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Beta Release FAQ

 		CASA Beta Release Notes:

Valid for Beta patch 1 (CASA Version 2.0 Rev 4769).

 What's New in this Release

There are a number of new and/or improved features available in Patch 1.0:

  • Support for some 64-bit systems (see below);
  • Polarization Calibration (polcal) is now available;
  • Improvements to GUI plotting and flaggin of data and calibration (plotxy, plotcaly);
  • A number of new Image Analysis tasks:
    • imstat - statistics in a region of an image;
    • imcontsub - image-based continuum subtraction;
    • immath - simple mathematics between images;
  • A new calibration task (hanningsmooth) to apply simple Hanning smoothing to a spectral-line visibility dataset:
  • A greatly expanded set of single-dish (SD) analysis tasks, including:
    • sdaverage - data selection, calibartion, and averaging;
    • sdbaseline - fit/remove a spectral baseline;
    • sdcdal - sdaverage, sdsmooth, and sdbaseline in one task;
    • sdsdcoadd - coadd multiple scantables into one;
    • sdfit - fit a spectral line;
    • sdflag - spectral flagging task;
    • sdplot - plotting task;
    • sdlist - list summary of single dish data;
    • sdsave - save the SD spectra in various format;
    • sdscale - scale the SD spectra;
    • sdsmooth - smoothing of spectra;
    • sdstat - list statistics of spectral region;
  • some cleanup of logger messages;
  • a new casalogger GUI for MacOSX (will appear as Console);
  • sundry bug fixes.

Supported Platforms

Note that the Beta Release is only available for a limited number of supported platforms and OS:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5 (32 and 64 bit)
  • Red Hat Fedora Core 6 and 7 (32 bit only)
  • Macintosh OSX (for Intel Macs, versions 10.4.7 and later, 32 bit only)

Science Scope

The Beta Release is aimed at supporting basic interferometric data reduction. It will support the import of data in a limited number of formats, and a reasonably full set of processing capabilities for only a limited number of observing modes. These are:

For more information, see the Beta Release Known Issues and FAQ page.

Functionality
  • A set of tasks are available for basic reduction/analysis needs: 
    Import/Export    Information  Data Editing  Display/Plot
-------------    -----------  ------------  ------------
importvla        listcal      flagautocorr  clearplot
(importasdm)     listhistory  flagdata      plotants 
importfits       listobs      flagmanager   plotcal
importuvfits     listvis      plotxy        plotxy
exportfits       imhead                     viewer
exportuvfits     imstat

Calibration      Imaging      Modelling     Utility
-----------      -------      ---------     -------
accum            clean        setjy         help task
applycal         deconvolve   uvcontsub     help par.parameter
bandpass         feather      uvmodelfit    taskhelp
(blcal)          ft                         tasklist
gaincal          invert                     browsetable
fluxscale        makemask                   clearplot
(fringecal)      mosaic                     clearstat
clearcal                                    concat
listcal                                     filecatalog
smoothcal                                   startup
polcal                                      split
hanningsmooth                                  
                                                 

Image Analysis   Simulation   Single Dish
--------------   ----------   -----------
imhead           (almasimmos) sdaverage
immath                        sdbaseline
immoments                     sdcal
imstat                        sdcoadd
regridimage                   sdfit
                              sdflag
                              sdlist
                              sdplot
                              sdsave
                              sdscale
                              sdsmooth
                              sdsdtat
  • accum : Accumulate calibration solutions into a cumulative table
  • (almasimmos) : ALMA mosaic simulation task (prototype)
  • applycal : Apply calculated calibration solutions
  • bandpass : Calculate a bandpass calibration solution
  • (blcal) : ATF: Calculate a baseline-based calibration solution (prototype)
  • browsetable : Browse a visibility data set or calibration table
  • casalogger : FUNCTION - invoke to call up the logger gui
  • clean : Calculate a deconvolved image with selected clean algorithm
  • clearcal : Re-initialize visibility data set calibration data
  • clearplot : Clear matplotlib plotter and all layers
  • clearstat : Clear all read/write locks on tables
  • concat : Concatenate two visibility data sets
  • deconvolve : Image based deconvolver
  • exportfits : Convert a CASA image to a FITS image
  • exportuvfits : Export MS to UVFITS file
  • feather : Feather together an interferometer and a single dish image in the Fourier plane
  • filecatalog : File Catalog GUI
  • find : Find a string in the task help
  • flagautocorr : Flag autocorrelations (typically in a filled VLA data set)
  • flagdata : Flag data based on time, baseline, antenna, clip, etc
  • flagmanager : Enable list, save, restore and delete of flag versions
  • fluxscale : Bootstrap the flux density scale from standard calibraters
  • (fringecal) : ATF:Calculate a baseline-based fringe-fitting soln (phase, delay, delay-rate)
  • ft : Fourier transform the specified model (or component list)
  • gaincal : Calculate gain calibration solutions
  • polcal : Calculate instrumental polarization calibration solutions
  • hanningsmooth: Hanning smooth frequency channel data to remove Gibbs ringing
  • imhead : List/set image header properties
  • immath : Perform math on images
  • immoments : Compute moments from an image (see URM for mathematical details)
  • (importasdm) : ATF:Convert an ALMA Science Data Model directory to a CASA data set (MS)
  • importfits : Convert a FITS image to a CASA image
  • importuvfits : Convert a UVFITS file to a CASA visibility data set (MS)
  • importvla : Convert VLA archive file(s) to a CASA visibility data set (MS)
  • imstat : Displays statistical information on an image or image region
  • invert : Calculate a dirty image and dirty beam
  • listcal : List calibration solutions to terminal
  • listhistory : List the processing history of a data set
  • listobs : List the observations in a data set
  • listvis : List visibility table.
  • makemask : Calculate mask from image or visibility data set
  • mosaic : Calculate a multi-field deconvolved image with selected clean algorithm
  • plotants : Plot the antenna distribution in local reference frame
  • plotcal : Plot calibration solutions
  • plotxy : Plot points for selected X and Y axes
  • regridimage : Grid image to same shape and coordinates as template
  • sdaverage : ASAP SD task: do data selection, calibartion, and averaging
  • sdbaseline : ASAP SD task: fit/remove a spectral baseline
  • sdcdal : ASAP SD task: do sdaverage, sdsmooth, and sdbaseline in one task
  • sdsdcoadd : ASAP SD task: coadd multiple scantables into one
  • sdfit : ASAP SD task: fit a spectral line
  • sdflag : ASAP SD spectral flagging task
  • sdplot : ASAP SD plotting task
  • sdlist : ASAP SD task: list summary of single dish data
  • sdsave : ASAP SD task: save the sd spectra in various format
  • sdscale : ASAP SD task: scale the sd spectra
  • sdsmooth : ASAP SD task: do smoothing of spectra
  • sdstat : ASAP SD task: list statistics of spectral region
  • setjy : Compute the model visibility for a specified source flux density
  • smoothcal : Produce a smoothed calibration table
  • split : Create a new data set (MS) from a subset of an existing data set (MS)
  • tget : Recover/set parameters for a specified task
  • uvcontsub : Continuum fitting and subtraction in the uv plane
  • uvmodelfit : Fit a single component source model to the uv data
  • viewer : View an image or visibility data set

Please send any comments or questions about CASA to casa-request@nrao.edu

Copyright © 1995-2007 Associated Universities Inc., Washington, D.C.

This code is available under the terms of the GNU General Public Lincense

Modified on Wednesday, 24-Jun-2009 10:11:46 MDT