VLBI+Analysis+Software

=VLBI Analysis Software =

Here are some additional software requirements that arise if you intend to participate in Laboratory classes by Lisakov on Thursday to Saturday of the first week. The main goal of these classes is to make a brief insight in VLBI continuum data calibration, AGN mapping and some basic scientific analysis.

In order to actively participate you are kindly recommended to bring a laptop running Linux or MacOS operating system. I hope Sasha has already convinced you to.

Software we are going to use :

1. AIPS 2. Difmap

The former is a widely used package for calibrating VLBI data. The latter is a mapping, modelfitting program.

Here are some point on getting and installation of these software.

1. AIPS could be found here (this is not the latest version but I recommend this one as already tested by me and AIPS community) @http://www.aips.nrao.edu/dec12.shtml

a) Nowadays installation of AIPS should be quite straightforward. I hope you choose the "Binary installation". You will need to have perl, rsync, cvs which all are usually included in any Linux distribution.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Download the <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #6611cc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">install.pl <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> in the directory where you intend to install AIPS

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #6611cc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">@ftp://ftp.aoc.nrao.edu/pub/software/aips/31DEC12/install.pl

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">script, run it

chmod +x install.pl ./install.pl

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> and it will make all the work for you. Sometimes it complains if you are in the root user group or a root. Then you'd better make a different user for running AIPS. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Just follow these instructions: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #6611cc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">@http://www.aips.nrao.edu/install.shtml

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Note that it will take some time to download and install all the stuff.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">b) After installation you should add some services to /etc/services file:

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">sssin 5000/tcp SSSIN # AIPS TV server <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">ssslock 5002/tcp SSSLOCK # AIPS TV Lock <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">msgserv 5008/tcp MSGSERV # AIPS Message Server <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">tekserv 5009/tcp TEKSERV # AIPS TekServer <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">aipsmt0 5010/tcp AIPSMT0 # AIPS remote FITS disk access <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">aipsmt1 5011/tcp AIPSMT1 # AIPS remote tape 1 <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">aipsmt2 5012/tcp AIPSMT2 # AIPS remote tape 2 <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">aipsmt3 5013/tcp AIPSMT3 <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">aipsmt4 5014/tcp AIPSMT4 <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">aipsmt5 5015/tcp AIPSMT5 <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">aipsmt6 5016/tcp AIPSMT6 <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">aipsmt7 5017/tcp AIPSMT7

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">c) Also it is convenient to add following to you .bashrc file (or any other that contains your shell defaults/aliases/variables declaration etc.):

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">AIPS_ROOT= PRINT_HERE_FULL_PATH_TO_YOUR_AIPS_FOLDER (the one where you ran <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #6611cc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">install.pl <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">. $AIPS_ROOT/LOGIN.SH

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">this will make a simple shell command "aips" available for running AIPS.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">2. Difmap could be found here:

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #6611cc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">@ftp://ftp.astro.caltech.edu/pub/difmap/difmap.html

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And detailed installation notes here:

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #6611cc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">@http://brandeisastro.pbworks.com/w/page/14977091/Installing%20Difmap

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3. We will use some data to calibrate, map, and analyze. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I will provide sample data in advance during the first days of the School.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">But if you desire to deal with some AGNs that are of your particular interest you are welcome to. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">You can find uncalibrated data here: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #6611cc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">@https://archive.nrao.edu/archive/advquery.jsp

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Please use only VLBA uncalibrated (raw) data since 2000.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sasha kindly permitted to use SOMA computation Google group for any of you questions and my answers.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Do not hesitate to contact and ask me.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Best regards, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Mikhail Lisakov.