Motivation

• One canSAS motive:
  • Provide better shared SAS data analysis software
• One means of doing so is through common data formats such as
  • sasCIF, J. Appl. Cryst. (2000). 33, 812-816
  • cansas1d/1.0, http://www.cansas.org/formats/canSAS1d/1.1/doc/
  • bio SAS draft requirements, http://journals.iucr.org/services/sas/

• For 2-D (and higher dimensionality), the job is harder
• Often, 2-D analysis software tries to start with raw data
• Data reduction steps are particular to the instrument as it existed at one specific time.

Thus, data reduction and data analysis are two different tasks. The data reduction is based on the the details of a specific instrument while the data analysis is based on the scientific principles to be evaluated.

Note

It is, and will always be, the responsibility of the instrument team to provide the process of converting the data measurements into Reduced Data.

Reduced data is the data presented for analysis after all instrument-specific artifacts and corrections have been applied. By declaring our objective to store reduced small-angle scattering data, we establish a defined interface that clearly divides the roles. An instrument team must assemble the measured data, apply corrections and adjustments, and then generate the reduced data. Analysis code will expect to receive the reduced data on which to base its operations.