rfpipe supports Python-based analysis of radio interferometric data (especially from the Very Large Array) and searches for fast radio transients. This extends on the rtpipe library (ascl:1706.002) with new approaches to parallelization, acceleration, and more portable data products. rfpipe can run in standalone mode or be in a cluster environment.

rtpipe (real-time pipeline) analyzes radio interferometric data with an emphasis on searching for transient or variable astrophysical sources. The package combines single-dish concepts such as dedispersion and filters with interferometric concepts, including images and the uv-plane. In contrast to time-domain data recorded with large single-dish telescopes, visibilities from interferometers can precisely localize sources anywhere in the entire field of view. rtpipe opens interferometers to the study of fast transient sky, including sources like pulsars, stellar flares, rotating radio transients, and fast radio bursts. Key portions of the search pipeline, such as image generation and dedispersion, have been accelerated. That, in combination with its multi-threaded, multi-node design, makes rtpipe capable of searching millisecond timescale data in real time on small compute clusters.

Visibilities from radio interferometers have not traditionally been used to study the fast transient sky. Millisecond transients (e.g., fast radio bursts) and periodic sources (e.g., pulsars) have been studied with single-dish radio telescopes and a software stack developed over the past few decades. tpipe is an initial attempt to develop the fast transient algorithms for visibility data. Functions exist for analysis of visibilties, such as reading data, flagging data, applying interferometric gain calibration, and imaging. These functions are given equal footing as time-domain techniques like filters and dedispersion.

tpipe has been largely superseded by rtpipe (ascl:1706.002).

The vysmaw client library facilitates the development of code for processes to tap into the fast visibility stream on the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array correlator back-end InfiniBand network. This uses the vys protocol to allow loose coupling to clients that need to remotely access memory over an Infiniband network.