VIPCALs
VLBI Pipeline for automated data Calibration using AIPS (in the SMILE framework)
Contents:
- How to install
- Usage
- AIPS Calibration Workflow
- Data loading
- Pre-calibration checks
- Table loading
- Phase center shift
- Time/frequency average
- TY table smoothing
- Choice of reference antenna
- Ionospheric delay correction
- Geometric corrections
- Choice of calibrator scans
- Digital sampling correction
- Instrumental delay correction
- Complex bandpass
- Amplitude calibration
- Target fringe fit
- Data export
- Plots
Overview
VIPCALs is a fully automated calibration pipeline for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) data. It was developed as part of the SMILE (Search for Milli-Lenses) project to process thousands of datasets without human intervention.
Built on ParselTongue (Kettenis et al. 2006), a Python interface to AIPS, the pipeline offers a minimalistic graphical user interface and produces fully calibrated datasets.
Plase cite Alvarez-Ortega et al. (2025) if using this code.
Note
Development status: The pipeline is under active development. The current version supports continuum calibration of VLBA data, with support for other arrays in testing.
Bugs, feedback, and suggestions are always welcome — please contact: dalvarez@physics.uoc.gr
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the Horizon ERC Grants 2021 programme under grant agreement No. 101040021.