Simulating Chandra Spectra for AO9 Proposals

We provide below examples of ways to generate simulations of Chandra spectra using PINTofALE. These examples use two types of approach:

cut 'n paste "threads" that walk through a specific simulation example, following all the steps with extensive comments;
.par file scripts that can be run to do all the work at once.

Both approaches are easily edited and adaptable to a particular simulation or object. The .par files list the important source variables at the beginning for the user to edit, and the script is run simply with, e.g., an @filename.par

These examples assume the user has access to the appropriate effective area files. These files can be found at the following locations:

ACIS Cycle 09 Aimpoint and Off-Axis RMFs/ARFs
Cycle 09 Grating RMFs/ARFs
Note: At the time of writing, the HRC-S/LETG grating ARF files from the Cycle 09 page were incompatible with IDL. Effective areas and responses of sufficient accuracy for proposal purposes can be found on the LETG Observer information page listed below.
Update: The HRC-S/LETG gARF files are correct as of the evening of 6 Mar (EST).
LETG Observer Information: LETG+HRC-S EA
PIMMS installation under CIAO: /soft/ciao/config/pimms/data/

Threads

Simulation for Chandra ACIS-I: [chandra_acis_ao9.par]; generates an ACIS-I spectrum for a star that has a nominal ROSAT/PSPC count-rate of 0.1 ct/s
Simulation for Chandra HETGS: [chandra_hetg_ao9.par]; examines the O VII density-sensitive triplet as seen in the Medium Energy Grating (MEG) for a star that has a nominal ROSAT/PSPC count-rate of 1 ct/s
Simulation for Chandra LETGS: [chandra_letg_ao9.par]; examines the emission of a hot corona along with the contribution to the X-ray emission from an accreting component for a star that has a nominal ROSAT/PSPC count-rate of 1 ct/s

Please send questions, bug reports, etc., to pintofale()head.cfa.harvard.edu (VK)