Title: SAND: An automated VLBI imaging and analysing pipeline - I. Stripping component trajectories,
Abstract: We present our implementation of an automated VLBI data reduction pipeline
dedicated to interferometric data imaging and analysis. The pipeline can handle
massive VLBI data efficiently which makes it an appropriate tool to investigate
multi-epoch multiband VLBI data. Compared to traditional manual data reduction,
our pipeline provides more objective results since less human interference is
involved. Source extraction is done in the image plane, while deconvolution and
model fitting are done in both the image plane and the uv plane for parallel
comparison. The output from the pipeline includes catalogues of CLEANed images
and reconstructed models, polarisation maps, proper motion estimates, core
light curves and multi-band spectra. We have developed a regression strip
algorithm to automatically detect linear or non-linear patterns in the jet
component trajectories. This algorithm offers an objective method to match jet
components at different epochs and determine their proper motions.