RadioAstronomySoftwareGroup / RadioAstronomySoftwareGroup/pyuvdata

UVH5 not ideally suited for arrays with relocatable antennas

Open
#925 2 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

enhancement needs research UVData
Dominant language
Python
Stars
102
Forks
35
Avg merge
1d 20h
Merged PRs (30d)
14

Description

As described in the current UVH5 memo, the UVH5 format seems to assume/require that antennas have only one position for all the visibilities in the file. Normally data are not taken while the antennas are "on the move" (unless there's a space based VLBI component!), but it may be desirable to support consolidating visibilities from multiple array configurations into one UVH5 file. This is not possible given constraints in the current UVH5 memo (e.g. antenna_positions is limited to Nants_telescope entries).

UVH5 can be used to store visibilities for each array configuration in separate files, each with their own antenna_positions dataset, but the current spec does not allow combining these into one file. Not sure the best way to deal with this, or if it's even worth supporting this.

I guess so long as uvw_array has the correct (u,v,w) coordinates for each baseline-time sample, maybe it doesn't really matter what the antenna positions are?

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the current UVH5 memo, focusing on the Nants_telescope limit for antenna_positions and the per-baseline-time uvw_array. Resolve whether consolidated files with changing array configurations should be supported and, if so, define the representation and update the specification accordingly.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
data
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.