ALMA Tutorials

Introduction

This page contains tutorials to guide ALMA users through some common types of data imaging and analysis using CASA with example ALMA datasets.

• ALMA Science homepage
• CASA homepage: includes download and installation information
• CASA Docs
• Getting Started in CASA
• CASA Tips
• CASA Hints, Tips & Tricks
• How To Use A CASAGuide
• Extracting scripts from these tutorials

CARTA

Guides that have been updated to demonstrate the CARTA image viewer will include this statement near the top:

This guide features CARTA, the “Cube Analysis and Rendering Tool for Astronomy,” which is the new NRAO visualization tool for images and cubes. The CASA viewer (imview) has not been maintained for a few years and will be removed from future versions of CASA. We strongly recommend using CARTA, as it provides a much more efficient, stable, and feature rich user experience. A comparison of the CASA viewer and CARTA, as well as instructions on how to use CARTA at NRAO, is provided in the CARTA section of the CASA docs.

First Look (TW Hydra)

ALMA data are delivered to users with calibrations applied and they are ready for imaging. The following "First Look" tutorials provide short examples of common next steps a user may take with their calibrated data. These guides use an example ALMA observation of TW Hydra.

• Continuum Imaging
• Continuum Self-Calibration
• Spectral Line Imaging
• Moments and Image Analysis

Older versions of these guides are archived here: ALMA_First_Look

Imaging and Reprocessing

Considerations before Imaging

• ALMA Renormalization Correction
• DataWeightsAndCombination: A guide to CASA data weights and how to ensure they are correct for data combination.

Pipeline Imaging

• ALMA Imaging Pipeline Reprocessing: Create images using pipeline tasks.

Manual Imaging

• Guide NA ImagingTemplate: Create images with a manual template.
• TCLEAN and ALMA: Examples of using tclean, with emphasis on changes from the older "clean" task.

Automasking

• Automasking Guide

Manual Calibration and Imaging

These guides are useful tools for those who would like to learn the process of calibration and imaging in detail. They use publicly-available ALMA Science Verification data that illustrate several different ALMA capabilities. The links below lead to overview pages for each observation. The guides themselves are linked from the overview pages.

Antennae Galaxy Merger

• AntennaeBand7 (NGC 4038/4039)
• Band 7 (0.87 mm)
• North and South mosaics

Protostellar Cluster IRAS16293-2422

• IRAS16293Band9
• Band 9 (0.45 mm)
• Mosaic

M100 Single Dish and Array Combination

• M100_Band3
• Band 3 (?? mm)
• Total Power (Single Dish) calibration and imaging
• Combining 12m-array, 7m-array, and Total Power data

3C286 Full Polarization

• 3C286_Polarization
• Band 3 (?? mm)
• Continuum polarization

Sunspot

• Sunspot_Band6
• Band 6 (1.25mm)
• Solar observing techniques
• Calibration and imaging
• Helper scripts

Simulation

• Guide To Simulating ALMA Data: An overview of simulation as it pertains to ALMA.
• Simulating Observations in CASA: Several guides.

Legacy Guides

The following ALMA guides and scripts using Science Verification data have been validated for older versions of CASA, and will not continue to be updated for new CASA releases.

• Archived_ALMA_CASAguides
• TWHydraBand7: The protoplanetary disk source TW Hya at Band 7 (0.87 mm). Last validated for CASA 4.3.
• NGC3256Band3: The galaxy merger NGC 3256 at Band 3 (3 mm). Last validated for CASA 4.3.
• ALMA2014 LBC SVDATA: Imaging scripts and details for the 2014 ALMA Long Baseline Campaign science verification data for Juno, Mira, HL Tau, and SDP.81. Last validated for CASA 4.2.2.
• ALMA Solar Science Verification Data in CASA 4.7
• File:BR1202 SV Band7 Calibration notes.pdf: Supplemental notes on the calibration of Science Verification target BR1202-0725 in CASA 3.3.

Cycle 0

• Guide To Processing ALMA Data for Cycle 0
• last checked in CASA 4.2
• helpful hints for downloading the data
• Imaging, self-calibration, and image analysis

You can also get a look at example data calibration scripts used for Cycle 0 data at the following links. These were written for CASA version 3.4.

• TDM (128 channels/spw) File:TDM.example.ms.scriptForCalibration.py
• FDM (3840 channels/spw) File:FDM.example.ms.scriptForCalibration.py
• If you need to update 3.4 scripts to 4.2 or later, see more information here

Resources

Pipeline

• ALMA Pipeline webpage
• ALMA Pipeline Known Issues

Tools

• ALMA Sensitivity Calculator
• ADMIT Products and Usage: This guide discusses how to use the ALMA Data-Mining Toolkit (ADMIT) and customize it for your data.
• Analysis Utilities: A Python module containing utilities for analysis and plotting.
• Solar System Models in CASA 4.0

Other Telescopes

• Karl G. Jansky VLA Tutorials
• Past MM/Submm Guides: These are not currently being maintained.