ALMA Tutorials

Getting Started

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

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

Imaging

First Look

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 Hya.

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

Older versions of these guides are archived here: ALMA_First_Look

Topical Guides

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

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.

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.

Mosaic (Band 7)

• AntennaeBand7: Mosaic of the galaxy merger NGC 4038/4039 (Antennae) at Band 7 (0.87 mm). Validated for CASA 6.5.4.

Mosaic (Band 9)

• IRAS16293Band9: Mosaic of the protostellar cluster IRAS16293-2422 at Band 9 (0.45 mm). Validated for CASA 6.5.4.

Total Power (Single Dish) and Array Combination

• M100_Band3: Demonstration of combining 12m-array, 7m-array, and Total Power data for M100. Validated for CASA 6.5.4.

Full Polarization

• 3C286_Polarization: Demonstration of the reduction of ALMA continuum polarization toward the quasar 3C286. Validated for CASA 6.5.4.

Solar Observing

• Sunspot_Band6: Demonstration of the reduction and imaging of solar data at Band 6 (1.25mm). Validated for CASA 6.5.4.

Resources

Simulation

Start here to learn about simulations: Guide To Simulating ALMA Data

Jump directly to examples: Simulating Observations in CASA

Pipeline

• ALMA Pipeline webpage
• ALMA Pipeline Known Issues

Tools

• A Guide to CASA Data Weights and How to Ensure They are Correct for Data Combination
• Examples for using the new tclean CASA task for ALMA Imaging
• Analysis Utilities -- a Python module containing utilities for analysis and plotting.
• Solar System Models in CASA 4.0 and beyond
• Tutorials related to ALMA Solar Science Verification Data: CASA 4.7
• A guide for utilizing ADMIT for your data: This guide discusses how to use ADMIT and customize it for your data.

Legacy Guides

Archived_ALMA_CASAguides

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

• 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.
• File:BR1202 SV Band7 Calibration notes.pdf: Supplemental notes on the calibration of Science Verification target BR1202-0725 in CASA 3.3.

Cycle 0

A Guide to Processing ALMA Data for Cycle 0 (last checked in CASA 4.2) takes you through the steps of processing Cycle 0 data from the ALMA data archive. The guide describes some helpful hints for downloading the data, and describes the process all the way through imaging and 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

Other Telescopes

• Karl G. Jansky VLA Tutorials
• Past_MM/Submm_Guides: These are not currently being maintained.