The Short Wavelength Spectrometer (SWS) on-board the Infra-red Space Observatory (ISO) has been described by [de Graauw, T. et al.\1996], and the preliminary results of the photometric and wavelength calibration were described by [Schaeidt, S.G. et al.\1996] and [Valentijn, E.A. et al.\1996].
Excellent results have been obtained from SWS, with very low noise measured, especially in band 1. The Off-Line Processing (OLP) products (Auto-Analysis Results, AAR, or to a lesser degree Standard Product Data, SPD) can be used for data analysis, with special processing only needed for exceptional cases.
These exceptions include cases where the source flux is very low (leading to dark-current subtraction problems), the source flux is very high (leading to partial saturation of the detectors), and for users trying to determine narrow line shape and strength from fast AOT 1 observations (as the standard OLP may mark such lines as being glitched).
Information on SWS, its behaviour in-orbit, the data processing pipeline and products and how to start reducing SWS data can be found in the SWS Instrument Data Users Manual (IDUM), [Leech, K. et al.\1997a] - much of the information in this paper has been taken from the IDUM. This document in available on the data CD-ROMS in the aboutiso/docs/sws/idum directory and on the SWS pages of the ISO web site at http://www.iso.vilspa.esa.es/. It is updated approximately twice a year, and between updates relevant information is posted to the ISO web site. Observers should check the ISO web site every few weeks for relevant new documentation.
Observers should also note that Space Research Organization Netherlands (SRON) Groningen has an ISO page at http://www.sron.rug.nl/iso/ and that the ISO Spectrometer Data Centre at the Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), Garching, Germany has a web page at http://www.mpe-garching.mpg.de/iso/isosdc.html.
Two tools are available to general observers for displaying and analysing ISO data. These are the IPAC First Look tools and ISAP, the ISO Spectral Analysis Package for SWS and LWS Auto Analysis Results. Information on the First Look tools can be found at http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/iso/software.html and ISAP may be obtained from http://www.mpe-garching.mpg.de/iso/observer/isap/isap.html.