CIMA is the main user-interface and top-layer control software
for running astronomical observations at Arecibo Observatory. CIMA
provides the observer with a graphical user interface making it easy
to control the telescope, the receivers and the back-ends. The CIMA
system also includes a data quick-look facility, monitoring windows
and other tools useful for an observer.
The system was originally developed for Arecibo by Jeff Hagen using ideas from the AOCONTROL interface for pulsar observing written by Duncan Lorimer. Major enhancements to the runtime and build systems were provided by Mikael Lerner (CIMA Developer October 2004-2008). Prakash Atreya (2012-2015) added CIMA modules to control the PUPPI pulsar machine.
The name CIMA is (was) an acronym standing for Control Interface Module for Arecibo, although it nowadays is more often thought of as just a name in itself. Although not having any meaning in English, CIMA in Spanish means "top", "peak" both in a figurative and in a literal sense.
CIMAFITS is the name for the Arecibo FITS-file format. CIMAFITS is based on the SDFITS (Single-Dish FITS) format and the WCS (World Coordinate System) standard for FITS-files.
This is a list of (fairly) up-to-date documents describing CIMA and CIMAFITS:
There are five log pages available which reflect changes made to the CIMA system since October 2004:
These pages contain material used by the CIMA users working group which has been set up to discuss and decide on future improvements of CIMA.
These pages have all been assembled by Jeff Hagen and refers to CIMA before October 2004. These pages are thus not up-to-date but still contains some useful information about CIMA. As the information gets updated it will be moved to some of the CIMA pages mentioned above.