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As was discussed at an informal 2006 Meeting of the IAU Commission, this page needs to be re-organized and expanded to include more detailed notes on the existing software suites and utilities. This update will be done in 2006, as time permits. It might be useful to include a standardized description of resources, as can be found for example in the Free Software Directory.
Observation Planning and Calibrator SelectionKeck Interferometer / Palomar Testbed InterferometergetCal is an interferometric observation planning software suite: it and its constituent tools can be used to resolve common star names into standard catalog designations and astrometry; extract visibility calibrators from the Hipparcos catalog according to a variety of geometric, brightness, and astrophysical criteria; compute target zenith and delay accessibility; interface with the Simbad astronomical database, the PTI and KI sequencer GUIs, visibility calibration codes, and sky visualization software. getCal also has other uses, is extremely portable, can be autonomously driven over a list of sources, and can be accessed either from either the Unix command line or a (Perl/Tk) GUI.
Very Large Telescope InterferometerASPRO-VLTI provides tools to determine the optimal VLTI configuration and interferometric calibrators to achieve the user's astrophysical goals. The optimization is performed through estimating synthetic interferometric observables (visibilities) as well as through fitting theoretical models on these quantities. The fitting process takes into account the measurement errors of the interferometric signal.
CHARA ArrayA graphical user interface software tool written in the Interactive Data Language (IDL) to help plan interferometric observations with the CHARA Array. The GUI allows the user to select (1) the waveband for the observation, (2) the target HD number from Hipparcos catalog, (3) and angular diameter, (4) a CHARA baseline, (5) the Pipes of Pan "POP" configuration, and (6) date. Numerous ploting options are available. The software calculates for which hour angles the Optical Path Length Compensator delay compensation is possible and also calculates the time of astronomical twilight.
Data ReductionOYSTERThe name OYSTER was derived from OISDR (Optical Interferometer Script Data Reduction). OYSTER is a 40,000+ lines of code project to provide a comprehensive system for displaying, editing, averaging, calibrating, and modeling interferometry data. It has been developed over several years at the US Naval Observatory. PV-WAVE (a trademark of VNI) CL and IDL (a trademark of RSI) were chosen as the programming environment because they provide interactive data manipulation and extensive plotting and visualization tools. Coding and debugging are very fast in this environment. OYSTER is an endeavor to integrate all tasks related to planning and analysing interferometric observations in one package. It also tries to maximize ease of use by providing both command line procedures and widget routines. A 100-page manual is provided. Users can also find instructions on how to build their own library of procedures which take the place of and modify the implemented procedures by compilation at runtime.
MIDI Interactive AnalysisSoftware developed at the MPIA to reduce data obtained with MIDI. MIA uses a Fast Fourier Transformation to calculate the Fourier amplitudes of the fringe packets. These amplitudes help to decide, whether a fringe packet can be used to calculate the visibility or not. Please see below what modes can be handled by MIA.
VINCIThe detailed description of the implemented algorithms can be found in Kervella et al. (2004, A&A, 425, 1161). This user-friendly software allows to process automatically the raw data from the ESO Archive up to the the squared coherence factor level.
OIFITS FormatOIFITS Format SpecificationThe OI Exchange Format is a standard for exchanging calibrated data from optical (visible/infrared) stellar interferometers. The standard is based on the Flexible Image Transport System (FITS), and supports storage of the optical interferometric observables including squared visibility and closure phase -- data products not included in radio interferometry standards such as UV-FITS.
A data exchange standard for optical (visible/IR) interferometry
IDL UtilitiesAn IDL library designed to read and write optical interferometry data conforming to the OI-DATA standard. All features of the OI-DATA format are supported, including the ability to read and write multiple OI-ARRAY, OI-WAVELENGTH, OI-VIS, OI-VIS2, and OI-T3 binary tables. This makes merging data from different epochs and arrays straightforward. Using read_oidata.pro and write_oidata.pro, one should be able to easily use OI-DATA in the IDL data analysis environment.
Examples in CThe software is intended as a demonstration of how to write code to read and write files in the exchange format. You may nevertheless find it useful to use the routines provided without modification. The software is written in ANSI C, and uses the cfitsio library.
1. Observation PlanningScheduling, UV tracks, binary orbits, visibility prediction, calibrator selection. Data simulators should probably go in this category as well.2. Data ReductionSoftware involved in converting raw fringe data to possibly averaged but UNCALIBRATED or partially-calibrated data products (squared visibilities, bispectra etc.) Software in this category need only be listed if the interferometer/instrument is or will be available to the community (or a subset)3. CalibrationCalibration of the output from (2), to give the final calibrated data products.4. Imaging Data AnalysisImaging and model-fitting using calibrated, averaged data products5. Astrometric Data AnalysisAstrometric analysis of the output of any of (2), (3), or (4).6. UtilitiesSoftware applications that perform small, well-defined OI-specific tasks, but do not fit into any one of the above categories.7. Software LibrariesOI-specific subroutine libraries applicable to more than one of the previous categories.
Caltech VLBI Analysis ProgramsThe Caltech VLBI Analysis Programs, CITVLB, were written for radio very long baseline interferometry. The package contains a large number of separate Fortran programs that are used sequentially for data display, calibration and editing, model-fitting, and imaging. Self-calibration is possible using either CLEAN or MEM for the deconvolution. Data is read into the programs in MERGE format, and the suite of software includes programs to translate data into MERGE format from other formats, notably UVFITS - the standard data format for radio interferometry. CITVLB was supported by Tim Pearson at Caltech, until the software was superseded by DIFMAP around 1995. The programs assumed that a small number of telescopes were used in the array, and the data was limited to single-frequency and single-polarization data. These limitations, which ultimately halted the development of CITVLB, made the programs particularly well suited to optical interferometry, where small single-frequency data sets are typical. It broke the data processing into simple steps, allowing easy inspection of the data at each step, and providing greater quality control. CITVLB was used by the group at the Cavendish Laboratory in aperture masking experiments, and in long-baseline measurements with the COAST interferometer. Haniff 1992 used this (MEM and CLEAN) for observations of Mira. It is worth noting that CITVLB contains a program called VLBMEM, which was written by S.F. Gull in 1989. This VLBMEM is a stand-alone program that performs only the MEM deconvolution, and requires other CITVLB programs to complete a self-calibration loop.
MERGE format is described in Introduction to the Caltech VLBI Programs, Chapter 11 "Format of MERGE Files", pages 11.1 to 11.4 (1991).
Summary of Resources
Updated 16 November 2006
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MS 301-451, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109
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