Currently in validation/bug-fixing period, release branch in next few weeks
Public CASA 5.6/6.0 release by end of July
ALMA/EVLA pipeline release by Oct 1.
EHT-related article planned for next newsletter, expected ~alongside CASA 5.6 pipeline release
Probably a contribution from Michael Janssen, via Ilse
Newsletter scheduled for ~October
(Mark) EHT polarization workshop
In Bonn, in July; EHT members only. Mark may adapt some ad hoc resolved-calibrator polarization-calibration scripts as tasks.
No news. Some internal EHT discussion about role of CASA in further work. Possibly some input to priorities after this workshop.
(Mark) Summer student at JIVE investigating scpetral line VLBI with CASA
A novice, first learning VLBI in AIPS...
Spectral line exposes the single-channel (no delay solve) use case, which will need some attention for 5.7
Jay Blanchard now in Socorro, cultivating interest in CASA VLBI (also SRDP)
Some discussion of fringefit in recent local CASA User group meetings
Well-received, useful discussions, some confusion (mostly because this is largely a VLA crowd less accustomed to VLBI); ambitions for VLBA pipelining.
Some VLBI-related validation likely to become available here in Socorro in the coming months: Jay + another new VLBA staff member (Justin Linford, w/ some CASA experience) arriving in the next month or so.
Some discussions have begun about potential science involving an ngVLA prototype antenna (sited at VLA) + VLBA. This may eventually generate some CASA/VLBI imperatives, e.g., including managing the conversions necessary to cope with linear feeds on the ngVLA antenna (a la EHT); maybe we should add Ivan Marti-Vidal's 'polcovert' to CASA.
(Ryan) CASA Next Generation Infrastructure
Trade studies ongoing...
Evaluation of several selected technologies ongoing, working toward six-month prototyping period to begin later this year.
Rust wrapper around casacore by CfA proving interesting...
Trying to wrap of MSv3 study, which will provide schema for CNGI data storage.
(Des) Janssen has found a so-far unreproducible bug---analysis of this still pending
Items for CASA 5.6/6.0 development
(George) CASA 6 VLBI task interface verification
(Mark) fringefit task: coordinating with Bob Garwood. OK?
Still in progress; merge still desirable/possible.
(Mark) fringefit unittest using real data: Status? Done!
(George) Calibration changes ~relevant to VLBI:
CAS-6747: Relative frequency interpolation for channel-dependent calibration
CAS-11552: Updates to multiband delay solves in gaincal for heterogeneous spws
SolveDataBuffer::centroidFreq / SDList::aggregateCentroidFreq. (cf SDBList::centrodFreq added for fringefit)
(George) Look into correlation-dependent flagging issue (CAS-695)
No progress, unfortunately. Defer to 5.7.
(Des) Dispersive term
(Des) CAS-12493: Extended fringefit CalTable for dispersive term support
PR #995 pending. Awaiting final validation? Still TBD, maybe Janssen. NB: affects Mark's new test; will probably merge new version (along with re-merge of master).
(User warning since not backward compatible? Attempts to use old will fail comprehensibly.)
(Des) Work on actual solve ongoing for CASA 5.7, including user control and an FFT-based option for estimating the dispersive term.
Must exist in code by end of year (funding progress report)
(Des) CAS-12480: fringefit performance/stability issues traced to neglecting some terms in fit accumulations; now on track to validate for 5.6
PR #984 merged June 4
(Des) CAS-xxxxx? fringefit weighting control implemented
Status?
Defer to 5.7. Need good use case for testing/validation. Philosophy of this mechanism "interesting".
(Des) CAS-12501 Iteration control (niter) for fringefit
PR #994 merged June 26
(Des) Baseline stacking
(Des) Wide bandwidth
Must exist in code by end of year (funding progress report)
(Walter) Advanced VLBA Amplitude calibration a la Walker memo from a few years ago
Bandpass normalization flexibility: voltage vs. power
Verification/Validation/Documentation
(Jay) Testing of fringe fitting with a model... status?
(George) Confer with Kumar on improving warnings for convolved model images or with wrong units
TBD
Des has python functions that perform conversions of CC tables into image grid or ComponentList. We should adopt these in CASA proper---George will coordinate with Kumar on this (for 5.7).
(Mark/George) Status of recent casacore changes?
SIGMA/WEIGHT storage manager fix
FITSIDI Single-band case
Not urgent for 5.6, but need to confirm when this is merged to CASA master.