Provided by: montage_4.0+dfsg-3_amd64 
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.