The IUE Spectral Image Processing System, known as IUESIPS, was the
standard production processing system used for IUE data from the
beginning of the mission. The system was used to apply standard
calibrations and extractions to the raw data, and provide standard data
products to IUE Guest Observers.
The IUESIPS software was used to process IUE data over a nearly 19 year
time span. During that time, there were many changes to the processing
algorithms and calibrations. When requested by researchers, images were
reprocessed with more up-to-date software, but most of the data were
never reprocessed with IUESIPS. The IUESIPS archive is thus rather
heterogeneous, reflecting the many changes made to the processing system
over time.
During the last several years of the IUE Project, the new, improved
processing system known as NEWSIPS was developed
and put into place. All IUE
data have been reprocessed with the NEWSIPS software to produce the IUE
Final Archive. However, many of the papers in the literature are based
on the IUESIPS version of the data.
