diff --git a/.coveragerc b/.coveragerc
index a46ae511..8640c41a 100644
--- a/.coveragerc
+++ b/.coveragerc
@@ -3,3 +3,10 @@ source = enterprise
 omit =
     enterprise/__init__*
     enterprise/signals/__init__*
+plugins =
+    coverage_conditional_plugin
+
+[coverage_conditional_plugin]
+rules =
+    "sys_version_info >= (3, 8)": py-gte-38
+    "sys_version_info < (3, 8)": py-lt-38
diff --git a/enterprise/pulsar.py b/enterprise/pulsar.py
index 8f8c3a43..0fdb5e3d 100644
--- a/enterprise/pulsar.py
+++ b/enterprise/pulsar.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 import json
 import logging
 import os
+import pickle
 
 import astropy.constants as const
 import astropy.units as u
@@ -14,10 +15,7 @@
 import enterprise
 from enterprise.signals import utils
 
-try:
-    import cPickle as pickle
-except:
-    import pickle
+from enterprise.pulsar_inflate import PulsarInflater
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
@@ -36,7 +34,6 @@
     logger.warning("PINT not installed. Will use libstempo instead.")  # pragma: no cover
     pint = None
 
-
 if pint is None and t2 is None:
     err_msg = "Must have either PINT or libstempo timing package installed"
     raise ImportError(err_msg)
@@ -141,8 +138,11 @@ def filter_data(self, start_time=None, end_time=None):
         dmx_mask = np.sum(self._designmatrix, axis=0) != 0.0
         self._designmatrix = self._designmatrix[:, dmx_mask]
 
-        for key in self._flags:
-            self._flags[key] = self._flags[key][mask]
+        if isinstance(self._flags, np.ndarray):
+            self._flags = self._flags[mask]
+        else:
+            for key in self._flags:
+                self._flags[key] = self._flags[key][mask]
 
         if self._planetssb is not None:
             self._planetssb = self.planetssb[mask, :, :]
@@ -233,26 +233,37 @@ def dmx(self):
     def flags(self):
         """Return a dictionary of tim-file flags."""
 
-        return dict((k, v[self._isort]) for k, v in self._flags.items())
+        flagnames = self._flags.dtype.names if isinstance(self._flags, np.ndarray) else self._flags.keys()
+
+        return {flag: self._flags[flag][self._isort] for flag in flagnames}
 
     @property
     def backend_flags(self):
         """Return array of backend flags.
+
         Not all TOAs have the same flags for all data sets. In order to
         facilitate this we have a ranked ordering system that will look
         for flags. The order is `group`, `g`, `sys`, `i`, `f`, `fe`+`be`.
+
         """
 
-        nobs = len(self._toas)
-        bflags = ["flag"] * nobs
-        flags = [["group"], ["g"], ["sys"], ["i"], ["f"], ["fe", "be"]]
-        for ii in range(nobs):
-            # TODO: make this cleaner
-            for f in flags:
-                if np.all([x in self._flags and self._flags[x][ii] != "" for x in f]):
-                    bflags[ii] = "_".join(self._flags[x][ii] for x in f)
-                    break
-        return np.array(bflags)[self._isort]
+        # collect flag names
+        flagnames = self._flags.dtype.names if isinstance(self._flags, np.ndarray) else list(self._flags.keys())
+
+        # allocate array with widest dtype
+        ret = np.zeros(len(self._toas), dtype=max([self._flags[name].dtype for name in flagnames]))
+
+        # go through the flags in reverse order of preference
+        # setting or replacing values for each TOA
+
+        if "fe" in flagnames and "be" in flagnames:
+            ret[:] = [(a + "_" + b if (a and b) else "") for a, b in zip(self._flags["fe"], self._flags["be"])]
+
+        for flag in ["f", "i", "sys", "g", "group"]:
+            if flag in flagnames:
+                ret[:] = np.where(self._flags[flag] == "", ret, self._flags[flag])
+
+        return ret
 
     @property
     def theta(self):
@@ -431,9 +442,14 @@ def __init__(self, t2pulsar, sort=True, drop_t2pulsar=True, planets=True):
         spars = [str(p) for p in t2pulsar.pars(which="set")]
         self.setpars = [sp for sp in spars if sp not in self.fitpars]
 
-        self._flags = {}
+        flags = {}
         for key in t2pulsar.flags():
-            self._flags[key] = t2pulsar.flagvals(key)
+            flags[key] = t2pulsar.flagvals(key)
+
+        # new-style storage of flags as a numpy record array (previously, psr._flags = flags)
+        self._flags = np.zeros(len(self._toas), dtype=[(key, val.dtype) for key, val in flags.items()])
+        for key, val in flags.items():
+            self._flags[key] = val
 
         self._pdist = self._get_pdist()
         self._raj, self._decj = self._get_radec(t2pulsar)
@@ -524,9 +540,41 @@ def _get_sunssb(self, t2pulsar):
                 sunssb[:, 3:] = utils.ecl2eq_vec(sunssb[:, 3:])
         return sunssb
 
+    # infrastructure for sharing Pulsar objects among processes
+    # (currently Tempo2Pulsar only)
+    # the Pulsar deflater will copy select numpy arrays to SharedMemory,
+    # then replace them with pickleable objects that can be inflated
+    # to numpy arrays with SharedMemory storage
 
-def Pulsar(*args, **kwargs):
+    _todeflate = ["_designmatrix", "_planetssb", "_sunssb", "_flags"]
+    _deflated = "pristine"
+
+    def deflate(psr):  # pragma: py-lt-38
+        if psr._deflated == "pristine":
+            for attr in psr._todeflate:
+                if isinstance(getattr(psr, attr), np.ndarray):
+                    setattr(psr, attr, PulsarInflater(getattr(psr, attr)))
+
+            psr._deflated = "deflated"
+
+    def inflate(psr):  # pragma: py-lt-38
+        if psr._deflated == "deflated":
+            for attr in psr._todeflate:
+                if isinstance(getattr(psr, attr), PulsarInflater):
+                    setattr(psr, attr, getattr(psr, attr).inflate())
 
+            psr._deflated = "inflated"
+
+    def destroy(psr):  # pragma: py-lt-38
+        if psr._deflated == "deflated":
+            for attr in psr._todeflate:
+                if isinstance(getattr(psr, attr), PulsarInflater):
+                    getattr(psr, attr).destroy()
+
+            psr._deflated = "destroyed"
+
+
+def Pulsar(*args, **kwargs):
     ephem = kwargs.get("ephem", None)
     clk = kwargs.get("clk", None)
     bipm_version = kwargs.get("bipm_version", None)
diff --git a/enterprise/pulsar_inflate.py b/enterprise/pulsar_inflate.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..fda5fc6a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/enterprise/pulsar_inflate.py
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+# pulsar_inflate.py
+"""Defines PulsarInflater class: instances copy a numpy array to shared memory,
+and (after pickling) will reinflate to a numpy array that refers to the shared
+data.
+"""
+
+import numpy as np
+
+try:
+    from multiprocessing import shared_memory, resource_tracker
+except:
+    # shared_memory unavailable in Python < 3.8
+    pass
+
+
+class memmap(np.ndarray):
+    def __del__(self):
+        if self.base is None and hasattr(self, "shm"):
+            self.shm.close()
+
+
+# lifecycle of shared pulsar arrays:
+# - begin life as numpy arrays in Pulsar object
+# - upon psr.deflate(), replaced by PulsarInflater objects
+#   - these objects save the array metadata, create a SharedMemory buffer, copy the arrays into it
+#   - the PulsarInflater objects cannot be used as arrays until re-inflated
+# - upon psr.inflate, the PulsarInflater objects are replaced with ndarray views of the SharedMemory buffers
+#   - the views are special memmap objects that hold a reference to the SharedMemory, and close it on destruction
+# - upon psr.destroy, the SharedMemory objects are unlinked and the arrays become unusable
+# - standard usage requires 3+ processes:
+#   - a creator, who calls deflate then pickle
+#   - one or more users, who unpickle then inflate
+#   - a destroyer, who unpickles then destroys
+
+
+class PulsarInflater:
+    def __init__(self, array):
+        self.dtype, self.shape, self.nbytes = array.dtype, array.shape, array.nbytes
+
+        shm = shared_memory.SharedMemory(create=True, size=array.nbytes)
+        self.shmname = shm.name
+
+        # shm.buf[:array.nbytes] = array.view(dtype='uint8').flatten()
+
+        b = np.ndarray(array.shape, dtype=array.dtype, buffer=shm.buf)
+        b[:] = array[:]
+
+        resource_tracker.unregister(shm._name, "shared_memory")
+
+    def inflate(self):
+        shm = shared_memory.SharedMemory(self.shmname)
+
+        c = np.ndarray(self.shape, dtype=self.dtype, buffer=shm.buf).view(memmap)
+        c.shm = shm
+
+        return c
+
+    def destroy(self):
+        shm = shared_memory.SharedMemory(self.shmname)
+        shm.unlink()
diff --git a/requirements_dev.txt b/requirements_dev.txt
index b745ae2d..5ae1ed0d 100644
--- a/requirements_dev.txt
+++ b/requirements_dev.txt
@@ -12,5 +12,6 @@ PyYAML>=4.2b1
 pytest>=4.0.0
 sphinx-rtd-theme>=0.4.0
 pytest-cov>=2.7.0
+coverage-conditional-plugin>=0.4.0
 jupyter>=1.0.0
 build==0.3.1.post1
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/test_pulsar.py b/tests/test_pulsar.py
index f8ec6683..404af894 100644
--- a/tests/test_pulsar.py
+++ b/tests/test_pulsar.py
@@ -9,21 +9,18 @@
 for time slicing, PINT integration and pickling.
 """
 
-
+import sys
 import os
 import shutil
 import unittest
+import pickle
+import pytest
 
 import numpy as np
 
 from enterprise.pulsar import Pulsar
 from tests.enterprise_test_data import datadir
 
-try:
-    import cPickle as pickle
-except:
-    import pickle
-
 
 class TestPulsar(unittest.TestCase):
     @classmethod
@@ -133,6 +130,31 @@ def test_to_pickle(self):
 
         assert np.allclose(self.psr.residuals, pkl_psr.residuals, rtol=1e-10)
 
+    @pytest.mark.skipif(sys.version_info < (3, 8), reason="Requires Python >= 3.8")
+    def test_deflate_inflate(self):
+        psr = Pulsar(datadir + "/B1855+09_NANOGrav_9yv1.gls.par", datadir + "/B1855+09_NANOGrav_9yv1.tim")
+
+        dm = psr._designmatrix.copy()
+
+        psr.deflate()
+        psr.to_pickle()
+
+        with open("B1855+09.pkl", "rb") as f:
+            pkl_psr = pickle.load(f)
+        pkl_psr.inflate()
+
+        assert np.allclose(dm, pkl_psr._designmatrix)
+
+        del pkl_psr
+
+        psr.destroy()
+
+        with open("B1855+09.pkl", "rb") as f:
+            pkl_psr = pickle.load(f)
+
+        with self.assertRaises(FileNotFoundError):
+            pkl_psr.inflate()
+
     def test_wrong_input(self):
         """Test exception when incorrect par(tim) file given."""
 
@@ -182,3 +204,6 @@ def test_model(self):
 
     def test_pint_toas(self):
         assert hasattr(self.psr, "pint_toas")
+
+    def test_deflate_inflate(self):
+        pass