1.7 Non-proprietary STIS Data

During regular STIS operations, the majority of existing STIS data is non-proprietary and available for retrieval from the HST Data Archive. The data include, but are not limited to, data taken under the Treasury GO Programs and Long-term GO Programs. Observations taken as part of our calibration programs are nominally non-proprietary as soon as they are in the archive. Additionally, GTO and GO observations normally become available when their proprietary periods expire. For most programs this occurs six months after the data are archived, although for selected programs a shorter period may apply. You can use the MAST portal or the HST Archive Web interface to search for such data directly. Any such data may be freely acquired, as described in the STIS Data Handbook, for technical or scientific use. Examples of non-proprietary STIS science data are shown as illustrative examples throughout this Handbook.

All STIS data collected prior to the Side-2 failure have been reprocessed in the same way that all other data are processed. Formerly, those data were reprocessed using a modified version of the ingest pipeline and stored in the On-The-Fly Reprocessing system (OTFR), which has since been replaced by the HST Online Cache. All STIS data collected prior to the Side-2 failure are available to the community on the HST Online Cache, alongside all other data. For general information regarding obtaining HST data, see the overview in the HST Data Handbook.  Note that the files in the archive will be reprocessed automatically when the software or reference files are updated. For information on the appropriate reference files, see https://archive.stsci.edu/hst/help/bestref_help.html.

As part of the original STIS re-calibration and re-ingest for the OTFR, science exposures that lacked associated auto-wavecals but that did have GO wavecals were identified.  For those cases, the science data and GO lamp exposures were combined into associations that treat the GO wavecals in the same way as auto-wavecals. As a side effect of the association of GO wavecals, the science exposures involved have new dataset names, and the lamp exposures now used as wavecals will no longer appear in the archive catalog as independent datasets.

STIS data taken after the 2009 repair are processed through the pipeline soon after the observations are completed, using the most up-to-date versions of the software and reference files. GO wavecals are associated with the corresponding science exposures in the same manner as auto-wavecal exposures were prior to the Side-2 failure, and do not appear in the archive catalog as independent datasets.