mConvert

Description:

mConvert changes the datatype of an image. When converting to floating point, no additional information is needed. However, when converting from higher precision (e.g. 64-bit floating point) to lower (e.g. 16-bit integer), scaling information is necessary. This can be given explicitly by the user or guessed by the program.

Syntax:

mConvert [-d level] [-s statusfile] [-b bitpix] [-min minval] [-max maxval] [-blank blankval] in.fits out.fits

Switches:

-d level

Turns on debugging to the specified level (1-3).

-s statusfile

mBgModel output and errors are written to statusfile instead of to stdout.

-b bitpix

BITPIX value for the output FITS file (default is -64). Possible values are:

• 8 (character or unsigned binary integer)
• 16 (16-bit integer)
• 32 (32-bit integer)
• -32 (single precision floating point)
• -64 (double precision floating point).

-min minval

Pixel data value in the input image which should be treated as a minimum (value of 0) in the output image when converting from floating point to integer. (default for BITPIX 8: 0; BITPIX 16: -32767; BITPIX 32: -2147483647

-max maxval

Pixel data value in the input image which should be treated as a maximum (value of 255 or 32768) in the output image when converting from floating point to integer. (Default for BITPIX 8: 255; BITPIX 16: 32768; BITPIX 32: 2147483648)

-blank blankval

If converting down to an integer scale: value to be used in the output image to represent blank pixels (NaN) from the input image. Default value is minval.

Arguments:

in.fits

Input image filename

out.fits

Output image filename.

Results:

Output image with the datatype as specified by the user (BITPIX).

Examples:

Converting a single-precision image down to a 16-bit integer BITPIX, when the data is clustered between values of -0.01 and 0.1:

$ mConvert -b 16 -min -0.01 -max 0.1 -blank -32767 acs.fits acs_bitpix16.fits

[struct stat="OK"]

Return Codes:

• [struct stat="OK"]
• [struct stat="ERROR", msg="Usage: Convert [-d level] [-s statusfile] [-b bitpix] [-min minval] [-max maxval] [-blank blankval] in.fits out.fits"]
• [struct stat="ERROR", msg="No status file name given"] (-s flag was used without an argument)
• [struct stat="ERROR", msg="Cannot open status file: statusfile"]
• [struct stat="ERROR", msg="No debug level given"] (-d flag was used without an argument)
• [struct stat="ERROR", msg="Debug level string is invalid: 'debug-level'"]
• [struct stat="ERROR", msg="Debug level value cannot be negative"]
• [struct stat="ERROR", msg="No bitpix value given"] (-b flag was used without an argument)
• [struct stat="ERROR", msg="Bitpix string is invalid: 'bitpix'"]
• [struct stat="ERROR", msg="Bitpix must be one of (8, 16, 32, -32, -64)"]
• [struct stat="ERROR", msg="No range min value given"] (-min flag was used without an argument)
• [struct stat="ERROR", msg="Range min string is invalid: 'min'"]
• [struct stat="ERROR", msg="No range max value given"] (-max flag was used without an argument)
• [struct stat="ERROR", msg="Range max string is invalid: 'max'"]
• [struct stat="ERROR", msg="No blank value given"] (-blank flag was used without an argument)
• [struct stat="ERROR", msg="Blank string is invalid: 'blank'"]
• [struct stat="ERROR", msg="Invalid input file 'in.fits'"]
• [struct stat="ERROR", msg="Invalid output file 'out.fits'"]
• [struct stat="ERROR", msg="general error message"]
• [struct stat="ERROR", status="FITS error code", msg="FITS library error message"]