Minutes of second CPT meeting held JBO 17 June 2005

RadioNet CPT meeting 17 June 2005 JBO

ATTENDANCE

Tom Muxlow, Rob Beswick, Anita Richards, Anthony Holloway, Simon Garrington Apologies: David Clarke, Phil Diamond

1) RADIONET PROPOSAL TOOL DEMO Anton

Christened Northstar (Net-based Observing Request Tool Handling
Submissions to Astron and RadioNet) Tool functions - mostly admin, keeping track of PIs, referees etc. CoI's can't yet see proposal Plan to add and allow CA (Corresponding Author) to appoint one person at a time to edit. Consider adding SIMBAD Exposure calculator needs slightly more explanation (and could be more obvious that it also gives you resolution) Most feedback positive Requests for single PDF for justification (3, separate for science, tech etc. requested by JCMT) - could different facilities have different requirements? Allow multi-author editing (see above). Like ability to view each stage, replace/retract after submission up to deadline. At present each page is same for all telescopes apart from logos and Observing Request tab (page). Want to keep as much in common as possible but could branch if unavoidable. Should text technical justification be required at this stage or later? Is currently needed as programme committees (PCs) need more detail than is provided by automatic part of tool. Admin stage - allows PC chair to assign, view progress with referees; referees use page to prepare reports etc. (permissions can be set depending on individual facility requirements), record decisions of PC, construct final feedback for checking by chair and finally email contact author. Prepare code for distibution
Onsala RadioNet Synergy meeting July 4-5

2) NORTHSTAR DESIGN AND INTERFACES Hanno

3) NRAO TOOL Rob

http://listmgr.cv.nrao.edu/mailman/listinfo/e2e-proposal GBT only functioning Allows anyone registered to browse list of all registrees - is this sufficiently secure? Keeping astronomer details up to date is not straighforward. Issues of velocity convention, epoch of coordinates etc. - need to make it clear to PIs at which stage coordinates etc. are just for reference and at which stage the rigorous observing details are needed. Intention to make it a client-side offline tool Making correlator config choices comprehensible - JIVE thoughts? Need units whereever there is a potential for confusion Need to be able to consult easily personal source positions etc. - at present via previous proposals, could have personal source list
resources etc. (cf VO MySpace). Should always inform what default is when user does not have to choose.

4) ALMA DEVELOPMENTS Alan

Phase 1-2 link next year + further (Science goals description - user reviews technical requirements sched blocks generated) Submission and reviewing editors, checking for conflicts etc. Current developments: Spectral set-up - how to make it easy for users?
Tool prototype uses Java webstart (AstroGrid internal page is documenting issues) Help tool developed, need to add context-sensitive help. Builds up scheduling blocks (aimed at the scheduling/control systems and observatory staff, not general users, although they can inspect and, if suitably 'expert', modify). Includes Performance Goals e.g. Max, Min angular resolution, dynamic range etc. used to advise setups for sched block Highlights incompatible requirements. Validator lists problems in report window and will be able to take the user to the source of the problem (e.g. as Eclipse does for code developers). Sched blocks stacked in archive for selection when suitable in dynamic scheduling. In principle, different parameters for different instruments could be entered to produce java objects suitable for other arrays scheduling

5) LUNCHTIME DISCUSSIONS

ALMA scheduling blocks - relation with e-MERLIN plans Can have separate calibration blocks to allow repeats in case of bad conditions. For e-MERLIN, need to build up HA coverage out of ~30 min? blocks Scheduling block can be complex but for e-MERLIN shouldn't be too long. Config changes within block should be reasonably rapid. How to map to e-MERLIN? Need to apply relevant restrictions to content of a scheduling block e.g. no source change. MERLIN 'tree' concept ALMA will produce template setups which should cover all its eventualities. For user have target sensitivity. For scheduler have translation into exposure time. Need to distinguish and define integration time (correlator averaging), scan length (between source/freq changes) total time on source, total experiment time.... Look at ALMA Science Data Model, which is heirarchical - get schemas (preferably simple version). e-MERLIN - ALMA comparisons include: N(IFs) Spectral setups Validation Mapping from science requirements to scheduling blocks with added HA coverage constraints (to be added to ALMA tool this summer) Optimising drives between sources
Does RadioNet want to put any effort into generalising? i.e. developing the mechanism for other instruments to slot their specs into ALMA tool Need to ensure keep in synch with ALMA If ALMA makes code available intelligibly we should give ALMA back feedback.

6) CONCLUSIONS

General situation is that RadioNet tool covers 'Phase 1' and ALMA are working on 'Phase 2' end first so it should be possible to meet in the middle! (but what about relationship with NRAO tool?) MERLIN and ASTRON to liaise over requirements for extending use of
NorthStar for MERLIN asap, Anton/Tom/Rob et al.
progress needed by Onsala RadioNet Synergy meeting July 4-5 (e-)MERLIN and ALMA and all to liaise over 'phase 2', ALMA to make UML/schemas available Alan, Roger et al.

7) Next meeting after ADASS (i.e. late Oct or Nov 2005) in Dwingeloo.

Notes taken by Anita Richards, please email corrections to amsr<at>jb.man.ac.uk