Array simulator

Here you find a script that help you to simulate a radio observations with an array of your choice.
Before you are going to simulate, please make sure that you have the following software installed.

    Obit


    ParselTongue


    AIPS-classical

    this is only optional you DO NOT NEED AIPS to be installed. Instead the simulator script are using the AIPSLite modules from Stephen Brouke.

The following python modules you need to run your simulation:

    SKADS_SIMULATOR.py
    AIPSLite.py
    AIPSLiteTask.py

The simulator script needs an image (this could also be a cube) and a antenna configuration file as inputs. Examples are shown are here:

    1sqdeg_all_1.4fits

    Image input from e.g. the S3 - Sky simulation page or wahtever image you would like to use.

The script is based on the AIPS task UVCON and therefore relies on the format of the Antenna configurations file required by this task. Here are some listed you may find useful:

    SVT.UVCON

    Versions of the current SKA configurations:

    SKA_AA_1.UVCON

    SKA_AA_2.UVCON

    SKA_DISK.UVCON

    Some array configurations you would like to play with:

    ASKAP36.UVCON

    MEERKAT.UVCON

    EMERLIN.UVCON

    VLA_A.UVCON

    VLA_B.UVCON

    VLA_C.UVCON

    VLA_D.UVCON


    VLBA.UVCON

Here is a tar-ball including all the files:

    SIMHRK.tgz



You are running the script like:
python SKADS_SIMULATOR.py AIPSNUMBER IMAGEFILENAME UVCONFILENAME

OPTIONAL:
    #CLEAN Components in the image OBSERVATION[hrs] INTEGRATIONperVisibility[min] IMAGE WEIGHT[-5 pure uniform, 5 natural]

So a possible input would be: python SKADS_SIMULATOR.py 555 1sqdeg_all_1.4.fits VLA-D_UVCON


The script tries hard to figure out some of the nessesary stuff to handle the aips task, however one of the more common errors you may encounter is that your pixel resolution in the image does not match the resolution required by the longest baseline of your array. So be aware that you need e.g for the VLA-A sub-arcsecound resolution!!!


and hopefully you find this useful and enjoy to work with it. In case you have trouble I'm happy to help and just send me an e-mail.

09.03.09 will not be updated.