Agenda

Minutes in bold.

CASA/JIVE VLBI Coordination Meeting

2020 April 29 @ 1400UTC

Attendance: George, Mark, Des, Ilse, Ryan, Justin

Logistics

  • Future Meeting dates (usually last Wed of the month):
    • 2020 May 27 @ 1400 UTC
    • 2020 Jun 24

General Admin

  • General Status w.r.t. Coronavirus measures
    • NRAO/ALMA:
      • NRAO in North America on "Infectious Disease Operating Status (IDOS)" (work at home) until June 1+
        • VLA continuing to observe (will remain in C-configuration to at least June 8, pending adequate health/safety measures to permit antenna moves)
        • VLBA continuing to observe
      • ALMA staff working from home; ALMA Cycle 7 telescope operations suspended; ALMA Cycle 8 postponed 1 full year (renewed proposal call March 2021)
    • ASTRON/JIVE
      • Staff working at home at least until ~start of June.
    • CASA
      • Work continuing at home on a best-efforts basis; weekly Google Meets working reasonably well.
      • CASA 5.7/6.1 release pending completion of Cube imaging refactor and general validation work
      • CASA 6.1.1 expected in a few months
        • FYI: no 5.7.1, as this is a pipeline patch; timescale similar to 5.8/6.2 anyway
      • CASA 5.8/6.2 planning ongoing
      • Full implications of ALMA delays unclear, as yet; will proceed as planned for now
        • CASA release schedule proceeding as normal; ALMA expecting CASA 6.1 for resumed cycle 7
        • Unclear if ALMA Cycle 8 ambitions increasing from nominal; may be difficult to accommodate given uncertainty in restarting upstream operations (online testing, data gathering, etc.), and subsequent need to inform downstream development.
    • Connection for this meeting: JIVE Zoom
  • (Mark) Requirements collation status?
    • Almost done, Mark will distribute soon
    • Includes new appendices for completed and low-priority items
  • (George/Ryan) CASA VLBI Readiness
    • VLBA and JIVE prioritization of Mark's requirement doc?
    • Brian Glendenning would like a "credible effort estimate" for UC meeting at end of May(!)
    • In coming weeks, George will:
      • Poll VLBA and JIVE for prioritization
      • Attempt first stab at FTE estimates for BG
      • Understanding the anticipated JIVE contribution will be very useful!
  • (Ryan) CNGI Status
    • CNGI/ngCASA Conceptual Design Review: 2020 Jun 9-10 (Documentation by May 20)
    • CNGI Development instructions
    • Discussions with ASTRON re casacore, MSv3, etc.? (Ryan: Discussions effectively suspended, for now, but ASTRON aware as of (at least) ADASS19; no changes beyond details.)
    • George: Role of MSv3 as science data (content) model? (Ryan: CNGI effectively based on MSv2 science content; MSv3 translation possible from ASTRON?)
  • Pending admin issues
    • casa6 build issues: formal instructions for plotms, CASAshell, casa5/6 co-exist, c++ unit tests in casa6
    • New VLBI integration branch?
    • Bamboo automated builds only for casa6. casa5 available on-demand (George will clarify and report)
  • Other admin?

Development

  • Processes
    • Stakeholders exercise is for planning CASA staff work distribution, according to a broad spectrum of requests; does not control JIVE development effort, though JIVE welcome to contribute as a stakeholder
      • Des: How should EHT contribute as stakeholder?
    • Tools/processes evolving on confluence/JIRA as CASA 5.8/6.2 planning is settled.
    • All VLBI-specific efforts to be documented with CASA effort; isolated via "VLBI" and "VLBI@JIVE" JIRA labels. May leverage confluence a bit more in future.
  • CASA 5.7/6.1
    • JIRA Status
      • Awaiting final validation disposition on tickets, coming soon.
  • CASA 5.8/6.2 Planning
    • CASA 5.8/6.2 VLBI Development (whole page under development)
      • Plans for this cycle modest
      • George will coordinate with Urvashi for VLBI-specific section when planning complete
    • JIRA Status
      • Des likely to take on CASR-467 (overlaping solutions) development (George to consult)
      • Mark likely to manage completion of GAINCURVE (CAS-8546) work (George to consult, at least on maintaining existing VLA mechanism)
      • NB: Re CASR-462: Tsys already complete, gaincurve in progress.
      • CASA resources for plotting development (CASR-537) very limited; George to study what is needed in plotms for fringefit (may not require significant effort from Pam)
      • George/Justin to coordinate initial testing on CASR-463 (TEC) to better characterize basic requirements
    • CASA 5.8/6.2 Stakeholders Requirements (VLBI)

AOB?

  • (Ilse) JIVE VLBI Workshop Nov 2-6. Hopefully an in-person component; otherwise virtual.
  • (George) FYI: NRAO Synthesis Imaging Workshop to be virtual via 2018 Lecture videos, with Q&A sessions in July.

-- GeorgeMoellenbrock - 2020-04-29

This topic: Software/CASA > Software > WebHome > CASA_VLBI_Coord > VLBICoord_2020Apr29_Minutes
Topic revision: 2020-04-29, GeorgeMoellenbrock
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