EHT-HOPS pipeline for millimeter VLBI data reduction

Creators: Blackburn, Lindy; Chan, Chi-kwan; Crew, Geoffrey B.; Fish, Vincent L.; Issaoun, Sara; Johnson, Michael D.; Wielgus, Maciek; Akiyama, Kazunori; Barrett, John; Bouman, Katherine L.; Cappallo, Roger; Chael, Andrew A.; Janssen, Michael; Lonsdale, Colin J.; Doeleman, Sheperd S.

Abstract

We present the design and implementation of an automated data calibration and reduction pipeline for very-long-baseline interferometric (VLBI) observations taken at millimeter wavelengths. These short radio-wavelengths provide the best imaging resolution available from ground-based VLBI networks such as the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) and the Global Millimeter VLBI Array (GMVA), but require specialized processing due to the strong effects from atmospheric opacity and turbulence as well as the heterogeneous nature of existing global arrays. The pipeline builds upon a calibration suite (HOPS) originally designed for precision geodetic VLBI. To support the reduction of data for astronomical observations, we have developed an additional framework for global phase and amplitude calibration which provides output in a standard data format for astronomical imaging and analysis. We test the pipeline on observations taken at 3.5 mm (86 GHz) by the GMVA joined by the phased Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in April 2017, and demonstrate the benefits from the specialized processing of high frequency VLBI data with respect to classical analysis techniques.

Additional Information

We thank Thomas Krichbaum for helpful comments and discussion, as well as the EHT Collaboration, specifically members of the Correlation and the Calibration & Error Analysis working groups. We thank the National Science Foundation (AST-1126433, AST-1614868, AST-1716536) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF-5278) for financial support leading to this work. This work was supported in part by the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University, which is supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The work was also supported by the ERC Synergy Grant \BlackHoleCam: Imaging the Event Horizon of Black Holes", Grant 610058. This paper makes use of the following ALMA data: ADS/JAO.ALMA2016.1.00413.V. ALMA is a partnership of ESO (representing its member states), NSF (USA) and NINS (Japan), together with NRC (Canada), MOST and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. The Joint ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, AUI/NRAO and NAOJ. This research has made use of data obtained with the Global Millimeter VLBI Array (GMVA), which consists of telescopes operated by the Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIfR), IRAM, Onsala, Metsahovi, Yebes, the Korean VLBI Network, the Green Bank Observatory and the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). The VLBA is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. The data were correlated at the correlator of the MPIfR in Bonn, Germany. This work is partly based on observations with the 100-m telescope of the MPIfR at Effelsberg. This work made use of the Swinburne University of Technology software correlator (Deller et al. 2011), developed as part of the Australian Major National Research Facilities Programme and operated under licence. Facilities: GMVA, GBT, ALMA Software: HOPS (Whitney et al. 2004),AIPS (Greisen 2003), GNUParallel (Tange et al. 2011), eht-imaging (Chael et al. 2016, 2018), Numpy (van der Walt et al. 2011), Scipy (Jones et al. 2001),Pandas (McKinney 2010), Astropy (The Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013, 2018),Jupyter (Kluyver et al. 2016), Matplotlib (Hunter 2007).

Attached Files

Submitted - 1903.08832.pdf

Files

1903.08832.pdf

Files (1.7 MB)

Name	Size	Download all
1903.08832.pdf md5:337d0ac2f98b8cdc450a9360b2b29cde	1.7 MB	Preview Download

Additional details

	All versions	This version
Views	0	0
Downloads	0	0
Data volume	0 Bytes	0 Bytes