HST NICMOS Filenames

Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS filenames

NICMOS filenames

Note: The NICMOS files names are all starting with the letter 'N'

Note: The 9th character of an association of simple observation is always '0' at CADC

Note: Please consult the full documentation.

CADC file names File Suffix Description Units Type Access Example
nxxxxxxxx_jif.fits _JIF.FITS This FITS file contains the raw image data received from the spacecraft. One file per exposure is created (a MULTIACCUM exposure is considered a single exposure irrespective of the number of samples specified). RAW n4rk020b0_jif.fits
nxxxxxxxx_spt.fits _SPT.FITS This FITS file contains supporting information about the observation, the spacecraft telemetry and engineering data from the instrument that was recorded at the time of the observation, including detector temperature measurements. RAW n4rk020b0_spt.fits
nxxxxxxxx_asn.fits _ASN.FITS This file is a FITS binary table that contains the list of datasets making up an association. RAW n4rk020b0_asn.fits
nxxxxxxxx_mos.fits _MOS.FITS These FITS files contain the composite target and, for chopped pattern sequences, background region images constructed by the pipeline task calnicb for an associated set of observations. The input to calnicb are the calibrated _cal images from calnica and the _asn association table. Target images are co-added and background-subtracted. The value of the last character of the rootname is 0 for targets, and 1 to 8 for background images. These files are only produced for an associated set of observations. CAL n4rk020b0_mos.fits
nxxxxxxxx_asc.fits _ASC.FITS This table is produced by the pipeline calibration task calnicb, and is the same as the association table _asn, with the addition of new columns which report the offsets between different images of the mosaic or chop pattern as calculated by calnicb, and the background levels computed for each image. This file is only produced for an associated set of observations. CAL n4rk020b0_asc.fits
nxxxxxxxx_trl.fits _TRL.FITS This FITS ASCII table contains a log of the pipeline calibration processing that was performed on individual datasets and mosaic products. CAL n4rk020b0_trl.fits

The data for an individual NICMOS science readout consist of five arrays, each stored as a separate image extension in the FITS file. The five data arrays represent:

  • The science (SCI) image from the detector.
  • An error (ERR) array containing an estimate of the statistical uncertainties (in units of 1) of the science data.
  • An array of bit-encoded data quality (DQ) flags representing known status or problem conditions of the science data.
  • An array containing the number of data samples (SAMP) that were used to compute each science image pixel value.
  • An array containing the effective integration time (TIME) for each science image pixel.
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