NAME

       mConvert - Convert FITS data to a different data type (ie, integer to floating-point)

SYNOPSIS

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

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.

OPTIONS

       -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.

RESULT

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

MESSAGES

       OK     [struct stat="OK"]

       ERROR  No status file name given

       ERROR  Cannot open status file: statusfile

       ERROR  No debug level given

       ERROR  Debug level string is invalid: 'debug-level'

       ERROR  Debug level value cannot be negative

       ERROR  No bitpix value given

       ERROR  Bitpix string is invalid: 'bitpix'

       ERROR  Bitpix must be one of (8, 16, 32, -32, -64)

       ERROR  No range min value given

       ERROR  Range min string is invalid: 'min'

       ERROR  No range max value given

       ERROR  Range max string is invalid: 'max'

       ERROR  No blank value given

       ERROR  Blank string is invalid: 'blank'

       ERROR  Invalid input file 'in.fits'

       ERROR  Invalid output file 'out.fits'

       ERROR  general error message

       ERROR  FITS library error message

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"]

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.