Issue affecting Total Power data processed with Single Dish Pipeline version 2022.2.0.64

An issue has been identified in the Single Dish (SD) Pipeline (PL) version 2022.2.0.64​ that affects any Total Power (TP) data processed with the SD Pipeline since September 26, 2022 (including Cycle 9 TP data). Flagging the TP data from a single polarization from an antenna results in spurious bright or dark spots in the data cubes and/or weight​ maps. Data processed by earlier versions of the SD PL and manually calibrated and imaged TP data are not affected. The interferometric PL is not affected.

PL processing of TP data with the affected version of the SD PL was temporarily paused on March 6, 2023, pending the release of a software patch to fix the issue. PL processing of TP data will resume as soon as the patch is available.

Once the updated SD PL is released, all TP datasets that have been processed with the affected SD PL since September 26, 2022, will be re-processed and re-delivered under the observatory’s QA3 policy. These datasets are being re-processed out of an abundance of caution since the issue can sometimes manifest in a manner that is difficult to detect in the Weblog images or ingested science products.

We regret any inconvenience or impact experienced by our ALMA users due to this issue. If you have any questions, or have comments or concerns, please contact your local ALMA Regional Center via the ALMA Helpdesk at https://help.almascience.org/.