prep

Prepare the data for calibration and imaging.

enable

bool

Execute the prep worker (i.e. the data-preparation step).

label_in

str

If this label is an empty string this worker operates on the input .MS file(s) given in the getdata worker. If the label is not an empty string then it is added to the input .MS file(s) name (specified for the getdata worker) to define the name of the .MS file(s) to work on. These are named <input>_<label>.ms if ‘field’ (see below) is set to ‘calibrators’, or <input>-<target>_<label>.ms if ‘field’ is set to ‘target’ (with one .MS file for each target in the input .MS).

field

{“target”, “calibrators”}, optional, default = calibrators

In combination with a non-empty ‘label_in’ (see above), ‘field’ defines which .MS file(s) to work on. This parameter is ignored if ‘label_in’ is empty. Options are ‘target’ and ‘calibrators’.

tol

float, optional, default = 360.0

Tolerance (in arcseconds) for matching calibrator to database names.

tol_diff

float, optional, default = 1.0

Tolerance (in arcseconds) for checking if coordinates differ from those in the database so much that rephasing is required. Please keep the value less than ‘tol’ .

fixuvw

Fix the UVW coordinates through the CASA task ‘fixvis’.

enable

bool, optional, default = False

Enable the ‘fixvis’ segment.

fixcalcoords

Fix the coordinates of the bandpass calibrators.

enable

bool, optional, default = False

Enable fixing calibrator coodinate fixing segment.

clearcal

Clear out calibrated data and reset the previous predicted model.

enable

bool, optional, default = False

Enable the ‘clearcal’ segment

addmodel

bool, optional, default = True

Enable ‘addmodel’ which will add the scratch columns if they don’t exist. Switch this on when using crystalball models for primary.

manage_flags

Manage flags.

enable

bool, optional, default = True

Enable the ‘manage_flags’ segment.

mode

{“legacy”, “restore”}, optional, default = legacy

Mode for managing flags. If set to ‘legacy’, save the current FLAG column as a ‘caracal_legacy’ flag version if a flag version with that name does not exisy yet; else restore the ‘caracal_legacy’ flag version and delete all flag versions created after it. If set to ‘restore’, restore flags from the flag version specified by ‘version’ below, and delete all flag versions created after that version.

version

str, optional, default = auto

Name of the flag version to restore. If set to ‘auto’, rewind to the version prefix_workername_before, where ‘prefix’ is set in the ‘general’ worker, and ‘workername’ is the name of this worker including the suffix ‘__X’ if it is a repeated instance of this worker in the configuration file. Note that all flag versions saved after this version will be deleted.

specweights

How to initialize spectral weights.

enable

bool, optional, default = False

Enable the ‘spectral_weights’ segment.

mode

{“uniform”, “estimate”, “delete”}, optional, default = uniform

Mode for spectral weights. Options are ‘uniform’ (set all weights to unity), ‘estimate’ (estimate spectral weights from frequency-dependent SEFD/Tsys/Noise values, and see ‘estimate’ segment of this section), and ‘delete’ (delete WEIGHT_SPECTRUM column if it exists).

calculate

Calculate spectral weights from frequency-dependent SEFD/Tsys/Noise values.

statsfile

str, optional, default = use_package_meerkat_spec

File with SEFD/Tsys/Noise data. If data is from the MeerKAT telescope, you can specify ‘use_package_meerkat_spec’ to use package data.

weightcols

list of str, optional, default = WEIGHT, WEIGHT_SPECTRUM

Column names for spectral weights.

noisecols

list of str, optional, default = SIGMA, SIGMA_SPECTRUM

Column names for noise values.

apply

bool, optional, default = True

Write columns to file.

report

bool, optional, default = False

(Re)generate a full HTML report at the end of this worker.

cabs

list of map, optional, default = ‘ ‘

Specifies non-default image versions and/or tags for Stimela cabs. Running with scissors: use with extreme caution.