AIPS quarterly report (Q4), Jan 07 2000 --------------------------------------- Versions -------- The current test version of AIPS is 31DEC99, and this is currently planned to be the final "release" of AIPS. 31DEC99 will be available from our ftp site continuously, and will continue to be patched and developed where necessary over the next several years. The last standard release of AIPS is 15OCT99, which is currently being shipped. AIPS is currently distributed nightly to all NRAO sites and to 1 non-NRAO sites in the US. In the future we expect the nightly distribution list to grow as the "Midnight Job" becomes the standard method for obtaining AIPS. Full support for SVLBI processing has been available since 15APR98. The 15APR98 version of AIPS was distributed to over 344 non-NRAO sites, running Solaris, Linux, DEC Alpha, HP and SGI versions. The overall number of AIPS installations has continued to grow over the last two years. The majority (75%) of AIPS distributions are now received by ftp, although the CD-ROM distribution is still in strong demand. Demand for 15OCT99 has been strong. Late in Q4 Ketan Desai announced he would be leaving the AIPS group in early 2000; the AIPS group wishes him the best of luck in his new career. Efforts at replacing him have begun. General Issues -------------- - The main imaging task IMAGR was changed to restart deconvolutions more efficiently when possible. A new option to deconvolve the image with multiple-width Gaussian models was introduced. This may be a major step forward in Cleaning extended sources. - A simplified interface MAPPR to IMAGR was released. - SCIMG is a new task, a multi-field version of SCMAP, to image and self-calibrate a data set iteratively. - The graphical interactive editing tasks were upgraded to allow the option of displaying and editing all polarizations and IFs at the same time. Several other options to aid usability were added. - Continued support of GPS external calibration information. - The task CONFI has been evolved to assist in configuration modeling for ALMA. - Tasks to study single-dish, beam-switched imaging techniques were introduced and upgraded. - Another round of reconcilitation between the USNO/GSFC and NRAO versions of the radio astrometry routines. - KRING now chooses the FFT method for model division instead of insisting on DFTs. - Issues concerning the Linux compiler and round-off errors were investigated. - A patch addressing an an error in the VLBA saturation correction that was introduced in Version 10.5, and that could lead to errors of the order of 10% in auto-correlation amplitudes, was released. - A number of changes/additions were made to FILLM (the main VLA data loading routine) including support for the new link to the Pie Town VLBA antenna. Goals for Q1 2000 ----------------- - Continuing maintenance and user support. - A new installation/registration wizard for 31DEC99 - Low-level code development in support of NRAO instruments. - Updating of user documentation. - Additional data editing and weighting tools. final version AIPS quarterly report (Q4), Jan 07 2000 --------------------------------------- Versions -------- The current test version of AIPS is 31DEC99, and this is currently planned to be the final "release" of AIPS. 31DEC99 will be available from our ftp site continuously, and will continue to be patched and developed where necessary over the next several years. The last standard release of AIPS is 15OCT99, which is currently being shipped. AIPS is currently distributed nightly to all NRAO sites and to a number of non-NRAO sites in the US, Europe and Japan. In the future we expect the nightly distribution list to grow as the "Midnight Job" becomes the standard method for obtaining AIPS. Full support for SVLBI processing has been available since 15APR98. The 15APR98 version of AIPS was distributed to over 344 non-NRAO sites, running Solaris, Linux, DEC Alpha, HP and SGI versions. The overall number of AIPS installations has continued to grow over the last two years. The majority (75%) of AIPS distributions are now received by ftp, although the CD-ROM distribution is still in strong demand. Demand for 15OCT99 has been strong. Late in Q4 Ketan Desai announced he would be leaving the AIPS group in early 2000; the AIPS group wishes him the best of luck in his new career. Efforts at replacing him have begun. General Issues -------------- - The main imaging task IMAGR was changed to restart deconvolutions more efficiently when possible. A new option to deconvolve the image with multiple-width Gaussian models was introduced. This may be a major step forward in Cleaning extended sources. - A simplified interface MAPPR to IMAGR was released. - SCIMG is a new task, a multi-field version of SCMAP, to image and self-calibrate a data set iteratively. - The graphical interactive editing tasks were upgraded to allow the option of displaying and editing all polarizations and IFs at the same time. Several other options to aid usability were added. - Continued support of GPS external calibration information. - The tasks CONFI and UVCON have been evolved to assist in configuration optimization and simulation for ALMA. - Tasks to study single-dish, beam-switched imaging techniques were introduced and upgraded. - Another round of reconcilitation between the USNO/GSFC and NRAO versions of the radio astrometry routines was completed. - KRING now chooses the FFT method for model division instead of insisting on DFTs. - Issues concerning the Linux compiler and round-off errors were investigated. - A patch addressing an an error in the VLBA saturation correction that was introduced in Version 10.5, and that could lead to errors of the order of 10% in auto-correlation amplitudes, was released. - A number of changes/additions were made to FILLM (the main VLA data loading routine) including support for the new link to the Pie Town VLBA antenna. Goals for Q1 2000 ----------------- - Continuing maintenance and user support. - A new installation/registration wizard for 31DEC99 - Low-level code development in support of NRAO instruments. - Updating of user documentation. - Additional data editing and weighting tools. - Streamline loading and calibration of VLBI data.