Data Reduction: CASA

Example of the viewer, which is part of the offline
data reduction software CASA currently being developed
for the analysis of ALMA data. The viewer is very flexible
in showing images, data cubes, as well as raw visibilities,
and allows interactive flagging.

The Common Astronomy Software Applications package, better known as CASA, will be the designated data reduction software package for all ALMA data. The package is a set of C++ tools bundled together under an iPython interface as a set of data reduction tasks. CASA is being developed by a collaboration led by NRAO with the primary goal of supporting the data post-processing needs of the next generation of radio astronomical telescopes such as the ALMA and EVLA projects.

The CASA 'tasks' are oriented towards end-user data processing and analysis, while the CASA 'toolkit' is geared towards the support of pipeline processing, algorithm development, and the construction of tasks.

CASA is currently in Beta release. CASA User Support Specialists are being trained in the use of the CASA Beta Release, and in turn these specialists will train others as needed. With the release of Beta Patch 1 in March 2008, the availability will be gradually expanded to the community as the user support capabilities ramp up.

A Cookbook and Reference Manual are available from the NRAO CASA web site.

For any questions related to CASA, please contact the ALMA Regional Centre.