3.4 Removing Confusing Sources Using AIPS [Heywood & Klöckner 2005]

Main AIPS - tasks used: IMAGR, CCEDT, BOX2CC, UVSUB

here you find the UV dataset of 1033+412.UVSUB.FITS [press right mouse button and select save link as.]

Examining the phase calibrator source 1033+412 reveals a confusing source in the field. This page documents the procedure for removing this source by subtracting a CLEAN component model from the UV data.
It is assumed that a calibrated single source UV file has already been created, e.g. using SPLIT.


The figure above shows the dirty map. The unwelcome source is just visible to the west, beneath the sidelobe structure of the phase calibrator. Cleaning the phase calibrator allows us to see the confusing source more clearly and also reveals the contamination due to its sidelobe structure. This is shown below.

The procedure for removing the confusing source is as follows. The task IMAGR is used to generate a clean component model of the source which is stored in a CC table in the image header. The task UVSUB is then used to subtract this clean component model from the UV data set. For instance IMAGR can be used to clean the phase calibrator down to the noise and then UVSUB is used to subtract the clean component model. Cleaning and imaging the resulting data set gives the image below.

The problem lies in obtaining a CC table which represents solely the confusing source. Since it is buried in the sidelobe structure of the phase calibrator both sources will have to be cleaned and hence the CC table will contain components that represent the phase calibrator. Subtracting this CC model from the UV data would also remove the phase calibrator.
To overcome this the tasks BOX2CC and CCEDT are used. The task IMAGR is used to clean both sources. Using TVLOD to display the cleaned image, TVWIN allows the user to highlight the confusing source. BOX2CC is then used to convert the TV coordinates into angular coordinates. The task CCEDT takes the CC table from the cleaned image and generates an additional CC table in the image header which contains only the clean components within the selected region. This CC table should then contain only the components that represent the confusing source which can then be subtracted from the UV data using UVSUB. Imaging the resulting data set produces the image below.


Additional Notes

  • Other point sources are still visible in the field. They could be removed using the procedure described above.
  • The method is dependent on the clean component model of the source the user wishes to remove being accurate. Care should be taken to ensure that all the flux from the confusing source is cleaned.

  • input of the tasks: IMAGR, CCEDT, BOX2CC, UVSUB

    inp imagr
    AIPS 2: IMAGR: Wide field imaging/Clean task
    AIPS 2: Adverbs     Values                 Comments
    AIPS 2: ----------------------------------------------------------------
    AIPS 2: INNAME     '1033+412    '          Input UV data (name)
    AIPS 2: INCLASS    'SPLIT '                Input UV data (class)
    AIPS 2: INSEQ         2                    Input UV data (seq. #)
    AIPS 2: INDISK        0                    Input UV data disk drive #
    AIPS 2: SOURCES    '1033+412        '      Source name
    AIPS 2:            *rest ' '
    AIPS 2: QUAL         -1                    Calibrator qualifier -1=>all
    AIPS 2: CALCODE    '    '                  Calibrator code '    '=>all
    AIPS 2: TIMERANG   *all 0                  Time range to use
    AIPS 2: SELBAND      -1                    Bandwidth to select (kHz)
    AIPS 2: SELFREQ      -1                    Frequency to select (MHz)
    AIPS 2: FREQID       -1                    Freq. ID to select.
    AIPS 2: SUBARRAY      0                    Sub-array, 0=>all
    AIPS 2: DOCALIB      -1                    If >0 calibrate data
    AIPS 2:                                    = 2 calibrate weights
    AIPS 2: GAINUSE       0                    CL (or SN) table to apply
    AIPS 2: DOPOL        -1                    If >0.5 correct polarization.
    AIPS 2: BLVER        -1                    BL table to apply.
    AIPS 2: FLAGVER       0                    Flag table version
    AIPS 2: DOBAND       -1                    If >0.5 apply bandpass cal.
    AIPS 2:                                    Method used depends on value
    AIPS 2:                                    of DOBAND (see HELP file).
    AIPS 2: BPVER        -1                    Bandpass table version
    AIPS 2: SMOOTH     *all 0                  Smoothing function. See
    AIPS 2:                                    HELP SMOOTH for details.
    AIPS 2: STOKES     '    '                  Stokes parameters (see HELP)
    AIPS 2: BCHAN         1                    Low freq. channel 0 for cont.
    AIPS 2: ECHAN         0                    Highest freq channel
    AIPS 2: CHANNEL       0                    Restart channel number
    AIPS 2: NCHAV         1                    Number of chan. to average.
    AIPS 2: CHINC         1                    Channel incr. between maps.
    AIPS 2: BIF           0                    First IF in average.
    AIPS 2: EIF           0                    Last IF in average.
    AIPS 2: OUTNAME    '            '          Output image name (name)
    AIPS 2: OUTDISK       1                    Output image disk drive #
    AIPS 2: OUTSEQ        0                    Output seq. no.
    AIPS 2: OUTVER        0                    CC ver. no (Continuum only)
    AIPS 2:                                    *** SET OUTVER ON RESTARTS
    AIPS 2: IN2NAME    '            '          UV work file name
    AIPS 2: IN2CLASS   '      '                UV work file class
    AIPS 2: IN2SEQ        0                    UV work file seq
    AIPS 2:                                    *** SET TO KEEP WORK FILE
    AIPS 2: IN2DISK       0                    UV work file disk
    AIPS 2: CELLSIZE      4.17        4.17     (X,Y) size of grid in asec
    AIPS 2: IMSIZE      256         256        Minimum image size
    AIPS 2: NFIELD        0                    Number of fields (max 4096)
    AIPS 2: DO3DIMAG     -1                    > 0 => use different tangent
    AIPS 2:                                    points for each field
    AIPS 2: FLDSIZE    *all 0                  Clean size of each field.
    AIPS 2: RASHIFT    *all 0                  RA shift per field (asec)
    AIPS 2: DECSHIFT   *all 0                  DEC shift per field (asec)
    AIPS 2: UVTAPER       0           0        (U,V) Gaussian taper
    AIPS 2:                                      units are kilo-lambda
    AIPS 2: UVRANGE       0           0        Min & max baseline (klambda)
    AIPS 2: GUARD         0           0        x,y guard band fractional
    AIPS 2:                                    radius
    AIPS 2: ROTATE        0                    Rotate image CCW from N by
    AIPS 2:                                    ROTATE degrees
    AIPS 2: ZEROSP     *all 0                  0-spacing fluxes and weights
    AIPS 2:                                    SEE HELP!!
    AIPS 2: UVWTFN     '  '                    UV dist. weight function
    AIPS 2:                                      blank => uniform
    AIPS 2: UVSIZE        0           0        Array size for doing uniform
    AIPS 2:                                    weights.  0 -> actual field
    AIPS 2:                                    size.
    AIPS 2: ROBUST        0                    Robustness power: -5 -> pure
    AIPS 2:                                    uniform weights, 5 => natural
    AIPS 2: UVBOX         0                    Additional rows and columns
    AIPS 2:                                    used in weighting.
    AIPS 2: UVBXFN        1                    Box function type when UVBOX
    AIPS 2:                                    > 0.  0 -> 1 round pill box.
    AIPS 2: XTYPE         5                    Conv. function type in x
    AIPS 2:                                      default spheroidal
    AIPS 2: YTYPE         5                    Conv. function type in y
    AIPS 2:                                      default spheroidal
    AIPS 2: XPARM      *all 0                  Conv. function parms for x
    AIPS 2: YPARM      *all 0                  Conv. function parms for y
    AIPS 2: NITER      3000                    Maximum # of Clean components
    AIPS 2: BCOMP      *all 0                  Begin at BCOMP component
    AIPS 2:                                    Specify for each field.
    AIPS 2: ALLOKAY       0                    For restart: > 0 => beams
    AIPS 2:                                    okay, > 1 => work file too
    AIPS 2: NBOXES        0                    Number of boxes for Clean
    AIPS 2:                                    NB: field 1 only.
    AIPS 2: CLBOX      *all 0                  Four coordinates for each box
    AIPS 2: BOXFILE    *all ' '                Input file of field params
    AIPS 2:                                    and Clean boxes; ' ' => use
    AIPS 2:                                    FLDSIZE, RASHIFT, DECSHIFT,
    AIPS 2:                                    NBOXES, CLBOX only.
    AIPS 2: OBOXFILE   *all ' '                Output file for final Clean
    AIPS 2:                                    boxes
    AIPS 2: GAIN          0.1                  Clean loop gain
    AIPS 2: FLUX          0                    Minimum Clean component (Jy)
    AIPS 2: MINPATCH     51                    Min. BEAM half-width in AP.
    AIPS 2: BMAJ          0                    FWHM(asec) major axis Clean
    AIPS 2:                                    restoring beam.
    AIPS 2: BMIN          0                    FWHM(asec) minor axis Clean
    AIPS 2:                                    restoring beam.
    AIPS 2: BPA           0                    Clean beam position angle
    AIPS 2: OVERLAP       0                    1 => restore components to
    AIPS 2:                                    overlapped fields, >=2=>
    AIPS 2:                                    expect overlaps in Cleaning
    AIPS 2: PHAT          0                    Prussian hat height.
    AIPS 2: FACTOR        0                    Speedup factor see HELP
    AIPS 2: CMETHOD    '    '                  Modeling method:
    AIPS 2:                                    'DFT','GRID','    '
    AIPS 2: IMAGRPRM   *all 0                  Task enrichment parameters
    AIPS 2:                                    (1) Antenna diameter (m)
    AIPS 2:                                    (2) Source Spectral index
    AIPS 2:                                    (3) Frequency scaling factor
    AIPS 2:                                    (4) > 0 -> SDI Clean factor
    AIPS 2:                                    (5) >0 => scale residuals
    AIPS 2:                                    (6) Half-width in x of box
    AIPS 2:                                    (7) Half-width in y of box
    AIPS 2:                                    (8) Filter components whose
    AIPS 2:                                    neighborhood is weaker than
    AIPS 2:                                    IMAGRPRM(8) Jy.  0 -> don't
    AIPS 2:                                    (9) Radius in pixels for the
    AIPS 2:                                    IMAGRPRM(8) test.
    AIPS 2:                                    (10) multiplier of image size
    AIPS 2:                                    to get beam size: 0 => 2;
    AIPS 2:                                    2, 1, 0.5 0.25 supported
    AIPS 2:                                    (11-16) Multi-resolution
    AIPS 2:                                    added controls
    AIPS 2:                                    (19) Dynamic range limit
    AIPS 2:                                    (20) Retry factor (see help)
    AIPS 2: NGAUSS        0                    Number of resolutions to use
    AIPS 2: WGAUSS     *all 0                  Resolutions in arc sec >= 0
    AIPS 2: FGAUSS     *all 0                  Minimum flux for each resol.
    AIPS 2: MAXPIXEL   20000                   Maximum pixels searched in
    AIPS 2:                                    each major cycle.
    AIPS 2: DOTV          1                    Display residuals on TV ?
    AIPS 2:                                    Start with field = DOTV
    AIPS 2: BADDISK    *all 0                  Disks to avoid for scratch.
    
    inp box2cc
    AIPS 2: BOX2CC:  Procedure to convert CLBOX (pixels) to CCBOX (arc sec)
    AIPS 2: Adverbs     Values                 Comments
    AIPS 2: ----------------------------------------------------------------
    AIPS 2:                    Use RUN BOX2CC first
    AIPS 2: INNAME     '1033+412    '          Image file name (name)
    AIPS 2: INCLASS    'ICL001'                Image file name (class)
    AIPS 2: INSEQ         2                    Image file name (seq. #)
    AIPS 2: INDISK        0                    Image file disk drive #
    AIPS 2: NBOXES        1                    Number CC boxes (1 - 10)
    AIPS 2: CLBOX       201         128        Clean boxes in pixels
    AIPS 2:             221         155        *rest 0
    
    inp ccedt
    AIPS 2: CCEDT:    Select CC components in BOXes and above minimum flux.
    AIPS 2: Adverbs     Values                 Comments
    AIPS 2: ----------------------------------------------------------------
    AIPS 2: USERID        0                    User number.
    AIPS 2: INNAME     '1033+412    '          Input file (name).
    AIPS 2: INCLASS    'ICL001'                Input file (class).
    AIPS 2: INSEQ         2                    Input file (seq. #).
    AIPS 2:                                       0 => high
    AIPS 2: INDISK        0                    Disk unit #.       0 => any
    AIPS 2: INVERS        0                    Input  file version no.
    AIPS 2: OUTVERS       0                    Output file version.
    AIPS 2: BCOUNT        1                    Beginning row to copy
    AIPS 2: ECOUNT        0                    Last row to copy: 0 => end
    AIPS 2: CUTOFF        0                    Minimum merged flux.  Use
    AIPS 2:                                    large negative for no edits.
    AIPS 2:                                    0.0 cuts off at zero.
    AIPS 2: BOXFILE    '                                                '
    AIPS 2:                                    Text file with Clean boxes
    AIPS 2: NBOXES        1                    Number of boxes in CLBOX
    AIPS 2: CLBOX       201         128        Clean windows to apply
    AIPS 2:             221         155        *rest 0
    AIPS 2: NCCBOX        1                    Number of boxes
    AIPS 2: CCBOX      *all 0                  Four coordinate values for
    AIPS 2:                                    each box in arcsec.
    AIPS 2: CPARM      *all 0                  (1,2) = half size of rectang.
    AIPS 2:                                      in X,Y(arcsec) in which
    AIPS 2:                                      to get total flux for
    AIPS 2:                                      CUTOFF.
    AIPS 2:                                    (1) < 0 => (2) is radius of
    AIPS 2:                                      circular aperture in CUTOFF
    AIPS 2:                                    Automatic model splitting:
    AIPS 2:                                      3 = Max number of output
    AIPS 2:                                      tables. >0 => automatic
    AIPS 2:                                      model splitting enabled.
    AIPS 2:                                      4 = Min fractional flux in
    AIPS 2:                                      the output models. 0=>0.95.
    
    inp uvsub
    AIPS 2: UVSUB     Task to subtract CLEAN components from a uv data base.
    AIPS 2: Adverbs     Values                 Comments
    AIPS 2: ----------------------------------------------------------------
    AIPS 2:                                    (or, to divide observed visi-
    AIPS 2:                                    bility by model visibility)
    AIPS 2: INNAME     '1033+412    '          Input UV file name (name)
    AIPS 2: INCLASS    'SPLIT '                Input UV file name (class)
    AIPS 2: INSEQ         2                    Input UV file name (seq. #)
    AIPS 2: INDISK        0                    Input UV file disk unit #
    AIPS 2: NMAPS         0                    No. maps to use for model.
    AIPS 2: CHANNEL       0                    Spectral channel (0=>all)
    AIPS 2:                                    Use 0 for continuum
    AIPS 2: BIF           0                    First IF (0=>1)
    AIPS 2: EIF           0                    Highest IF (0=>BIF to last)
    AIPS 2: IN2NAME    '1033+412    '          Cleaned map name (name)
    AIPS 2: IN2CLASS   'ICL001'                Cleaned map name (class)
    AIPS 2: IN2SEQ        2                    Cleaned map name (seq. #)
    AIPS 2: IN2DISK       0                    Cleaned map disk unit #
    AIPS 2: INVERS        2                    CC file version #.
    AIPS 2: OUTNAME    'PHASE       '          Output UV file name (name)
    AIPS 2: OUTCLASS   'UV    '                Output UV file name (class)
    AIPS 2: OUTSEQ        0                    Output UV file name (seq. #)
    AIPS 2: OUTDISK       1                    Output UV file disk unit #.
    AIPS 2: BCOMP      *all 0                  First CLEAN comp to sub.
    AIPS 2:                                    1 per field.
    AIPS 2: NCOMP      *all 0                  Last CLEAN comp to sub.
    AIPS 2:                                    to use (0 => all)
    AIPS 2: FLUX          0                    Lowest CC component used.
    AIPS 2: CMETHOD    '    '                  Modeling method:
    AIPS 2:                                    'DFT','GRID','    '
    AIPS 2: CMODEL     '    '                  Model type: 'COMP','IMAG'
    AIPS 2:                                    (see HELP re images)
    AIPS 2: FACTOR        0                    Factor times CLEAN fluxes.
    AIPS 2:                                    0->1.0  Subtract
    AIPS 2:                                      -1.0  Add
    AIPS 2: OPCODE     '    '                  'DIV ' => divide visibility
    AIPS 2:                                      observation by model vis.
    AIPS 2:                                    'MODL' => replace visibility
    AIPS 2:                                      with model visibility
    AIPS 2:                                    anything else => subtract
    AIPS 2: SMODEL     *all 0                  Source model, 1=flux,2=x,3=y
    AIPS 2:                                    See HELP SMODEL for models.
    AIPS 2: BADDISK    *all 0                  Disks to avoid for scratch
    


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