Help on building raw data requests
The "Build Raw Data Request" dialog is used to construct commands to be sent to the LDAS frameAPI. Raw data can be retrieved in a few different ways, and in a few different formats. Output is written to disk file(s), with a message stating the filename(s) created. (guild does not have the capability to display time series data.) Note that the frameAPI currently only has access to data in certain disk directories; in particular, data stored in the hpss archive is not yet available through the frameAPI.
Data is accessed according to detector code, data type, and time. The detector code (e.g. "H" for Hanford) is specified with radiobuttons at the top of the dialog box which (hopefully) reflect what data is available from the LDAS server. There is an entry widget to specify the data type; if this is left blank, the default data type (full-rate raw data) will be assumed. There is also a "List" button to pop up a window with a list of available data types; this is not active initially, but becomes active once you click on the "Check" button to check the available time range and data types. Clicking on an item in the list in the pop-up window copies that value back into the entry widget in the main dialog window.
Times may be specified in GPS seconds (or as an arithmetic expression giving GPS seconds, such as "630454213-21*60*60"), or as nearly any unambiguous date-time string, such as "jan 1 2001" (midnight at the beginning of January 1 in the year 2001), "Jan 15 5:04" (5:04 on January 15 of the current year), "1/19/01 5:15", "19-jan-2001 18:45 cst", "today 3:24pm pdt", "now", "now-1000sec", "now -1hour", "now - 3 days", etc. Times are assumed to be UTC unless you specify a time zone. If only a start time is specified, data for a one-second time interval will be returned. If start and end times are specified, then either multiple one-second files or a single long file will be returned, depending on the operation selected (see below).
You can find out the time range for which data is available by pressing the "Check" button. This submits a job to the current LDAS server, and when the job finishes, the time range will be displayed to the right of the "Check" button (which becomes a "Recheck" button). Note that the overall time range is not the whole story if there are multiple datasets covering disjoint time intervals, and does not distinguish between different detectors or different data types. You can pop up a window with complete information about the cached data by clicking on the "Details" button.
You may specify a list of channels to be retrieved; if the list is empty, all channels will be retrieved. To get a list of available channels, press the "List" button to the right of the Channels entry widget to submit the appropriate LDAS job. Double-clicking on a channel name in the resulting window causes that channel to be added to the list to be retrieved. Channel names are case-insensitive.
The available operations are as follows:
For further information about these operations, see http://ldas-sw.ligo.caltech.edu/doc/userAPI/html
As you construct the data query, guild calculates estimates for the size of the output file(s) and the total time required, and displays them just above the \"Submit\" button. These estimates are based on the data collected during the E7 run. The size estimate should be pretty accurate, but the time estimate is just a ballpark figure using rough estimates of LDAS processing time and the time required to copy the results over the network. Your results may vary.