**[TIDE Parameter File Creation]{.underline}**

**[Introduction:]{.underline}**

All of the TIDE Level-Zero Processing is controlled from a small binary
file know as the parameter file. The file is created automatically from
the web based on the user's responses to the menu prompts for the
various Custom Plots and Data Dumps. The user must manually create the
file using **lz_parm** when using the IDL version of the processing
software.

Understanding what is in the parameter file will give the user a good
understanding of all of the processing done in the TIDE level-zero
processing software (**tide_lz**). This document is a good introduction
to both the web and the IDL versions of the software.

There are two source files that make up **lz_parm, lz_parm.c** and
**process_parm.c**. **lz_parm.c** is a simple main program.
**process_parm.c** contains all the processing functions used to create
the parameter file. See Summary of the TIDE Level-Zero Processing
Software Source Files
(http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/Documentation/ProcessingSoftware/SrcSummary.html)
for a summary of the functions. These two programs are compiled and
linked to create **lz_parm** using the makefile **Mparm** (command:
**make --f Mparm**). All three software files are in the current TIDE
software release (**tide_lz_v6.1.3**) available from the TIDE Software
(<http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/ProcSoft.shtml>) webpage.

To run lz_parm, just type lz_parm. The program prompts you for all
further information. The prompts associated with each processing option
are discussed below.

Parameter files can be a little annoying to create. To make creating the
files easier, **lz_parm** can be run from a Unix/Linux command file.
Sample **lz_parm** command files for all types of TIDE data processing
are available on the TIDE archives in
**/archive/tide_docs/ProcFiles/\*/ParmCmd/**. Once you are familiar with
the order of the prompts, the sample command files can be copied,
edited, and used to create the parameter files. These command files were
used to create the parameter files that were used to create all the plot
and text file examples in **/archive/tide_docs/ProcFiles/\*/**. To
create the parameter files from a command file, just type the command
filename at the Unix/Linux prompt. Make sure the command file is
executable. If the command file is not run from the directory where
**lz_parm** is kept, the first line of the command file must be edited
to contain the full path to **lz_parm**.

[**lz_parm main processing menu**:]{.underline}

**lz_parm** is a user-interface with a series of prompts including
menus, questions, and text input. The first prompt is for the parameter
filename. It is recommended that each file have a **.parm** as the
extension and that the name include information concerning processing
options. These files can be reused as long as the processing remains
unchanged.

The next prompt is the main menu listing the major processing options:

**Enter a 1 if you want the data, a 0 if you don\'t.**

**Enter the 1\'s and 0\'s on the prompt line, no blanks,**

**in the order the processing options (1-8) are listed.**

**bit processing option description**

**\-\--
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\--**

**0 stop**

**1 TIDE Science Mode Ion Count Rates including PAPCO CDF files**

**2 TIDE/PSI Engineering (housekeeping) Data**

**3 TIDE Instrument Parameters**

**4 TIDE Moments / magaz-magel / spin header information**

**5 TIDE Direct-Events**

**6 TIDE Calibration Mode Singles and Masses**

**7 database processing**

**8 telemetry data dumps**

**process option (0 or 1 for each bit) ==\>**

The software was set up to run more than on processing option at a time.
When processing ion count rates, do not use multiple options. The answer
to this prompt is a 1 for each option wanted and 0 for each option not
wanted. For most processing the response will be 0001 for Moments and 1
for all other count rate processing. Telemetry data dumps would be
00000001. If you wanted engineering data, instrument parameters, and
spin header data, you would use 0111.

[**General lz_parm prompts (used by several of the processing
options)**:]{.underline}

For ion count rate processing, option 1 or option 0001, there are
several prompts that set up specific processing options. The placement
of these prompts varies depending on the options selected. Simply answer
the questions in the order they are asked. The prompts are:

**Do you want correction for Ion sector or Stops long-term sensitivity?
(y/n)**

This option applies data calibration corrections for ion sector
sensitivity and Total Ion (Stops) long-term sector sensitivity. It is
recommended that is option always be used for data prior to October 2004
and not be used for data after that until new calibration for that data
is available. The voltage on the Stops Microchannel Plates (MCPs) was
changed on 10/21/04 and again on 04/04/08.

Subtracting the minimum count is a way to reduce the noise in the data:

**Subtract minimum count in each spin? (y/n)**

See Minimum Count Subtraction for details on how this processing is
done. If the data is noisy, this will clean it up some.

There is a photon radiation leak in the TIDE instrument that causes it
to see one large and one small photon sun pulse every spin. In order to
get rid of the sun pulse, an ion background mask is created every other
day and used in processing to subtract off the sun pulse and background
noise. But the mask tends to over subtract, so you can multiply the mask
values by a number that will reduce the value subtracted:

**Enter the mask multiplication factor ==\>**

The best value for correcting for the mask is 0.72, but you can play
around with spectrograms to find out what value works best for the data
you are looking at. See DatafileFormat\\Mask.doc
(http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/Documentation/DataFileFormats/Mask.html)
for details.

By default the magnetic field azimuth and elevation comes from the spin
header in the TIDE level-zero files. The quality of the data is not as
good as the data available from the MFE website. The user has the option
to use the MFE data:

**0 TIDE spin header magaz/magel**

**1 MFE high time resolution b-field in spacecraft coordinates**

**Source of b-field data ==\>**

The better quality data is not always available. See
MFEMagneticFieldData.doc
(http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/Documentation/ProcessingSoftware/MFEMagFldData.html)
for details on using MFE data. This option is not available on the web.

For several plot options including moments, velocity distribution, PSD
verses velocity, and count rate data dumps, you need to determine the
number of spins of data to average:

**average counts every n spins, where n =**

A complete set of data (energy versus spin angle) is collected every
spacecraft spin. Each spin is about 6 seconds long which means there are
10 spins per minute. Processing is usually done on one spin or one
minute but it can be done for any number of spins.

Several processing options require the use of spacecraft potential. The
user can indicate a constant value to be used to process all the data or
indicate that the data is to be read from the month long file of
potentials extracted from the EFI key parameter CDF files (999). Use 0.0
in order to avoid using spacecraft potential.

**spacecraft potential (999 to get from file) =\>**

The EFI instrument team has indicated that the potential values in their
key parameter files are off by about 2.0 volts. This value or any other
offset value is added to the spacecraft potential during processing
using:

**enter potential offset to be added to file data (normally 0.0V) =\>**

For spectrograms and chromograms, you are asked what units to use to
display the count rates, whether or not to log them, and the colorbar
range:

**opt description**

**\-\-- \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\--**

**0 stop**

**1 hertz**

**2 number flux**

**3 energy flux**

**4 phase space density**

**5 counts/sample**

**output units option =\>**

See FlusUnits.doc
(http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/Documentation/ProcessingSoftware/FluxUnits.html)
for details about the flux units.

**linear(1) or logarithmic(2) output =\>**

**The default data range for non-zero counts is 6 to 9**

**Do you want to change it? (y/n) y**

**unit minimum:**

**unit maximum:**

Several options ask for the mass-to-charge ratio of the ions to be
processed. If Stops (Total Ion) is the mass selected, you will be asked
what mass-to-charge ratio to use in the ion flux calculations:

**Mass-to-charge ratio to use for Stops ==\> 1**

Use 1 for H+, 16 for O+, or 4 for He+.

[**Moments / Spin Header lz_parm prompts (processing option
0001)**:]{.underline}

The main menu for moments calculations is:

**opt description**

**\-\--
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\--**

**0 no sub-option selected**

**1 calculate and save moments for plotting**

**2 calculate and save moments for addition to database**

**3 calculate and save moments using spin/energy peaks**

**4 save on-board centroids in a text file**

**5 save magaz/magel in a text file**

**6 save spin header information in a text file**

**moments/spin header option ==\>**

Option 1 is discussed in detail below.

Option 2 is obsolete because a Moments database was never implemented.

Option 3 is similar to option 1 except that the range of the moments
calculations are based on peaks in the energy and spin angle data. The
range file is created from the web using Peaks link on the TIDE home
page (http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/lz_peaks.shtml). The peaks range
file must be downloaded and saved for use in IDL processing. The user
will be prompted for the polar angle range and the Stops mass-to-charge.
See PeakRanges.doc
(http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/Documentation/ProcessingSoftware/PeakRanges.html)
for more details.

Option 4 creates a text file contain the on-board centroids (moments)
found in the TIDE spin packet header. See the TIDE Flight Software
Requirements Document
(<http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/archive/tide_docs/old_docs/TIDEFlightSoftwareRequirements.pdf>)
for details about the on-board moments and the spin header.

Option 5 saves the magnetic field elevation and azimuth in a text file.
This information is provided on-board to TIDE from the Magnetic Field
Instrument.

Option 6 saves information from the spin header in a text file including
date/time at the end of spin, spin number, number of data products in
the spin packet, spin time tag, magnetic elevation and azimuth, sample
accumulation rate, spin rate, instrument mode, telemetry modes, and
length of packet. This option was used for monitoring instrument health
and safety during the mission and may not be of any use now that the
mission has ended.

[**Moments Calculation lz_parm prompts (Option 1 of the Moments main
menu)**:]{.underline}

The following prompts are for moments calculations. The prompts common
to most processing options have already been discussed above. These are
prompts specific to moments calculations. See Moments Calculations for
more information about the moments calculations. Since phase space
density velocity distribution calculations use moments, you will also
get the following prompts with velocity distribution plots.

The user is provided for the moments calculation range limits. The full
range is listed in a small table just before the prompts for the energy,
spin angle, and polar angle minimum and maximum.

**moments will be calculated based on the following ranges:**

**Observed Energy range: 0 - 373 eV**

**full spin angle range: 0 - 360 deg. (11.25deg bins)**

**full polar angle range: 0 - 157.5 deg. (22.5 deg bins)**

**for spin angle wraps, enter the large angle as the minimum**

**enter the range min, range max, or approximate bin center**

**minimum energy:**

**maximum energy:**

**minimum spin angle:**

**maximum spin angle:**

**polar angle limits for Stops must be 0 and 157.5**

**minimum polar angle:**

**maximum polar angle:**

The next prompt is for the mass-to-change ratio of the ions that the
moments will be calculated for:

**Enter the mass-to-charge ratio of the masses you want moments for**

**Enter -2 for stops, 0 if a mass not wanted (Singles not permitted).**

**Enter all five values separated by blanks**

**=\>**

Moments were originally set up to be calculated for up to 5 masses. The
parameter file still expects 5 masses even though Total Ion (Stops) is
the only mass available after 12/07/96. The prompt answer for Stops
needs to be: **-2 0 0 0 0**. To get data for all five 1996 ions enter:
**1 2 4 16 32.**

If you are calculating moments for Stops, you enter the mass-to-charge
ratio of the ion best represented by the data usually either 1 for H+ or
16 for O+.

**Mass-to-charge ratio to use for Stops ==\>**

Once TIDE lost its ability to detect ions and we switched to Total Ions,
we also lost the polar angle direction. The software can make an attempt
to determine the polar angle distribution with:

**Determine and use estimated polar angle range for Stops data? (y/n)
=\>**

See Determining Polar Angle Distribution in Stops data for more details.

Another way to determine the spin angle range is to track the b-field
and restrict the calculation to a user-specified angle range around the
positive or negative b-field or both using:

**Do you wish to track the B-field? (y/n) =\> y**

If you answer 'y', the next prompts are:

**Which B-field do you wish to track?**

**1 positive**

**2 negative**

**3 both**

**=\>**

**Enter width of track in degrees: 60**

If you enter 60 degrees, the calculation range will be 30 degrees either
side of the b-field (60 degrees centered at the b-field). If both the
negative and positive b-fields are used, the calculation will be 60
degrees around each b-field.

**[Ion Count Processing Options (processing option 1):]{.underline}**

Other than for Moments, the ion processing options are**:**

**opt description**

**\-\--
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\--**

**0 no sub-option selected**

**1 chromogram plots**

**2 spectrogram plots**

**3 phase space density velocity distribution plots**

**4 save spin-averaged or spin-summed counts**

**5 save raw counts in a text file**

**6 save counts/flux and ancillary data in a text file**

**7 save summed H+ and O+ counts when mirror ratio steps down**

**8 save energy/spin angle counts and mirror ratio**

**9 create H0 or H1 CDF (PAPCO input) files**

**10 create ion masks**

**11 find peaks in the spin angle and energy data**

**12 plot phase space density as a function of velocity**

**ion count processing option ==\>**

Options 1, 2, 3, 9, 11, 12 are discussed in their own sections. The
other options are discussed in Miscellaneous Ion Processing options.

**[Chromogram Processing Options (Ion count processing Option
1):]{.underline}**

See Chromograms.doc
(http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/Documentation/ProcessingSoftware/ChromoMenu.html)
for more information. Chromograms can only be created for the 1996 ion
data because the plots require multi-channel polar angle data and they
look best if more than one mass is plotted. Stops data has no polar
angle resolution and there is only one mass.

If the ion count processing option is Chromograms (option 1), you are
first asked several standard processing questions (see General lz_parm
prompts) and then you are asked what parameter (polar angle, spin angle,
or energy) to base the color on:

**opt description**

**\-\--
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\--**

**0 no option selected**

**1 color based on channel number (polar angle)**

**2 color based on spin angle**

**3 color based on energy**

**chromogram type =\>**

For polar angle (type 1), you are asked what polar angle channels to
base the color on:

**polar angle color bins**

**\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\--**

**opt 0: stop**

**opt 1: red - channel 1,2,3**

**green - channel 4,5**

**blue - channel 6,7**

**opt 2: red - channel 2,3**

**green - channel 4,5**

**blue - channel 6,7**

**polar channel option =\>**

Opt 1 uses all seven channels. Opt 2 skips channel one in order to make
each color contain just two channels. Next you select which dimension to
display on the horizontal axis:

**energy(1), spin angle(2) horizontal axis =\>**

The major horizontal axis is time. If the axis is energy, every 31
pixels on the horizontal axis are the energy values for the averaged
spins and spin angle bins are on the vertical axis. The pixels are
switched if spin angle is on the horizontal axis.

For type 2 chromograms, the user enters to spin angle degrees (0-360) to
use as the color boundaries:

**Enter chromogram color limits.**

**red/green boundary:**

**green/blue boundary:**

**blue/red boundary:**

For type 3 chromograms, the user enters to energy values to use as the
color boundaries:

**Enter chromogram color limits.**

**The Observed Energy range is 0 to 373 eV**

**minimum red:**

**red/green boundary:**

**green/blue boundary:**

**maximum blue:**

The next prompts are common to all three types of chromograms. The first
prompt determines whether to use 8-bit (216 colors) and 24-bit
chromogram color wheels:

**Use 24-bit color? no(0), yes(1) =\>**

24-bit color is not an option on the web.

Next you need to list the mass-to-charge ratio of the masses you want
displayed on the plot:

**Note: Singles not permitted for chosen flux option.**

**Enter the mass-to-charge ratio of the masses you want plotted in**

**order (top to bottom). Enter -2 for stops, 0 if mass not plotted.**

**Enter all five values separated by blanks**

**=\>**

Each mass is displayed in a separate panel. The masses are listed from
the top panel down. You must list all five masses, each one separated by
a blank. If you only want three masses, use 0 for the last two (1 16 2 0
0). Available masses are H+ (1), O+ (16), He+ (4), m/2=2 (2), and NO+
(30).

The software was originally set up to create multiple plots of a user
specified length. This option in now obsolete and the response to the
following prompt should always be

-1:

**Enter -1 to use entire user-specified range.**

**Note: All times will be adjusted to force the same number**

**of spins in each time average.**

**Length of plot time axis in hours =\> -1**

Originally, there was on option to combine adjacent bins on the
horizontal axis. This was never implemented so for the following prompts
always answer the first (largest number):

**number of energy bins (31,16,8,4,2,1) =\> 31**

**number of spin angle bins (32,16,8,4,2,1) =\> 32**

**number of channel bins (7,6,3,2,1) =\> 7**

**[Spectrogram Processing Options (Ion count processing Option
2):]{.underline}**

There are two types of spectrogram plots. The two variable plots do not
collapse the data. The single variable plots (high time resolution)
plots sum or average the energy, spin angle, and polar angle over at
least one the dimensions. See Spectrograms.doc, Spectrograms1D.doc, and
Spectrograms2D.doc
(http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/Documentation/ProcessingSoftware/SpectMenu.html)
for more details about these plots.

You will get prompt for most of the standard processing options
discussed above (see General lz_parm prompts).

The main spectrogram menu is:

**opt description**

**\-\--
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\--**

**0 no option selected**

**1 plot channels for user-specified masses**

**2 plot masses for user-specified channels**

**3 plot energy-spin and spin-energy for one mass and channel**

**4 high time resolution spectrograms**

**5 save energy/spin flux data in a binary file**

**spectrogram type =\>**

Option 5 was set up specifically to create the binary output for stacked
spectrogram plots. These plots are no longer available. They were
similar to TIDE Thumbnails
(http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/display_thumbnails.shtml).

Options 1 and 2 should be used for just the 1996 ion data because they
are set up to display several masses and polar angle channels at the
same time. There is only one mass and one channel for Stops data. All
data can be plotted using options 3 and 4. Option 4 is used to create
all the summary plots available on the web. Each option is discussed in
more detail below.

Prompts for Option 1 - plot channels for user-specified masses:

**Enter the number of the channels you want plotted in the order**

**(top to bottom). Enter 0 if channel not plotted.**

**Enter all seven values separated by blanks**

**=\>**

You will get a panel for each channel on each plot and a plot for each
mass. If you only want three channels, use 0 for the last three (4 5 6 0
0 0).

**Enter the mass-to-charge ratio of the masses you want,**

**one mass per plot.**

**Enter -1 for singles, -2 for stops, 0 if mass not wanted.**

**Enter all six values separated by blanks**

**=\>**

If you only want three masses, use 0 for the last three (1 16 2 0 0 0).
Available masses are H+ (1), O+ (16), He+ (4), m/2=2 (2), NO+ (30),
singles (-1), and stops (-2).

The next prompt determines what dimension is plotted on the horizontal
axis:

**energy(1), spin angle(2) horizontal axis =\>**

The one not chosen will be on the vertical axis.

The prompts for Option 2 - plot masses for user-specified channels are
similar to Option 1 except that now the panels on each plot are mass and
there is a panel for each user-specified polar angle channel:

**Note: Singles not permitted for chosen flux option.**

**Enter the mass-to-charge ratio of the masses you want plotted in**

**order (top to bottom). Enter -2 for stops, 0 if mass not plotted.**

**Enter all five values separated by blanks**

**=\>**

**Enter the number of each channel you want plotted, one channel per**

**plot. Enter 0 if channel not plotted.**

**Enter all seven values separated by blanks**

**=\>**

**energy(1), spin angle(2) horizontal axis =\>**

Prompts for Option 3 - plot energy-spin and spin-energy for one mass and
channel. This option creates a two panel plot. The top panel is time and
energy versus spin angle and the bottom panel is time and spin angle
versus energy. It is the same data just flip for each spin along the
horizontal axis. Only one mass and only one channel is plotted.

**Enter the mass-to-charge ratio of the mass you want,**

**Note: Singles not permitted for chosen flux option.**

**Enter -2 for stops =\>**

**Enter the channel you want plotted (4-Stops, 8-sum channels) =\>**

The channel for Stops is always 4. For ion data, you can display a
single channel (1-7) or sum all the channels together using 8.

There are two ways to display orbit data on these plots, one is the
standard text labels (1) and the other is to plot the orbit data (2):

**Orbit text labels only (1), plot all orbit data (2) =\>**

Option 4 is used to create the high time resolution plots where each
plot panel has the two dimensions summed or average over the displayed
dimension. Option 4 has several display options. In the main menu, you
select the dimension that will be displayed on the vertical axis:

**1 energy**

**2 spin angle**

**3 polar angle**

**4 energy and spin angle spectrograms for one mass**

**5 all three spectrograms for one mass**

**vertical axis =\>**

Next select whether the collapse in the other two dimensions is a sum,
an average, or a maximum count.

**plot count rate sum(1), avg(2), or maximum(3) =\>**

Next you enter the range of the data used in the sum or average. The
prompts will vary depending on what two dimensions are being collapsed:

**enter count rate averaging ranges**

**Observed Energy range: 0 - 373 eV**

**minimum energy:**

**maximum energy:**

**full spin angle range: 0 - 360 deg. (11.25deg bins)**

**for spin angle wraps, enter the large angle as the minimum**

**minimum spin angle:**

**maximum spin angle:**

**full polar angle range: 0 - 157.5 deg. (22.5 deg bins)**

**polar angle limits for Stops must be 0 and 157.5**

**minimum polar angle:**

**maximum polar angle:**

Next you select the mass you want plotted. For vertical axis options
1-3, you can select multiple masses:

**Note: Singles not permitted for chosen flux option.**

**Enter the mass-to-charge ratio of the masses you want plotted in**

**order (top-bottom). Enter -2 for stops, 0 if mass not plotted.**

**Enter all five values separated by blanks**

**=\>**

For options 4 and 5, you can specify only one mass:

**Note: Singles not permitted for chosen flux option.**

**Enter -2 for stops**

**Enter the mass-to-charge ratio of the mass you want plotted =\>**

There are several prompts common to each of the spectrogram types. Some
of them contain options that were either never implemented or are now
obsolete. These prompts include:

**Do you want the masses plotted separately(1), summed(2), or
averaged(3) =\>**

**[Phase Space Density (PSD) Velocity Distribution Processing Options
(Ion count processing Option 3):]{.underline}**

There are several different plot options available for PSD velocity
distribution plots. The **lz_parm** prompts that you get will vary with
each option. You will also get some of the standard processing prompts
and most of the moments prompts. These are discussed above. See
VelocityDistribution.doc
(http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/Documentation/ProcessingSoftware/VelDistMenu.html)
for more details about the plots and text files.

The velocity coordinate system used on the plots can be magnetic field
(b-fld), Geocentric Solar Ecliptic (GSE), or Geocentric Solar
Magnetospheric (GSM):

**What velocity coordinates do you want used B-fld(1),GSE(2),GSM(3)?
=\>**

If GSE or GSM coordinates are used, the direction of the magnetic field
can be displayed on the plot as an arrow:

**Plot magnetic field arrows? (y/n)**

The option is ignored if the coordinate system is the b-field.

The output can be plots, a text file, or both.

**plot (0), text file (1), both (2) =\>**

The text files can be very large so the **text file** option should only
be used for short time periods. There are four types of text files
available:

**1 save logged(PSD) in 100x100 velocity array**

**2 save logged(PSD) in 31x32x7 array**

**3 save 31x32x7 3-D using 226 colors (rotater input)**

**4 save 31x32x7 3-D using original 6 colors (rotater input)**

**PSD text file option =\>**

Option 1: When plots are created, the velocity/energy polar coordinate
system is converted to a rectangular velocity coordinate system. The
count rate is converted to phase space density and stored in a 100 x 100
pixel array. This array can be dump to a text file using option 1.

Option 2: This is the most common text file dump. For ions, the energy
(31 steps) by spin angle (32 bins) by polar angle (7 channels) count
rate array is converted to phase space density and saved in a text file.
For Stops, only the 31 x 32 energy / spin angle array is saved. There
are several header lines at the top of each set of data followed by the
Vx, Vy, and Vz velocity coordinates and the logged PSD values.

Options 3 and 4 where set up to create the input for a now obsolete 3-D
graphics package.

If you are plotting data, the next prompt determines if the display is a
color image, contours, or contours overlaid on the color image (both):

**opt description**

**\-\--
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\--**

**1 color image**

**2 contours**

**3 both**

**velocity distribution display option ==\>**

There are several plot options available for the color images and
contours:

**opt description**

**\-\--
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\--**

**0 no option selected**

**1 plot two different planes**

**2 plot two consecutive planes**

**3 plot single plane with orbit (movie)**

**4 plot multiple planes per page**

**velocity distribution plot option ==\>**

For option 1, you are asked what combination of velocity planes you want
to use:

**1 perpendicular (Vx) and parallel (Vy) plane**

**2 perpendicular (Vx) and parallel (Vz) plane**

**3 parallel (Vy) and parallel (Vz) plane**

**display option ==\>**

Note: because Stops only has the Vz b-field plane, this option may not
display well.

For each option, you are asked what velocity to use for the plane slice:

**Vx in km/s (enter 999 for plasma Vx) =\>**

**Vy in km/s (enter 999 for plasma Vy) =\>**

**Vz has to be zero for Stops**

**Vz in km/s (enter 999 for plasma Vz) =\>**

By entering 999, the plasma velocity will be used. The prompts you get
will depend on the planes you chose to display.

For options 2, 3, and 4, you are asked what plane to plot and what
coordinate to plot on the horizontal axis of each plane:

**1 perpendicular (Vx) plane**

**2 parallel (Vy) plane**

**3 parallel (Vz) plane**

**plane ==\> 3**

**horizontal axis Vx(1) or Vy(2) ==\>**

For option 3, you will be asked how the orbit will be plotted:

**opt description**

**\-\--
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\--**

**0 no option selected**

**1 plot orbit as GSM-Z versus GSM-X**

**2 plot orbit as GSM-Z versus GSM-Y**

**3 plot orbit as invariant latitude versus magnetic local time**

**orbit plot option ==\>**

If orbit plot option 3 is selected, you need to specify the minimum
invariant latitude:

**Use a value between 50 and 90 divisible by 5.**

**magnitude of minimum invariant latitude =\>**

For plot option 4, you will be asked how many planes you want plotted
per page:

**number of planes/page (6,12,20,35) =\>**

The size of each plane on the page depends on the number of planes per
page. They are bigger the fewer there are.

For each plot option, you are asked what velocity to use for the plane
slice:

**Vx in km/s (enter 999 for plasma Vx) =\>**

**Vy in km/s (enter 999 for plasma Vy) =\>**

**Vz has to be zero for Stops**

**Vz in km/s (enter 999 for plasma Vz) =\>**

By entering 999, the plasma velocity will be used. The prompt you get
will depend on the plane you chose to display.

Next, the user selects the logged PSD colorbar range:

**The default data range for non-zero counts is 7 to 12**

**Do you want to change it? (y/n)**

**unit minimum:**

**unit maximum:**

The range also determines the number and level of the contours. There
are two contours for each logged PSD integer value.

You are asked some standard processing questions including the
mass-to-charge ratio of the ion to be plotted (H+ = 1, He+ = 2, O+ = 16,
and Stops = -2), the number of spins to average, whether or not to get
spacecraft potential from a file, and the potential offset:

**Enter the mass-to-charge ratio of the mass you want (-2 for stops)
=\>**

**average counts every n spins, where n =**

**spacecraft potential (999 to get from file) =\>**

**enter potential offset to be added to file data (normally 0.0V) =\>**

Next you are asked whether or not to plot the full velocity range:

**maximum plotted velocity (enter 0 for full range) =\>**

This option is used to zoom in on the center (low velocity) portion of
the plot.

Moments are always calculated and used in velocity distribution data.
Most of the moments prompts are asked next starting with whether or not
peaks ranges are used to limit the spin angle and energy integration
ranges:

**1 use single set of moments calculation ranges**

**2 use spin/energy peaks to set calculation ranges**

**range option =\>**

If necessary, you are asked to enter the ranges, the mass-to-charge
ratio for Stops, whether or not to estimate the Stops polar angle
distribution, and whether or not to track the b-field. See the Moments
(http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/Documentation/ProcessingSoftware/ParmFileMoments.html)
prompts above for more details.

**[Count Rate and Flux Text Files (Ion count processing Options 5 and
6):]{.underline}**

Ion Count Processing Options 5 and 6 are used to create text files of
TIDE ion counts. Option 5 is simply a count rate dump. No processing is
done. Even the sun pulse is left in. Option 6 allows the user to select
most of the standard processing options to use to calculate flux values.
The prompts for both options are in the general processing prompts
discussed above. See DataDumps.doc
(<http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/Documentation/ProcessingSoftware/DataDumpMenu.html>)
for details about the text files.

**[TIDE High Time Resolution CDF files (Ion count processing Option
9):]{.underline}**

This option is used to create either the TIDE high time resolution CDF
files for ions (h0) or Stops (h1). These files were created daily during
the mission using standard processing options and sent to the NSSDC
(CDAWeb). The files contain Moments data and energy flux data used to
create spectrograms. These files are also used as input to the TIDE
PAPCO Module. This option can be used to create CDF files for
non-standard processing. Most of the prompts are identical to those
described in General prompts, Moments, and the High Time Resolution
option under Spectrograms.

The only prompts specific to this options are for the type of file and
version number on the file:

**Stops (1) or 1996 ions (2) =\>**

**CDF file version number (enter 99 for special request) =\>**

If you create a CDF file with non-standard processing, use a large
version number (10-99) to make sure that it stands out from the files
stored at the NSSDC. The file versions at the NSSDC are less than 5.

See DatafileFormat\\TideCdfFiles.doc
(http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/Documentation/DataFileFormats/TIDECDF.html)
for more information about these files.

**[Finding Spin angle and energy peaks (Ion count processing Option
11):]{.underline}**

This option is only available on the web from the Peaks link on the home
page (<http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/lz_peaks.shtml>). It is used to
create the peak range file used in moments and velocity distribution
processing. The peak range file contains a time-based list of
integration limits used in moments calculations. Because the peak
selection is interactive, this option is not available in the IDL
version. See PeakRanges.doc
(<http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/Documentation/ProcessingSoftware/PeakRanges.html>)
for details about the web-based Peaks Option.

**[Phase Space Density versus Velocity Processing Options (Ion count
processing Option 12):]{.underline}**

This option creates multi-panel line plots of phase space density as a
function of velocity. See PSDvsVelocity.doc
(<http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/Documentation/ProcessingSoftware/PSDvsVelMenu.html>)
for plot details. This option is only available for Stops data.

This option uses several of the general processing prompts. The first
option-specific prompt is the main menu that includes a list of options
used to select the spin angle slice used to create the line plots:

**opt description**

**\-\--
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\--**

**0 no option selected**

**1 +/- b-field**

**2 ram direction**

**3 maximum count**

**4 user-specfied angle**

**spin angle slice option =\>**

The data on the right side of the plot is from the specified spin angle
plane and the data on the left side of the plot is from the plane 180
degrees away.

For reference, each panel can contain a smooth PSD curve that represents
a fixed count rate such as 1 count:

**Number of ion counts for fixed count line (0 = no line drawn) =\>**

If you don't want the curve drawn, just enter 0.

Next you will be asked how many plot panels you want on a page and the
PSD range on the vertical axis:

**number of plot panels per page (1,2,4,6,12,15,24) =\>**

**The default data range for non-zero counts is 4 to 14**

**Do you want to change it? (y/n)**

If you enter 'y', you will be asked to enter a new minimum and maximum:

**unit minimum:**

**unit maximum:**

Next you will be asked for the maximum velocity on the horizontal axis,
whether or not to plot PSD error bars, and the Stops mass-to-charge
ratio:

**maximum plotted velocity (enter 0 for full range) =\>**

**Do you want standard deviation plotted? (y/n)**

**Mass-to-charge ratio to use for Stops ==\>**

For spin angle slice option 4, a user-specified angle, you will be asked
to enter the angle:

**Slice angle (0-360 deg) =\>**

**[Miscellaneous Ion Processing Options (Ion Count processing Options 4
and 10):]{.underline}**

**Ion processing option 4: save spin-averaged or spin-summed counts** is
used to create ion count rate strip charts. This option was used to
create the energy/spin angle average plots that were created daily as
part of the summary plots. These plots are stored on the TIDE archives
in **/archive/po_tid_plt_yymm/engspn_avg**. There are 11 panels on the
plots, one for each polar channel and a panel each for the four
efficiency numbers (Stops, Start Converts, Time Outs, and Resets) that
are found in the spin header.

Some of the standard processing prompts are used for this option. The
only option-specific prompt determines how the data are averaged:

**average over spin(1), energy(2), both(3) or**

**sum over spin/energy/user-specified time (4) =\>**

Option 3 was used to create the summary plots.

**Ion processing option 10: create ion masks** is used to create the ion
masks whenever there is a background check.

Some of the standard processing prompts are used for this option. The
only option-specific prompts are for a list of masses that will appear
in the mask file and the version number of the mask file:

**Enter the mass-to-charge ratio of the masses you want masks for.**

**Enter -1 for singles, -2 for stops, 0 if mass not wanted.**

**Enter all six values separated by blanks**

**=\>**

**Mask file version number =\>**

This option will only need to run if masks need to be recreated. All of
the mask files should be available on the TIDE archives at
**/archive/data/mask**. The date and times of all the background checks
are in a file called **mask_run_times.txt** at
<http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/tideteam/TIDE_info/>. See
DatafileFormat\\Mask.doc
(http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/Documentation/DataFileFormats/Mask.html)
for more information about mask files.

**[Miscellaneous Processing Options 01, 001, 00001, and
00000001:]{.underline}**

**[Option 2 (01): TIDE/PSI Engineering (housekeeping)
data:]{.underline}**

The second option (01) on the main processing option menu (see above) is
used to process and display TIDE housekeeping bytes. The only prompt is:

**bit description**

**\-\--
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\--**

**0 no sub-option selected**

**1 Standard text display**

**2 save all housekeeping bytes in a binary file**

**3 TIDE/PSI summary plots**

**4 save selected data in a text file**

**housekeeping sub-option (0 or 1 for each bit) ==\>**

This menu is like the main processing menu. You can select more than one
processing option. Enter a 1 for the options you want and a zero for the
options you don't want. Option 1 creates the standard engineering data
text output file. All of the housekeeping bytes are converted to data
values and listed in a text display every 9 seconds. Option 2 saves the
49 housekeeping bytes for each major frame in a time tagged binary file.
Option 3 creates the PSI and TIDE summary plots that are kept on the
TIDE archives in **/archive/po_tid_plt_yymm/hk/daily**. Option 4 is no
longer available. See HkEngData.doc
(<http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/Documentation/ProcessingSoftware/HkEngMenu.html>
for details.

**[Option 3 (001): TIDE Instrument Parameters:]{.underline}**

The third option (001) on the main processing option menu (see above) is
used to process and display TIDE Instrument Parameter data. The only
prompt is:

**bit description**

**\-\--
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\--**

**0 no sub-option selected**

**1 Standard text display**

**2 save mirror ratios in text file**

**instrument parameter sub-option (0 or 1 for each bit) ==\>**

The first option creates a file with the standard Instrument Parameter
Text data dump. The second option saves TIDE mirror ratios in a file for
plotting. These options can be run together using 11 or separately using
1 or 01. See InstrParms.doc
(http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/Documentation/ProcessingSoftware/InstrParmMenu.html)
for details.

**[Option 5 (00001): TIDE Direct-Events:]{.underline}**

The fifth option (00001) on the main processing option menu (see above)
is used to process and display TIDE Direct Event data. Because of the
loss of mass resolution, good quality time-of-flight direct-event data
is only available from March through September 1996. Direct-events were
used during the mission (1996 and late 2006) to monitor TIDE health.
Because of the limited value of the data, these options were not made
available on the web. See DirectEvents.doc
(http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/Documentation/ProcessingSoftware/DirectEvents.html)
for details. The Direct-event main menu is:

**bit description**

**\-\--
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\--**

**0 no sub-option selected**

**1 plot data as function of tof bin for selected times**

**2 create color spectrogram**

**3 save data in text file (one file / channel)**

**4 calculate sector sensitivity**

**5 sum direct-events over user-specified superspins**

**6 both 2 and 5 (daily summary plots)**

**direct_event processing option ==\>**

Option 1 was never implemented in the TIDE processing software. It is
only available in the now obsolete real-time processing software.

Option 2 creates a file used by the summary plot programs to create the
daily direct-event spectrograms. These plots were created from 03/20/96
through 02/22/00 and 09/22/06 through 04/21/07 and are in the TIDE plot
archives in **/archive/po_tid_plt_yymm/spectrograms/direct_events/**.
You will be asked whether the counts should be logged and the count rate
colorbar range:

**linear(1) or logged(2) counts =\>**

**The default data range for non-zero counts is 0 to 4**

**Do you want to change it? (y/n)**

If you enter 'y', you will be asked to enter a new minimum and maximum:

**unit minimum:**

**unit maximum:**

Option 3 creates a text file for each polar angle channel that contains
the direct event data for a superspin. In each file, there is a title
line and for each superspin, there is a blank line, a header line with
the date and time, whether or not the values are even or odd tof bin
number, the channel number, type of autosensitivity, and mirror and RPA
voltages followed by 16 lines with 8i10 format. These lines contain the
counts for the 128 even or odd numbered tof direct-event bins.

Option 4 was used to help create the calibration files and is no longer
available

Option 5 creates a file that was used to create the monthly direct-event
spectrogram trend plots. These plots, called **tyymm_trend.de_sum**,
were created from 03/96 through 01/00. They are in the plot archive in
**/archive/po_tid_plt_yymm/spectrograms/direct_events/**. You will be
asked how many superspins to sum together:

**sum direct_events every n superspins, where n =**

Option 6 combines options 2 and 5.

.

**[Option 8 (00000001): TIDE Telemetry Byte Dumps:]{.underline}**

The eighth option (00000001) on the main processing option menu (see
above) is used to dump telemetry bytes. The only prompt is:

**bit description**

**\-\--
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\--**

**0 no sub-option selected**

**1 memory hex dump**

**2 data product hex dump**

**3 major frame byte dump**

**telemetry dump option ==\>**

Option 1 creates a file containing a hex memory dump. TIDE memory was
only dumped once during the mission, which is the only time this option
was used.

Option 2 creates hex dumps of TIDE science data products. It creates a
file for each spin called spnnn.dat where nnn is the spin number. Each
file contains hex dumps of every data product in that spin packet. Each
data product dump includes spin number, data product number, date, and
time in a header record. The next line is the data product header, then
the data product bytes, and the last line is the checksum. See
DataProducts.doc
(http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/Documentation/ProcessingSoftware/DataProducts.html)
for information about the data products.

Option 3 creates a text file of telemetry bytes. It was useful during
the mission to help detect telemetry problems but is of little use now.
See DataDumps.doc
(http://satyr.msfc.nasa.gov/TIDE/Documentation/ProcessingSoftware/DataDumpByte.html)
for details about these files.

Options 1 and 2 are not available on the web. Option 3 is available on
the web but should be used for very short time periods because the files
are extremely large.

**[Obsolete Processing Options]{.underline}**

**[Obsolete Ion Processing Options (Ion Count processing Options 7 and
8):]{.underline}**

Ion processing options 7 and 8 were created for use in some early
calibration studies and have not been used for years.

**[Obsolete Processing Options 000001 and 0000001:]{.underline}**

The TIDE Calibration Mode Singles and Masses were set up to process
calibration mode data. The only time TIDE was in calibration mode during
the mission was just after instrument resets and only until patches were
loaded. Since high voltage was off at this time, no data was collected
so the option has no use. It was used to processes data during lab
testing before launch.

The database processing option was originally set up to save data for
use in the moments and orbit databases. These databases were never used
and no longer exist, making this processing option obsolete.