Setting up ORAC-DR

Before you can run the pipeline you have to tell ORAC-DR for which instrument you wish to reduce data, the observation date, the directory containing the raw data, and where you want the processed data to be written. For the following two there are two options.

• The first needs your data to conform to the directory-naming convention of the instrument at UKIRT. This will be the case if you simply unpack the archive written by the uktape utility. In this case enter:

   % setenv ORAC_DATA_ROOT <root_data_directory>
   % oracdr_<instrument> <date>
  

  where <root_data_directory> is the directory in which you unpacked the data from the tape, <instrument> is either cgs4 or uist, and <date> is the UT date in the format YYYYMMDD. Note that each % represents the UNIX shell's prompt, which you do not type. The commands must be entered in the above order.

  For example, the standard location for raw CGS4 data is raw/ufti/YYYYMMDD/, and reduced/ufti/YYYYMMDD/ for the corresponding reduced data. If your data are stored in /home/users/abc/data/UKIRT/raw/cgs4/20031022/ you should enter the following:

   % setenv ORAC_DATA_ROOT /home/users/abc/data/UKIRT/
   % oracdr_cgs4 20031022
  

  to enable the pipeline for CGS4 data taken on 2003 October 22.

  Data taken from the AAT is handled differently, as there is no unified directory structure for either raw or reduced data directories. For IRIS2, INGRID or ISAAC data the best option is specifying where the raw and reduced data directories are, as shown below. ISAAC users should see ISAAC preliminary conversion. for a necessary preliminary naming conversion step.

• The second option is to separately define the raw and reduced data directories. Type the following:

   % oracdr_<instrument> <date>
   % setenv ORAC_DATA_IN <raw_data_directory>
   % setenv ORAC_DATA_OUT <reduced_data_directory>
  

  The directories can either be given as full paths or as relative paths to the current working directory. Here is an example for UIST data using full paths:

   % oracdr_uist 20040414
   % setenv ORAC_DATA_IN /home/bradc/data/oracdr/asteroid/night1
   % setenv ORAC_DATA_OUT /home/scratch/bradc/reduced
  

In the first case $ORAC_DATA_IN and $ORAC_DATA_OUT are still defined, but in terms of the root directory. For instance, re-using the earlier example with CGS4 for UT date 2003 October 22, $ORAC_DATA_IN points to $ORAC_DATA_ROOT/raw/cgs4/20031022/.

ORAC-DR operates in $ORAC_DATA_OUT, irrespective of what your current working directory is when you invoke it. Your current directory remains unchanged.

It is highly recommended to work in directories on disks local to the computer running the pipeline. Processing over NFS-mounted drives can be many times slower and can degrade the performance seen by other users. Running ORAC-DR on a Linux computer over NFS-mounted drives can also lead to corrupted files, crashing of the pipeline, or computer lockups.