Making MDI Magnetic Field Synoptic Charts

DESCRIPTION:

The magnetic and intensity Carrington Rotation synoptic charts are generated as soon as the definitive MDI data are processed for the period. They require 3 (or 4?) days of data after the nominal end of the CR.

INSTRUCTIONS: To make the magnetic field charts:

  1. On your own machine (for speed), cd /synoptic/new_scripts/synop_qual.

  2. Run new_cr [CR] for the new Carrington Rotation. You can also run new_cr_noscale to highlight mostly one-pixel cosmic ray effects.
    • The magnetograms for the entire CR (plus a few days after) will pop up in DS9 for you to look at, one day at a time.
    • To set the Cosmic Ray bits edit the file CR####.####-#### where the numbers are the CR, and the first and the last day. Indicate in the file the day and image numbers for which the bit must be set.

    • When finished, on sonar run the file. Save it in the directory CR.BitsSet.Lists NoteOnCosmicRays

    • If any other trouble bits need to be set, run 'udpate' in a sonar window. It will prompt you for the day and image numbers, and the quality bit(s) you want to set. Quality bit definitions are at http://soi.stanford.edu/production/QUALITY/.

  3. On n02 in the directory /synoptic/new_scripts run do.synop #### #### where #### is the single Carrington rotation or a specification for the first and last rotations to be done in a loop.

    • do.synop determines the time parameters for make_magsynop.pl, which puts the new files in /synoptic/carrot/M/####
      • You can ignore the error messages from v2helio about not being able to read the overview.fits files.
      • Missing or skipped magnetograms also generate a notification
    • Each rotation takes roughly 15 minutes to run.

    • See MakeMagSynop for Instructions to manually run make_magsynop.pl

  4. Make the gif images for the fits files that were created by make_magsynop.pl.
    • Run /ssw/gen/setup/ssw_idl on your machine. Then

      • IDL> .run /synoptic/new_scripts/plot_synop

      • IDL> .run /synoptic/new_scripts/synop_gif_loop

    • To make each of the 0, 15 E/W, 30 E/W, 45 E/W, and 60 E/W gif files for both line of sight and radial, do

      • IDL> synop_gif_loop,####,####

    • this calls plot_synop for each set of parameters, e.g. plot_synop in='/synoptic/carrot/M/1909/synop_Ml_30W.1909.fits',/gif,/next,/carrot

      • IDL> exit

  5. Check the images to make sure they look OK. You may need to set additional trouble bits if it looks like a bad image was used, and rerun make_magsynop.pl and remake the gif images. You can check the files online at
  6. Update the file /synoptic/carrot/latest to reflect the latest CR that's available when you have updated the charts.