Glendenning
Lucas
Mangum
Richer
Schwarz
Scott
Tatematsu
Testi
Viallefond
Wilson
Wright
Wootten
Agenda
New SSR Committe member
Leonardo Testi is welcomed as a new SSR member and Subsystem Scientist
for the Observation Preparation Subsystem.
Subsystem Scientist Activities (all)
Reports:
Chris Wilson -- Pipeline
I have not done anything as sub-system scientist since our last telecon
John Richer -- Telescope Calibration
I attended the first face to face meeting of this group in Grenoble,
for which minutes are available on the web. (Unfortunately I was
unable to attend the second day). Minutes by Robert are available on
Sitescape. This was mainly a planning meeting for the IRAM/Madrid
team to plan their work for the PDR in December. Robert Lucas has
generated a top-level overview of the proposed system. The interfaces
to aips++ and the ACS remain uncertain and represent the biggest risk
factors, both in terms of slowing down the project and in terms of
finding/training personnel in their use. No specific input was
requested from the subsystem scientist was requested for this meeting
or the PDR. It is clear that a significant amount of work needs to be
done in refining the simple Requirements in Memo 11. For example,
what is the proposed pointing/focus scheme for ALMA? Do we specify
this now, and design the appropriate software, or do we write code to
reduce all/any types of pointing/focus scans?
Juan Pardo presented good progress on the ATM work. A good deal of
internal cleaning up has been done. I encouraged him to document and
release a simple Application Programmer Interface (API) with just a
few externally-visible F77 functions which will allow users to test
the subroutine library for their own applications. The team were also
encouraged to make the ATM package clean and free from any arbitrary
dependencies on glish/gldas etc. Currently, the programme needs to
know irrelevant details such as the number of antennas in the array.
These will be cleaned up, and a first release made by 14th October.
Fortran 9x again was discussed as a language for new developments: it
is clear that guidance from project management is required here.
Leonardo Testi -- Observing Program Preparation
I have contacted the OT group (Alan Bridger) and started to catch up
with their work. The group has a face to face meeting this week in
Edimburgh, I found this out last week and was not able to go. We are
going to have a video conferece this afternoon, I will probably have
something to report to the SSR after that. We are also planning a
second session towards the end of the week.
Steve Scott -- Correlator
Attended an ALMA Control and Correlator group teleconf where we discussed
blanking. The main issue was getting and aligning information from the
antennas with the correlator data.
Mel Wright -- Scheduling
I had a productive telephone meeting with Allen Faris and Gianni on
Friday 27 oct. We clarified a number of requirements - some of which
have re-bounded to you for confirmation - and had a general agreement
on how to proceed. I tar'd up my scheduling program and sent it off to
Allen with some example inputs and outputs.
Francois Viallefond -- Archive
I took contact with Andreas Wicenec at ESO and report here mostly on the
basis of written documents. More exchanges are anticipated in the near
future. We are planning to meet together next Nov 7 or 9 at Garching.
The ALMA archive is seen as a general information service. It is
considered that the SSRs for the archiving refer to an ALMA Science
Archive (ASA) which should be considered only as one of the various
subsystems which will use the ALMA archive.
Kickoff meeting last July (Jodrell Bank Jul 1-4)
Various issues, choices, requirements, possible technologies etc.
were discussed
The ALMA archive is seen in the context and the requirements of the ALMA
data flow model and the ALMA operations plan.
Conceptual design: 3 layers
lowest layer: the most abstract data model,
middel layer: observatory data flow model
upper layer: the closest to the data model of a subsystem.
The subsystem interfaces were discussed at the Socorro meeting in September.
The requirements for the ALMA Archive Subsystem Design are currently
being defined. I sent to Andreas a number of questions/remarks that I had
when looking on the current version of a context diagram and operations
Archive activities diagrams. These diagrams are still in a very preliminary
form.
Jeff Mangum -- Control
I have been attending the Software IPT telecons, but have nothing new
to report.
Additional Discussion:
B. Glendenning asks about the f90 issue. R. Lucas replies that
any decision is deferred until the outer interfaces of the ATM
library (currently f77) are discussed and accepted by the
Tel. Cal. Subsystem, the simulator developpers (in the off-line
Software Subsystem), and the Science IPT Calibration Group.
L. Testi mentions he has been asked about the importance to
the Observing Tool of the use of optical pointing telescopes. In the
baseline ALMA only a few of them (2?) are foreseen for initial
pointing model during commissioning of new antennas. Research is
going on at Hat Creek on the possibility of using optical telescopes
for guiding. While this development should be followed in view of
the implied software needs, it appears too early to define software
requirements at this point.
L. Testi was also asked about the importance of
self-calibration. While some projects should allow the use of
self-calibration, we feel desirable that these projects regularly
observe a phase calibrator, so that the ALMA system is able to
evaluate the quality of data taking by monitoring the amplitude and
phase on a point source (as this is an important scheduling input).
Status of memo 11 review (R. Lucas)
The meeting was held on September 24th. The document has
satisfactorily passed the review.
Particular points:
In the calibration pipeline, we should more clearly distinguish
calibrations that are on line and thus that have no urgency.
We should suppress reference to end of observing session in the definition of 'monitor points'.
We should better formulate the question of standard image products.
We should suppress reference to 'header' in teh archive
requirements (observation descriptions are better)
We should be less prescriptive on archive search criteria and give
space for experience
Suppress 7.3-R15 should be suppressed
We should mention RFI as important for the future e.g. as a
possible cause for blanking and flagging.
A final version should now be prepared. I will do the necessary
editing next week (most of this has already been done in July by
Frederic and Ken).
Then I propose to ask Frederic, Ken, and someone else (Steve Scott?)
for a final consistency check.
I think that we may aim to release the final version after our next
meeting.
Status of AIPS++ audit (Brian Glendenning)
Steve Myers will be back on Monday; if he has Athol's reactions by
then, he should be able to do a final editing (each item should have a
summary rather than a list of comments); then a public draft could be
circulated (in particular to the SSR). We should thus be able to
discuss it in our next monthly meeting.
Status of AIPS++/IRAM test (R. Lucas) Little
progress has occurred, as IRAM astronomers were deeply involved in the
IRAM Interferometry School. D. Broguiere has signaled some problems
to aips++. A telecon is foreseen in the next few days.
Date of next phone meeting We propose to keep our
monthly schedule (15:00 UT, second wednesday of each month):
November 13th 15:00 UT
Next face to face meeting Our presence is
needed for a block of 4 days (December 9-12th, in ESO/Garching)
during which we will meet as the SSR Committee but also attend the
ALMA Software Internal Design Review. The exact schedule is being
worked upon.
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