check_quality_flag

aiapy.utils.check_quality_flag(quality)

Interpret the QUALITY flag in the header of an AIA observation.

AIA images are occasionally affected by operations associated with calibration maneuvers or are missing data e.g. due to eclipses. For these operating periods, the QUALITY keyword in the header, a 32-bit integer, records the reason for the operation not being nominal. Various flags for different operating modes are encoded bitwise such that QUALITY can indicate multiple non-nominal operating modes. For more information, see section 7.7.6 of the SDO user guide. This function decodes the QUALITY flag and returns a string indicating the reason(s) for the flags being set. For a nominal operation (QUALITY==0), “nominal” is returned.

Parameters:

quality (int) – Quality flag encoded as an integer. This is typically found in the QUALITY keyword in the FITS header.

Returns:

Messages associated with quality flags that are set.

Return type:

list