gaussian_value, gaussian_radius Sets a (1 - gaussian) taper to weight down SHORT baselines. EXAMPLE ------- 1. To set a gaussian taper. 0>selftaper 0.1,10 Selfcal gaussian taper: value 0.1 at UV radius = 10 mega-wavelengths. 0> The second line is the response from the selftaper command, confirming the taper selection. 2. To see the currently selected taper value omit all arguments: 0>selftaper Selfcal gaussian taper: value 0.1 at UV radius = 10 mega-wavelengths. 0> 3. To cancel a previously selected gaussian taper, type: 0>selftaper 0 No selfcal UV-taper is currently set. 0> PARAMETERS ---------- gaussian_value - The value of the (1 - gaussian) taper at 'gaussian_radius'. Valid values lie between 0 -> 1 exclusive. Other values cause the cancellation of any existing gaussian taper. gaussian_radius - The UV radius at which (1 - gaussian) taper should have RISEN to 'gaussian_value'. (values <= 0 de-select gaussian tapering). Unless changed with the mapunits command, the units are million-wavelengths. To cancel a previous gaussian taper you should type: selftaper 0 Whenever a new UV data set is read with the 'observe' command any existing gaussian taper is cancelled. CONTEXT ------- When required, this command should be called before using the selfcal command. Repeated cycles of clean tend to build up a model that first becomes complete on long baselines. If amplitude selfcal is applied at this point it will probably find solutions that pull down the observed amplitudes at the shorter UV radii to match the incomplete model there. To circumvent this, you should get selfcal to heavily weight down the short baselines wrt the longer baselines by calling selftaper. A good indication of where the model and observed visibilities diverge is given by the plot of UV amplitude vs UV radius in radplot. Selftaper forces subsequent invocations of selfcal to weight down the visibilities as a function of radius. The form of this function is. (1-gaussian(uv_radius)) In detail: (1 - exp(log(1-gaussian_value)*(uv_radius/gaussian_radius)^2) This goes from 0 at zero UV radius, reaches value=gaussian_value at a UV radius=gaussian_radius and approaches 1 as UV radius tends to infinity. RELATED COMMANDS ---------------- selfcal - Performs self-calibration. selflims - Used to set limits to amp and phase corrections in selfcal. selfflag - Used to control the fate of un-correctable data. selfant - Set antenna based constraints in selfcal. gscal - Calculate overall telescope amplitude corrections. startmod - Phase selfcal to a starting model then discard the model.