Getting Started

The Sensitivity Calculator is an application for calculating the sensitivity of the SKA Mid-Frequency Aperture Array.

The project uses a Docker container to make the results independent of host environment. Starting and stopping the Calculator is done using make, but first the code must be downloaded from the SKA Git repository.

The necessary steps are:

1. Install Git if you don’t already have it.

   To find if Git is installed on your computer, type in a terminal: git --version. The output will either say which version of Git is installed, or that git is an unknown command.

   If Git is not there, point your browser to https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-Installing-Git and follow the instructions for installation.

2. Install Docker if you don’t already have it.

   To find if Docker is installed on your computer, type in a terminal: docker -v. The output will either say which version of Docker is installed, or that docker is an unknown command.

   If Docker is not there, point your browser to https://docs.docker.com/get-docker and follow the instructions for installation.

3. Clone the sensitivity calculator from the SKA Git repository by moving to the destination directory on your machine, and typing: git clone https://gitlab.com/ska-telescope/ska-ost-senscalc.git.

4. Enter the code directory with: cd ska-ost-senscalc.

5. Type: make up to build and run a Docker container with the Sensitivity Calculator. The process may take several minutes the first time.

6. When the build process has finished, point your browser at http://127.0.0.1:5000/ to see the Calculator.

7. To shut down the Sensitivity Calculator and remove its Docker container, type: make down.

Further documentation, including a User Guide can be found in the docs folder. To build the html version of the documentation, start from the ska-ost-senscalc directory and type cd docs; make html. Read the documentation by pointing your browser at docs/build/html/index.html.