SteelBreeze is the software for data processing of geodetic VLBI observations. It is developing in the Main Astronomical Observatory (MAO) Ukrainian National Academy of Science (Kiev, Ukraine). The version `2' reflects the third generations of the software, which is intended for public release.
The first version was created on the IBM PC compatible machine, it was able to process a limited number of stations and sources and was designed for developing, debugging and testing of the algorithms of delay calculating and estimation of parameters.
The second generation was written on the Pascal (Borland Pascal dialect) language and is running under Windows 3.1 GUI. It is able to process unlimited (in fact, the limit is 16383) sets of stations and sources, make estimations of different types of parameters (global and local; bias parameters and correlated process noise), and other good things (will be described later). The results provided for IERS by MAO was obtained by this version (it was labeled as `SteelBreeze-1.2', however, it isn't real version number, three or four different executables have this "number"). Unfortunately, writing the software for Windows 3.1, we have faced with different problems: leaks of design, unportability, etc., so, this version is not developing longer and it will never be distributed for public release.
The new (current) generation was started in summer 1998. We are going to solve the troubles and keep the benefits of the previous version. We have replaced OS (now it have to conform to POSIX; we use Linux) and GUI (Troll's Qt Library). The language has been switched to C++.
The delay calculates according to the IERS Conventions, 1996. "According to" means including of the effects described or mentioned in the IERS Conventions, however, the realization of the algorithms may differ from the described ones in the Conventions.
We've implemented the Square Root Information Filter (SRIF) for estimating the parameters. It is using the Householder's transformation for matrix triangularization which make it smart and unsensitive for computer roundoff. SRIF also makes possible to introduce the stochastic parameter model for estimated parameters.
Currently, SteelBreeze is known to build and execute on the following platforms:
This is our plan:
Not started yet.
It is available at the SourceForge.
Copyright © 1994-2000 by Sergei Bolotin.
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation under the terms of the GNU General Public License is hereby granted. No representations are made about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty. See the GNU General Public License for more details.