Imaging an EVLA OSRO HI data set

This article is under construction. Watch this space!

Overview

This tutorial explains how to image an HI dataset acquired with the WIDAR0 correlator. It assumes that you've already calibrated your data as described in the calibration tutorial, and that you now have a split dataset with a single source of interest in it. In this example, the source is called 'Leo-2'; see the calibration tutorial for more details on this data set.

Flag Your Split Data

Load the split dataset into plotms and/or viewer and flag any bad data.

↵ Data flagging with viewer

↵ Data flagging with plotms

For a spectral line dataset like this one, you'll probably want to average in various ways to spot bad data. Averaging channels together can make bad baselines pop up!

Continuum Subtraction

In preparation for subtracting the continuum, let us plot up the spectrum and identify some line-free channels. Open up a plotms GUI window and load the split-off measurement set containing your science target. You'll want to average over both time and baselines to get as much signal-to-noise as possible, hopefully revealing a nice 21 cm profile. In the Data tab of plotms, set the below averaging options:

• Time = 36000 (Set to some long time period, longer than your total observation duration)
• Scan = True (checkmark; average in time across scan boundaries)
• All Baselines = True (checkmark)

(See Averaging data in plotms for more details on averaging options).

You'll also want to click on the Axes tab in the plotms window, and change the axes settings to:

• X Axis = Channel
• Y Axis = Amp

From inspection of this plot, it looks like channels 4~6 and 50~59 contain line-free channels, suitable to use for continuum subtraction.

Doppler Track

#  cvel :: regrid an MS to a new spectral window / channel structure or frame
vis                 =  'leo1.ms'        #  Name of input measurement set
outputvis           = 'leob1.ms'        #  Name of output measurement set
passall             =      False        #  Pass through (write to output MS) non-selected data with no
                                        #   change
field               =         ''        #  Select field using field id(s) or field name(s)
spw                 =         ''        #  Select spectral window/channels
selectdata          =      False        #  Other data selection parameters
mode                =  'channel'        #   Regridding mode
     nchan          =         -1        #  Number of channels in output spw (-1=all)
     start          =          0        #  first input channel to use
     width          =          1        #  Number of input channels to average
     interpolation  =  'nearest'        #  Spectral interpolation method

phasecenter         =         ''        #  Image phase center: position or field index
restfreq            = '1420405751.786Hz' #  rest frequency (see help)
outframe            =     'BARY'        #  Output frame (''=keep input frame)
veltype             =    'radio'        #  velocity definition
hanning             =      False        #  Turn on Hanning smoothing of spectral channels
async               =      False        #  If true the taskname must be started using cvel(...)

output:

2010-02-15 01:31:51 INFO cvel	##########################################
2010-02-15 01:31:51 INFO cvel	##### Begin Task: cvel               #####
2010-02-15 01:31:51 INFO  	cvel::::casa
2010-02-15 01:31:51 INFO cvel	vis="leo1.ms", outputvis="leob1.ms", passall="False", field="", spw=, antenna="", timerange="",
2010-02-15 01:31:51 INFO cvel	mode=channel, nchan=-1, start=0, width=1, interpolation = nearest, outframe="BARY",
2010-02-15 01:31:51 INFO cvel	phasecenter="", restfreq="1420405751.786Hz", veltype="radio", hanning="False"
2010-02-15 01:31:51 INFO cvel	Creating SubMS with time-sorted main table ...
2010-02-15 01:31:54 INFO ms	Sorted main table of /export/home/rso-lchomiuk/test/Leo/leo1.ms by TIME and stored it in leob1.ms .
2010-02-15 01:31:55 INFO cvel	Using Leo-1 (original field 0, new field 0) as phase center.
2010-02-15 01:31:55 INFO ms	Starting combination of spectral windows ...
2010-02-15 01:31:55 INFO SubMS	Less than two SPWs selected. No combination necessary.
2010-02-15 01:31:55 INFO ms	 
2010-02-15 01:31:55 INFO ms	Testing if spectral frame transformation/regridding is needed ...
2010-02-15 01:31:55 INFO SubMS	Regridded spectral window 0 will be created for field 0 with parameters 
2010-02-15 01:31:55 INFO SubMS	input frame = TOPO, output frame = BARY
2010-02-15 01:31:55 INFO SubMS	 Channels equidistant in freq
2010-02-15 01:31:55 INFO SubMS	 Central frequency (in output frame) = 1.41632e+09 Hz
2010-02-15 01:31:55 INFO SubMS	 Width of central channel (in output frame) = 7811.76 Hz
2010-02-15 01:31:55 INFO SubMS	 Number of channels = 226
2010-02-15 01:31:55 INFO SubMS	 Total width of SPW (in output frame) = 1.76546e+06 Hz
2010-02-15 01:31:55 INFO SubMS	 Lower edge = 1.41543e+09 Hz, upper edge = 1.4172e+09 Hz
2010-02-15 01:31:55 INFO SubMS	 Interpolation Method = nearestNeighbour
2010-02-15 01:31:55 INFO SubMS	Added 1 new rows to the DATA_DESCRIPTION table and deleted 1 old ones.
2010-02-15 01:31:55 INFO SubMS	Added 1 rows to the SPECTRAL_WINDOW table and deleted 1 old ones.
2010-02-15 01:31:55 INFO SubMS	Added 1 rows to the SOURCE table and deleted 1 old ones.
2010-02-15 01:31:55 INFO SubMS	Main table data array columns will be rewritten ...
2010-02-15 01:32:34 INFO ms	Spectral frame transformation/regridding completed.
2010-02-15 01:32:34 INFO ms	Final spectral window has 226 channels of width 7.811764e+03 Hz
2010-02-15 01:32:34 INFO ms	First channel center = 1.41544e+09 Hz, last channel center = 1.4172e+09 Hz
2010-02-15 01:32:35 INFO  	cvel::::casa
2010-02-15 01:32:35 INFO cvel	##### End Task: cvel                 #####
2010-02-15 01:32:35 INFO cvel	##########################################

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