Summary of the SIM EPICS/Marcy Database Programs

The Radial Velocity Vetting aspects of the The SIM EPICS/Marcy target list are managed using a database stored in IDL Structures. These structures provide basic data (eg. RA, Dec) for the RV data analysis; this process is handled entirely by the Marcy et al team.

Of interested here is the utility of these structures for displaying information regarding the SIM EPICs/Marcy planet search: target & reference star data, observational progress, etc. Various type of information can be displayed using programs which access the two main structures:

  • sim_st.dat
  • simref_st.dat

    The structures may also be queried directly using simple IDL commands. Also, these structures are the source of data for the SIM Tier 1 webpage which displays the status of the reference star observing project. Most of the programs on this page were written by Chris McCarthy, who can be consulted with questions.

    Useful Programs

    Progress Report

    simprint is the most useful program for viewing a list of target stars, and if desired, reference stars. It can be simply invoked at the IDL commandline:

    IDL> simprint

    simprint has many options which can be investigated by looking at the first line of the source code. A few of them are given here:

  • simprint,/A or simprint,/B show only Team A or Team B's stars
  • simprint, /ra sort stars by RA instead of distance
  • simprint,/showref for each target star, show a list of all ref stars observed
  • simprint,/plot plot target & ref stars.
  • simprint,/obslist generates oblist.txt: ref stars to observe at Keck
  • etc. Also, keywords may be combined

    Change Starlist

    The list of Tier 1 target stars has change and continues to change as new factors are taken into consideration, including placement of ref. stars, noise sources etc. Two programs can be used to add or remove a star from the Tier 1 Target list:
  • addsimstar.pro
  • rmsimstar.pro

    These programs are self explanatory but should only be used w/ caution & in consultation w/ other SIM team members, since they permanently modify sim_st.dat. Also, before using such programs its a good idea to backup the current version of sim_st.dat and/or simref_st.dat

    Generate Webpage

    plotref plots the reference stars for one Target star and creates the webpage for that target star. This program should be called for each target star, after each observing, once the structures have been updated.

    Maintenence

    If & when future SIM vetting observations take place, the data structures simref_st.dat and sim_st.dat should be updated to reflect these observtions. The following programs were created to perform these updates:
  • updatesimref.pro
  • simstobserved.pro
  • addrefstar.pro

    The programs contain instructions for their use.

    Direct Query

    The structures sim_st.dat and simref_st.dat may be queried directly. Examples

    IDL> restore,'sim_st.dat'
    IDL> print,sim.name
    IDL> i = where(sim.name eq 'GJ71')
    IDL> help,sim(i),/st

    View Library

    TutorialPage