Chandra Announcement: CalDB version 4.12.4, Contributed Scripts and Modules Version 4.18.1 released

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Tara Gokas

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Apr 27, 2026, 2:05:57 PM (2 days ago) Apr 27
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Chandra CalDB version 4.12.4, Contributed Scripts and Modules Version 4.18.1 released


The Chandra X-Ray Center is pleased to announce the release of version 4.12.4 of the Chandra Calibration Database (CalDB) and Version 4.18.1 of the Contributed Scripts and Modules package for CIAO.


Chandra CalDB version 4.12.4


This upgrade includes the following items:

  • ACIS CONTAM File Library Reduction

    • CXC is removing twelve old (upstaged) CONTAM files, versions 4-15, from CalDB.

    • These old files are now available by a separate download file.

  • Reduction of the lower FP_TEMP limit to -125.0C in the ACIS P2_RESP -119 to -120C file.

    • The filename and calibration data are not changed.

    • This allows mkacisrmf input file selection for very cold observations.

    • Most users are not affected.


For details on this release, please see the CalDB 4.12.4 Release Notes located on the CXC CalDB web pages.


See also "How CalDB 4.12.4 Affects Your Analysis" in the CIAO Release Notes.


Instructions on how to download the CalDB 4.12.4 upgrade can be found on the CIAO download page wherein users may select either the Conda installation option or the ciao-install option.


Manual download and installation instructions are also available on the CalDB Downloads page.


Users who do not wish to download the full CalDB, but would rather access it via the web for their specific observations only, may use the CIAO contributed script download_obsid_caldb. Note that the web-accessible CalDB may take a day or two to be upgraded to this latest CalDB release.


As always, please send questions and requests for enhancements to the CXC HelpDesk.




Version 4.18.1 of the Contributed Scripts and Modules package 



The release has three main changes to support processing Chandra data: the acis_split_evt_by_fptemp script now reports if an observation includes temperatures outside the calibrated range for more than 5% of the observation; chandra_repro has gained the tg_orders parameter to select the grating orders to create; and patch_hrc_ssc has had a corner-case fixed that could have resulted in several hundred seconds of corrupted data being included at the start of the observation. Several other scripts and packages have seen minor updates. Details of the changes can be found at the “Scripts Package: Version History” page.

Upgrade instructions are included below.



What version of the contributed package do I have installed?


The following command gives the installed versions of CIAO and the contributed package:


    % ciaover -v | egrep 'CIAO|Contrib'


If the output does not match the text below then an update is needed:


    CIAO        : CIAO 4.18.0 Monday, December 08, 2025

    Contrib     : Package release 1  Tuesday, April 21, 2026



The check_ciao_version script can also be used (if the contributed package is installed).


How do I upgrade (or install) the package?

 

For CIAO installed with the ciao-install script, the contributed package can be upgraded with the same script: please see https://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao/download/ciao_install.html


Users of the conda installation can update the contributed scripts package by running the following, where <env> is the name of the conda environment where CIAO is installed:


  % conda update -n <env> -c https://cxc.cfa.harvard.edu/conda/ciao ciao-contrib


Users of the CIAO DMG disk image (macOS only) can find the updated DMG file at https://cxc.cfa.harvard.edu/ciao/download/ciao_dmg.html 


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