Description

A componentlist is a tool that contains functions that manipulate components. A component is a functional representation of the sky brightness - point source, disk, Gaussian, etc.

 

Note for those new to CASA: components are not used explicitly in cleaning, rather the model is stored as an image.  Components are useful for e.g. simulation and modifying images (ia.modify), but one will not in general have a clean component list associated with cleaning data.

The simplest way to make a componentlist tool is to use cl.addcomponent:

cl.done()   # since the tool is persistent, it is safest to close it before beginning

cl.addcomponent(dir='J2000 10h30m00 -20d00m00.0', flux=[2.3,0,0,0])  # add a single point source component with Stokes I=2.3Jy and other Stokes parameters 0

cl.rename("myList.cl")  # associate with table on disk

cl.done() # flush buffers and ensure the table is written.

 

One can open a list on disk with cl.open(filename).

 

Componentlists can be converted to/from records (python dictionaries) with cl.torecord() and cl.fromrecord(record).