Konus-Wind X-ray Light Curves

Konus-Wind light curves for each triggered mode event are presented in ASCII and IDL SAV formats, the data description is available in the top of the ASCII file and in the "description" section of the SAV file.

Due to Wind's rotation, Konus-Wind suffers from occultations from other instruments and spacecraft structures, which appear on millisecond timescales as dips in the light curves with a period of ∼3 s. The total durations of the dips per rotation period constitute ∼200 ms for S2 and ∼600 ms for S1; and the appropriate time intervals are removed from the light curves to ensure data reliability.

Konus-Wind Spectral Data

The Konus-Wind X-ray spectral data are presented in the following files (in the FITS format):

• *_1.pha: spectra in the 1st energy range (approx. 20-1200 keV, 63 energy channels, 64 time intervals).
• *_2.pha: spectra in the 2nd energy range (approx. 0.4-15.8 MeV, 60 energy channels, 64 time intervals).
• *_3.pha: spectra in the 1st energy range (approx. 20-1250 keV, 63 energy channels, 64 time intervals), is used instead of _1.pha if _1.pha is damaged.
• *_1.rmf: instrument response matrix for the 1st energy range.
• *_2.rmf: instrument response matrix for the 2nd energy range.
• *_3.rmf: instrument response matrix for the 1st energy range, is used instead of _1.rmf if _1.pha is damaged.
• *.arf: auxiliary response file. The actual response matrix is calculated by convolving the ARF and the corresponding RMF matrices.
• *_1_bg.pha: background spectrum in the 1st energy range for the flare which doesn't have its own background spectra. This spectrum is taken from another triggered event with close background, difference between background estimations for the flare and for this event is set in SYS_ERR column in background file.
• *_2_bg.pha: background spectrum in the 2nd energy range by analogy with *_1_bg.pha.

The spectrum accumulation intervals are the same for both energy ranges.

Processing the data in the SolarSoft OSPEX package may be done in two possible ways:

1. The interface routine which enables OSPEX to read the Konus-WIND data and do the remote search is now included to the SolarSoft OSPEX package (an update may be required).
2. The routine konus_data.pro for reading the data can be also downloaded from here (no SolarSoft update is needed in this case); the routine should be placed somewhere in the SolarSoft search path. The data files (i.e., PHA-1, RMF-1 and ARF for the 1st energy range or PHA-2, RMF-2 and ARF for the 2nd energy range) should be placed in the same directory. Then the data are read by the following commands:

1. Launch OSPEX, e.g.: IDL> o=ospex()
2. Register the interface routine, e.g.: IDL> o->set, spex_file_reader='konus'
3. In the SPEX -> Select Input panel (Spectrum or Image File -> Browse), open the necessary PHA file (PHA-1 or PHA-2). The response matrix will be loaded automatically (there is no need to specify the SRM file separately).

PHA-II to PHA-I

SumKonusSpectra is unix util for extracting or suming individual spectra from pha-II.

Download source code

Result is pha-I file with one spectrum in counts/s.