Meeting Information

  • 1600 UT (1000 MDT)
  • AOC 317; IP: 146.88.16.8; phone: +1 575-835-7370

Agenda/Minutes

News

  • PST Meeting: 09-10 Aug; RSRO/ECSO committee: 11 Aug.
  • Decadal Survey Release Telecast in auditorium starting at 0900 MDT.
  • Thursday meeting: J. Jackson: Walkthrough of antenna electronics block diagram: http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/evla/techdocs/sysintegrt/system_diagrams/ANT_block_diagram_current.pdf
  • Key dates:
    • 15 Sep: Call for Proposals
    • 01 Oct: Proposal deadline (A config; lowband for end of B config)
  • Staff Travel:
    • 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;
    • 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.
  • Evaluating 02Jul software for use with high frequency RSRO.

System Verification/Hardware Commissioning:

Testing and characterization of the array based on the design goals.

Targets

Area Target Priority JIRASorted ascending Deliver Status
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:
Calibration Phase transfer 0 ECDATA-271 2010Q3 Needs better weather for real conclusions.
High Frequency Reference pointing quantitative analysis 0 ECSV-16/ECDATA-91 2010Q3 Issues uncovered - see report below

Reports

  • Antenna: Perley/Sowinski; note, the following are equipped with 3-bit samplers: EA15, EA22, EA27, EA28
    • EA02 IF C spikes. Resolved(actually just gone; will be monitored).
    • EA09 X band; IF: C/D (LCP). Still down.
    • EA11 IF: B issues;Please review and report on issues
  • Receiver: Perley
    • Ken on new receivers:
      • New Ka Rxs (2: EA11,EA26): 18Aug; New Ku Rxs (2:EA12, EA22), Q Rx (EA17): 11Aug.
  • Array: Perley
    • Status of subreflector flagging issues.
    • Update on Switched power
      • Potentially Friday for writing out some SYSPOWER tables.
  • Correlator: Rupen
    • CBE: toggling between the 02Jul (for wideband work) and 06Aug+ development version.
    • CM: New version released; installed this morning quasi-intentionally.

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:
      • Reference pointing status (Vivek et al); approximately 12 hours taken over the last few days to clarify the situation with different CBE versions.
      • 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

  • Software Systems (Overlord: Butler):
    • Versioning Page: https://staff.nrao.edu/wiki/bin/view/EVLA/EVLASoftwareVersioning
    • OPT (Lorant): OPT 1.05 deployed last week and in use.
    • TelCal: 3 versions released in last 10 days; 1.5.23 released today
    • Scheduling (Joan):
    • Executor (Barry):
    • Archive (John):
    • Post-processing
      • CASA (Nick):
      • AIPS (Eric):
    • 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).

  • Rapid Response Support (Frail): TRAP
    • Status: Action: Joe/Dale: Provide update to item list from RR meeting; discussed already with Claire; most things that could be handled have been but need to write down disposition report.
    • Roughly 12% of science observations have been rapid response (relatively steady rate).
    • Testing: * Note First RR RSRO mode taken (AS1015).
    • Links: https://staff.nrao.edu/wiki/bin/view/EVLA/RapidResponseObserving

  • 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)
    • 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 Complete 1x10 L-band OSRO1/OSRO2 TDEM0007_sb1524351 (10 hr: 0030-1030 LST)
IRC+10216 Ready (HF) 33 K, Ka, Q spectral sweep; no recirculation; pending test TDEM0003_sb1654086 (30 min: 0730-1130 LST)
M87 Ready (HF) 1x6 Ka TDEM0006_sb1470572 (not submitted; 6 hr: 0900-1000 LST)
M51 Ready (MR) 1x8 L band; needs corr test TDEM0008_sb1542082 (7.75 hr: 0830-1130 LST)
Cygnus A Ready 3x6 1x10 possible; 12 OSRO hours obtained Withdrawn
M82 Ready 1x2 L band TDEM0010_sb1660855 (2 hr: 0400-0930 LST)

  • Advanced: Phased Array (Lazio/Deller): TPHA
    • Status: Need an update to FPGAs to support phasing (previously removed). BB: Some planning for Ransom/Demorest to visit for some pulsar tests (noted Mark 5's coming in mid-September). Pending information for testing support for Mark 5s.
    • Testing: quiescent
    • Links: https://staff.nrao.edu/wiki/bin/view/EVLA/PhasedArray

  • 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)

Project Band(s) Test Code Test Status Allocation Status (D) Notes JIRA
RSRO            
AA30 Q TRSR0003 - 0/51 No SBs submitted RSRO-1
AB1345 L TRSR0004 21May10 13/50 In Progress
1659581 (7 hr;1430-1530)
1747558 (8 hr;1430-1530)
RSRO-2
AB1346 K TRSR0005 23Jun10 0/42 Testing; 3 hrs failed RSRO-3
AC982 CKKaQ TRSR0002 28Jul10 13/64 In Progress (high freq)
1567773 (2 hr;0230-0230)
1553081 (2 hr;0030-0030)
RSRO-4
AH1006 LCXKa TRSR0006 - 8/36 In Progress (high freq)
Need SBs
RSRO-5
AK726 Ka TRSR0007 - 0/43 No SBs submitted RSRO-6
AL746 CKa TRSR0008 05Jul10 1.5/11.4 In Progress (high freq)
1406401 (1.5 hr; 2100-2300)
1726637 (2 hr; 1000-1230)
RSRO-7
AM1014 C TRSR0009 22Jun10 0/0 C config RSRO-9
AS1015 C TRSR0010 21May10 4/4 Complete
1482295 (1 hr; 0830-1630),1626830 (1 hr; 0930-1030)
RSRO-11
AT374 C TRSR0011 25Jul10 0/0 C config RSRO-12
AV318 L TRSR0012 - 12/12 Complete; PI converted to OSRO
1491201 (6 hr; 0930-1030)
RSRO-13
ECSO          
AW775 L TRSR0017 05Jul10 20/72 In Progress
1660006 (5)
-
AM1005 KKaQ TRSR0014 - 3/20 In Progress
1748530 (3 hr; 1830-1830)
-
AM1038 Q TRSR0019 21May10 0/10 Ready
1491016 (5 hr; 0430-0730)
1638323 (5 hr; 0730-0930)
1731355 (5 hr; 0030-0200)
1735390 (5 hr;0200-0330)
-
AC992 L TRSR0018 26Jun10 4/4 Complete
1426692
1427000
1427915
1705655
-
AO255 Ka TRSR0016 - 0/70 Ready
1423157 (4 hr;1400-1430)
1466135 (4 hr; 1230-1330)
1467049 (4 hr;1500-1730)
1467331 (8 hr;1230-1230)
1481381 (8hr;1400-1430)
-
AM1018 Ka TRSR0015 - 0/48 No SBs submitted -
AB1353 Ka TRSR0013 - 0/51 No SBs submitted -

    • 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
        • This week:
      • Dave Green (POC: Sanjay Bhatnagar): area(s): algorithm tests for wideband imaging (currently away).
        • This week:
      • Volker Heesen (POC: Michael Rupen); area(s): polarimetry
        • This week:
      • Peter Hofner (POC: ); area(s): post-processing
        • This week:
      • Russ Taylor (POC: Rick Perley); area(s): polarimetry
        • This week:
    • 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:
    • Myers: vacation
    • Ott: travel
    • Greisen:
    • Dhawan:
    • Kogan:
    • Rupen:
    • Krauss:

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

  • 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).
    • Links:

AOB

Misc Actions

  • [McMullin/Frail]: %REDWrite 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 - 09 Aug 2010
Topic revision: r3 - 2010-08-10, jmcmulli
This site is powered by FoswikiCopyright © by the contributing authors. All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
Ideas, requests, problems regarding NRAO Public Wiki? Send feedback