ORAC-DR: A generic data reduction pipeline infrastructure

TL;DR

ORAC-DR is a versatile, instrument-agnostic data reduction pipeline system that supports various astronomical instruments and has evolved since the 1990s, providing a flexible infrastructure for data processing.

Contribution

It introduces a general-purpose, instrument-agnostic pipeline architecture and discusses its implementation and lessons learned over decades of use.

Findings

Supports diverse instruments like infrared, sub-millimeter, and spectrographs

Flexible architecture adaptable to different observatory needs

Lessons learned improve future pipeline development

Abstract

ORAC-DR is a general purpose data reduction pipeline system designed to be instrument and observatory agnostic. The pipeline works with instruments as varied as infrared integral field units, imaging arrays and spectrographs, and sub-millimeter heterodyne arrays & continuum cameras. This paper describes the architecture of the pipeline system and the implementation of the core infrastructure. We finish by discussing the lessons learned since the initial deployment of the pipeline system in the late 1990s.