AIPS HELP file for VBMRG in 31DEC24

As of Fri Jul 26 18:44:35 2024

INPUTS

INNAME                             Input UV file name (name)
INCLASS                            Input UV file name (class)
INSEQ             0.0     9999.0   Input UV file name (seq. #)
INDISK            0.0        9.0   Input UV file disk unit #
OUTNAME                            Output UV file name (name)
OUTCLASS                           Output UV file name (class)
OUTSEQ           -1.0     9999.0   Output UV file name (seq. #)
OUTDISK           0.0        9.0   Output UV file disk unit #.
YINC              0.0     99999.   Integ. time of data (sec)

HELP SECTION

VBMRG
Task:  This task will consolidate a 'BT' sorted VLBI uv dataset.  The
       last visibility with the heighest weight for each correlator
       will be passed.  The purpose of this task is to remove
       redundant processings of data.

       This task will read (and then write) compressed data.  However,
       the results will be different from those obtained with
       uncompressed data.  Compressed data assigns a single weight to
       all IFs and spectral channels equal to the highest weight found
       in any of them.  If different IFs have different weights, then
       the uncompressed data sets will allow different processings to
       be selected for different IFs.  Compressed data will select the
       same processing for all IFs.
Adverbs:
  INNAME.....Input UV file name (name).      Standard defaults.
  INCLASS....Input UV file name (class).     Standard defaults.
  INSEQ......Input UV file name (seq. #).    0 => highest.
  INDISK.....Disk drive # of input UV file.  0 => any.
             Input UV sort must be 'BT'.
  OUTNAME....Output UV file name (name).     Standard defaults.
  OUTCLASS...Output UV file name (class).    Standard defaults.
  OUTSEQ.....Output UV file name (seq. #).   0 => highest unique
  OUTDISK....Disk drive # of output UV file. 0 => highest w room
  YINC.......The integration time of the data.  Times within a
             window of this width will be considered identical.
             Value is in sec. Default = minimum = 0.2 sec.

EXPLAIN SECTION

VBMRG:  Task to eliminate duplicate correlations of VLBI data.
DOCUMENTOR: Jim Ulvestad NRAO/CV
RELATED PROGRAMS: UVSRT, MSORT

                            PURPOSE

     VBMRG consolidates a VLBI data base which has been sorted in
baseline-time ('BT') order.  The task is necessary because the
multiple processings on a 10+ station processor that are required in a
many-antenna experiment will cause some baselines to be correlated
more than once.  VBMRG searches the old data base picking out only one
record for each baseline at each time; it writes a new data base
specified by OUTNAME.  This new data base will contain only a single
record for each baseline within the time window specified by YINC.
     VBMRG cannot be run on processed data sorted in time-baseline
('TB') order.  That data must first be run through UVSRT with the
sorted order 'BT' specified.  See comments below.

                            COMMENTS

INNAME:
     The input file must be sorted in 'BT' order.

OUTDISK:
     Although VBMRG will create a new data set that is somewhat
smaller than the old set, the user must be sure there will be enough
space on the OUTDISK to accommodate the new data base.  Running
several UVSRTs and VBMRG on a large data set will quickly eat up the
available disk space, so old versions of the data base should be
deleted as soon as they're no longer needed.  OUTDISK = 0 will cause
the task to try all disks.

YINC:
     The default value of this parameter should be used in most cases.
     If YINC is specified, it must not be set to be longer than the
     integration time for a single record, which will result in the
     discarding of good, unduplicated visibility records.

INTERACTION WITH OTHER PROGRAMS:
     As mentioned above, VBMRG can be run only on data sorted in 'BT'
order.  Before VBMRG can be run, UVSRT must be run to sort the data
into this order.  Then VBMRG will run through a single baseline at a
time, selecting only a single visibility record from each time.  The
selected record will be the one given the highest weight (or
last-written, for equal weights).  The output file specified by
OUTNAME will contain only unduplicated data from a single correlation
of each baseline.  Before the global fringe-fitting task (FRING) can
be performed, the data base must be re-sorted by use of UVSRT with
sort order 'TB' (time-baseline).  Thus UVSRT must be run twice, once
before and once after VBMRG.

DISK SPACE:
     The disk space used by the output file will be initially the same
space as used by the input file.  Depending on the fraction of
redundant correlations performed in the processor, the final file will
be somewhat smaller.  For example, optimum processing of a 5-station
experiment will require 4 passes on a 3-station processor, giving 10
unique correlations and 2 redundant ones.  In this case, the output of
VBMRG should occupy about 16 percent less disk space than the input file.

RECIPE FOR USE:

--  Use FITLD to load data from multiple station-subset
correlation passes, with concatenation ON.  Output datasets
can be either compressed or uncompressed.  NOTE: This data
MUST be the raw correlator jobs, not the semi-processed files
from the archive.

--  Use UVSRT to sort into BT order.

--  Use VBMRG to select unique records.

--  Use UVSRT to re-sort into TB order (for most purposes).

--  Run INDXR to re-index the final dataset.