours and 3 hours plus 1. The total number of pixels on the axis is total time divided by the number of spins/average. The start and stop times of the plot and the number of spins averaged for each set of data appears at the top left of a plot.

Color Tables: The IDL version of the software allows the user to pick from several color tables. Usually only the first one is selected. The web only allows the use of the first color table. The color table text files are available in /archive/tide_docs/ProcFiles/DataFiles. The tables are blue-cyan-green-yellow-red (bcgyr.tbl, original/default), black-red-orange-yellow-white (broyw.tbl), black-blue-green-orange-pink-white (bbgopw.tbl), black-gray-white (black_white.tbl), and white-gray-black (white_black.tbl). In all cases the table has 226 colors. The first 5 colors are used just for plot labeling. The remaining 221 colors are used to create the spectrograms. All 226 appear in the color bar at the top of each spectrogram plot. The archive directory also has pdf plots of the color tables.