Tools and documents related to observer and duty astronomer training for the ATCA.
This package has a number of applications that can be used to learn, at your own pace, about how the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) works, and how to interrogate and intepret data coming from the telescope.
This software uses the cmake compilation manager; please ensure you have it installed before attempting to compile this software.
Please also ensure that you install:
- gcc
- gfortran
- PGPLOT
- libreadline
- libX11
- libpng
- argp (Darwin only)
On Ubuntu, these necessary libraries and tools can be installed with:
sudo apt install build-essential cmake gfortran pgplot5 libreadline-dev libx11-dev libpng-devOn OSX Darwin, they can be installed using Homebrew with:
brew install gcc gfortran cmake libreadline libx11 libpng16 argp-standaloneUnfortunately, PGPLOT is no longer in the Homebrew cellar. You can get it from MacPorts though.
The code also relies on the libraries:
However, these libraries are included and compiled with the code in this package.
To checkout and compile this software, you may follow the instructions below.
git clone https://github.com/ste616/atca-training.git
cd atca-training
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
makeIn a nutshell, you will want to load up one or more RPFITS files created during
ATCA observations with the rpfitsfile_server application, and then look at
the data in that file using nvis and nspd. With these applications you can
learn how modifying certain parameters can affect the data, and by following
the tutorials and then playing around yourself you can become a more confident
ATCA observer or duty astronomer.
The following tutorials are designed to help you understand the data that the Compact Array Broadband Backend (CABB) creates, and how to assess their quality. Once you master the use of these tools and understand the data, an actual ATCA observation should be much easier!
This tutorial will introduce you to how to run the software in this package, and run through a typical 4cm online calibration routine. It will also introduce some key concepts about how the correlator works.
This tutorial will describe in detail the goals of delay calibration, how the corrections are computed and applied. You'll also learn how to avoid RFI, and increase signal-to-noise ratio to successfully calibrate the telescope delays.
This tutorial will cover the process of amplitude calibration, and all the effects that come along with it (especially how system temperature measurements are affected), and how to use it properly.
Now you get to play around with some more challenging datasets, and see how much you've taken in from the first three tutorials. If you can calibrate these data, you'll have no troubles when you use the telescope for real.
This software was written and tested by Jamie Stevens (ste616@gmail.com, or Jamie.Stevens@csiro.au) in 2020/2021. It is licenced under the GPLv3 open source licence.