Common Astronomy Software Applications

CASA, the Common Astronomy Software Applications, is the primary data processing software for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), and is often used also for other radio telescopes.

6.5.2 Release

CASA 6.5.2 can now be downloaded for general use. CASA 6.5.2 is available either as a downloadable tar-file, or through pip-wheel installation, which gives flexibility to integrate CASA into a customized Python environment.

Highlights:

  • deconvolve: new task for image-domain deconvolution.

  • uvcontsub: new implementation, old uvcontsub task deprecated.

  • fringefit: support added for ‘uvrange’ parameter.

  • tclean: new iteration control parameter ‘nmajor’.

  • sdimaging: new parameter ‘enablecache’ for improved performance.

  • mstransform: parameter ‘douvcontsub’ deprecated.

  • flagdata: mode=’shadow’ now uses the uvw values from the UVW column.

  • tclean/tsdimaging: improved runtime performance of ephemeris imaging.

  • simulator tool: new parameter ‘simint’ in sm.settrop() to control time granularity, down to 0.1s.

  • ImageAnalysis tool: new string ‘mbret’ parameter added to ‘image.restoringbeam()’.

  • casalog tool: new method ‘getOrigin()’ implemented to retrieve origin of messages.

For more details on these and other new features, see the CASA 6.5.2 Release Notes.

CASA is developed by an international consortium of scientists based at the National Radio Astronomical Observatory (NRAO), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA), CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science (CSIRO/CASS), and the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), under the guidance of NRAO.