Software

Searching for milli-lenses requires processing vast amounts of VLBI data — a task that has traditionally been very time- and labor-intensive. To make this process more efficient, we are developing automated pipelines for calibration and imaging. These include an AIPS-based pipeline, a CASA/rPICARD pipeline, and a dedicated imaging pipeline.

We are excited to introduce VIPCALs, a fully automated calibration pipeline for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) data. Developed as part of the SMILE (Search for Milli-Lenses) project, VIPCALs can process thousands of datasets without human intervention. Built on ParselTongue (a Python interface to AIPS), it provides a streamlined interface and delivers fully calibrated datasets ready for scientific analysis. The paper describing VIPCALs is available on arXiv:2508.13282, and the code can be accessed from the GitHub repository.