science operations

Science Operations

Philip Edwards

Head of Science Operations

14 May 2009

Telescope OperationsTelescope Operations

& Science Services& Science Services

Computer InfrastructureComputer Infrastructure

Scientific Computing & Scientific Computing & ArchivesArchives

Visitor servicesVisitor services

Receivers, LO & ConversionReceivers, LO & Conversion

Digital & Servo ElectronicsDigital & Servo Electronics

CryogenicsCryogenics

Mechanical, Drives, & Mechanical, Drives, & ElectricalElectrical

Science Science OperationsOperations

Engineering Engineering OperationsOperations

National National Facility Facility

OperationsOperations

ATNF Operations Structure

CSIRO. ATUC report May 2009: ATNF Science Operations

Performance Goals

• Parkes and ATCA: • Greater than 70% of all time used for astronomy observations, with

selection based on scientific merit, and less than 5% unscheduled downtime as a result of equipment failures.

• Mopra: • Greater than 40% of all time allocated for astronomical

observations, with selection based on scientific merit and research skill development and less than 15% of unscheduled downtime as a result of equipment failures.

• LBA• Operate the LBA for astronomical programs for at least 20 days per

year, with time allocated on scientific merit. Less than 15% of scheduled time lost to equipment failures.


Usage stats (2008-JUL-01 to 2009-FEB-20 *)

ATCA Parkes Mopra

Successful

astronomy82% 76% 45%

Equipment failure

2% 2% 2%

Time lost to weather

2% 4% 2%

Maintenance/

idle14% 18% 49%

Differences in accounting between sites being examined


Science Operations

• Telescope Operations and Science Services• Appointment of Jamie Stevens and Ettore Carretti (ATCA and

Parkes System Scientists)

• TAC met in February, schedules for 2009APRS released in March

• Due to phased CABB implementation, division of ATCA semester into 2009APRS and 2009JULS

• Not all arrays advertised for 2009APRS were scheduled

• Call for ATCA proposals for 2009JULS (15-JUL to 30-SEP) in April

• Preparations for CABB

• ATCA User Guide undergoing major overhaul to include all mm and CABB information. Improved format for web version of ATUG.

• Plans to roll out improved format for Parkes User Guide

• New "ATNF Observability Tool“ provides time vs. elevation charts for multiple objects.

• Water Vapour Radiometer project making good progress


Scientific Computing and Archives

• CABB• CAOBS has been modified to work with CABB. • CABB computer controls CABB hardware and phases array.• CABBScheduler is a new, web based, scheduler – integrated with

existing calibrator search and velocity calculator tools • The CABB version of miriad has now been merged with the main

branch of miriad.

• MoniCA• Monitoring for the compact array and Mopra is now done almost

exclusively with MoniCA.

• ASAP• Version 2.3.0, which includes a number of fixes and new export

options, was released in March. A minor upgrade (2.3.1) has appeared since.

• ATOA • Backlog of Mopra observations uploaded.• ATOA modified to process CABB observations.


Science Operations

• Computer Infrastructure• New bigrock at Mopra• New kaputar at Narrabri• Increased data storage capability at Narrabri for CABB • New server at Narrabri for support on-line software support• Increased ATOA data storage at Marsfield • Rationalisation of general-use tape drives at Marsfield underway• New proxy server for ATNF website • Marsfield site power provision improved

• Visitors Services• Meeting of all Visitors Services staff in April 2009• Roll-out of software for bookings management• Use of taxis for travel to and from Parkes Observatory• Aeropelican now operating Sydney Narrabri flight route


Parkes

• Parkes participation in IYA webcast, and Ch.7 Sunrise weather• Parkes schedule in “classic” text format and also graphical format,

scheduled in 30min quanta• OPAL coversheet being revised to better capture front-end and

back-end requirements• 10/50 receiver to be removed for 6 weeks during 2009APR

semester for engineering work• Parkes receiver fleet being reviewed• Two major development projects continuing: examining ways of

scheduling observations so staff can focus more on project work• Larger maintenance blocks• Coordinated maintenance blocks between observatories• Fewer receiver changes• Advertise availability of receivers in Call for Proposals• Better manage arrival of new equipment• Schedule new observers to start on weekdays where possible


ATCA

• CABB shutdown (Feb 23 ) Mar 2 Apr 22• CABB hardware (almost all!) installed• CABB webpage at http://

www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/observing/CABB.html• CABB introduction sessions April 8 and May 13. • Still gaining experience with the best data processing paths for

CABB data, e.g., full 2GHz versus divide-and-conquer approaches• Remote observing “clocks reset”• ATCA remote observing using VNC sessions being trialled • Simultaneous 6cm AND 3cm possible, but 20cm OR 13cm for now• RFI characterisation continuing • ATCA calibration being addressed by c007 and c2050

http://www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/observing/CABB.html

http://www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/observing/CABB.html


CABB(brought to you by the friendly folk in Technologies)

Autocorrelations at 6cm

StructureMissing channelsAutocorrelations always available

Cross-correlation amplitudes at 6cm


Coming soon

For 2009JULS, we expect that three observing modes will be available as follows:

• 1. A bandwidth of 2 GHz with 2048 x 1-MHz channels

• 2. A bandwidth of 2 GHz with 32 x 64-MHz channels (from mid-July)

• 3. Option 1 with an additional one to four “zoom” bands, each with a bandwidth of 1 MHz split into 2048 channels (from September)

• When CABB is fully implemented, up to 16 zoom bands per IF will be available in addition to the 2-GHz spectrum. There will, in time, be four configurations:

• CFB 1M-0.5k: coarse resolution 1 MHz, fine resolution 0.5 kHz,

• CFB 4M-2k: coarse resolution 4 MHz, fine resolution 2 kHz,

• CFB 16M-8k: coarse resolution 16 MHz, fine resolution 8 kHz,

• CFB 64M-32k: coarse resolution 64 MHz, fine resolution 32 kHz


CABB zoom bands


Mopra

• New Mopra "Current Issues" page.• Online tools to make schedule files have been updated• New SiO maser database and monitoring program at 7-mm & 3-mm

for Mopra pointing.• New version of ASAP now has the capability to export data in a

format that can be read into popular data-reduction packages such as GILDAS (class) and XSPEC

• ASAP tutorials from the Astro-Informatics School held at Sydney Uni in April will be made available on the ASAP website.

• New GUI tool now available for observers to do quick-look “point and click” data reduction (thanks to Cormac Purcell).

• Beam mapping and efficiency measurements in progress

CSIRO. ATUC report May 2009: ATNF Science OperationsCSIRO. Mopra Calibration

Mopra Beam Maps at 7mm (courtesy James Urquhart)

31-37 GHz

43-49 GHz


Tidbinbilla

• Understanding between ATNF and ICTC for continued use of Tidbinbilla facilities for radio astronomy

• Service observations for single-dish radio astronomy announced in ATNF Call for Proposals.

• ATNF contact, Jimi Green, liaising with CDSCC Radioastronomy Engineer, Shinji Horiuchi.

• A four month maintenance period on the 70m has just ended. Normal service is expected to resume later this month.

• A new12mm filter box enabling dual polarization capability is expected to be installed on the 70m by the end of July. Until then 12mm observations are limited in frequency range.

• A paper on Extragalactic H2O Masers in Southern Bright IRAS Sources has recently been accepted by A&A (0904.4816)

• Use of CDSCC facilities for VLBI is continuing.

http://arxiv.org/pdf/0904.4816v1


LBA

• e-VLBI demo to Curtin in March 2009 (2 x 512 Mbps from each ATNF antenna + 128 Mbps from Hobart). Aggregate data rate of 3.2 Gbps across the Nullabor.

• Feb’09 LBA session transferred from ATNF to Curtin via ARCS (Australia Research Collaboration Service). No disk shipping from ATNF telescopes. Data stored in IVEC petabyte store awaiting correlation.

• IYA participation with EXPReS in Jan‘09 and April’09.• Record over-subscription on LBA last round.• LBA paper in Science in January (Deller et al.)• Recent ToO requests:

• eVLBI to Asia and Europe for a Fermi source. • New SN with VLBA, yet to be scheduled.


LBA usage statistics

• In 2008 there were 5 LBA sessions:• LBA allocated time: 26.4 days (633h)

• Scheduled proposal time: 496h (78%) .• Includes 47hrs e-VLBI (~10% of scheduled time)

• Test observations (networks; eVLBI development; polarisation testing): 82.5h (13%)

• Real-time fringe checking: 35h (5.5%).• About ~20hrs remaining for receiver changes etc (3%)

• Successful observing rate 92%.


Operations summary

• The new Operations structure is settling down

• Annual Performance Goals are being met

• Increasing focus on Parkes development projects

• Increasing productivity of Mopra

• Increasing demand for LBA

• Major (on-going) effort across ATNF to implement CABB

science operations

Documents

cabb observations

cabb implementation

cabb information

cabb new server

cabb version of miriad

scheduled time

improved format

astronomical observations