binfil: Create a binary file from an IRAF image

Package: proto

Usage

binfil input

Parameters

input: The list of input images to be converted.

scale_fact = 1.0: A multiplicative scale factor to be applied to each pixel during the conversion process. This parameter provides the means to minimize loss of precision when converting from the dynamic range of the IRAF image pixels to the dynamic range of the output 16-bit signed integer, -32768 to 32767.

header = no: Prepend a short descriptive header to the output binary raster file?

Description

BINFIL generates a simple signed 16-bit binary raster file from IRAF images. BINFIL can be useful when programs other than IRAF applications are to be used to examine the data. The format of the resulting file is a simple string of pixels, with the exception that the first 90 bytes or 45 words may optionally form a minimal header.

The header elements are stored as follows:

word 1    : nrows
word 2    : ncols
word 3    : IRAF pixel type flag
word 4-13 : reserved space
word 14-45: image title (ASCII 64 bytes)

Pixels from the input images are converted to short integers after scaling by the scale_fact parameter. The resultant pixel values are limited to the maximum range of a short integer and then written to the binary file.

The output binary file assumes the name of the input image with an appended ".b" to indicate binary.

Examples

Convert the IRAF image irafimage to the binary file irafimage.b.

cl> binfil irafimage scale=0.01

Time requirements

Bugs

Only the first 64 characters of the image title are placed in the binary file header.

There is no way to specify the output binary file names.