Agenda

CASA/JIVE VLBI Coordination Meeting

2022 Jan 26 @ 1510UTC

Logistics

• Future Meeting dates:
  
  • 2022 Feb 9 @ 1500 UTC Technical meeting
    
  • 2022 Feb 23 @ 1500 UTC Coordination meeting
    
• NB: NRAO zoom room now reserved every Wednesday (so, we are flexible for ad hoc Tech meetings or Coord scheduling adjustments):

General Admin

• General Status w.r.t. Coronavirus measures
  • NRAO/ALMA:
    
    • Omicron wave peaking in USA; NRAO in North America now working at home, if possible.
      
  • ASTRON/JIVE
    • ASTRON (and JIVE) working mainly from home.
      
• Upcoming CASA Release Schedule
  
  • (6.4.2 reserved for pipeline flexibility)
  • CASA 6.4.3: this week
    
  • CASA 6.4.4: March ~1 (may slip a little to align with fiscal half-year reporting cadence)
    
  • Release version OS/python matrix
• (Justin) Stakeholder prioritization
  • CASA 6.5 prioritization underway stakeholders meeting today to begin refining
  • CASA 6.5 development work to formally begin ~March 2022
• Documentation and related
  • (Mark) Collated requirements ( pdf)
    • Added to JIVE git repo? TBD
      
  • (Des/George) Fringefit memo...status? George to add some general calibration context (cf for CASA VLBI paper)
    
  • (Ilse) CASA VLBI Paper planning...status?
    
    • Last meeting: Jan 25
      
    • Fine-tuning content; refining CASA/AIPS comparison
    • Coordination with CASA reference paper ~on track for ~Spring submission
• CASA repo/build logistics
  • (Ryan/George) CASA repo re-org for sunset of CASA 5 (CAS-13461)
    
    • remember to migrate c++ tests as needed.
  • Building c++ unit tests in CASA 6 from Darrell (CAS-13461) (still some issues with google tests?)
    • George to systematically organize calibration-related tests (mostly google tests) in synthesis/MeasurementComponents (including VLBI-related)
  • VLBI Integration Branch: TBD
  • casa6 build instructions via vmware (from Ville)
    
    • Need clarity on building plotms, etc., in casa6 context. (From tech mtg)
• Misc. Admin
  
  • (Ryan) Anything to report on arrival of Victor Desouza? (no change to ~June arrival plans; HR handling it from here)
  • Old/stale JIRA tickets queued for disposal: George reviewing lots of old calibration tickets, looking for gems...
  • Jeff Kern (formerly CASA, SRDP) now AD for DMS
  • Josh Marvil now CASA Validation lead
• (Ryan) CNGI/ngCASA Status? Maybe an update next meeting...
  
  • Demo 'release' of prototype package. CNGI info on casa webpage.
  • FYI: CNGI Development instructions
  • Some casa6 development to be considered using new technologies ("CNGI tech transition"), if adequately isolate-able.
    • Is there a tech-transfer doc materializing to guide planning of this in casa6 for 2022? See CAS-13711.
      
• Meetings/workshops of relevance
  
  • SKA VLBI virtual meeting (2022 Feb 14-18). Ilse giving invited talk; Mark contributing on VLBI DR futures (incl. ngCASA-style technology).
• Other admin?
  • JIVE soon to submit "Horizon 2020" proposal for tech development, possibly providing additional funding for CASA VLBI work a JIVE. May need letter of support from NRAO.

Development

• CASA 6.3+6.4 prioritization
• Ongoing maintenance/development CASA 6.3/6.4 JIRA (VLBI) Status
  
  • Finished:
    • Mark, CAS-13622) FITS-IDI filler does not always update OBSERVATION table correctly (6.4.3)
      • Merged to 6.4.3.
    • (Mark, CAS-13628) Dysco ("lossy" compression of MeasurementSets) (6.4.3)
      • Merged to 6.4.3
  • Ongoing for 6.4.4
    
    • (Mark, CAS-13266) Per-scan interpolation via overloading per-obs mechanism. (6.4.4)
      • (George) Semantic adjustments nearly complete, currently verifying MS/CT mismatch logic...
        
    • (Des, CAS-13361) Polarization combination for fringefit. (6.4.4)
      
      • Refinements from prior tech meetings complete.
      • Ready for verification.
        
    • (Des, CAS-13056) Overlapping solution intervals (6.4.4)
      
      • Review by George started; probably need to better isolate from existing iteration infrastructure
        
    • (Des, CAS-13718) Turn on uvrange parameter in fringefit (6.4.4)
      
      • Ready for verification. (need a decisive dataset?)
    • (Mark, CAS-13700) Nant>255 in UVFITS export/import (6.4.4)
      
      • Needs validation at NRAO for AIPS compatibility...see ticket comment (26/Jan/22)
    • (Mark, CAS-13003). EOP update (6.?).
      • Anything to report?
        
  • Other/Miscellaneous
    
    • (Mark) Phase-cal measurements in MeasurementSet
      • Mark to circulate definition for MS subtable for phase-cal data to VLBA for comments (what to do with FITS-IDI content mismatches?), then introduce implementation (already mostly done) to casacore github. Deployment in CASA (i.e., using phase cal data) will be described in new CASR/CAS tickets.
    • (George/Justin) CASR-463 (TEC) Need to follow-up on Justin's initial testing, which indicated edge (near-horizon) effects, spurious but cosmetic VLA-specificity, scientific differences in details? (Also some MeerKAT testing, via Bietenholz?)
    • (George, CAS-13287) AveragingTvi2 problems for certain conditions; under separate investigation (cf CAS-13466)
    • CAS-12485: OTF weight munging for solve (Can we complete validation and deploy? Des seeking interested users at JIVE)

AOB

• n/a