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Method

The value of a given polar bin is the sum of the values of the image pixels which lie within it, divided by the number of such image pixels and normalised by the axis units. e.g. if 10 image pixels lie in a particular polar bin and each pixel has an area of 2 arcmins by 2 arcmins, then the value of the polar bin will be - the sum of the pixel values, divided by (10 * 2 * 2) and will be in units of 'cnts/square arcminute'.

If a variance array is present in the input file, the output variance of a polar bin is the mean of the variances of the image pixels within that bin. If input variances don't exist then the output variances are calculated from counting statistics.

NB: The algorithm used relies on the fact that the image pixels are square. If the pixels in the image are not square then the program prints a warning message and continues executing.

By default azimuthal distributions are taken such that looking right along the X axis is azimuth=0 and increase moving anti-clockwise. The initial position to call azimuth zero can be specified on the command line by AZSTART = 90, which means start from the North position.



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