Subject: OFWG Recommendation R9 - The OGIP data quality flag convention

From: "Ian M George, Code 668, NASA/GSFC, USA (Usque ad mortem bibendum)" <GEORGE at lheavx.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 1994 10:31:00 -0400 (EDT)

At a meeting on 1994 Jul 06, the OGIP FITS Working Group (OFWG) 
raised its earlier preliminarily recommendation p20.3 regarding the 
values used to flag good & bad data within FITS datasets produced by 
the OGIP to the lofty status of a full recommendation:

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OFWG Recommendation R9
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 	   | THE OGIP DATA QUALITY FLAG CONVENTION |
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						    Version: 1994 Jul 06

The meaning and use of quality flags is often specific to a given
instrument and/or data type. However, when devising quality flags for new
FITS files, the OFWG recommends that the integer value 0 (zero) be used to
indicate that the data to which the flag refers is of GOOD quality, and is
to be automatically used by downstream software. 

An instrument/dataset/application-specific scale of non-zero quality flag 
values can be used to indicate why the data is considered of bad quality,
the degree of 'badness', and data flagged to be ignored in downstream 
applications by the user.

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Ian M George 					
NASA/GSFC OFWG
1994 Jul 11