MIRIAD was designed for

Multichannel
Image
Reconstruction,
Image
Analysis
and
Display

MIRIAD can be run on the command line, and is easily built
into CSH, PYTHON, etc scripts for simple, or for quite
complex data reduction and image analysis procedures.

This afternoon's seminar will attempt to take participants on a
demonstration tour of MIRIAD's capabilities and documentation.

This may instructive, entertaining, or embarrassing,


Bring your laptops if you have, don't worry if not.


Melvyn


REFERENCES

Easy reading:

"A  Rectrospective View of Miriad",
Sault, R.J., Teuben, P.J., \& Wright,M.C.H., 1995,
in Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems IV,
ed. R. Shaw, H.E. Payne, \& J.J.E.Hayes, ASP Conf. Ser., 77, 433

http://astron.berkeley.edu/~wright/miriad/miriad_retrospective.pdf

- a 4 page review of the HISTORY, GOALS, DESIGN, and IMPLEMENTATION

ON-LINE USER DOCUMENTATION

For BIMA
http://bima.astro.umd.edu/miriad

For ATCA
http://www.atnf.csiro.au/computing/software/miriad/userhtml.html

For SMA
http://smadata.cfa.harvard.edu/miriadWWW

For ALMA
http://astron.berkeley.edu/~wright/miriad/miriad-audit.pdf
http://astron.berkeley.edu/~wright/miriad/offline-audit-comparison.pdf

These two memos were censured by the ALMA project, and eventually 
published in watered down language as BIMA and IRAM memos.

These memos give a good description of the capabilites or not
in satisfying ALMA's requirements.


Documentation is built into the MIRIAD source code, and extracted
using the doc program.

e.g.
 > doc telepar

Task:    telepar

Responsible: Bob Sault

          TELEPAR gives the characteristics of various observatories.
          Its main use is to check that the characteristics are correct.

Keyword: telescop
          Name of the observatory. Several can be given. If none are
          given, TELEPAR simply lists the known observatories.


 > telepar

Telepar: version 3.0 26-AUG-03
Known observatories are:
    alma
    atca
    carma
    ceduna30m
    cso
    gmrt
    hatcreek
    hobart26m
    iram15m
    jcmt
    kittpeak
    mopra
    nobeyama45
    nro10m
    onsala
    ovro
    parkes
    penticton
    quabbin
    sma
    sza
    sza10
    sza6
    vla
    wsrt


SIMULATIONS FOR FUTURE TELESCOPES

MIRIAD has been extensively used to plan and simulate imaging
with CARMA, ALMA, and ATA. Several memos and downloadable demonstations
are available as BIMA, ATA, and SKA memos. Also available on
  http://astron.berkeley.edu/~wright

E.g.

For CARMA
http://astron.berkeley.edu/~wright/sza_location.pdf
http://astron.berkeley.edu/~wright/carma_memo27.pdf

For ATA
http://astron.berkeley.edu/~wright/ata_imaging.pdf
http://astron.berkeley.edu/~wright/ata-32/test/mini_ml_256.html

For ALMA
http://astron.berkeley.edu/~wright/compact_configuration_evaluation_mosaicing.pdf
http://astron.berkeley.edu/~wright/aca.pdf


DATA FORMAT

1. UVDATA

The uvdata structure is used for single source, multiple source or
frequency, mosaiced, polarization, interferometer or single dish
observations.  The data can be stored as real or complex floating
values, or scaled 16-bit integers. The metadata are stored as a
stream of named variables and values. Source names, frequencies,
pointing centers, are variables which can change throughout the
uvdata.

A "stream" of sampled data flows from the telescope.
The MIRIAD data format is well suited for on-line imaging.

The current radio astronomy paradym for data reduction is very time
consuming and unattractive for non-radio astronomers.

ATA, SKA and REAL TIME IMAGING

http://astron.berkeley.edu/~wright/ska_imaging.pdf

explores the imaging requirements and data processing
options for the large-N SKA.
The calibration must be made in close to real
time with the derived calibration parameters fed back into the real
time system for multiple phase centers.  The large data rate and data
processing requirements suggests that the SKA should produce final,
calibrated images as its normal output.