EveryBeam library
This package can be used to compute the beam response for a variety of radio telescopes, i.e.:
- LOFAR
- OSKAR
- MWA
- VLA
- ATCA
This package also provides an abstract interface to a selection of beam responses for apperture arrays (LOFAR/OSKAR), and beamformed versions thereof. Currently implemented are:
- Hamaker LOFAR model
- OSKAR spherical wave model
- OSKAR-dipole: work in progress
- LOBES: work in progress. A coefficient file is currently only available for LOFAR station CS302LBA. Selecting the LOBES model defaults back to Hamaker, except for the aforementioned station.
EveryBeam replaces the stand alone version of the LOFAR station response library (LOFARBeam).
EveryBeam is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL3 license.
Installation
On a clean ubuntu 18.04 computer, the following packages are required (see also the docker
directory):
General packages
apt-get -y install wget git make cmake g++ doxygen \
libboost-all-dev libhdf5-dev libfftw3-dev \
libblas-dev liblapack-dev libgsl-dev libxml2-dev \
libgtkmm-3.0-dev libpython3-dev python3-distutils
Astronomy packages:
apt-get -y install casacore-dev libcfitsio-dev wcslib-dev
Installation is then typically done as:
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DBUILD_WITH_PYTHON=On/Off ..
make
make install
The BUILD_WITH_PYTHON
option indicates whether the python bindings for EveryBeam should be generated. If switched On
(non-default), a shared everybeam.cpython
should appear in the [INSTALL_DIR]/lib/python[MAJOR].[MINOR]/site-packages
directory.
Usage with DP3
To use Everybeam within DP3 - the streaming visibility framework, https://git.astron.nl/RD/DP3 - DP3 needs to be compiled against EveryBeam. To do so, make sure DP3 can find EveryBeam by adding the EveryBeam install dir to the CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
.
A test measurement set is included in DP3 (tNDP3-generic.in_MS.tgz
).
To simulate visibilities with a certain element model, use DP3 DP3.parset
with DP3.parset
a parset file with the following contents:
msin=tNDP3-generic.MS
msout=.
steps=[predict]
predict.usebeammodel=True
predict.elementmodel=oskardipole
predict.sourcedb=tNDP3-generic.MS/sky # sourcedb file
Usage with WSClean
To use EveryBeam with WSClean (for A-term or primary beam corrections), WSClean needs to be compiled against EveryBeam. In order to do so, make sure WSClean can find EveryBeam by adding the EveryBeam install dir to the CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
.