Pipeline Version History

The following table gives the version history of CASA+pipeline used for the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) from the start of pipeline operations in 2013 as well as some important notes about these versions. While not all known issues for a given version are listed in the table below, significant issues that users should be aware of are listed with links to more information.

It should be noted that there will be some observations from the date ranges below that will have a newer (or older) CASA+pipeline version used as some observations were reprocessed with a different version to fix certain problems through time. The exact version of CASA and the pipeline used for any given obseration can be verified by downloading the calibration tar file from the archive (Cals column) and checking the weblog main page or the CASA log file. Pre-WIDAR data from the historical VLA are not compatible with the pipeline, though some observations from 2010-03-10 ~ 2013-01-25 may work with some modification to either the observation's metadata or the pipeline code: the scripted pipeline may perform better for data in this range.

CASA Version	Pipeline Version	Dates used	Notes
6.6.6-17	2025.1.0.32	2025-08-18 ~ current	Known Issues New online flags for bad band switches (per IF) are handled in hifv_syspower. Any available self-calibration solutions should be applied in a restore (CMS) request. Reference Manual
6.6.1-17	2024.1.1.22	2025-02-27 ~ 2025-08-18	Known Issues This version was the start of calibration and imaging done as one recipe and this was the start of cube imaging in the pipeline. Starting with this version, archive restores should include applying self-calibration solutions, if available. Reference Manual
6.6.1-17	2024.1.0.8	2024-10-15 ~ 2025-02-26	Known Issues Reference Manual
6.5.4-9	2023.1.0.124	2023-10-21 ~ 2024-10-14	Known Issues Reference Manual
6.4.1-12	2022.2.0.64	2022-09-29 ~ 2023-10-20	A bug within CASA's gencal task (present in CASA 6.5.3 and earlier) causes VLA baseline corrections for an antenna that has zero values for both the x (i.e., Bx) and the y (i.e., By) parameters and a non-zero value for the z parameter (i.e., Bz) to be ignored. Known Issues Reference Manual
6.2.1-7	2021.2.0.128	2021-09-15 ~ 2022-09-29	If the pipeline determins a fit order >2 is needed, the pipeline only applies fit order=2 to the spectral index fit: use 6.4.1 or newer to fix this. Details here. A bug within CASA's gencal task (present in CASA 6.5.3 and earlier) causes VLA baseline corrections for an antenna that has zero values for both the x (i.e., Bx) and the y (i.e., By) parameters and a non-zero value for the z parameter (i.e., Bz) to be ignored. Known Issues Reference Manual
6.1.2-7	2020.1.0.40	2020-12-10 ~ 2021-09-15	If the pipeline determins a fit order >2 is needed, the pipeline only applies fit order=2 to the spectral index fit: use 6.4.1 or newer to fix this. Details here. A bug within CASA's gencal task (present in CASA 6.5.3 and earlier) causes VLA baseline corrections for an antenna that has zero values for both the x (i.e., Bx) and the y (i.e., By) parameters and a non-zero value for the z parameter (i.e., Bz) to be ignored. A bug which would cause the application of calibration tables produced from the flux density scale calibrator to ALL sources in the observation would occur when there was no source explicitly set with the CALIBRATE_BANDPASS scan intent. Due to interpolation rules in CASA, this could cause unwanted heavy flagging, particularly if the flux density scale calibrator was not observed at the beginning of the observation. Known Issues Reference Manual
5.6.2-3	r43130	2020-02-13 ~ 2020-12-09	A bug within CASA's gencal task (present in CASA 6.5.3 and earlier) causes VLA baseline corrections for an antenna that has zero values for both the x (i.e., Bx) and the y (i.e., By) parameters and a non-zero value for the z parameter (i.e., Bz) to be ignored. Calibration tar files for observations taken 2019-12-12~2020-03-25 have no weblog. Contact the Helpdesk for these weblogs. A bug which would cause the application of calibration tables produced from the flux density scale calibrator to ALL sources in the observation would occur when there was no source explicitly set with the CALIBRATE_BANDPASS scan intent. Due to interpolation rules in CASA, this could cause unwanted heavy flagging, particularly if the flux density scale calibrator was not observed at the beginning of the observation. Known Issues
5.6.2-2	r42904	2019-10-22 ~ 2020-02-13	A bug within CASA's gencal task (present in CASA 6.5.3 and earlier) causes VLA baseline corrections for an antenna that has zero values for both the x (i.e., Bx) and the y (i.e., By) parameters and a non-zero value for the z parameter (i.e., Bz) to be ignored. Calibration tar files for observations taken 2019-12-12~2020-03-25 have no weblog. Contact the Helpdesk for these weblogs. A bug which would cause the application of calibration tables produced from the flux density scale calibrator to ALL sources in the observation would occur when there was no source explicitly set with the CALIBRATE_BANDPASS scan intent. Due to interpolation rules in CASA, this could cause unwanted heavy flagging, particularly if the flux density scale calibrator was not observed at the beginning of the observation. Known Issues
5.4.2	r42536	2019-06-18 ~ 2019-10-21	A bug within CASA's gencal task (present in CASA 6.5.3 and earlier) causes VLA baseline corrections for an antenna that has zero values for both the x (i.e., Bx) and the y (i.e., By) parameters and a non-zero value for the z parameter (i.e., Bz) to be ignored. A bug which would cause the application of calibration tables produced from the flux density scale calibrator to ALL sources in the observation would occur when there was no source explicitly set with the CALIBRATE_BANDPASS scan intent. Due to interpolation rules in CASA, this could cause unwanted heavy flagging, particularly if the flux density scale calibrator was not observed at the beginning of the observation. Known Issues
5.4.1	r42192	2018-12-13 ~ 2019-06-18	A bug within CASA's gencal task (present in CASA 6.5.3 and earlier) causes VLA baseline corrections for an antenna that has zero values for both the x (i.e., Bx) and the y (i.e., By) parameters and a non-zero value for the z parameter (i.e., Bz) to be ignored. A bug which would cause the application of calibration tables produced from the flux density scale calibrator to ALL sources in the observation would occur when there was no source explicitly set with the CALIBRATE_BANDPASS scan intent. Due to interpolation rules in CASA, this could cause unwanted heavy flagging, particularly if the flux density scale calibrator was not observed at the beginning of the observation. Known Issues
5.1.2	r40844	2018-01-30 ~ 2018-12-12	A bug within CASA's gencal task (present in CASA 6.5.3 and earlier) causes VLA baseline corrections for an antenna that has zero values for both the x (i.e., Bx) and the y (i.e., By) parameters and a non-zero value for the z parameter (i.e., Bz) to be ignored. A bug which would cause the application of calibration tables produced from the flux density scale calibrator to ALL sources in the observation would occur when there was no source explicitly set with the CALIBRATE_BANDPASS scan intent. Due to interpolation rules in CASA, this could cause unwanted heavy flagging, particularly if the flux density scale calibrator was not observed at the beginning of the observation. Known Issues
5.1.0	r40825	2017-09-18 ~ 2018-01-29	A bug within CASA's gencal task (present in CASA 6.5.3 and earlier) causes VLA baseline corrections for an antenna that has zero values for both the x (i.e., Bx) and the y (i.e., By) parameters and a non-zero value for the z parameter (i.e., Bz) to be ignored. A bug which would cause the application of calibration tables produced from the flux density scale calibrator to ALL sources in the observation would occur when there was no source explicitly set with the CALIBRATE_BANDPASS scan intent. Due to interpolation rules in CASA, this could cause unwanted heavy flagging, particularly if the flux density scale calibrator was not observed at the beginning of the observation. Known Issues
4.7.2	r39339	2017-04-05 ~ 2017-09-18	A bug within CASA's gencal task (present in CASA 6.5.3 and earlier) causes VLA baseline corrections for an antenna that has zero values for both the x (i.e., Bx) and the y (i.e., By) parameters and a non-zero value for the z parameter (i.e., Bz) to be ignored. Known Issues
4.7.1	r39437	2016-08-08 ~ 2016-11-14 2017-01-23 ~ 2017-04-05	Data in the first date range were initially processed with CASA 4.5.3, but these observations were reprocessed in 4.7.1 to include a correction for the VLA Atmospheric Delay Problem. A bug within CASA's gencal task (present in CASA 6.5.3 and earlier) causes VLA baseline corrections for an antenna that has zero values for both the x (i.e., Bx) and the y (i.e., By) parameters and a non-zero value for the z parameter (i.e., Bz) to be ignored. Known Issues
4.5.3	r36660	2016-04-25 ~ 2016-08-07 2016-11-15 ~ 2017-01-23	The gap in dates is from the reprocessing of observations affected by the VLA Atmospheric Delay Problem through the CASA 4.7.1 version of the pipeline which has this correction applied by default. Archive CMS requests should use CASA 4.7.2 from the drop down menu to restore pipeline calibration. A bug within CASA's gencal task (present in CASA 6.5.3 and earlier) causes VLA baseline corrections for an antenna that has zero values for both the x (i.e., Bx) and the y (i.e., By) parameters and a non-zero value for the z parameter (i.e., Bz) to be ignored. Known Issues
4.3.1	r33901	2015-09-08 ~ 2016-04-25	Calibrated Measurement Set (CMS) requests via the archive will fail due to incompatibility with available CASA+pipeline versions. The pipeline calibration tar files are available to download for manual calibration restoration. A bug within CASA's gencal task (present in CASA 6.5.3 and earlier) causes VLA baseline corrections for an antenna that has zero values for both the x (i.e., Bx) and the y (i.e., By) parameters and a non-zero value for the z parameter (i.e., Bz) to be ignored. Known Issues
4.1.2	1.3.1, svn11613	2014-10-06 ~ 2015-09-08	Scripted Pipeline: calibration tables available by request from the NRAO science helpdesk. A bug within CASA's gencal task (present in CASA 6.5.3 and earlier) causes VLA baseline corrections for an antenna that has zero values for both the x (i.e., Bx) and the y (i.e., By) parameters and a non-zero value for the z parameter (i.e., Bz) to be ignored. Known Issues
4.1.1	1.2.2, svn9883	2013-06-01 ~ 2014-10-06	Scripted Pipeline: calibration tables available by request from the NRAO science helpdesk. A bug within CASA's gencal task (present in CASA 6.5.3 and earlier) causes VLA baseline corrections for an antenna that has zero values for both the x (i.e., Bx) and the y (i.e., By) parameters and a non-zero value for the z parameter (i.e., Bz) to be ignored. Known Issues
4.1.0	1.2.0, svn9744	2013-01-25 ~ 2013-04-30	Scripted Pipeline: calibration tables available by request from the NRAO science helpdesk. A bug within CASA's gencal task (present in CASA 6.5.3 and earlier) causes VLA baseline corrections for an antenna that have zero values for both the x (i.e., Bx) and the y (i.e., By) parameters and a non-zero value for the z parameter (i.e., Bz) to be ignored. Known Issues

Pipeline Version History

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