Fermi Standard Analysis Environment Documentation—GBM Tools
Welcome to Fermi's Standard Analysis Environment (SAE)! The SAE consists of the basic tools necessary to analyze Fermi data. And this is the place to begin to learn how to install and use these tools.
Currently only the SAE tools necessary for analyzing the GBM data have been released, and consequently only the documentation for these tools is posted here. The SAE in its entirety will be released before the proposal preparation period for Cycle 2 of the Fermi Guest Investigator (GI) Program (approximately November, 2008).
The documentation consists of four sections that will be useful to you at different stages of your mastery of the SAE:
- Installing the science tools — instructions for installing the GBM tools
- Analysis threads — step by step description of a standard GBM spectral analysis
- Cicerone — a detailed description of the analysis environment and its methodology. The Cicerone describes the full SAE, not just the GBM tools.
- Reference manual — a description of each tool and its input.
So how should you begin? This depends on your learning style. If you have a basic understanding of analyzing gamma-ray burst spectra, know something about the GBM, and like to learn by example, then you might want to start by installing the science tools, and then work through the analysis thread.
On the other hand, if you are new to gamma-ray burst spectroscopy, or you would like a more systematic approach, then you might want to start by reading the Cicerone.
To learn about all of a tool's parameters or to remember how to use a tool with which you are already familiar, see the Reference manual.
The documentation is written to be comprehensive and self-contained, and we will update it based on the comments from the user community. If you have some questions, you should first check the FSSC Frequently-Asked-Questions; your question may already have been answered. Finally, you can request assistance through the FSSC helpdesk.