SOFIA Known Bugs and Issues
Software version released: January 2025.
This list last updated: January 2025
Table of Contents
Reporting BugsSuggested Browsers
Known Major Bugs
Known Minor Bugs
Idiosyncrasies
Reporting Bugs
The known bugs and issues in this version of the SOFIA Science Archive service are listed here. If you think you have found a bug, before reporting it, please check this list, and read the online SOFIA Science Archive help. It may be a "feature" we already know about.
If you have found a real bug then please do let us know by sending email to the Help Desk. Please include your operating system version and your browser software and version.
Suggested Browsers and Platforms
- Safari: at least version 15
- Firefox: at least version 120
- Google Chrome: at least version 120
- Edge: at least version 120
- Tablets: iPad Safari : Seems to work ok, though not on the iPhone. Cursory testing of a Droid tablet suggests it probably works ok.
Known Major Bugs
- Some searches time out. If you do some searches (such as
M42 with all the default search options), then some of the instrument
tabs will time out before giving any search results.
Workaround: use a smaller search radiusPosted: January 2025
Known Minor Bugs
- Level 1 data files have strange footprints that make them look
like all-sky observations. If you turn on Level 1 data in your
search and look at the coverage tab in the results, you will get an
Aitoff projection image with boundaries all over the sky.
Workaround: Turn off the Level 1 data until you know which observations to download.Posted: 16 Oct 2020 - Associated AOR search doesn't work every time. If you try
to search for associated AORs, it doesn't always return all the
associated AORs
Workaround: Look in the FITS headers of the observation whose associated AORs you want, find the AOR_IDs listed in the ASSC_AOR keyword, and retrieve them via an AOR search.Posted: January 2025
Known Idiosyncracies
- Data caveats Many data caveats can be found in the online
help.
Posted: January 2025 - Level 0-1 data seem to not always be returned. It feels
like, if you ask for Level 0-1 data in your search and search by
position, you seem to not get all of the available Level 0 or 1 data
returned in your search. However, it is doing what it should be doing!
It comes back to the search radius. The data are in there, and
if you search via "all sky", it of course has no search radius constraints, so
of course it returns all data levels associated with a given target
and AOR combination. If you search by position, you may very well not
return some low level products even if you get the high level
products, because the low level products cover less sky almost by
definition. If you increase the search radius, then you do find them
in a position search.
Workaround: Do the search by position. Make a note of the AOR ID for the observations you want. Return to the search screen. Change the search to "all-sky", limit it to the instrument you want, and ask for Level 0 and/or 1. In the results, go to the instrument tab, turn on the filters, and filter down to just include the AOR ID in question. The Level 0 and/or 1 data will appear in that list.Posted : 24 May 2023, updated January 2025 - Large coverage footprints
In many cases among the higher level data, the valid data really is a small square embedded within a larger square of NaNs. The coverage software sees the larger pixel dimensions in the FITS headers and draws the larger square.
Posted: 5 December 2019 - 'Lost' Downloads
Depending on how your browser is configured, when you download data, your browser may save it in a counter-intuitive place. Under Safari (on the Mac), for small downloads, it might not appear to have done anything at all. It actually has; it's trying to be helpful by doing it quickly. To find where your browser has put your data, (a) search on your local disk for recently modified files; (b) look in the preferences for the browser configuration option of where to put downloaded files; or (c) look for a directory called "Downloads" or something similar.
Posted: December 2019 - Strange behavior when requesting catalogs
Our catalog search options depend on other services, often other IRSA services, to search and display the catalogs. Sometimes these other services are down for maintenance or may be experiencing unusually heavy loads. On those occasions, the user may get an "Unresponsive script" error or a "Call failed on the server" error. Please do let us know if you continue to get these errors; we may not be aware of an overloaded or down server.
Posted: December 2019 - Slow behavior when requesting large tables
When rendering long tables, the table can take several seconds to finish loading. For example, if you conduct a search returning 10000 entries, and change the page size from 50 to 2000, the browser will struggle for a few seconds trying to load the table. A red message appears to let you know that that is what is going on.
Posted: December 2019 - Strange behavior, often transient
Sometimes there can be unusual behavior in the tool. If something isn't working (especially if it used to work), try opening a new window without cookies, e.g., a "private window" in Firefox, or an "incognito window" in Chrome) and start the tool there. This usually resolves most of the odd behavior.
Posted: 6 December 2019 - Background monitor email notification
When you send something to the background monitor, it always gives you the choice of sending email to you when the job is done. However, it only actually sends you email for packaging files, not catalog search results.
Posted: January 2025