AIPS NRAO AIPS HELP file for BLING in 31DEC24



As of Wed Nov 13 9:17:17 2024


BLING: Task to determine residual delays and rates

INPUTS


INNAME                             UV file name (name)
INCLASS                            UV file name (class)
INSEQ              0.0      9999.0 UV file name (seq. #)
INDISK             0.0         9.0 UV file disk unit #

CALSOUR                            Calibrator sources
QUAL            -10.0              Calibrator qualifier
                                     -1 => all
CALCODE                            Calibrator code
                                     '    '=>all

STOKES                             Polarizations to process
TIMERANG                           Time range to use.
ANTENNAS                           Antennas to use. 0=all
BASELINE                           Baselines with ANTENNAS.
SUBARRAY          0.0     1000.0   Subarray.    0 => 1
SELBAND                            Bandwidth to select (kHz)
SELFREQ                            Frequency to select (MHz)
FREQID                             Freq. ID to select.
BIF               0.0              First IF to use   0 => 1
EIF               0.0              Last IF to use    0 => max
BCHAN             0.0     2048.0   Lowest channel number
                                    0 => 1
ECHAN             0.0     2048.0   Highest channel number
                                    0 => max
UVRANGE                            Range of uv distances to
                                    use

DOCALIB          -1.0      101.0   > 0 calibrate data & weights
                                   > 99 do NOT calibrate weights
GAINUSE                            CL table to apply.
DOPOL            -1.0       10.0   If >0 correct polarization.
PDVER                              PD table to apply (DOPOL>0)
BLVER                              BL table to apply.
FLAGVER                            Flag table version
DOBAND           -1.0       10.0   If >0 apply bandpass cal.
                                     Method used depends on
                                     value of DOBAND (see HELP
                                     file).
BPVER                              Bandpass table version
SMOOTH                             Smoothing function. See
                                     HELP SMOOTH for details.

IN2NAME                            Cleaned map name (name)
IN2CLASS                           Cleaned map name (class)
IN2SEQ            0.0     9999.0   Cleaned map name (seq. #)
IN2DISK           0.0        9.0   Cleaned map disk unit #
INVERS           -1.0    46655.0   CC file version #.
NCOMP                              # comps to use for model.
                                   1 value per field
FLUX                               Lowest CC component used.
NMAPS             0.0     4096.0   No. Clean map files
CMETHOD                            Modeling method:
                                   'DFT','GRID','    '
CMODEL                             Model type: 'COMP','IMAG'

OPCODE                             Type of solution:
                                     '    ' => 'INDE'
SOLINT                             Solution interval (min)
INFILE                             Control file
APARM                              Task enrichment parameters:
                                      1: minimum integration
                                         time in sec (0 => 1.0)
                                      2: > 0 => subtract model
                                      3: > 0 => stack data
                                      4: min SNR (0 => 5.0)
                                      5: minimum coherence ( percent)
                                         0 => 20 percent
                                      6: delay precision tuning
                                           (see help for BLING)
                                      7: rate precision tuning
                                           (see help for BLING)
DPARM                              Delay-rate windows:
                                     1: multiband delay centre
                                     2: multiband delay width
                                     3: single-band delay ctr
                                     4: single-band delay wdth
                                        (delays in nanosec)
                                     5: rate centre (mHz)
                                     6: rate width (mHz)
                                     7: accel. centre (uHz/sec)
                                     8: accel. width (uHz/sec)
                                     9: accel. step (uHz/sec)
DOUVCOMP                           If > 0 then use compressed
                                   scratch files.
BADDISK                            List of disks not to be
                                   used for scratch files.

HELP SECTION

BLING
Task:  BLING determines the residual group delay and phase rate and
       acceleration for each baseline in an array.  The results are
       stored in a baseline fringe solution (BS) table attached to the
       uv data file.  The task BLAPP will read a BS table and
       distribute the baseline-based quantities between telescopes.
            Model images made with both values of IMAGR's DO3DIMAG
       option are handled correctly, as are multi-scale images.  Set
       NMAPS = NFIELD * NGAUSS.

Adverbs:
Input data file:
  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.

Source selection (multisource files only):
  CALSOUR....List of sources for which residual fringe
             parameters are to be determined, i.e. the
             calibrator sources.
             If all entries are blank then all sources in the
             input file will be used.  If any entry is preceded
             by a minus sign then all sources in the input file
             other than those listed in CALSOUR will be used.
  QUAL.......Only sources with a source qualifier number in the
             SU table matching QUAL will be used if QUAL is not
             -1.  This selection criterion is applied to sources
             selected using CALSOUR.
  CALCODE....Calibrators may be selected on the basis of the
             calibrator code:
                  '    ' => any calibrator code selected
                  '*   ' => any non blank code (cal. only)
                  '-CAL' => blank codes only (no calibrators)
                  anything else = calibrator code to select.
             This selection criterion is applied to the sources
             selected using CALSOUR and QUAL.
Note that the source selection parameters should only specify a
single source if a model is to be subtracted before searching
for fringes.

Data selection:
  STOKES.....The polarizations to use.  This should be a
             concatenation of any of the four polarization
             correlations RR, LL, RL and LR or one of
             the special values 'HALF' (RR and LL) or 'CROS'
             (RL and LR).  Default: 'HALF'
  TIMERANG...Time range of the data to be used. In order:
             Start day, hour, min. sec., end day, hour, min,
             sec.  Days relative to the reference date of the
             observations.  Default: from the beginning of the
             observations in the input file to the end.
  ANTENNAS...A list of antennas used, in combination with
             BASELINE, to select the baselines to process.
             If all entries are positive include only baselines
             including the listed telescopes; if any entry is
             negative use all telescopes not listed.
             Default: use all baselines.
  BASELINE...Antennas appearing at the other end of selected
             baselines from telescopes selected using
             ANTENNAS.  Example: to select  baselines 1-6,1-8,
             2-6 and 2-8 set ANTENNAS=1,2; BASELINE=6,8.
             Default: use all baselines involving telescopes
             selected using ANTENNAS.
  SUBARRAY...Subarray number to use.  Default: 1.
  SELBAND....Bandwidth of the data to be selected. If more than
             one IF is present SELBAND is the bandwidth of the
             first IF required. Units = kHz.  Default: use
             FREQID.
  SELFREQ....Frequency of data to be selected. If more than
             one IF is present SELFREQ is the frequency of the
             first IF required. Units = MHz.  Default: use
             FREQID.
  FREQID.....Frequency (FQ) group identifier to select (you may
             determine which is applicable from the
             OPTYPE='SCAN' listing produced by LISTR).  If
             either of SELBAND or SELFREQ are set then their
             values overide that of FREQID unless SELBAND
             and SELFREQ are ambiguous;  if SELBAND and
             SELFREQ are ambiguous then the task will request
             that you use FREQID.
  BIF........First IF to use.  Default: 1
  EIF........Last IF to use.   Default: highest IF number in
             file.
  BCHAN......First channel to use.   Default: 1
  ECHAN......Highest channel to use. Default: highest channel
             number in file.
  UVRANGE....Range of projected spacings to be used in 1000's
             of wavelengths.  Default:  1.0 to 1.0E10

Calibration switches (multisource files only):
  DOCALIB....If true (>0), calibrate the data using information in the
             specified Cal (CL) table for multi-source or SN table for
             single-source data.  Also calibrate the weights unless
             DOCALIB > 99 (use this for old non-physical weights).
  GAINUSE....Version number of the CL table to apply to the
             data.   Default: highest version number
  DOPOL......If > 0.5 then correct data for instrumental polarization
             as represented in the AN or PD table.  This correction is
             only useful if PCAL has been run or feed polarization
             parameters have been otherwise obtained.  See HELP DOPOL
             for available correction modes: 1 is normal, 2 and 3 are
             for VLBI.  1-3 use a PD table if available; 6, 7, 8 are
             the same but use the AN (continuum solution) even if a PD
             table is present.
  PDVER......PD table to apply if PCAL was run with SPECTRAL true and
             0 < DOPOL < 6.  <= 0 => highest.
  BLVER......Version number of the baseline based calibration
             (BL) table to appply. <0 => apply no BL table,
             0 => highest.
  FLAGVER....Specifies the version of the flagging table to be
             applied. 0 => highest numbered table.
                     <0 => no flagging to be applied.
  DOBAND.....If true (>0) then correct the data for the shape of the
             antenna bandpasses using the BP table specified by BPVER.
             The correction has five modes:
             (a) if DOBAND=1 all entries for an antenna in the table
             are averaged together before correcting the data.
             (b) if DOBAND=2 the entry nearest in time (including
             solution weights) is used to correct the data.
             (c) if DOBAND=3 the table entries are interpolated in
             time (using solution weights) and the data are then
             corrected.
             (d) if DOBAND=4 the entry nearest in time (ignoring
             solution weights) is used to correct the data.
             (e) if DOBAND=5 the table entries are interpolated in
             time (ignoring solution weights) and the data are then
             corrected.
  BPVER......Version of the BP table to be applied.
               0 => highest.
             < 0 => no bandpass correction to be applied.
  SMOOTH.....Specifies the type of spectral smoothing to be applied to
             a uv database . The default is not to apply any smoothing.
             The elements of SMOOTH are as follows:
             SMOOTH(1) = type of smoothing to apply: 0 => no smoothing
               To smooth before applying bandpass calibration
                 1 => Hanning, 2 => Gaussian, 3 => Boxcar, 4 => Sinc
               To smooth after applying bandpass calibration
                 5 => Hanning, 6 => Gaussian, 7 => Boxcar, 8 => Sinc
             SMOOTH(2) = the "diameter" of the function, i.e. width
               between first nulls of Hanning triangle and sinc
               function, FWHM of Gaussian, width of Boxcar. Defaults
               (if < 0.1) are 4, 2, 2 and 3 channels for SMOOTH(1) =
               1 - 4 and 5 - 8, resp.
             SMOOTH(3) = the diameter over which the convolving
               function has value - in channels.  Defaults: 1,3,1,4
               times SMOOTH(2) used when input SMOOTH(3) < net
               SMOOTH(2).

Source model to be divided into the data.
  IN2NAME....Cleaned map name (name).    Standard defaults.
             For a single source file the model determined by
             SMODEL is used instead of the CLEAN components
             if IN2NAME = ' ' and IN2CLASS = ' ';
             For a multi-source file a point source with flux given
             in the SU table is used instead of a CLEAN components
             if IN2NAME = ' ' and IN2CLASS = ' '.
             Note: a CLEAN image for only a single source may
             be given although it may be in a multisource file.
  IN2CLASS...Cleaned map name (class).     Standard defaults.
  IN2SEQ.....Cleaned map name (seq. #).    0 -> highest.
  IN2DISK....Disk drive # of cleaned map.  0 => any.
  INVERS.....CC file version #.  0=> highest numbered version
  NCOMP......Number of Clean components to use for the model, one
             value per field.  If all values are zero, then all
             components in all fields are used.  If any value is not
             zero, then abs(NCOMP(i)) (or fewer depending on FLUX and
             negativity) components are used for field i, even if
             NCOMP(i) is zero.  If any of the NCOMP is less than 0,
             then components are only used in each field i up to
             abs(NCOMP(i)), FLUX, or the first negative whichever
             comes first.  If abs(NCOMP(i)) is greater than the number
             of components in field i, the actual number is used.  For
             example
                   NCOMP = -1,0
             says to use one component from field one unless it is
             negative or < FLUX and no components from any other
             field.  This would usually not be desirable.
                   NCOMP = -1000000
             says to use all components from each field up to the
             first negative in that field.
                   NCOMP = -200 100 23 0 300 5
             says to use no more than 200 components from field 1, 100
             from field 2, 23 from field 3, 300 from field 5, 5 from
             field 6 and none from any other field.  Fewer are used if
             a negative is encountered or the components go below
             FLUX.
  FLUX.......Only components > FLUX in absolute value are used in the
             model.
  NMAPS......Number of image files to use for model.  For multi-scale
             models, set NMAPS = NFIELD * NGAUSS to include the Clean
             components of the extended resolutions.  If more than one
             file is to be used, the NAME, CLASS, DISK and SEQ of the
             subsequent image files will be the same as the first file
             except that the LAST 3 or 4 characters of the CLASS will
             be an increasing sequence above that in IN2CLASS.  Thus,
             if INCLASS='ICL005', classes 'ICL005' through 'ICLnnn'
             or 'ICnnnn', where nnn = 5 + NMAPS - 1 will be used.  Old
             names (in which the 4'th character is not a number) are
             also supported: the last two characters are '01' through
             'E7' for fields 2 through 512.  In old names, the highest
             field number allowed is 512; in new names it is 4096.
  CMETHOD....This determines the method used to compute the
             model visibility values.
             'DFT' uses the direct Fourier transform, this
             method is the most accurate.
             'GRID' does a gridded-FFT interpolation model
             computation.
             '    ' allows the program to use the fastest
             method.
             NOTE: when using a model derived from data with
             difference uv sampling it is best to use 'DFT'
  CMODEL.....This indicates the type of input model; 'COMP' means that
             the input model consists of CLEAN components, 'IMAG'
             indicates that the input model consists of images.  If
             CMODEL is '   ' clean components will be used if present
             and the image if not.
             Note: A normal CLEAN restored image is not a suitable
             model as it has been tapered by the restoring beam.  A
             CLEANed image restored with a very small restoring beam
             is usable.
             Note that IMAG models are USUALLY scaled by the beam area
             and CC models are scaled to match the source-table total
             flux when appropriate.  BLING DOES NOT DO THESE SCALINGS.

Task control:
  OPCODE ....Solution type
               'INDE' => independent delay and rate solutions
                         for each IF and polarization.  Use
                         for multi-IF data without phase cal.
               'VLBA' => single delay and rate for all IFs
                         in each polarization.  Use for VLBA
                         data or any other multi-IF data with
                         more than one phase cal per IF.
               'MK3 ' => multiband and single-band delays
                         and rates for all IFs in each
                         polarization.  Use for Mk3 VLBI data
                         or any other multi-IF data with only
                         one phase cal per IF.
               'RATE' => fit rate and accelerations only.
                         Use on one channel only when
                         interpolating rates from fringe
                         finders to program sources.
  SOLINT.....Solution interval in minutes.  A solution interval
             may be cut short to avoid crossing a scan boundary
             if an index table is present.  The solution inter-
             val may be overridden for particular times and
             baselines in the control file.          0 -> 5 min
  INFILE.....The name of a text file containing solution inter-
             vals and search windows for specific baselines and
             time ranges.
  APARM......Miscellaneous control parameters.
             APARM(1)...Minimum integration time in file in
                        seconds. This is used to calculate the
                        amount of data storage that BLING must
                        allocate.  It is usually better to set
                        this too small than too large although
                        smaller values make it more likely that
                        you will run out of memory.
                                              <= 0.0 -> 1.0 sec
             APARM(2)...Model division flag.  If this has a
                        positive value then a model will be
                        divided into the data before
                        searching for fringes.
             APARM(3)...Baseline stacking flag.  If this has a
                        positive value baseline data will be
                        stacked.  Baseline stacking uses the
                        data from baselines i-k and k-j (for all
                        k.ne.i and k.ne.j) to increase the
                        sensitivity on baseline i-j.  Do not
                        enable stacking if your file contains
                        multiple integration times.
             APARM(4)...Minimum SNR for detection.   <= 0 -> 5.0
             APARM(5)...Minimum coherence value in percent.  The
                        lowest ratio of the vector amplitude sum
                        and the scalar amplitude sum that will
                        be accepted.                 <= 0 -> 20 percent
             APARM(6)...Delay precision control.
             APARM(7)...Rate precision control.
                        These parameters control the amount of
                        padding used in the FFT searches.
                            >= 0  pads by a factor of   2
                              -1  ...................   4
                              -2  ...................   8
                              -3  ...................  16
                              -4  ...................  32
                              -5  ...................  64
                              -6  ................... 128
                           <= -7 ....................   2
                        Increasing the padding may give a little
                        extra precision but will slow BLING down
                        by a factor of up to (approximately)
                        2 ^ -(APARM(5) + APARM(6)).  It is rarely
                        worth while to use extra padding.
  DPARM......Default search windows (may be overridden in the
             control file).  Window widths less than or equal
             to zero default to the full ambiguity range.
             DPARM(1)...Multiband delay window centre (ns)
             DPARM(2)...Multiband delay window width (ns)
             DPARM(3)...Single-band delay window centre (ns)
             DPARM(4)...Single-band delay window width (ns)
             DPARM(5)...Fringe rate window centre (mHz)
             DPARM(6)...Fringe rate window width (mHz)
             DPARM(7)...Acceleration window centre (uHz/s)
             DPARM(8)...Acceleration window width (uHz/s)
             DPARM(9)...Acceleration search step (uHz/s)
             DPARM(9) <= 0.0 turns off the acceleration search
             unless overridden in the control file.
  DOUVCOMP...UV data compression flag.  If this is greater than zero
             then BLING scratch files will be written in compressed
             form.  This reduces the amount of disk required to run
             BLING but can decrease the precision of intermediate
             results and can affect weighting and flagging.  Avoid
             compressing scratch data if your original data is
             uncompressed or if you are dividing by a model unless
             disk space is at a premium.
  BADDISK....A list of disks not to be used for scratch files.

EXPLAIN SECTION

BLING:  Task to find fringes on individual baselines.
DOCUMENTOR: Chris Flatters, NRAO
RELATED PROGRAMS: BLAPP, PRTBS, FRING

INTRODUCTION

BLING searches for fringes in residual delay and rate on
individual baselines and stores the results in a baseline
solution (BS) table attached to the uv data.  These results can
be applied to the data by using BLAPP to resolve the
baseline-based quantities into antenna-based terms.  This
procedure is similar to that described by Alef and Porcas
(Astron. Astrophys. vol. 168 p365, 1986).

While BLING is usually much slower than FRING, it offers a
greater level of control.  Search windows and solution intervals
can be specified for individual baselines and time ranges and
BLING can search for a fringe acceleration term (the time
derivative of the residual rate).

You should normally use FRING to determine rates and delays and
restrict your use of BLING to cases where FRING may have
problems.  Cases where BLING may be preferable to FRING include
the following.

* Fringe acceleration searches are needed.  This is only likely
  for space VLBI.

* Fringe locations can be predicted, allowing tight, off-centre
  windows to be used.

* Differing baseline sensitivities make it desirable to use
  different solution intervals for different baselines.

* Differing baseline sensitivities defeat FRING's strategy for
  choosing baselines for the coarse search (for any given
  antenna, FRING will look at the baseline from that antenna to
  the reference antenna and will try a baseline to a secondary
  reference if fringes are not found but will not try all
  possible secondary references while BLING will examine all of
  the baselines to a given telescope.

SOLUTION MODES

BLING has a number of modes which allow it to search for
different sets of fringe parameters.  The mode is chosen by
setting OPCODE and the parameters to be solved for in each mode
are shown in the following table.

+------+-----------------+-------------------+------+
| Mode | Multiband delay | Single-band delay | Rate |
+------+-----------------+-------------------+------+
| INDE |       no        |        yes        | yes  |
| VLBA |       yes       |        yes        | yes  |
| MK3  |       yes       |        yes        | yes  |
| RATE |       no        |        no         | yes  |
+------+-----------------+-------------------+------+

'INDE' mode produces independent delay and rate solutions for
each IF while the other 3 modes produce a combined solution that
applies to all IFs.  'VLBA' mode differs from 'MK3 ' mode in
that multiband delay is assumed to be equal to single-band delay
in 'VLBA' mode but not in 'MK3 ' mode.  Acceleration searches
may be requested independently of the mode setting.

BASELINE STACKING

BLING is capable of "stacking" data from different baselines.
This technique is explained in the Schwab and Cotton paper on
global fringe-fitting (Astron. J. vol. 88 p688, 1983) and is
also used in FRING.  The basic idea is that the slope of the
summed visibility phase from baselines i-j and j-k with respect
to frequency is wholly determined by the residual delays of i
and k (since the delay at j cancels in the addition) and can
therefore be used to supplement the data from baseline i-k.
In the limiting case where there are N identical telescopes and
one which is much less sensitive this technique will reduce the
fringe-detection threshold by a factor of sqrt(N).  BLING can
stack data that uses one intermediate antenna while FRING can
use up to two intermediate antennae.  Allowing a second
intermediate antenna gives only a modest improvement over using
a single intermediate.

In reality neither BLING nor FRING average phases directly, as
suggested above, but sum a vector quantity with the phase of the
visibility data and an amplitude equal to the visibility weight.
This procedure is more appropriate to a process that uses a
Fourier transform (as both tasks do in their coarse searches)
but may break down if the source is not dominated by a bright
unresolved component.  You may therefore need to disable
baseline stacking if you are observing a source with complex
structure and do not have a model that can be divided into
the data.

Stacking is enabled by default but will be disabled if you set
APARM(2) to a positive number.

BLING will use all of the possible intermediate antennae in the
data set, regardless of whether they are listed in the ANTENNAS
and BASELINE adverbs (which determine which baselines BLING will
search for fringes).  If you wish to exclude an antenna from
the set of intermediates then you should use UVFLG to flag data
from that antenna and unflag the data after running BLING.

ACCELERATION SEARCHES

The acceleration search is carried out in a different way to the
searches in delay and rate.  If an acceleration search is
carried out then BLING will try a number of coarse searches at
different acceleration values and pick the acceleration value
that gives the best degree of coherence as the starting point
for the fine search.  This means that you must specify an
acceleration step size to use in the coarse search as well as
a search window.  If the step size is zero or negative then
there will be no search in acceleration.

It should be obvious from the above that enabling acceleration
searches will slow the program down considerably.  Since
enabling acceleration searches adds additional parameters to be
modelled, it will also tend to degrade the quality of your
solutions if you turn it on when it is not needed.  You should,
therefore, restrict your use of acceleration searches to those
cases where it is absolutely necessary.

CONTROLLING BLING

The search windows and solution interval may be changed for
particular time ranges and baselines using a control file
specified as INFILE.

The control file should contain a number of baseline groups
Each group should start with a header card with the general
form

telescope1 telescope2 /

This informs BLING that the following records apply to baseline
telescope1-telescope2 where telescope1 and telescope2 are either
telescope names taken from the antenna table of the special name
"ANY".  Thus

PT MK /

starts a group applying to the Pie Town - Mauna Kea baseline
while

PT ANY /

or

ANY PT /

starts a group applying to any baselines involving Pie Town and

ANY ANY /

starts a group applying to any baselines.

The header card should be followed by one or more cards having
14 fields.  The fields are as follows.

 1  integer  Annual day number (Jan 1 = 1) of the day at which
             the parameters on this line become valid.
 2  time     The time (hh:mm:ss - seconds are optional) at which
             the parameters become valid.
 3  integer  Annual day number of the day on which the parameters
             become invalid.
 4  time     The time at which the parameters become invalid.
 5  real     The solution interval for this time range.
 6  real     The multiband search window centre (nanoseconds).
 7  real     The multiband search window width (nanoseconds).
 8  real     The single-band search window centre (nanoseconds).
 9  real     The single-band search window width  (nonoseconds).
10  real     The rate window centre (mHz).
11  real     The rate window width (mHz).
12  real     The acceleration window centre (uHz/sec).
13  real     The acceleration window width (uHz/sec).
14  real     The acceleration search step (uHz/sec).

The group should end with a single slash ("/").

Here is an example baseline group.

PT MK /
27 12:00 27 13:00 10.0 0.0 100.0 0.0 100.0 0.0 20.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
27 13:00 27 14:00  5.0 0.0 100.0 0.0 150.0 0.0 30.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
/

The following rules apply.

* All of the windows must be defined in each card regardless
  of whether the corresponding parameter will be solved for.
  Of course, the values in the fields corresponding to unused
  windows do not matter.

* More specific baseline groups override less specific ones
  so that PT MK is preferred over PT ANY which is preferred
  over ANY ANY for any given time.

* If there is no entry applicable to a given time for a
  particular baseline then the solution interval will be set
  from the SOLINT adverb and the windows will be set from the
  DPARM adverb.

* If a delay or rate window is set to zero or a negative number
  then  BLING will search the full ambiguity range around the
  given window centre.

* If the acceleration search step is zero or negative then there
  will be no search in acceleration.

CHANGES FROM 15OCT96

* BLING now uses a simple interpolation scheme to refine the
  fringe positions.  This has allowed the default amount of
  FFT padding to be reduced so that BLING is now much faster.
  Consequently, errors listed in the BS table are now worst-case
  errors and realistic errors will normally be a factor of 10 to
  100 better for high SNR data.

CHANGES FROM 15JAN96

BLING has been extensively rewritten since the 15JAN96 release
of AIPS.

* You may now divide a model into the data.

* Baseline stacking is now possible.

* The logic for dividing the data into scans has changed.  The
  index file is no longer used to define solution intervals and
  is no longer required.  If an index file is present solution
  intervals will be truncated to avoid crossing scan boundaries
  defined by the index file but the scan will not be split into
  equal subdivisions as before. [This change was made to support
  the possibility of model division but also removes the need
  to reindex the data for efficient file access.]

* Windows are now specified by a centre and width rather than
  a beginning and an end.  The format of the control file has
  changed to reflect this. [This change makes BLING more
  amenable to predictive window-setting.]

* The solution interval may now be changed for specific
  baselines and times.

* Changes to the FFT set-up have improved the efficiency of
  AP memory usage allowing more FFT interpolation to be used.
  This has made it possible to remove the chi-squared fit
  used to refine the fringe positions in previous versions
  of BLING making the results more robust.  The savings in
  computer time have been swallowed by the increased sizes
  of the FFTs, however.



AIPS