PSRPL: Calibrate the data

After you have prepared five-minute integrations and culled all of the bad integrations for both the pulsar and the calibrator archives, the data are ready for polarimetric calibration.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In low S/N observations, you can use the pipeline to calibrate pulsar observations using only the pulsed noise diode (calibrator) observations; this is known as the the ideal feed assumption.

For high-precision timing, you should employ Measurement Equation Template Matching (METM) , as described in van Straten (2013). Follow these steps to set up the METM calibrator database.

Step One: Create the calibrator database

For example: 
cd $PSRPL_DIR
./psrpl_cal_dbase.csh J0437-4715_R

Step Two: Calibrate the pulsar data

Calibrate the pulsar data for a given frequency band; for example: 
cd $PSRPL_DIR
./psrpl_pac.csh J0437-4715 20cm
Use squeue to determine when all of the jobs have completed.

Calibrated archives (approximately 1 hour integrations) appear in $PSRPL_OUT/calibrated/<PSRNAME>/<BAND>/ifa and $PSRPL_OUT/calibrated/<PSRNAME>/<BAND>/metm. The ifa/ sub-directory contains data calibrated using the "Ideal Feed Assumption". The metm/ sub-directory contains data calibrated using the technique described in van Straten (2013), which is the current best method for correcting the receptor cross-coupling.