FITSIMP - Imports FITS information into an NDF extension

Description:

This application extracts the values of FITS keywords from a FITS extension  in an NDF  and uses them to construct another NDF extension. The list of new extension components required, their data types and the names of the FITS keywords from which to derive their values are specified in a keyword translation table  held in a separate text file.

Usage:

fitsimp ndf table xname xtype

Parameters:

NDF = NDF (Read and Write)

The NDF in which the new extension is to be created.

TABLE = FILENAME (Read)

The text file containing the keyword translation table. The format of this file is described under ``Table Format''.

XNAME = LITERAL (Read)

The name of the NDF extension which is to receive the values read from the FITS extension . If this extension does not already exist, then it will be created. Otherwise, it should be a scalar structure extension within which new components may be created (existing components of the same name will be over-written). Extension names may contain up to 15 alpha-numeric characters, beginning with an alphabetic character.

XTYPE = LITERAL (Read)

The HDS data type  of the output extension. This value will only be required if the extension does not initially exist and must be created. New extensions will be created as scalar structures.

Examples:

fitsimp datafile fitstable ccdinfo ccd_ext

Creates a new extension called CCDINFO (with a data type of CCD_EXT) in the NDF structure called datafile. Keyword values are read from the NDF's FITS extension and written into the new extension as separate components under control of a keyword translation table held in the file fitstable.

fitsimp ndf=n1429 table=std_table xname=std_extn

FITS keyword values are read from the FITS extension in the NDF structure n1429 and written into the pre-existing extension STD_EXTN under control of the translation table std_table. Components which already exist within the extension may be over-written by this process.

Timing

Approximately proportional to the number of FITS keywords to be translated.

Table Format

The keyword translation table should be held in a text file, with one extension component specified per line. Each line should contain 3 fields, separated by spaces and/or tabs, as follows.

• Field 1: The name of the component in the output extension for which a value is to be obtained.

• Field 2: The data type of the output component, to which the keyword value will be converted (one of _INTEGER, _REAL, _DOUBLE, _LOGICAL or _CHAR).

• Field 3: The name of the FITS keyword from which the value is to be obtained. Hierarchical keywords are permissible; the format is concatenated keywords joined with full stops and no spaces, e.g. HIERARCH.ESO.NTT.HUMIDITY, ING.DETHEAD.

Comments may appear at any point in the table and should begin with an exclamation mark. The remainder of the line will then be ignored.

Related Applications

KAPPA: FITSHEAD, FITSLIST, FITSDIN, FITSIN; CONVERT: FITS2NDF; FIGARO: RDFITS.