UV_CHECK BEAM_RANGES
UV_CHECK BEAMS returns a variable named BEAM_RANGES[3,Nbeam] where
Nbeam is the number of different synthesized beams that can be
required by the UV data (based on the visibility weights).
BEAM_RANGES[1,i] is the first channel of Beam number i
BEAM_RANGES[2,i] is the last channel of Beam number i
BEAM_RANGES[3,i] is the total weight of visibilities of Beam number i
BEAM_RANGES is later used by UV_PREVIEW to discard edge channels
that often do not have the same weights as the bulk of channels.
Variable NBEAM_RANGES indicates the number of beam ranges. It is -1
if UV_CHECK has not yet been used.
Most automatic imaging processes will assume BEAM_RANGES is relatively
simple (2 edges and a dominant main range) and simply discard the edges
if any, or complain if is too complex.
For complex datasets with NBEAM_RANGES greater than 2 or 3,
BEAM_RANGES could be used to segment the imaging and deconvolution
process into ranges having a common beam. Setting BEAM_STEP
to 1 is another possibility, but that creates 1 beam per channel,
thus doubling the used space.