[daip] AIPS vs CASA

[Eric Greisen]

Arianna Castillo wrote:
> Hello my name is Arianna,
> 
>   I am working on a project where I will be analyzing a raw data file 
> from the NRAO Archive. The current file I have chosen to use contains 
> data form the GBT. To my knowledge, the data contains two dimensional 
> radio images.  Would it be better to use AIPS or CASA for data reduction 
> and analysis?

I am not familiar with GBT images from the archive.  Usually when these 
images are made, much of the data calibration, editing, etc has been 
done and, at that stage, I would not use words like "raw data file".

AIPS has what I believe to be superior methods of dealing with 
single-dish data when it is represented as a pseudo-uv data set.  There 
are programs in GB that can convert GBT format data into this format 
represented in FITS which AIPS then reads.  The algorithms in AIPS for 
smoothing to images offer options not in other packages.

If the images have already been made, however, the answer to your 
question would depend on what more you need to do with them.  AIPS has 
some image analysis techniques described in the AIPS CookBook Analysis 
chapter and has a wide set of display routines.  I do not know what CASA 
has at present, but I suspect one could use very similar words to 
describe their capabilities.

Eric Greisen