Data Processing
Scientists using NRAO telescopes employ a variety of software and analysis packages to reduce and analyze their data, depending on their specific needs, experience, and skills.
The NRAO strives to make its facilities available to all professional astronomers, not only experts in radio astronomy. To that end, maintaining and developing data analysis software, algorithm development tools, and automated data analysis pipelines for specific observing modes. End to end systems that allow non-specialists to specify their observations easily and have them taken, processed, and archived automatically are being incrementally developed for each of the telescopes, utilizing several common elements. This will facilitate the multi-wavelength science that is advancing the field today.
NRAO aims to operate the GBT, VLA, VLBA, and ALMA as a unified system of telescopes so that the scientific community can easily: (1) access any of the suite of telescopes, (2) take advantage of the numerous NRAO services to the user community, and (3) create state-of-the-art images from a combination of automated pipelines and expert assistance. The calibrated data and images will be stored in archives that enable straightforward data mining and continued scientific use by other astronomers.
