Eric W. Greisen

This page was last updated 15 July 2002.

I am a Scientist at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, stationed at NRAO's Array Operations Center in Socorro, NM. My main job at the present time is to develop and maintain the software package known as AIPS.

New stuff (2002) on this page includes some updating of the "future" developments section. I am working on a paper for the URSI International conference in Maastricht in August 2002. The submitted paper entitled "Wide-field imaging in Classic AIPS" is available in PostScript and in PDF formats. The view graphs for the talk will be made available eventually (like when I get them done). I am also preparing chapters on FITS and AIPS for a History of Information Processing in Astronomy book. Drafts will be made available eventually.

Stuff from 2002 on this page includes updated information on the 31DEC01 release. There is a new poster and paper on uncertainties in Gaussian fitting (ADASS Oct 2001). This work is continuing and will eventually result in (at least) an AIPS Memo. There is a poster and paper on switched observing techniques (ADASS Oct 1999).

AIPS general information

More information about the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the Classic AIPS project may be obtained by selecting:

[AIPS] [NRAO] AIPS (the Classic Variety)


For a period of time I worked by myself on the "CVX" ("Charlottesville Experimental") version of AIPS. CVX has now been renamed the 15APR98 version and constitutes a break in some ways from previous versions. There is a, by now somewhat dated, document summarizing the changes done during that development and the reasons why AIPS users should now be using at least 15APR98.

All sorts of information about AIPS can be obtained by going to the AIPS home page. The AIPSLetters for 31DEC02 (June 30, 2002), 31DEC01 (December 31, 2001), 31DEC01 (June 30, 2001), 31DEC00 (December 31, 2000), 31DEC99 (April 15, 2000), 15OCT99, 15APR99, 15OCT98, and 15APR98 should also be required reading for all AIPS users. What is left of the AIPS group is now working on the 31DEC02 release of AIPS, known as "AIPS for the Ages" which is running as the TST version at all NRAO AIPS sites and numerous other sites around the world. The AIPSLetters are the best source of user information on changes. Dated summaries of 31DEC00 are the WHATSNEW file and a file for 15APR99. To view CHANGE.DOC in the 31DEC01 and 2 earlier versions more selectively, you may use a special search tool. Please be aware that this file represents a method of documenting work in progress and it may not be clear in its descriptions even to the people who made the entries. The AIPS CookBook has been revised to account for the changes in recent releases and to convert from plain TeX to LaTeX. The latest version of each chapter can be accessed through an html version of the Table of Contents which also contains information about the revision history of each chapter.

The agenda for the next meeting of the AIPS group is available but only to NRAO employees and visitors.

[15APR98] Possible future developments

This section is highly speculative, but it may be useful to list various things I may end up working on. The main item previously listed for my immediate future was the writing of tasks to read, calibrate, and image beam-switched continuum (and line!) single-dish data. Also listed were the updating of the CookBook and the development of a "3-dimensional" imaging and modeling capability. The results are now listed above in accomplishments sections.

Current items on my wish list include

  1. Multi-field imaging
  2. Low-frequency data
  3. Visibility handling
  4. Miscellaneous
  5. Gaussian fitting
  6. AIPS plot-files
  7. Single-dish, on-the-fly imaging

    The gory details

    [St. Benedict himself] [victim]
    Another victim of the
    Information Superhighway

    The gory details continued

    [resurrected] Resurrected victim of the Information Superhighway.
    Eric W. Greisen
    egreisen@nrao.edu