Future Meeting dates (usually last Wed of the month):
NEXT MEETING: 2020 March 25 @ 1400 UTC. (Note daylight-savings!!)
2020 April 29?
2020 May 27?
General Admin
Recent/upcoming meetings:
Space VLBI 2020 in Charlottesville, VA (2020 Jan 28-30): George (w/ Fomalont) to present poster on compensating for OD errors
Interesting meeting, trying to bridge from science to technology challenges (cf prior meeting ~2 years ago in NL) but still mostly aspirational and idealized discussion; no real convergence on how/what to pursue. Next proposed meeting: late 2021.
Need plotms build instructions (George will ask Pam for details...TBD)
Unclear how to make CASAshell work (George will followup...TBD)
CASA5 build possible within casa6 repository structure (George to provide simple instructions...TBD)
Need instructions for running c++ unit (google) tests (Work ongoing on CASA side, stay tuned...)
Current VLBI Integration branch: CAS-12325.
Will make new VLBI integration branch from new repository soon, modulo items that move out of CAS-12325 in current work (these should be satisfied in 5.7/6.1 release)
(Mark) Waiting for dust to settle on casa6 migration; new casa6 branch will likely be needed by summer.
Michael Janssen Socorro visit (Feb 10-11)
Exercised rPICARD pipeline with Jay Blanchard mainly, troubleshooting pipeline and CASA on VLBA data. Should get report from Jay (feed into requirements). George discussed general planning issues. One new item: Using MS intents (via convention established by ALMA + VLBI-specific adaptations as needed). Mark notes next VEX version will recognize intents. A script that parses the VEX file and adds intents to the MS will probably be needed until coreelators propagate this information into their output.
Mark has completed initial draft and has shared with original authors of earlier docs for a first round of comments. Will cast a wider net (Jansssen, Blanchard, Linford, others) for comments soon.
Work plan describing how/when CASA can replace AIPS (FY2020 NRAO/DMS Program Operating Plan)
Req doc should be in good shape by our March meeting; should formulate plan for generating the corresponding VLBA readiness doc (minimum requirements, timescales for completion, etc.) at March meeting, expecting completion ~June (e.g., in time for NRAO UC, and 3rd quarter POP review).
Stakeholders' deliberations for 5.8/6.2 upcoming
CASA 5.8/6.2 decoupled from ALMA/EVLA pipeline planning (though 5.7.x patches likely for them). Casa6 repo will roll over to 6.2/5.8 in April, anticipating an October release.
George will supply Urvashi with VLBI-specific todo list (from below) for stakeholder deliberations over the next ~month or so, thereby formalizing CASA team commitments,
(Ryan) CNGI Status
F2F meeting Feb 4-6 in Socorro to discuss framework principles with principal imaging and calibration developers. Good meeting, exciting times, etc.
Expecting CASA 6 and ngCASA to be "interoperable" at least modulo physical data format conversions. NB: MSv2 (or v3?) will remain the essential user-facing (science) data model, but disk format will be quite different as per CNGI demands.
CoDR as soon as ~late April/early May, possibly coordinated with CASA F2F meeting?
NB: CNGI concerns the framework itself and related tools; efforts here ramping up ~now through 2021. "ngCASA" will be the new implementation of CASA functionality using CNGI; efforts here ramping up later in 2021. Support for CASA 5/6 to remain for many years, but general support commitment likely to taper down as early as Summer/Fall 2021, modulo imperatives.
JIVE concerns (Mark):
MS format (including current use of Table system) being encouraged for new/existing instruments/correlators (move away from UVFITS and similar, especially)
VLBI not a big "scalability" customer, so principle benefits of CNGI not as attractive (Ryan: smallish MSs should be directly servicable, in memory)
Port of fringefit and other VLBI specific code represents a non-trivial work commitment
Other admin?
JIVE folks welcome at CASA F2F (dates still TBD, but possibly as soon as last week of April). Will provide for remote participation, as needed.
(Mark) EOP: formalize import of (DifX) correlator model, update EOP (or other, e.g., troposphere) part, and difference to obtain required delay calibration
(George) Finish frequency meta-info consolidation (CAS-12735)
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(As of completion of requirements doc and related, the list below will be removed, and we'll maintain only a list of current in-progress items)
(Des/George) PCAL (Des has ad hoc scripts, need updated prioritization from VLBA since this is not a high EVN priority; not a high priority at NRAO/VLBA in the near term