The file type BIN indicates tables containing up to 255 binned data sets, each having the same length and bin size. The number of defined rows corresponds to the number of bins in every data set while the number of defined columns depends on the number of separate data sets in the table. The first column holds the start values of each bin. In the case of spectral BIN files (i.e. binning the photons in pulse height - label AMPL) the first column contains the lowest channel number in that bin and has the standard label L_CH (see Table 2.2). The first column in BIN files binned with respect to the label TIME (standard label S_TI) provides the start time for each bin relative to the first listed bin, i.e. the first bin has always start time 0.0 (see Table 2.3). Other columns in binned files list the number of photons (counts) per bin for the corresponding data sets. Their labels can be defined by the user within the relevant Data Preparation commands.
Table 2.3: Example of a time binned file
Files of type IMA represent arrays of two-dimensionally binned data. They obey the standards of MIDAS images. Two-dimensional binning is performed with respect to the spatial coordinates (labels XPIX,YPIX or XDET,YDET) of the photon events. Therefore IMA files contain the spatial distribution of photons either in sky or detector coordinates.