ObsMode Summary Report
ALMA Technical Note Number: 4
Status: FINAL
Prepared by:

Organization:

Date:

Anthony Remijan (ALMA Program
Scientist for Extension and
Optimization of Capabilities)

JAO/NRAO

24 June 2014

Atacama Large Millimeter/
Submillimeter Array
Alonso de Córdova 3107
Vitacura - Santiago Chile

MEMORANDUM
To: EOC Team Members
From: Anthony Remijan, ALMA Program Scientist (EOC)
Date: 11/16/2014
Subject: ObsMode Summary Report
Members of the EOC team attended the ObsMode meeting held in Socorro NM, 14-16 Apr 2014.
During that meeting, EOC was charged to generate a schedule of priorities that will need to becommissioned over the course of the next several months and until the end of the calendar year. It wasnoted that the commissioning efforts would be closely coordinated with both the Pipeline and ALMAOT development cycles. For the ALMA OT specifications, Alan et al. are working towards the following
timeline:
OT Timescale Phase I:
Call

25 AprAcceptance

15-22 Apr

Validation/User Test

Phase C

1-10 Mar

Verification

Phase B

1-28 Feb

Code Freeze

31 JanSpec Complete

31 Oct 2014

OT Timescale Phase II:
Start Observing

1 Oct

Deployment/boot cam

1 Aug

Acceptance

20-27 Jul

Validation/User Test

1-10 Jun

Verification

1-31 May

Code Freeze

30 AprSpec. complete

31 JanEOC was charged to bring the specifications of the expected new modes for Cycle 3 observing to the
ALMA OT working group, including all the anticipated metrics and algorithms, by the "Spec Complete
date" - nominally set for 31 Oct 2014. These specifications can be modified slightly after that date but
all activities EOC believes to operate under the normal Cycle 3 observing modes must be included bythat date. Also, based on the EOC testing and the projected observing campaigns, it is possible to "descope" these specifications before the call for Cycle 3 observing. For the Pipeline, while EOC willcontinue to test new observational protocols, it is unlikely that many of these will be included into
routine Pipeline calibration operations including Polarization observations requiring the use of Sessions
in the OT and advanced observing techniques necessary for the long baseline effort. It was suggested
that <33% of the total amount of observing time be allocated for these types of observations so that thecalibration of the other programs can be done solely from running the pipeline. However, this is still
under consideration depending on type of observing parameters considered and the nature of the
problems. For example, if we have shown that some EBs with Band-to-Band transfer are working
properly and we know what is preventing the others from working (e.g. we have the requirements for a
fix to correct the issue) then we can consider offering it outside of the experimental mode.
The prioritization of the EOC activities over the course of the next 9 months included priorities ranging
from 1-3. Priority 1 items are those that we MUST get done whereas priority 3 items are nice to havebut are seen not as important as the priority 1 items. However, a priority 3 item may be done if it canbe done quickly or possibly with help from outside EOC (e.g. ARC support). In addition, weekly
priorities will be set keeping in mind the global priorities for the rest of the year (e.g. A Science
Verification observation may be a top priority for a week, especially during the long baseline campaign,
even though it is listed globally as a priority 3). As a result of that process, we came up with thefollowing “strawman” schedule of priorities (shown below):
2014
Activity

Priority

10.4 testing
Add check source intent into 10.4 after
acceptance.

1

High Precision Ephemeris (Iapetus)

1

Sessions testing (Polarization)

1

10.6 testing
TP testing/non-linearity/TP on Baseline
Correlator
Online WVR correction / baseline runwith wvr correction/mixed modes

1

Bandwidth Transfer

1

AIV+ (Bands 9 & 10)

1

10.4 - first order temperature dependent
focus parameters
Daytime Observing (Pointing/Focus/cycle
times)

1

1
1

2
2

Polarization FDM observation

2

B2B

2

Single Dish Sideband Separation

3

Science Verification
Sessions testing (daytime and short runs
for pipeline)

3
3

April

May

June

90 degree phase switching3

Bandwidth Transfer

1

Fast Scanning for calibration
Online WVR correction / baseline runwith wvr correction/mixed modes

1

AugustSeptember

OctoberNovember

December

1
1

AIV+ (Bands 9 & 10)
Total Power/non linearity tests

1

2014.2 testing & validation

1

Astroholography
5km Baselines in bands 3,4 & 6 (w/o
CASA fringe)

1

Fast focus

2

90 degree phase switching
Grid Survey Calibrator Refactoring work with Pipeline on Reduction

3

2014.2 - Multiple Intents inside an SB2014.2 - new algorithm andimplementation for the dynamic
shadowing limit

3

Science Verification

July

1

3

3
3

2014.2 testing & validation
Total Power/non linearity tests

1

AIV+ (Bands 9 & 10)
5km Baselines in bands 3,4 & 6 (w/o
CASA fringe)

1

1

1

2 km baseline in band 9

1

3 km baselines in band 7
Imaging of grid sources as resolved
calibrators
Provide Pipeline long baseline "sciencelike" SBs

1

Solar Commissioning/Science Verification

1

Science Verification

3

OTFi

3

1
1

This schedule will be posted to the EOC wiki and is of course subject to change based on EOC team
input as discussed during weekly meetings and daily tagups. However, it is the current schedule that weare working towards over the course of the next 9 months.

ObsMode Meeting Notes and Action Items (Remijan):
NOTE: A full executive summary of the ObsMode is in preparation. These notes will have actions
related to EOC activities that went into the above schedule. Below these notes are the individual action
items as compiled by Stuartt.
Online WVR• Need to test the online WVR corrections with more complex spectral spec testing including
combinations of TDM and FDM modes simultaneously. Not sure if we have an easy way to test
this in manual modes.
o I (Neil?) have code for use by manual mode scripts to specify the correlator
configuration per BB which we can use, although its not in CVS/SVN yet. It only
supports one SpW per BB currently though. I guess for FDM we should also consider
testing how the WVR correction behaves with multiple SpWs per BB (you can do that,right?).
o I think that multiple spectral windows per base-band in FDM mode and WVR correction
enabled will NOT work. If that's true then it would be caused by a frequency range
issue as well. In my TODO list now to confirm the issue by simulation (Neil).
• We should not go fully yet to online WVR correction only.
• AI: There are projects where the WVR correction actually degrades the data quality. The action
is for this topic to be discussed at the on long baseline campaign and to have Bojan and Richard
weigh in on why this is happening.
o It would be helpful to have a list of projects where this is happening…
• Why is the pipeline using a series of strange heuristics on how it applies the WVR corrections?
• Can we "undo" the online calibration? Right now this is enacted in Telcal. If we cannot, does thisviolate the high level plans of being able to undo the online calibrations? Think it is okay so long as
it can be done at the ARCs. Does it have to stay with Telcal?
• AI: If we are going to be testing the online application of WVR corrections to Cycle 2 projects,
we need a test plan that highlights how the WVR corrections/test will take place (under what
weather, types of projects, what else?). Will need to coordinate with PMG on the test plan.
Needs to be in place by end of June to be enacted in July and Aug before the beginning of the long
baseline campaign. Also, need a plan of what to do with the ACA - which may be nothing.
Resolved Source Implementation:• Major question for the calibrator survey is how the requisite calibrator parameters are stored in
the database and used for the data reduction and the how the OT uses these data to assign
fluxes. It also has things the catalog that are resolved and should not be used as calibrators forright now...take these out of the catalog altogether. Need to put min and max uv ranges on
calibrators per observing frequency. Some calibrators actually have multiple positions in the
database as well.
• Needs DRMs
• Needs Pipeline• Subsystem Scientist Group Meeting to discuss some of these issues?
• Maybe will be available for Cycle 3 IF we start working on the effort now.
• AI: Form a calibrator database working group. Need to define from the EOC side who will
work with the SSR requirements for the calibrator database and on the database side, how toproperly structure the database for ease of use. Deliver a shell of requirements by the ICTCPM3 meeting.
• AI: Will need to cleanup the catalog...Rudiger and Masao to work on that effort. No resolved
sources should be used in Cycle 2.

•

AI: Where we are for the status report on what is contained in the database and how therequirements are set?

Non-self selection Criteria:• No min phase calibrator needs to be/will be assigned for Cycle 2. All projects will have an
explicit phase calibrator and passband. Will check this thru the pipeline first though to ensurethat the pipeline can handle it.
Dynamic shadowing limit:• Control has the action of flagging things that are up at the AOS. Needs to know the algorithm
for how the shadowing calculation is done. What is the simple algorithm that does this? Needto get to the 80% level to ensure this works...will be able to do this on the OSS on the real STE.
• How many SB fails because it cannot find a proper bandpass calibrator?
• AI: Action to Masao to find out and what priority is the item (Tony and Masao)...
• AI: Paulo to take the action of working on this once the priority is set.
Other:• Accuracy of the pointing precision in using the actual type of number (integer, float, etc…)• Check sources - is the OT doing it wrong? Have a different field source than the phase cal• What is the criteria for the check source source selection?
Sessions Consideration:• The objective of a session is to optimize the execution of the required calibrations in order toimprove the overall efficiency of an ALMA observation. Thus, a session is defined as theconsecutive N executions of the same scheduling block, where N is the number of consecutive
executions.
• What is the time stability for bandpass? - when and how many times do you need to observe thebandpass?
• AI: Need to continue the commissioning especially for Cycle 3. Need to get at least as manyuse cases as possible to:o Test the operations of the sessions - Paulo testso Have Eric look at the data after sessionized data taken, edit script and convey theseinformation to the Pipeline working groupo Make sure Lindsay and Jeff know about the data taken during EOC weeks.
o Stuartt, Lars and Masao will take a piece of the ES data and run them in the sessionizeddata format and provide these cases to the Pipeline working group.
o Need to have a short set of data that runs many sessions so that the pipeline can use it
to work on the heuristics.
• AI: For the work next week, need to absolutely let Lindsay, Todd, etc… know if the data areready to be looked at by the Pipeline group. Everyone is already on the JIRA ticket as
watchers...best I send a clear email later when the right SB is ready to be looked at…
Cycle 2 until Pipeline can do it – When to use Sessions?
• Polarization -> YES (about 33 projects accepted for Cycle 2 will have the sessions flag ON)• (Iarge) mosaics -> NO ( about 109 projects accepted for Cycle 2)• Long and (long) multi-target (NO)o Not by definition only for about 20 selected projects that will be used for thecommissioning and testing of sessions.
o Need to let P2G know NOT to put the Sessions flag into the OT - flag OFF

Will be reduced by hand and delivered to PIs.
(long) spectral scan and Multi-target, multi-tuningo P2G builds as multiple SGs - NO
• Solar System Objects spectral line observations – NO
Current Time estimate Metric when using Sessions• Session Max savings 2 hours per 4 hours continuous observationso 100 projects = 200 hours on sky saved
o Reduced by hand 1 work week/sessiono 100 projects = 40 hours per sessions = 4000 person hours.
o•Cycle 3 Building Blocks Considerations:Daytime Observations:
Cycle time:• Need to get the daytime commissioning plan done and the temperature correction dependenceof the focus into the calibration schema for daytime…
• AI: Need to run and test sessions during the day to test the extra calibration needed fordaytime observations. Need to define a cycle time expert parameters (ie put in the SSR so it ishidden from the user - these include bands, and time spent on different types of calibrators) sothat the cycle times will be different for the daytime/nighttime observations.
• AI: Work with Ralph on getting the temperature correction focus factors into the next versionof the online software. Linear approach first but still continues to take data for the higher orderterms but at a lower priority. Need the second order terms for the higher frequency bands (9and 10) but those will only be done at night. Also have Cristian work with the computing teamto make sure that the fixes are in and work properly.
o Implement the change for 2014.2. Backport to 10.4. The relevant ticket
is: http://ictjira.alma.cl/browse/ICT-1797
DiffGainCal:
Have to commission all three submodes here and need to offer it for Cycle 3 and manual reduction.
• Bandwidth Transfer - frequency doesn’t change but only the bandwidth. Not just Phase transfer
but also need to get the amplitude correct.
o Are the phases stable enough?
o Are the bands stable enough• Band-2-Band Transfer• Spectral Scano Crystal has a script - needs to be modified for a real differential gain target. Will work
for spectral scan case. Bandpass gives you the ratios and acts as the DiffGainCal. Stillerrors in the amplitude probably because we don't do perfect Tsys measurements.
DiffGainCal needs to be close to the target and bright.
• Do we offer long baselines at high frequencies? Need to focus on the band 7 observations forthe long baselines? Probably will have fully commissioned Band 3, 4 and 6 at long baselines (5km - without "fringe")...may not have the data taken for band 7 to fully commission.
• ARCs and DSO will have to take the risks to take the data reduction effort because this will not
be done by the Pipeline.
• Pipeline will need to have it demonstrated by Dec. if we needed the pipeline to have it reduced.
Perhaps 75% of the data taken in Cycle 3 will need to be reduced by the pipeline. The rest of the timethe data will need to be reduced by hand.

The 25% of these datasets will be "experimental" and possibly not delivered. These types of data will begiven a "shared risk" type of flag in the OT.
Check Source:• As a function of frequency, if the number of klambda>x - added a second calibrator called a"check source"; if <x, don’t do anything. Is reduced like a science target…
• One month look ahead need to cover both phase calibrators and "check sources" (1/2 as far
away and 1/2 as bright) to start to cover and check the fluxes of these calibrator sources. Needto explicitly the "delay cal" in the OT and the SSR then changes it to check source.
• What is the purpose of this source?
o Is to check that the phase transfer applied to the science target worked properly. In
theory you can check that by doing a selfcal on the check source and seeing if thesolutions were correct.
• Put this in after the acceptance as a change request to 10.4.
o Add enumeration to the scan typeo Add the enumeration type to the delaycal
Multiple Intents (Cycle 3):• Need to verify that an algorithm is in place that the search can return the same source forphase, bandpass, etc...right now, these are completely independent searches and will produce
independent sources for each calibration.
90 Degree Switching (Cycle 3):• Bug in the system...will be fixed in about a month - mid May. This will need to be tested• This is full sideband separation in bands 9 and 10. Will be used in other bands to determine
sideband ratio.
• 32 spectral windows• Make sure we do the online WVR correction as well…
o Takes 2 seconds to go thru the Walsh cycle. If the atmosphere changes faster than that,that will eliminate the rejections• Need to apply this also to the ACA correlator?
• Allow both correlators• How many requirements do we need and when to get it in for Cycle 3?
o No way for the user to control this right now.
o How much control do you want the user to have over the image window? - For Cycle
3, lets give them none and reassess for Cycle 4?
• Need a simple SV target as well for testing.
Improved Single Dish Approach:• What is the priority of this effort compared to the rest of the priorities for TP acceptance? Thisis completely independent of the rest of the TP acceptance testing.
• This appears to be an "edge case" - yeah we can do it and collect the data but what is the overall
scientific impact of the TDM case of pure continuum observations done with fast dump rates
using the BLC? Where are the science cases here to justify all this work?
• Have not taken TP down through the full scientific way…
• What else can this help us with?
o Band 9 and 10 for focus/beamshapeo Scientific calibration of TP detectors
o Servo corrections applied for a larger subset of antennas

•
•

•
•
•

•
•
•

o Software tested for a standard observing moreo CASA reading the correct position within the map positiono SD maps get out in the right way
Can we use this to improve the SD spectral line capability?
o Will open up a lot more calibrators for spectral line sources.
Can we do the more important parts for the commissioning but not offer it as a standard mode?
o YES - TelCal does the work? Eg. Focus
o YES - SD spectral line AmpCalo NO - full science mode
Have the TP detectors been fully commissioned? Yes but not calibrated...end to end as notbeen tested.
Take out TP out of the Cycle 3 call?
AI: Take maps back-to-back in raster and fast scanning modes, with AtmCals to decide if thefast scanning mode can be used for spectral line single dish amplitude calibration / beamcharacterization. Fast scanning data also to be used for general reduction implementation. Neilto take data for this.
AI: Run the TP on the baseline correlator? Will need to be tested with potential offline
corrections...Discuss with Sawada-san, Neil and Cristian about getting these data especially fromarchival data.
AI: Get information from Takeshi about the timeline for: understanding the issues with the nonlinearity corrections, the implentation of the new corrections, will this fix the spectral line
problems. Try to get this before the tiger team meeting next week.
AI: Need to take data in bands 9 and 10 and send the data to Shinya for reduction to test the
sideband separation algorithms.

Long Baselines:• AI: Need to start imaging all grid sources up through band 9.
B2B:
Only liability from CASA is that if we need "fringe"-finder?
• If George worked on nothing else, it would take him 2 months…
• Limit on the baseline length so you don't need "fringe".
o Q: How will we know if we need fringe if we don't currently have fringe? The bestsolution would be to do direct phase transfer in the band that you are observing in andthat can be done using fringe.
• AI: Will have fully commissioned Band 3, 4 and 6 at long baselines (5 km - without "fringe")• Is there anything at all in CASA that needs to change for it to be science ready for B2B transfer?
o Don't know the answer to that but will have to get back to Crystal.
o Need to take data only from bands 3-7 and 6-9...the bands 3-6 data were too close infrequency to see much of a change.
o Need to think about how to do the amplitude calibration properly between the 2 bands.
o Need to get far on the testing of the B2B long baseline for the long baseline effort.
• Baselines need to be very good to make this campaign work!
• If it finishes in Dec, it will be hard to get the scripts for data reduction, etc...to the pipeline inanything shorter than an month.
• Needs to have a punchlist of things that need to happen to commission the pipeline for thiseffort• AI: Decent set of science like SBs in addition to the imaging characteristics - to provide to thepipeline for reduction and comparison.

•
•
•
•
•

AI: Low S/N heuristics should also be connected to the Pipeline processing routine for long
baselines.
Make sure that we don't take band 3 data in band 9 weather! This tends to skew the results…
The CfP documentation must be done very carefully and started earlier than the rest in order to
get the wording and explanations. Additional effort needs to be done on both the technicalhandbook and primer to explain the issues with long baselines.
Next time the array will be in the extended configuration for any commissioning will be Oct
2015.
AI: Look at the bandwidth switching routines for long baselines for calibration.

FDM Polarization:• CASA will develop a tool to analyze the data - Pipeline says you are on your own.
• AI: B3 FDM Spectral polarization
Below is the full list of action items that has been extracted from the list of notes taken during the
ObsMode meeting. Items that directly impact EOC related activities or identify EOC staff have beenhighlighted in blue. Please come and see me or Catherine if you have any questions on these items or
do not understand the scope of work required to fulfil the action item before the anticipated deadline.
Also, if you see an item omitted or something that needs to be done in order to commission any of theabove modes, please let us know ASAP so we can get them prioritized and listed accordingly.
AI Number

Item

Assignee

Priority

Deadline

Status

C3-AI-1

Based on current performanceissues with Tsys roll off, definea reasonable overlap

BroganMedium1-Jun-14

Open

C3-AI-2

Follow up on possible hardware
solutions to band edge effects ofTsys, especially outside of 1/16th
filter width

Phillips

Medium1-Jun-14

Open

C3-AI-3

Provide/gather asummary/calculation of the speed
limits for dump and integraiton
durtions from the BLC

Phillips

High

1-Jun-14

Open

C3-AI-4

Add issue of why WVR correction
sometimes does not improve
reults to the long baseline
agenda. Contact Hills/Bojan
ahead of time for input. Dirk
Petry (CASA) needs to be involved

RemijanHigh

1-May-14

Open

C3-AI-5Gather (Remy) statisticalinformation on how often wvr
application is skipped and get thedatasets together where this is an
issue and look for inconsistencies

Fomalont/Barkats

High

15-May-14

Open

NOTES

C3-AI-6

Gather a few online wvr
applied+not applied datasets tomake sure the pipeline doesn't
choke before using PI science
projects for this. Gather somecomparison datasets

RemijanHigh

15-May-14

Open

C3-AI-7

Ensure continued function of
applywvr to remove average
online application is kept up to
date

Barkats

MediumOngoing

Open

C3-AI-8

Write a CASA JIRA ticket on
ASDM2MS to include history
table (for online application of
WVR included/not included)

BroganMedium1-Jun-14

Open

C3-AI-9

Include issues regarding Telcal
distributed cleanly to the
ARCS on the CPM3 agenda

CorderMedium

1-May-14

Open

C3-AI-10

Generate a test plan for online
WVR application within thecontext of ES observations(coordinated with PMG)

RemijanHigh

31-Jul-14

Open

C3-AI-11

Get update on 16 vs 32 bit datascaling in the correlator andother data rate related issues,schedule (with reasonablepriority)…if this is only TDM, notsuch a big deal, if it is FDM,
needs to be higher priority

Phillips

Medium1-Jun-14

Open

CortesHigh

1-Jun-14

Open

Saito, Remijan

Medium1-Jun-14

Open

CorderHigh

1-May-14

Open

HunterHigh

1-May-14

Open

Saito

Medium

15-May-14

Open

C3-AI-12

C3-AI-13

C3-AI-14

C3-AI-15

C3-AI-16

Provide a summary of the current
query algorithms including
elevations limits
Establish relative priority (in SSR
development) of changing the
bandpass shadowing limit vsother improvements
Add requirement to have aforward looking tool for
calibrator cross checks added
to the CPM-3 agenda
Make sure Ruediger has accessto (and understands) the aU
tool for projecting calibrator
fluxesProvide the calibrator
extrapolation/interpolation
methods to the Virtual
Observatory Group (Ibsen)
following incorporation of C3AI-15

C3-AI-17

Follow up on developing apath towards a One True Way(i.e. Archive) to determine
source fluxes

StoehrLow

1-Aug-14

Open

C3-AI-18

Provide the current use ofuvmin/max from the point ofview of the calibrator catalog.
What requirements have beendelivered? Do requirements
meet needs? Are there
remaining requirements to bedelivered?

KneisslHigh

1-Jun-14

Open

C3-AI-19

Gather a summary/status
report from Calibrator
working group, pipeline anddata reducers to make surethat various items areunderstood in terms ofrequirements and observatoryneeds, including how to get
resolved calibrators handled in
the catalog and in data
reduction (may not have thesame needs, calibrator catalog
value needs to be moregeneric as models change, etc)

Saito

High

1-Jun-14

Open

C3-AI-20

For a calibrator database team:
Lindsay, Crystal, Ruediger, plus
one TBD member from thedatabase group, and a EOC
member. Chaired by Baltasar

Vila

High

15-May-14

Open

C3-AI-21

Organize a clean up of thecatalog such that no (notably
extended) resolved sources(e.g., M87, SGRA*, etc) should
be used in Cycle 2
observations

Vila, Saito,
Kneissl

Very High

1-May-14

Open

C3-AI-22

Add Calibrator Catalog
discussion item for CPM3

CorderHigh

15-May-14

Open

C3-AI-23

Change the script genearator
to use intents

VillardMedium1-Jun-14

Open

C3-AI-24

Ensure that all theobservations set up by P2G
should have a separate
bandpass intent (e.g., cannot
use the phase calibrator orscience target for that
purpose)Rawlings

High

1-May-14

Open

C3-AI-25

Identify and push a test caseexample data set through thepipeline using the same sourcefor phase cal and science (andeventually other sharedintents)

Brogan, Davis

Medium1-Jun-14

Open

C3-AI-26

Look into improving the 56degree shadowing limit andtesting if possible (and deemedhigh enough priority)

Cortes?

?

Open

C3-AI-27

Make ssr "isObservable" explicitly
avoid sources that will passthrough transit or >88.5 deg
during the execution (need to
implement better look aheads atthe same time)

Cortes, Phillips

Medium

1-Jul-14

Open

C3-AI-28

Implement an explicitly allowed
list of sources for use for single
dish amplitude calibration

P2G, SSR

Low

1-Jul-14

Open

C3-AI-29

Tell the OT and P2G what thecriteria are for Check Source
selection (current
implementation)

CortesMedium

15-May-14

Open

C3-AI-30

Select 20 projects to use forsession commissioning beyond
the standard for polarization
and assign someone to reducethem. These should be long,
but not too long and they willreport to the heuristics groupon how reduction will be
done. This data will bedelivered to PIs

C3-AI-31

For the benefit of Pipeline, create
and run a project to run a short(15min) SB and run it 4-5 times
in a row. These should likely be
at band 6 and at night

Remijan

Low

C3-AI-32

Communicate to P2G thatsessions are off by default. It
will hve to be turned on
manually for pol and specificprojects to be tested(SessionControl)

Saito

C3-AI-33

Implement an expert parameterfor daytime observing for focus
and pointing cycle times in the
SSR

Open

(note that thismay beremoved given
discussions inlater days)

1-May-14

Open(note that thismay beremoved given
discussions inlater days)High

1-May-14

Open

Cortes, Phillips

Low

1-Nov-14

Open

C3-AI-34

Implement dynamic feedback forconvergence of telcal solutions forfocus, pointing and potentiallyothers (phase, etc…)

Phillips

Low

Cycle 7Open

C3-AI-35

Need to update the APRC
tool to include daytime
considerations

Nyman

High

1-May-14Open

Vila, Saito

Low

1-Jun-14

C3-AI-36

Translate PrimaryBeamCalTarget
into a list of obs
params/requirements for the
ObsPrep team.

RemijanMedium

1-Jul-14

Open

C3-AI-37

Characterize the phase rms
during the daytime inanticipation of further daytime
observing

Nyman

Low

1-Sep-14

Open

C3-AI-38

Revisit the procedures forevaluating the phase of theatmosphere once we have
online WVR corrections inplace (to determine if we needto abort an execution or not)Vila

Medium

1-Sep-14

Open

C3-AI-39

Discuss the offering of "bestefforts" vs "sharedrisks/experimental" projects
for cycle 3 (SciOpsIPT)

Nyman

High

1-May-14

Open

P2G

High

15-May-14

Open

Bridger, Remijan(SSR)

Medium1-Jun-14

Open

C3-AI-40

C3-AI-41

Especially at high frequencies,
check sources will need to be
hard wired
Implement Check source in 10.4
after acceptance (patch back) to
ASDM and SSR instead ofdelaycal

C3-AI-42

Verify that telcal and the filler areable to handle the extra spectral
windows produced by 90-deg
switching

C3-AI-43

Raise the possibility with thecorrelator groups of throwing
away edge channels to reduce
data rates (i.e., only returncentral 1k channels)

Phillips

Medium

C3-AI-44

Take data comparing single dishusing fast rasters vs regularrasters to compare the output
flux. Needed to know how toprioritize fast scanning forcalibration use

PhillipsHigh

C3-AI-45

Discuss the possibilities ofaccelerating the linearity
correction potentially using it
offline (for the ACA)

Vlahakis

Very High

28-Apr-14

Open

C3-AI-46

Send out an update (whenclarity is achieved) on PI datadelivery of total power data

SciOpsIPT

Very High

15-May-14

Open

RemijanMediumOpen

depends on 90deg switchingworking to zeroorder

1-Jun-14Open(timescale toraise, schedulingof software
work may bemuch later…)

15-May-14

Open

1-Jun-14

Required before
next ACA
linearity tiger
team meeting
Should makesure to clarify
that it is theconversion to
Jy/beam that is
the hard part,not putting it
in K, which isrelatively easy

C3-AI-47

Depending on the outcomes ofthe previous testing/planning for
the ACA, consider the test planfor doing total power on thebaseline correlator with theunderstanding that there areother complications

RemijanMedium1-Jun-14

Open

C3-AI-48

Get basic single dish sideband
separation maps with Tsys anddeliver them to Komugi for
reduction with existing tools.

RemijanLow

1-Aug-14

Open

C3-AI-49

Create a new SB for band 9
grid sources

KneisslMedium

1-Jul-14

Open

C3-AI-50

Include in standard
interferometry a switch to use
scan sequences when fastswitching (likely trigger off aminimum phase cal cycle time tobegin with..eventually doobserving strat layer)

Remijan, SSR
group

Medium

1-Sep-14

Open

C3-AI-51

What CASA development isneeded to make B2B sciencereadyRemjianHigh

1-May-14

Open

C3-AI-52

Sort out the new algorithm forcalculating slew times (antennatype dependent likely)

Phillips

High

1-Jun-14

Open

C3-AI-53

Issues with fast switching include
potential power problems with
34+ antennas and telcal getting
the flags in time. Continue to
track the performance issues
here. (Fast switching)

Asaki,
Matsushita,
Phillips, Barkats,
VlahakisHigh

1-Sep-14

Open

C3-AI-54

Commission Bands 3, 4 and 6
out of 5km or more without theuse of fringe (is that all?)Remijan,
Fomalont

Very High

1-Dec-14

Open

C3-AI-55

Produce out of the long baseline
plan and execution, a set of SBs
that will give a range of
observations suitable for long
baseline testing

Remijan,
Fomalont

High

1-Sep-14

Open

Komugi to workon in free timeand report backto Remijan
about
performance.
Eventually needto design an
observing mode
for this andschedule
software work

DV antenna
radius is 1.5
degrees on thesky, below 60
deg elevation
Meetingschedule 22 Apr
to cover thisNeeds to bedelivered to
Marson…canthis be put inthe stable CSV
version for SepNov

C3-AI-56

Examine the possibility/need for apolynomial fit to the bandpass
shape for polarization (FDM)

CortesLow

1-Aug-14

Open

C3-AI-57

Produce a radiotool to do theimage analysis necessary to
exploit Zeeman (Stokes V)

CortesMedium1-Dec-14

Open

C3-AI-58

Quicklook should catch theexamples of broken/misaligned
spectrally Tsys and they should
be fixed before they get topipeline (with Villard andCortes)

HumphreysHigh

1-Jun-14

Open

C3-AI-59

Discuss with Online the list of
conditions for QA0 flagging to
make sure that it is sufficient(and up to date). Get the
QA0/QA0 semi-pass clearly
established

Vila

High

15-May-14

Open

C3-AI-60

Identify a person to work withthe pipeline group on some of
the flux calibration numbers,
so that we can automaticallyclean down to a specific target
level and stop (noise
calculation?)

HibbardMedium

15-May-14

Open

C3-AI-61

Determine the Cycle 3 array
configurations in terms of theOT, users, etc.

Nyman

Medium1-Jun-14

Open

C3-AI-62

Test e2e pipeline reduction of
external ephemeris files. If this
isn't shown to work, Cycle 2
should have it as experimental.
And Cycle 3? Won't thisdepend on online?

Humphreys

Medium

15-May-14

Open

C3-AI-63

Give the Iapetus data to pipeline
to reduce

RemijanHigh

1-May-14

Open

It is expectedthat this is
likely not a
problemanymore so
instances
reported frommany many
months ago
should bediscarded

What does
this reallymean?
Unclear…as
we won't
know thelongestbaseline to beofferred untilvery near thecall.

This person isneeded to get
the imaging
pipeline goingbut most
people that
could do are
overbooked.

C3-AI-64

Identify an Eric Villard-likeperson to lead the imaging
tiger team, this really probably
can't be Eric himself, Ed, Todd
or Crystal as we have thembooked already.

Kern, Vila

Very High

15-May-14

Open

C3-AI-65

Reduce the OTFi that we alreadyhave in latest test version of
CASA, if this is not sufficient (i.e.,further CASA work is needed), we
will table OTFi for now.
Otherwise continue

Remijan,
TakahashiMedium1-Oct-14

Open

C3-AI-66

OT Phase II needs a spec todetermine if we use OTFi or notfor interferometric mosaics

Remijan,
TakahashiMedium

1-Nov-14

Open

C3-AI-67

Add topic of possible 7-m andTP only projects to CPM3
agenda and next Director's
council face to face meeting

CorderMedium1-Jun-14

Open

C3-AI-68

Look at the policy/history
behind not explicitly offerring
7-m/TP executions and notoffering the 7-m time without
offering also TP time.

Corder, Nyman

Medium1-Jun-14

Open

Neededbefore next
DC meeting

C3-AI-69

Consider novel calibrators forBand 9/10 that would be brightthere but perhaps not at lower
bands, including in band phasetransfer for masers (but need amaser source with brightcontinuum as well to do thediff gain cal)Vila, calibrator
catalog working
group

Low

1-Jul-14

Open

Needed for
someinformation to
the high
frequency
campaign

C3-AI-70

Add action for archive tohandle ephemeris objects as aquery service to the calibrator
catalog (CPM3 agenda)

CorderMedium1-Jun-14

Open

C3-AI-71

Make sure that the long-baseline
campaign observes the brightest
10 grid sources at band 9 alongwith other necessary calibration
to assess shape/structure

Vlahakis,Fomalont

Medium1-Jun-14

Open

Should be on
the program for
the Grenoble
meeting

C3-AI-72

The Ph1m needs to be able tohandle experimental modes

Open

Should be
added to the
CPM3 agenda
probably.

Nyman

Medium1-Jun-14

C3-AI-73

Test the project tracker to see
if it cleanly (i.e., affects the SB)
affects the number of SB
remaining executions. In the
future the project tracker
should be the only way tochange this (even for the CSV
lifecycle?)(J) Cortes

Medium1-Jun-14

Open

C3-AI-74

Verify that the reference position
has to be relative

VlahakisHigh

15-May-14

Open

C3-AI-75

Review the ASDM and see what
metadata is and is not being
filled and what is actually needed
for the attenuator settings

Phillips, Bridger

Low

1-Aug-14

Open

C3-AI-76

Follow up on whether or not
the focus correction withthermal sensors is reallyneeded as a patch to Cycle 2
accepted software

CorderHigh

15-May-14

Open

C3-AI-77

Decision on debiasing vs solar
filter needs to be made inadvance of detailed planning of
the next solar observing
campaign

Solar group, ADE

Low

1-Oct-14

Open

Komugi believes
this is the caseas does Corder,
this is just a
confirmation