- 1600 UT (1000 MDT)
- AOC 317; IP: 146.88.16.8; phone: +1 575-835-7370
Agenda/Minutes
News
- First 28 antenna science observation (30 Jul)
- Double maintenance day Tuesday-Wednesday.
- No general commissioning meeting this Thursday; there will be a small group meeting under Vivek to discuss Reference Pointing status and testing plans.
- Next Thursday Jim Jackson will do a walk through of the antenna electronics block diagram.
- Key dates:
- 15 Sep: Call for Proposals
- 01 Oct: Proposal deadline (A config; lowband for end of B config)
- Staff Travel:
- Dickman: 02 Aug - 04 Aug
- Perley: 03 Aug - 09 Aug
- Hayward: 10 Aug - 30 Aug
- Langley: 13 Aug - 15 Aug
- DRAO: Carlson: 16 Jul - 19 Aug
- DRAO: Dougherty: 11 Oct - 12 Oct (SKA; ABQ)
- Visitors:
- Bob Sault: 26 July - 27 August (?)
- Brent Carlson: 23 August - 04 September (tentative)
- DRAO: Dougherty: 12 Oct - 17 Oct (NRAO-DSOC)
Critical Commissioning review/reports
- Overall status: Working to complete RSRO/ECSO projects
- Highest priority development areas; readjusted based on resolution of several outstanding OSRO blockers.:
- 1) RSRO/ECSO low frequency science
- 2) OSRO/RSRO blockers (focused on missing data/data quality issues)
- 3) RSRO/ECSO high frequency science as possible
- 4) CSV testing (switched power, etc)
- Wednesday will be dedicated to 3-bit sampler testing to advance progress.
- 5) Demo science observing
- 6) OSRO science observing
- Note: scheduling flexibility adapted for remainder of D config.
System Verification/Hardware Commissioning:
Testing and characterization of the array based on the design goals.
Targets
Area |
Target |
Priority |
JIRA |
Deliver |
Status |
High Frequency |
Reference pointing quantitative analysis |
0 |
ECSV-16/ECDATA-91 |
2010Q3 |
Issues uncovered - see report below |
Calibration |
Phase transfer |
0 |
ECDATA-271 |
2010Q3 |
Needs better weather for real conclusions. |
Calibration |
Switched power gain correction |
0 |
- |
2010Q3 |
pending SDM implementation for further work |
Calibration |
RFI Sweep for all bands |
2 |
- |
2010Q3 |
Pending wide band widths |
Calibration |
Develop set of frequency accuracy tests (X band is complete) |
2 |
- |
2010Q4 |
Perley: |
Calibration |
Delay clunking |
2 |
- |
2010Q4 |
Rupen/Pokorny: |
Reports
- Antenna: Perley/Sowinski; note, the following are equipped with 3-bit samplers: EA15, EA22, EA27, EA28
- EA20 encoder error (unresolved). Resolved.
- EA02 spikes (unresolved).
- EA09 IF: C/D (LCP)
- EA10 L,X,Q not working.
- EA11 IF: B issues; Kerry is planning to swap the deformatter.
- EA16 IF: A/B (RCP)
- Receiver: Perley
- Ken on new receivers: first wideband X was installed on EA07
- Array: Perley
- Spurious flagging (MCAF) issue status: MR: 2 issues; 1st is MCAF problem where flags are not turned off (affects large sections/all of the array); fix is ready to be put in (Wednesday). 2nd is good data getting flagged; not as well understood; looking at issues with the subreflector; tests will be set up to move subr back and forth to examine repeatability and precision.
- Correlator: Rupen
- CBE issues relating to missing scans has been largely solved by the 30Jul version; now have sets of 'death' scripts to excite issues and test for solutions/recurrence. Unfortunately there are less predictable problems with the new version which require manual intervention; Martin continues to have the system through Tuesday to investigate; exploring memory management issues (no magic bullet but a systematic review/correction of the existing handling). Able to fall back to 02Jul version as needed for stable low frequency RSRO.
Observing Band Checkout
Encompasses principally core operation at those frequencies followed by detailed calibration strategies, flagging.
Targets
Reports
- Low Frequency (L/S/C): Momjian
- Status: Operating; users should include one of the canonical flux calibrators in SB.
- Upcoming:
- Need switched power
- Develop set of observations to check Tcal/Tsys/SEFD across bands
- Links: ECSV-38
- Mid Frequency (X/Ku): Dhawan
- Status: Operating; users should include one of the canonical flux calibrators in SB.
- Upcoming:
- Need switched power
- Develop set of observations to check Tcal/Tsys/SEFD across bands
- Links
- High Frequency (K/Ka/Q): Sjouwerman/Claussen
- Status:
- Group meeting Thursday led by Vivek on reference pointing.
- Operating; users should include one of the canonical flux calibrators in SB
- Reference pointing in C or X
- Upcoming:
- Need switched power
- Develop set of observations to check Tcal/Tsys/SEFD across bands
- Links: ECSV-30
Observing Support:
Testing and development of the end-to-end capability of the array to support observations to the community (Documentation, OPT, Scheduling, Instrument models, Calibrator survey/models DB, Rapid response observing, demo science, post-processing).
Targets
Area |
Target |
Priority |
JIRA |
Deliver |
Status |
Software |
CBE averaging/decimation (time/freq) |
1 |
- |
2010Q3; vci averaging - honors other-than-1s dumps. |
|
Software/Calibration |
Recommended data path for weights in calibration |
1 |
- |
2010Q3 |
|
Flux Calibration |
SBs for Flux calibrator models |
1 |
ECSV-43 |
2010Q3 |
Needed for D config (2 freqs/band); 5 h of observations ready |
Reports
- Meta summary
- Multi-config SBs in regular use; note 'overhead' in configuration changes; Must add 30 seconds to each configuration change - Gustaaf's group will check projects for this until relaxed, in particular, reference pointing must expand to 3 minutes..
- Software Systems (Overlord: Butler):
- Versioning Page: https://staff.nrao.edu/wiki/bin/view/EVLA/EVLASoftwareVersioning
- OPT (Lorant): 1.05 release today. Nicely organized testing campaign somewhat executed late.
- Planetary SB fail; reference pointing fail. BB: OPT is okay; model2script will be reworked; retain production version for now; exploring issue further today.
- Scheduling (Joan): In use. Beginning to assign priorities to CSV testing/demo science.
- Executor (Barry): Investigating phase jumps associated with small frequency changes (e.g., Doppler setting); no change in observing strategy (must calibrate before/after). JJ: Looking at the synthesizers for issues.
- Corr (CBE/CM; Michael): Status of 30Jul version (as above). CM has had some slight changes to support the switched power implementation.
- Archive (John): No updats.
- Post-processing
- CASA (Nick): cvel problems with AW775; high priority. Need report/update.
- AIPS (Eric): Working on spectral line version of PCAL.
- ASDM
-
SDM total power/switched power table write-up (Rupen).
-
Flag table write-up (Myers/McMullin).FBT in progress.
- SDM document (with at least table descriptions/contents/units). Re-scheduled for this month; taking the opportunity to push forward some needed operational modifications.
- Priority 3: Ephemeris table resolution (Butler).
- Precise UVW calculations in filler (McMullin/Viallefond). Being reviewed.
- Rapid Response Support (Frail): TRAP
- Flux Calibrator Models (Amy/Rick): TCAL
- Report: TCAL0001_sb1576498_1.55377.02314818287, TCAL0001.sb1575783.eb1620753.55378.450005439816. 5 hours of observations taken (low frequencies). Amy report - pending.; Some discussion of need for good models for polarization calibrators; needs the outstanding polarization calibrator list (Myers).
- Polarization calibrator list (Myers/Perley)
- Links: ECSV-43
Observing Mode Support:
Testing and development within broad observing modes distinguished by their science goals (continuum, spectral line, polarization).
Targets
Area |
Target |
Priority |
JIRA |
Deliver |
Status |
Spectral Line |
Bandpass stability |
1 |
ECSV-35 |
2010Q3 |
|
Spectral Line |
Doppler tracking |
1 |
ECSV-32 |
2010Q3 |
|
Spectral Line |
Spectral line setups; calibration procedures recommendations (OSRO/RSRO) |
1 |
ECSV-31 |
2010Q3 |
|
Polarization |
On-axis leakage calibration |
1 |
ECSV-25 |
2010Q3 |
|
Polarization |
R-L phase calibration |
1 |
ECSV-25 |
2010Q3 |
|
Polarization |
Observer Recommendations (OSRO/RSRO) |
2 |
ECSV-25 |
2010Q3 |
|
Polarization |
Beam squint calibration |
2 |
ECSV-25 |
2010Q3 |
|
Polarization |
Primary beam (off-axis) calibration |
2 |
ECSV-25 |
2010Q3 |
|
Polarization |
Polarization calibration service observation plan |
3 |
ECSV-25 |
2010Q4 |
|
Demo Science |
SBs for approved EPO projects |
1 |
ECSV-57 |
2010Q3 |
Started for a subset |
Reports
- Spectral Line Modes (Ott/Goss): TSPE
- Testing:
- Report on Doppler setting/tracking recommendations (Ott). Bug found in CASA cvel (see CASA later).
- Spectral Line general commissioning tests (diff spw widths, diff frequencies, bandpasses, etc): ECSV-92
- Bandpass stability: ECSV-35:
- TSPE0005_sb1261338 (3C84) ready - but day time
- TSPE0005_sb1661507 (2253+161) Ready - scheduled for this week.
- Links: ECSV-19
- Polarization Modes (Myers): TPOL
- Status:
- Testing
- Report on off-axis polarization calibration (Heesen) - needs ticket to submit to.
- Multi-band leakage/pos. angle calibration report pending (Myers)
- Report from Josh on stability measurements making use of test data sets (X_osro et al); reports will be posted to JIRA shortly.
- Links:
- Demo Science (Chandler/Condon): TDEM
- Status: Begun; list requires prioritization; limited remaining time in D-config; Will try for IRC+10216 this week as possible.
- Testing
Project |
Status |
Time |
Comments |
SB |
Crab nebula |
Ready |
1x10 |
L-band OSRO1/OSRO2 |
TDEM0007_sb1524351 |
IRC+10216 |
Blocked |
33 |
K, Ka, Q spectral sweep; no recirculation; pending test |
Not submitted |
M87 |
Blocked |
1x6 |
Ka |
TDEM0006_sb1470572 (not submitted) |
M51 |
Ready |
1x8 |
L band; needs corr test |
TDEM0008_sb1542082 |
Cygnus A |
Ready |
3x6 |
1x10 possible; 12 OSRO hours obtained |
Not submitted |
M82 |
Ready |
1x2 |
L band |
TDEM0010_sb1660855 |
- Herc A?? - intended to replace Cyg A
- Advanced: Phased Array (Lazio/Deller): TPHA
- Advanced Planetary: TPLA
- Testing
- Cassini observations obtained.; StillUnder review by Bryan.
- Status:
- OPT handles planetary observations now (following fix) using internal ephemeris; still needs polynomial tracking in the executor; handling of near-field sources in the SDM (Butler/Viallefond).
- Advanced: Solar: TSOL
- Status: Planning/prototype testing ongoing; working with L, Ku (special Rx setups in these two bands). No progress. Awaiting Rick/Bob returns. Noted that there is a CME scheduled for tonight; between maintenance day so no disruption to observing.
- Advanced: Pulsar (Brisken): TPUL (See Phased array above for brief update.)
- Advanced: VLBI (Walker/Brisken): TVLB
- Advanced: Astrometry (Mioduszewski)
- RSRO/ECSO: TRSR
- Status: RSRO Readiness (Cycle1) Master List
- Need RSRO/ECSO SBs in now! Please note the following:
- Follow the nominal guide for OSRO (e.g., ensure wrap is set for first few scans, dummy scan for each frequency change).
- Need 2x2 minute OSRO scans at the beginning of the SB to provide additional time for the correlator to configure (priming for RSRO); it's recommended that these be at a different frequency than the science observations to enable easily distinguishing them from the science data in post processing.
- No scans longer than 90s (or so - exact number TBD).
- Set it up using the extended OSRO configurations
- RSRO/ECSO Science Observations (Red=recent observations requiring report; Blue=active; Black=pending):
Project |
Band(s) |
Test Code |
Test Status |
Allocation Status (D) |
Notes |
JIRA |
AA30 |
Q |
TRSR0003 |
- |
0/51 |
Blocked |
RSRO-1 |
AB1345 |
L |
TRSR0004 |
21May10 |
13/50 |
In Progress |
RSRO-2 |
AB1346 |
K |
TRSR0005 |
23Jun10 |
0/42 |
Blocked; 3 hrs failed |
RSRO-3 |
AC982 |
CKKaQ |
TRSR0002 |
28Jul10 |
9/64 |
Blocked (high freq) |
RSRO-4 |
AH1006 |
LCXKa |
TRSR0006 |
- |
8/36 |
Blocked (high freq) |
RSRO-5 |
AK726 |
Ka |
TRSR0007 |
- |
0/43 |
Blocked |
RSRO-6 |
AL746 |
CKa |
TRSR0008 |
05Jul10 |
1.5/11.4 |
Blocked (high freq) |
RSRO-7 |
AM1014 |
C |
TRSR0009 |
22Jun10 |
0/0 |
C config |
RSRO-9 |
AS1015 |
C |
TRSR0010 |
21May10 |
4/4 |
Complete 1482295,1626830 |
RSRO-11 |
AT374 |
C |
TRSR0011 |
25Jul10 |
0/0 |
C config |
RSRO-12 |
AV318 |
L |
TRSR0012 |
- |
12/12 |
Complete; PI converted to OSRO 1491201 |
RSRO-13 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
AW775 |
L |
TRSR0017 |
05Jul10 |
16/72 |
In Progress 1660006 |
- |
AM1005 |
KKaQ |
TRSR0014 |
- |
0/20 |
Blocked |
- |
AM1038 |
Q |
TRSR0019 |
21May10 |
0/10 |
Blocked |
- |
AC992 |
L |
TRSR0018 |
26Jun10 |
4/4 |
Complete 1426692,1427000 1427915,1705655 |
- |
AO255 |
Ka |
TRSR0016 |
- |
0/70 |
Ready 1423157,1466135 1467049,1467331 1481381 |
- |
AM1018 |
Ka |
TRSR0015 |
- |
0/48 |
Blocked |
- |
AB1353 |
Ka |
TRSR0013 |
- |
0/51 |
Blocked |
- |
-
- Resident Schedule: Posted on home page of twiki now!
- 01 Jan - 16 May: Adam Deller (AC982: RSRO-4): 300A
- 31 Jan - 31 Jul: Laura Chomiuk (AS1015/AK726: RSRO-11/RSRO-6): 200C
- 04 Feb - 01 Jun: Jacqueline van Gorkom (AV318: RSRO-13): 200D
- 25 Feb - 01 Jun: James Miller-Jones (AM1014: RSRO-9): 200E
- 02 Mar - 07 Jun: Manuel Aravena (AA330: RSRO-1): 300G
- 16 Mar - 08 Apr: Dave Green (AB1345: RSRO-2): 300G
- 20 Apr - 30 Jun: Crystal Brogan (AB1346: RSRO-3): 200B
- 20 Apr - 30 Jun: Todd Hunter (AB1346: RSRO-3): 200B
- 30 Apr - 15 Jul: Joseph Lazio (AC982: RSRO-4): 266
- 07 Jun - 16 Sep: Laura Perez (AC982: RSRO-4): 200E
- 28 Jun - 05 Oct: Volker Heesen (AH1006: RSRO-5): 200G
- 05 Jul - 26 Oct: Russ Taylor (AT374: RSRO-12): 301; Shannon Jaeger is also here.
- 21 Jul - 23 Sep: Dave Green (AB1345: RSRO-2): 300G
- 15 Sep - 15 Dec: Adam Leroy (AL746: RSRO-7): 200C
- 01 Oct - 01 Jan: Hendrik Linz (AC982: RSRO-4): 200C
- 01 Jan - 01 Apr: Jane Greaves (AC982: RSRO-4): 300G
- 02 Jan - 02 Apr: Stuart Corder (AC982: RSRO-4): 300G
- Current Residents
- Laura Perez (POC: Claire Chandler); area(s): High frequency observing
- Dave Green (POC: Sanjay Bhatnagar): area(s): algorithm tests for wideband imaging (currently away).
- Volker Heesen (POC: Michael Rupen); area(s): polarimetry
- Peter Hofner (POC: ); area(s):
- Russ Taylor (POC: Rick Perley); area(s): polarimetry
- Past (and future residents)
- Joe Lazio (POC: Claire Chandler); area(s):
- Crystal Brogan (POC: Claire Chandler); area(s): High frequency observing; demo science
- Laura Chomiuk (POC: Miller Goss; area(s): Correlator checkout; Spectral line commissioning; OSRO data validation
- Todd Hunter (POC: Claire Chandler; area(S): science support software interfaces for users and high frequency observing; band/polarization checkout.
- Manuel Aravena (POC: Chris Carilli); area(s): high frequency observing
- Adam Deller (POC: Michael Rupen); area(s): phased array system design and implementation
- James Miller-Jones (POC: Claire Chandler; area(s): demo science use cases
- Jacqueline van Gorkom (POC: Miller Goss; area(s): Correlator checkout; spectral line commissioning)
- Science Support Team: Adding assignments for targeted data reviews
- McMullin: testing (regressions), operations (nightly scheduling), CSV organization, ASDM issues, PEPs
- Myers: vacation; SKA
- Ott: travel
- Greisen: PCAL
- Dhawan: Reference pointing
- Kogan: UVRFI testing with Frazer
- Rupen: CBE work with Martin; 3-bit sampler testing, all things correlator
- Krauss: flagdata interface conclusion; web page documentation; pipeline regression script
Advanced Science Support:
These are the testing/development areas needed to fulfill the full capabilities of the EVLA along with additional observing modes for other branches of the community.
- Lowband (Owen)
- Status: Update to OSS for next proposal cycle; current plan is to put 6 dipoles on the non-moving antennas for the D->DnC configuration (2 per arm); put on Monday, take down on Friday; goal is to have a better idea of information to provide to users; BB: May have more impact than anticipated - thought we could hand edit scripts; might be more complicated - action to investigate with Bryan.
- Receiver/feed tests status:
- Calibration Procedures
- Links: https://staff.nrao.edu/wiki/bin/view/EVLA/Lowband
- Algorithms (Owen/Bhatnagar)
- Astrometry (Mioduszewski)
- Status: Wait for A array(?)
- HPC
- Status: Minutes from last meeting. FO: Noted most of the initial equipment is in hand; need commissioning plan, i.e., planning for the cluster to come; BB noted that the remaining cluster nodes are not likely to be purchased before 1 Oct (change from recent reports). RT: How portable will the system be (i.e., could it be used on cluster in Calgary?) - BB: Yes, that's the idea - very portable.
The Postprocessing Hardware group met on July 23 at 1pm.
Attending in Socorro: Chandler, Elias, Greisen, McMullin, Owen, Robnett; in Charlottesville: Cotton, Halstead, Hatz, Hunt
James reported that he has on order all the components for the EVLA cluster, except for most of the nodes. He has ordered two nodes for tests over the next few weeks before deciding on the details of final purchase of the remaining 15 nodes. This process should be complete in August. The focus of EVLA activities now needs to be in two areas: 1) the parallelization and optimization of the IO efficiency of the CASA code and 2) the details of the procedures for setting up and queuing jobs for the cluster, i.e. the commissioning of the cluster.
Nick reports that more work is needed to develop a plan for parallelization of the CASA code. James suggests that a technical meeting, possibly as often as every week, is needed for progress in the general HPC area. James will organize such a meeting.
A plan is also needed for commissioning the EVLA cluster, supposedly involving Gustaaf and Joe.
The group would like to continue to have this Charlottesville/Socorro postprocessing Hardware coordination meeting but on its former once-a-month schedule. We will schedule the next meeting as usual on the third Friday in August (August 20th at 1pm MDT).
AOB
Misc Actions
- [McMullin/Frail]: Write up disposition of RR items.
- [McMullin/Butler/Rupen/Owen]: Resolve discussion of requirements for DnC test of 4-band.
- [McMullin]: Confirm restriction of RSRO scan length at 90 s
- [Owen]: Outline issue with 90s scan length restriction.
- [McMullin/Durand]: Clean up outdated MainSaver issues.
- [McMullin]: Review/recover metrics for Priority 0 items.
- [Perley/McMullin]: SPW/IF/BB lexicon and mapper
- List of known problems (can be used by OSRO commissioning team (van Moorsel)
-
- Med Priority [Rupen]: X, Ku band subbands are inverted (IF 1 is labelled as IF4, IF2 as 3, IF3 as 2, IF 4 as 1). Noted that this had been tested but there were enough changes to warrant a re-do.
- Med Priority [TBD]: Phase offsets within scans (phase jump at scan boundaries). R&L phase offset on some scans - probably L302 LO problem, needs tracking down. MR: Seen on EA07, EA25 (both RR and LL)
- Med Priority [TBD]: Added. Phase change when frequency changes (needs to be tested).
- Med Priority [TBD]: Anti-aliasing does not behave as advertised.
- Low Priority [TBD]: First scan often bad.
- Low Priority [TBD]: Phase (and amp) wobbles; long history.
--
JosephMcMullin - 02 Aug 2010