Tempo2

Introduction

Tempo2 is a new version of the tempo pulsar timing package. It has been designed for the new generation of high precision pulsar timing experiments where 100ns rms residuals are (or will be) common. Tempo2 also provides, for the first time, the opportunity to analyse the pulse arrival times for multiple pulsars simultaneously which is necessary for the detection of global effects such as terrestrial clock irregularities, problems with the planetary ephemeris and in the search for gravitational waves.

Current version

The version provided and documented here is a beta-release. Not all the algorithms have been implemented or tested fully. We are currently preparing a set of three papers and will provide the first complete release with the acceptance of these paper. For now, this beta-version should be used to become familiar with the tempo2 software and for any bugs to be found and new, useful features added. This software will therefore be developing fast and new "test-releases" will be available at regular intervals. A feedback form is provided at the bottom of this webpage. Please provide us with your positive or negative comments, suggestions and information on bugs that you find.

Download

For users that can access the ATNF CVS repository it is easiest to check-out soft_atnf/tempo2. Otherwise the source-code and compilation instructions can be obtained below

Current version:

Download (19 MB, v1.9)

Download (1.1 MB, v 1.9 minus large files from $TEMPO2/ephemeris)

Version changes

Publically available data files

The following data files are publically available for download. Please provide us with details using the feedback form below if you wish to make your data files publically available from this site.

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Description: Test data-sets described in the documentation. Simple simulated data for PSR J0437-4715. Created using the "fake" plugin as part of tempo2.
Provided by: G. Hobbs
Required reference: None

 psr1.par psr1_1.par psr1.tim 

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Previous version:

Download (18 MB, v1.8)

Download (1.1 MB, v 1.8 minus large files from $TEMPO2/ephemeris)

Installation instructions

gunzip tempo2.tar.gz
tar -xvf tempo2.tar

To compile and install, follow the instructions in the file INSTALL. Test the compiled binary using tempo2 -h.

Plug-in packages for tempo2

The distribution of tempo2 above contains various plugin packages that have been created by the tempo2 developers at the ATNF. It is straightforward to produce new plugins. Here we provide external links to tempo2 plugins that have been developed.

Name	Author	Download	Description
HighEnergy	Michael Rissi	http://ihp-pw1.ethz.ch/rissim/	HighEnergy_plug.C is a plugin to compute different statistical tests (like Rayleigh, Kuiper, Zm2 or H-test), used to search for periodicities in time series. With this plugin, the site times of arrivals are corrected to the solar barycenter by TEMPO2 and then the tests mentioned above are computed.

Clock correction database utilities

Also available is a package of auxiliary software for updating (update_clkcorr) and analysing (compare_clkcorr) tempo2 clock correction files. Also included is a utility (make_time_dat) for producing TEMPO-format time.dat entries from tempo2 clock correction files. Run programs with -h to obtain usage information.

Download clock correction auxiliary software (11 KB)

Tutorials/Overview/Papers

An overview of tempo2 and its graphical interfaces.

Documentation (pdf)

The following papers have been accepted:

• Hobbs, Edwards & Manchester, TEMPO2, a new pulsar timing package. I: Software and Usage, accepted by MNRAS (in press)

The following papers are in preparation:

• Edwards & Hobbs, TEMPO2, a new pulsar timing package. II: Timing model and precision estimates

Feedback

For feedback please use our new feedback form

G.H. (May 2005)