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The tool offers both a basic interface and an advanced interface form with a multitude of fields you can search on, including, the basic interface offers a quick way to search the archive for specific topics, authors, source names and so on, and checks the text you provide against all of the fields below:
Telescope
ALMA array type (12m, 7m, etc)
VLA array configuration
ALMA maximum resolvable scale
GBT backends and receivers
Receiver band
Polarizations
Start/end date
Observation ID
Project code / title / abstract / PI / authors
Cone search source position with RA/Dec, coordinate system, and search radius
Full-width/half-max
Spatial/spectral resolution
Low/high frequency
Exposure time
In the advanced interface each search field is ANDed together, multiple selections within a field are ORed , for example if you select Telescope: VLA, VLA Array Configurations: A, D, and Start Date: 2015-01-01, you are searching for any VLA observation that started on or after January 1, 2015 and was in A or D configurations.
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The Archive seaches a combined index of ALMA and non-ALMA observations, this index is built from a database that has certain inconsistencies. We are in the middle of reimplementing the database and refining the procedure that builds it from the legacy database, meanwhile you can find results that are missing essential fields (start or stop dates, array configurations and so on). We have no evidence of observations with incorrect fields, just fields that are vacant. The search index for ALMA data is rebuilt nightly and should be up to date within a day of observing, for non-ALMA data we have not yet automated the process and we re-build the search index about once a week.
Performance
Unlike the ALMA archive, the NRAO archive stages downloads before it allows access to them, meaning the files composing a file set are pulled from long term storage and assembled before presenting the option to download the files. As a consequence requests take longer than users of the ALMA system might expect.
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The NRAO Archive offers primitive re-processing capabilities, meaning it can re-run raw data files through the ALMA or NRAO calibration pipeline and allow downloading the results. These features are very much a work in progress, one area that needs improvement is error reporting, the Archive currently allows users to reprocess data sets that are known to be bad, and there is no feedback to the user except that the request is complete and produced no files to downloadwas cancelled.
Data Delivery Formats
The SDFITS format for GBT data is not yet supported. GBT data can only be downloaded as a set of GBT-FITS files.
Reporting Bugs (NRAO Staff)
We will track bugs in Open JIRA. These should be reported to the 'SSA' Project and 'AAT/PPI' Component (not 'AAT, we use that for the current archive system). If it is easier you can submit a bug by emailing 'jira-ssa@nrao.edu'. We will also keep track of the more significant bugs in the Known Bugs section of this document, so new testers can be made aware of themPlease report bugs and/or suggestions to Stephan Witz (switz@nrao.edu), Claire Chandler (cchandle@nrao.edu) and Mark Lacy (mlacy@nrao.edu).