Index: trunk/ppSim/src/ppSimUtils.c
===================================================================
--- trunk/ppSim/src/ppSimUtils.c	(revision 41173)
+++ trunk/ppSim/src/ppSimUtils.c	(revision 41331)
@@ -272,4 +272,18 @@
 }
 
+float ppSimGetSkyRate (psMetadata *recipe) {
+
+  bool status; 
+
+  float skyRate      = psMetadataLookupF32(&status, recipe, "SKY.RATE"); // Sky rate
+  if (!isnan(skyRate)) {
+    float zp       = psMetadataLookupF32(&status, recipe, "ZEROPOINT");   assert (status);
+    float scale    = psMetadataLookupF32(&status, recipe, "PIXEL.SCALE"); assert (status);
+    float skyMags  = psMetadataLookupF32(&status, recipe, "SKY.MAGS");    assert (status);
+    skyRate = scale * scale * ppSimMagToFlux (skyMags, zp);
+  }
+  return skyRate;
+}
+
 psArray *ppSimSelectSources (pmConfig *config, const pmFPAview *view, const char *filename) {