MHDRCHECK(1)

NAME
mHdrCheck - Check the validity of a FITS image's header

SYNOPSIS
mHdrCheck [-s statusfile] img.fits

DESCRIPTION
mHdrCheck reads in the header from a FITS image (or an ASCII header template file) and checks to see if any header lines are invalid. If it finds one, it will print out a message stating which keyword is invalid and exit before checking the rest of the header. It will not report on multiple invalid values. If all value are correct, mHdrCheck will print out a "Valid FITS/WCS" message.

OPTIONS

-s statusfile
    Output and errors are sent to statusfile instead of to stdout

ARGUMENTS

img.fits
    Path of FITS file to be validated.

MESSAGES

OK  Valid WCS in FITS file.

OK  Valid FITS/WCS in header file.

ERROR
    Cannot open status file statusfile

ERROR
    File filename not found.

ERROR
    File (filename) is not a FITS image

ERROR
    FITS header lines cannot be greater than 80 characters

ERROR
    No BITPIX keyword in FITS header

ERROR
    No NAXIS keyword in FITS header

ERROR
    No NAXIS1 keyword in FITS header

ERROR
    No NAXIS2 keyword in FITS header

ERROR
    No CTYPE1 keyword in FITS header

ERROR
    No CTYPE2 keyword in FITS header

ERROR
    No CRPIX1 keyword in FITS header

ERROR
    No CRPIX2 keyword in FITS header

ERROR
    No CRVAL1 keyword in FITS header

ERROR
    No CRVAL2 keyword in FITS header

ERROR
    No CDELT1 keyword (or incomplete CD matrix) in FITS header

ERROR
    No CDELT2 keyword (or incomplete CD matrix) in FITS header

ERROR
    BITPIX keyword in FITS header not an integer

ERROR
    Invalid BITPIX in FITS header (must be 8,16,32,64,-32 or -64)

ERROR
    NAXIS keyword in FITS header not an integer

ERROR
    NAXIS keyword in FITS header must be >= 2

ERROR
    NAXIS1 keyword in FITS header not an integer

ERROR
    NAXIS1 keyword in FITS header must be > 0

ERROR
    NAXIS2 keyword in FITS header not an integer

ERROR
    NAXIS2 keyword in FITS header must be > 0

ERROR
    CRPIX1 keyword in FITS header not a real number

ERROR
    CRPIX2 keyword in FITS header not a real number

ERROR
    CRVAL1 keyword in FITS header not a real number

ERROR
    CRVAL2 keyword in FITS header not a real number

ERROR
    CDELT1 keyword in FITS header not a real number

ERROR
    CDELT2 keyword in FITS header not a real number

ERROR
    CROTA2 keyword in FITS header not a real number

ERROR
    CD1_1 keyword in FITS header not a real number

ERROR
    CD1_2 keyword in FITS header not a real number

ERROR
    CD2_1 keyword in FITS header not a real number

ERROR
    CD2_2 keyword in FITS header not a real number

ERROR
    EQUINOX keyword in FITS header not a real number

ERROR
    No WCS information (or not FITS header)

ERROR
    Must have at least two dimensions

ERROR
    Invalid projection

ERROR
    Invalid NAXIS1

ERROR
    Invalid NAXIS2

ERROR
    CTYPE1 and CTYPE2 don't match

ERROR
    Invalid CTYPE1

ERROR
    Invalid CD matrix

ERROR
    Invalid CDELT1

ERROR
    Invalid CDELT2

ERROR
    FITS library error

EXAMPLES

$ mHdrCheck input/badfits/bad-crota2.fits
    [struct stat="ERROR", msg="CROTA2 keyword in FITS header not a real number"]

$ mHdrCheck input/2mass.fits
    [struct stat="OK", msg="Valid FITS/WCS."]

$ mHdrCheck input/badfits/bad-ctype.fits
    [struct stat="ERROR", msg="Invalid projection"]

BUGS
The drizzle algorithm has been implemented but has not been tested in this release.

If a header template contains carriage returns (i.e., created/modified on a Windows machine), the cfitsio library will be unable to read it properly, resulting in the error: [struct stat="ERROR", status=207, msg="illegal character in keyword"]

It is best for the background correction algorithms if the area described in the header template completely encloses all of the input images in their entirety. If parts of input images are "chopped off" by the header template, the background correction will be affected. We recommend you use an expanded header for the reprojection and background modeling steps, returning to the originally desired header size for the final coaddition. The default background matching assumes that there are no non-linear background variations in the individual images (and therefore in the overlap differences). If there is any uncertainty in this regard, it is safer to turn on the "level only" background matching (the "-l" flag in mBgModel.

COPYRIGHT
2001-2015 California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California

If your research uses Montage, please include the following acknowledgement: "This research made use of Montage. It is funded by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number ACI-1440620, and was previously funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Earth Science Technology Office, Computation Technologies Project, under Cooperative Agreement Number NCC5-626 between NASA and the California Institute of Technology."

The Montage distribution includes an adaptation of the MOPEX algorithm developed at the Spitzer Science Center.