The WODEN visibility simulator

Note

Before WODEN version 1.4.0, in the output uvfits files, the first polarisation (usually called XX) was derived from North-South dipoles, as is the labelling convention according to the IAU. However, most uvfits users I’ve met, as well as the data out of the MWA telescope, define XX as East-West. So although the internal labelling and mathematics within the C/CUDA code is to IAU spec, by default, run_woden.py now writes out XX as East-West and YY as North-South. From version 1.4.0, a header value of IAUORDER = F will appear, with F meaning IAU ordering is False, so the polarisations go EW-EW, NS-NS, EW-NS, NS-EW. If IAUORDER = T, the order is NS-NS, EW-EW, NS-EW, EW-NS. If there is no IAUORDER at all, assume IAUORDER = T.

WODEN is C / CUDA code designed to be able to simulate low-frequency radio interferometric data. It is written to be simplistic and fast to allow all-sky simulations. Although WODEN was primarily written to simulate Murchinson Widefield Array (MWA, Tingay et al. 2013) visibilities, it is becoming less instrument-specific as time goes on. WODEN outputs uvfits files.

WODEN has been written with Stokes polarisations in mind. Currently, only Stokes I information is read in, which is then propagated fully through the polarised instrumental response (depending on which primary beam you select), and output into Stokes XX,XY,YX,YY polarisations. See Sky model formats for more information.

Documentation