ALFALFA survey data are processed using a suite of tools using the
IDL environment developed
by members of the Cornell ExtraGalactic Group
designed specifically for this purpose. They also make use of
Phil Perillat's IDL library
specific to Arecibo and the
IDL astronomy library maintained at GSFC. Our choice of IDL has been
dictated largely by our desires (1) to enable a wide range of users, including
those at smaller institutions, to engage in ALFALFA research and (2) to
involve students in software development in a very hands-on way. Our own package,
IDL_ALFALFA, has been successfully imported and is used at many other institutions
including Cornell U., Obs. Astrof. Arcetri,
Arecibo, U. Barcelona, Colgate U., U. Colorado, George Mason, Georgia Southern U.,
Harvard-SAO/Center for Astrophysics, Humboldt State, INAF-Milano, Indiana U.,
Lafayette Coll., Siena Coll., Skidmore Coll.,
St. Lawrence U., Union Coll., U. Colorado, U. Minnesota, U. Wisconsin-Madison, U.
Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Wesleyan U. and U. Zurich.
It runs under both linux and MacOS.
Documention and processing cookbooks are available to ALFALFA members
on the team-only website; others may obtain further information
by contacting Riccardo Giovanelli.
