SPECX2NDF has been revamped so that it now uses the new AST SpecFrame functionality, allowing translation between spectral frames without re-running SPECX2NDF. The SPECTRUM parameter (and associated parameters SOR, DOPPLER) are no longer required since they can be changed after conversion using WCSATTRIB application. Scripts using SPECX2NDF may need modification. In addition to dealing with map files SPECX2NDF has now been extended to deal with SPECX data files; each spectrum in the file is translated to an NDF spectrum in the output HDS container file.
FITS2NDF supports INES archive IUE spectra.
Improved propagation of existing world co-ordinate system (WCS) headers in NDF2FITS partially from improvements to the AST subroutine library. For example, long-slit spectra with a three-dimensional WCS, but stored in a two-dimensional image, retain their three-dimensional WCS headers. Comments are preserved where values have not changed significantly.
The references to the old VMS-only tasks have been removed from the documentation because the residual VMS service no longer exists.
Added IRAF compatibility libs for Linux systems. CONVERT should now build on any ix86 Linux platform.
Added FITS-AIPS and FITS-CLASS encodings to FITS2NDF and NDF2FITS.
Clarified the description of UNF2NDF parameter TYPE so that it is clear that the type given should also be of the input data, not just the output NDF.
SPECX2NDF now creates NDF files using the new double-sideband SpecFrame. See the AST documentation for more details on double-sideband spectra.
FITSGZ is a new on-the-fly conversion format for GZIP-compressed FITS files. The recognised
extensions are fits.gz, fit.gz, and fts.gz.
FITS2NDF supports the new AAO Instruments (AAOMEGA and FMOS) that use the 2dF data structures.
FITS2NDF has a new TYPE group parameter to set the data type of the NDF, overriding the value
propagated from the FITS BITPIX, or BSCALE and BZERO precision when FMTCNV is
TRUE.
NDF2FITS now supports multi-NDFs HDS container files through the new CONTAINER and MERGE parameters.
FITS2NDF Parameter FMTCNV has a new allowed value of "Native" requesting that there is no
format conversion, and the array of numbers stored in the FITS file are copied to a scaled array within
the NDF. This preserves the data compression. Parameter TYPE continues to control the data type of
the true unscaled values.
NDF2FITS Parameter BITPIX has a new allowed value of "Native". This requests that should any
scaled-form arrays be converted, then the data type of the corresponding output FITS array is set to
the scaled-form array’s data type, and that the scale and offset coefficients for the format conversion
are taken from the NDF’s scaled array too. This new facility preserves the data compression of
large files. In the absence of a scaled array, the application behaves as if BITPIX=-1 were
specified.
NDF2FITS Parameter ENCODING has a new allowed value of "FITS-WCS(CD)". This is the same as
"FITS-WCS" except that it uses the old CD matrix formalism to describe the data array’s rotation and
scaling.
FITS2NDF supports externally and internally compressed FITS files.
NDF2FITS writes integrity check keywords CHECKSUM and DATASUM at the end of each header if
new Parameter CHECKSUMS is TRUE.
NDF2FITS writes the correct BUNIT keyword value in the IMAGE extension storing the VARIANCE component. The BUNIT keyword is absent for a QUALITY array.
There is a new DUPLEX parameter. When set TRUE (and PROFITS is also TRUE), it permits the FITS
airlock headers to appear also in the IMAGE extensions for the VARIANCE and QUALITY
arrays.
NDF2FITS now makes special provision for the JCMT SMURF-package extension. It treats the extension contents as NDFs rather than arbitrary HDS structures.
NDF2FITS supports the propagation of provenance information to FITS headers. There is a choice of generic propagation that attempts to propagate all the information, or to write CADC-specific headers, or to exclude provenance (the default), governed by the new PROVENANCE parameter.
NDF2FITS now handles extensions containing only NDFs by adding a dummy FITS sub-file that retains the name and type of the wrapper structure.
FITS2NDF processes SMURF-package data better, permitting a roundtrip via FITS, perserving the original data structures, save for some additional FITS headers.
The creation of AXIS structures by SPECX2NDF can now be suppressed using its new AXIS parameter.
NDF2FITS is now much quicker when writing out WCS information that includes a large table of values.
The CADC provenance processing now also modifies the PRODUCT keyword’s value in FITS extensions to the original PRODUCT string followed by underscore and the extension name in lowercase. Also the CADC provenance now only records unique OBSIDD values.
The FITS converters use the new NDG provenance system that inherits history records too. NDF2FITS also ignores hidden ancestors.
NDF2FITS can now handle files names with multiple fullstops in the path.
The formatting of history records written by FITSNDF has been improved, in particular the indentation after the first line. This preserves the formatting after an NDFFITSNDF cycle.
Various internal improvements were made, particularly to reuse KAPLIBS equivalents of Convert subroutines.
Correct a bug in FITS2NDF affecting the import of SMURF data containing VARIANCE or QUALITY that was formerly in an NDF.
The bash Convert initialisation script has been changed so that it now works from any Bourne-compatible shell.
FITS2NDF recognises the new "Group:" heading in HISTORY headers that originally came from an exported NDF. [This lists all the NDFs stored within a GRP group used in an application.] Thus the original paragraph and indentation may be preserved after an NDFFITSNDF cycle.
NDF2FITS allows three-letter permutations for Parameter COMP. There is now no automatic quality masking of data and variance whenever the quality array is exported to the FITS file too. A new subsection of the NDF2FITS reference documentation explains this in more detail.
Removed default history recording in FITS2NDF’s output NDF since you can control automatic history creation via the NDF_AUTO_HISTORY environment variable.
Propagate LABEL keyword to NDF label in FITS2NDF. FITS2NDF can now recreate data that were formerly in a UKIRT_HDS container file.
NDF2FITS now recognises the modified data type of the SMURF extension. It handles component names that are too long to fit in a single EXTNAME header by creating an EXTNAMEF keyword that uses the Long-string convention. It also attempts to use the FIT-WCS encoding before any other.
Added support for the SMURF_EXT type for the SMURF extension, and for extensions within the SMURF extension’s NDFs.
SPECX2NDF converts the GSD bad value into the Starlink equivalent.
The IDL scripts READ_NDF and WRITE_NDF have been fixed to use STARLINK_DIR to specify the correct IDL library path.
Support for FITS -TAB projection type added.
Add WCSCOMP parameter to FITS2NDF. It controls where world co-ordinate information is propagated in the output NDF.
Add USEAXIS parameter to NDF2FITS. It controls whether AXIS co-ordinate information can be stored in an alternate representation in the FITS headers, that may include a -TAB extension. The default behaviour is to not write alternate AXIS co-ordinates if a WCS component exists in the NDF.
Changed the default ORIGIN keyword from Starlink Project, U.K. to Starlink Software in
NDF2FITS.
Support for 64-bit integers is now available in ASCII2NDF, DA2NDF, FITS2NDF, NDF2ASCII, NDF2DA, NDF2FITS, NDF2UNF, and UNF2NDF.
NDF2FITS now avoids scaling when the range of data values lies within the scaled type’s range, such as double to single precision.
NDF2FITS has a new boolean parameter called ALLOWTAB to permit or disable storage of tabular co-ordinates using the FITS WCS TAB algorithm.
SPECX2NDF has a new SYSTEM parameter that specifies the NDF’s co-ordinate system.