Data Archive and Distribution
All output from the VLBA is maintained in the NRAO data archive. The user(s) who proposed the observations retains a proprietary right to the data for an interval of 12 months following the end of correlation of the last observations requested in the original proposal, or a direct extension of that proposal. Thereafter, the archived data are available to any person on request. Data can be obtained from the archive either as multiple correlator output files, or as large FITS files with default calibrations attached.
Although the online archive is the preferred distribution path, VLBA data can also be written onto DDS-3 or -4 DAT cassettes and mailed. Initial distribution to the proposing user occurs automatically, soon after correlation is complete.
Distributed data conform to the FITS Interferometry Data Interchange Convention (Greisen 2009), which is read by AIPS task FITLD.
