Xissim simulates XIS events of faked photons generated with mkphlist, by taking the XRT efficiency and the XIS response into account. To run xissim, you need to specify the satellite Euler angles (see Step 1) and calibration data files (telescope definition, XRT, pre-collimator and XIS response - all are included in the distribution file for xissim.
The output FITS file contains event and GTI extensions. The current version of xissim does not consider non X-ray background, event pile-up, event grade, nor CCD exposure frames. Though the output event files contains all the columns in the FITS files of the real data, the STATUS and GRADE columns are filled with 0, while the PHA column has the same value as the PI column. The output FITS file also contain the information of the faked photons. Make sure that you set up correct calibration files, or xissim perhaps outputs a wrong result without any warning.
The following is the command used for simulating Eta Carinae with the XIS0 (FI chip) & XIS1 (BI chip) detector. We also input faked photon lists for the two bright sources at the top and the right (wr25.photon, hd93250.photon).../linux/xissim clobber=yes \
teldef_file=../refdata/ae_xi0_teldef_20050922.fits \
leapfile=../refdata/leapsec_010905.fits \
ea_phi=161.2650 ea_theta=149.6845 ea_psi=106.0 \
infile1=etacar.photon infile2=wr25.photon infile3=hd93250.photon infile4=none \
xrtfile=../refdata/ae_xrt0_mirror_20050505.fits \
reffile=../refdata/ae_xrta_reflect_20050808.fits \
precollimatorfile=../refdata/ae_xrt0_pcol_20050505.fits \
precollimatorreffile=../refdata/ae_xrta_reflect_20050808.fits \
scatterindexfile=../refdata/ae_xrta_backprof_20050614.fits \
thermal_shield_file=../refdata/ae_xrta_shield_20051129.fits \
xis_rmffile=../refdata/ae_xi0_20051102.rmf \
xis_efficiency=yes xis_chip_select=yes outfile=xis0_etacar.evt
../linux/xissim clobber=yes \
teldef_file=../refdata/ae_xi1_teldef_20050922.fits \
leapfile=../refdata/leapsec_010905.fits \
ea_phi=161.2650 ea_theta=149.6845 ea_psi=106.0 \
infile1=etacar.photon infile2=wr25.photon infile3=hd93250.photon infile4=none \
xrtfile=../refdata/ae_xrt1_mirror_20050505.fits \
reffile=../refdata/ae_xrta_reflect_20050808.fits \
precollimatorfile=../refdata/ae_xrt1_pcol_20050505.fits \
precollimatorreffile=../refdata/ae_xrta_reflect_20050808.fits \
scatterindexfile=../refdata/ae_xrta_backprof_20050614.fits \
thermal_shield_file=../refdata/ae_xrta_shield_20051129.fits \
xis_rmffile=../refdata/ae_xi1_20051103.rmf \
xis_efficiency=yes xis_chip_select=yes outfile=xis1_etacar.evt
If you choose xis_chip_select=no, the events outside the XIS FOV are also recorded in the output FITS file with the SEGMENT column at -1.
The output FITS file (xis0_etacar.evt, xis1_etacar.evt) can be analyzed as normal data with the generic software such as xselect, ximage, xspec, and xronos
though we do not have an option to simulate an arbitary light curve. In
the image below, the left panel shows the result of the simulation and
the right panel shows the observing image of the XIS 0. The simulated image is too sharp (no aspect
jitter, no background), therefore the shadows of the telescope support
structures stand out more, while the observing image has the
calibration sources the the top corners. Except these features, both
images look similar!