This keyword specifies the density level for plotting the first (dotted) contour line. This contour will be plotted at + f(), where is the mean density of the section that is being plotted, and () the corresponding rms deviation (again, not of the whole map but only of given section). To the best of my knowledge, GraphEnt will allow you to give f a negative value, thus allowing you to start contouring from below the mean density level (although I bet that you could crash either GraphEnt or PGPLOT by giving random values to this parameter). Default is 0.0 (ie, first contour at the mean density).