2007-09-13 ALMA Calibration Group Telecon Agenda and Minutes
ALMA Calibration Group Telecon
- Date: September 13, 2007 (Thursday)
- Time: 14:00 UT
- Duration: 1.0 hr
- USA Toll Free Number: 1-877-919-7148
- International: +1-203-566-1039
- Passcode: 5 1 0 4 6 8
- Leader: JeffMangum
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Table of Contents:
Action Items from Last Telecon
Assigned To | Due Date | Description | State | Notify | |
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Agenda and Minutes
NOTE: Discussion from the telecon is shown in italic.
Attendees
- JeffMangum
- Richard Hills
- JohnRicher
- AlWootten
Calibration Examples Status
RobertLucas has produced a final version of the delay calibration example, which has been posted to
CalExamples wiki.
BaltasarVilaVilaro has produced another version of the optics calibration example. Please read and comment. See
CalExamples wiki for further information. Note that Calibration Sequence information is now included in each
CalExamples document.
Amplitude Calibration Subsystem Development Reports
Multi/Dual-Load (M/DL) Calibration System (Ferdinand Patt)
- Ferdinand Patt sent final version of ALMA Calibration Device: Prototype Calibration Load Test Report (FEND-40.06.04.00-005-A-REP); Murk and Duric (2007) (or on EDM ).
- As noted during our last telecon, several issues from load report need resolution. Basic problem is that it is not possible to optimize the backscatter, total scatter, and thermal performance of a load system with a single type of absorber. Since the amplitude calibration sequence will involve comparisons of spectral measurements of the loads, standing waves are a problem. See CalAmp wiki page for further details.
- As noted during our last telecon, the need to provide a hot load which meets the temperature stability requirement from 30 to 900 GHz is the main limitation. According to Patt and Murk, if the hot calibration load were not needed for Bands 1 and 2, then it would be easier to meet the overall hot load temperature stability requirement. On 2007/09/07 JeffMangum made some calculations of the accuracy of the single- and dual-load calibration systems at Bands 1 (40 GHz) and 2 (80 GHz). Following the same formalism described in Load Calibration at Millimeter and Submillimeter Wavelengths: Mangum; October 18, 2002; ALMA Memo 434 the situation is directly analogous to the calculation done at 230 GHz. Assuming 50th-percentile tau(40)=0.02+-0.002 and tau(80)=0.03+-0.003 the single-load (traditional) chopper uncertainty is ~1.2% at both frequencies under "best" conditions (as laid out in Memo 434) assuming double sideband operation. The total uncertainty is significantly dominated by the uncertainty in the sideband gain ratio and the uncertainty in the rear scattering and spillover plus radiative efficiencies (etal). Note that this analysis assumes that the frontends do not suffer affects due to saturation.
It was pointed out by Richard that in fact Bands 1 and 2 will use HEMPT's and not SIS mixers, so they will be intrinsically SSB. One can then eliminate this element of the calibration error. Recalculating with sigma(Ri)=0 yields a single-load chopper uncertainty of 1% which is completely dominated by the uncertainty in etal.
Berkeley Absolute Flux Calibration System (Jack Welch)
Ancilliary Measurement Devices
Weather Station (P,T,RH,Ws,Wd) Instrumentation
In December 2006
JeffMangum submitted weather station instrumentation (RH, P, T, and wind) RFQ documentation to NRAO procurement system. After having reviewed information received from bidders and consulted with Calibration Group (see
CalAncillary for discussion), on 2007/03/21
JeffMangum submitted purchase information to
RobertLaing for procurement. Leonardo Testi received first set of weather measurement devices at ESO in late September. Will assemble unit at ESO for testing.
ICD submitted for AOS site locations discussed during August meeting. A few kinks under discussion with computing and site include power distribution (440V needs transformer) and fiber lighting (only done when antenna occupies station).
Solar Observations and Calibration
MarkHoldaway has written a draft document on
Calibration of Solar Observations. We discussed this document at our last telecon. Few revisions are needed.
JeffMangum will pick-up the last draft produced by Mark and update.
It was noted by Richard that Mark's scheme for doing solar amplitude calibration might be a bit pessimistic. If one could alternately observe with half of the antennas with solar filter in and the other half with load in, the loss in observing efficiency could be significantly reduced. Richard will bounce this off of Mark.
Date of Next Phone Meeting
The next ALMA Calibration Group telecon will be
2007, October 11th 14:00 UT.
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JeffMangum - 13 Sep 2007