General Activities

ASAC telecon 1

General Activities

Stuartt Corder

April 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 2

Operational Update

• Move to 2 weeks of ES vs 1 week of EOC(extension and optimization of capabilities)/CSV

• Program scientists for EOC in place in Chile: A. Remijan (Lead), C. Vlahakis (Deputy)

• 24 hour operations on the weekend of ES weeks currently best efforts*

• EOC weeks contain 2 days of dedicated “test version” validation for software capabilities

• >=44 Antennas available in at least some bands since March 12

April 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 3

Operational Update

• Special attention being paid to pad readiness:– Priority on Cycle 1+2 extended configuration pads– Next priority given to 12 extended array pads that

are needed for long baseline testing (more later)– Then all pads will be accepted, probably on an on

demand basis– Weekly meetings held with delivering party to

provide updates on progress and schedule

April 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 4

Operational Update

• Relocation/Configuraitons: – April: 32-4; May: 32-5; June: 34-6; July: 34-7*– Have demonstrated 2 relocations in a day regularly

with the same crew – Have demonstrated (recently) 2 relocations and

return to science in the same day– Configuration change planning has improved

dramatically since last year but we are now using new pads again, so it may become more dynamic again

April 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 5

Operational Update

• Problem reporting/tracking– Weekly meetings now between hardware savy astronomers

and engineering to prioritize and interact regarding tough problems

– Plan to have astronomer involvement in twice daily meetings at the site to confirm priority weighting of problems that occur over night• Morning to give initial priority after the night• Afternoon to update new problems and merge them into the queue

– Weekly updates with software to prioritize persistent problems.

April 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 6

Status of Cycle 1

Masao Saito

April 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 7

Progress since last ASAC telecon

• Post the ALMA Status Update document.• ES Blocks 27 and 28 (C32-2/3) conducted• Cycle 1 ES Data reduction keeps going.• New observing block started from Apr 2– 2 week ES blocks and 1 week EOC block– Saturday and Sunday 24hr run with best efforts– Prior to 24 hr run, performance check (pointing

and focus conducted)

April 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 8

Cycle 1 Observation Status• Observing blocks 27, 28 (Mar 5 - 26) successful (3 blocks about one week each in

the period). • Array Elements reached nominal numbers in the last two blocks (~32 or more for

12-m Array Elements (AEs) , ~9 for 7-m Aes), TP mode has not yet passed software acceptance)

• ACA observations suffered from various issues in the blocks 27 and 28 because of invalid optical signals from antennas or mis-operation of resetting ACA correlator.

April 9, 2014

12-m Array

BlockAllocated time (h)(nominal values, will be updated)

Successful executions

(h)# of successful

executions Calibrations

(h)Downtime

(h)Execution efficiency

(%)

Average number of antennas

27 96 48.0 45.0 0.5 13.4 50.5 28.528 96 55.1 47.0 0.4 2.7 57.8 27.7

               7-m Array

27 96 64.0 40.0 0.5 4.0 67.2 8.728 96 59.2 41.0 5.7 5.4 67.6 7.5

ASAC telecon 9

Cycle 1 Data ProcessingStatus April 8, 2014

• Manual reduction by staff at JAO and the ARCs

Project View (in total 197 High Priority Projects in Cycle 1):• Number of projects completed: 25• Number of projects partially delivered: 38• Number of projects started: 125 (at least one QA0 pass)

Dataset (OUSs or SBs, one or more each per project) view:• Datasets started to be observed: 64• Datasets finished (fully observed): 258 (passed QA2+being processed+waiting)

• Datasets passed QA2: 153 • Datasets delivered: 143• Being processed: 74• Waiting for staff data reduction assignment: 31

April 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 10

Preparation for 24 hr run

• 24 hr run on Saturday and Sunday.• From 9 am to 5 pm, it is the best effort so

engineering work on individual antennas and front ends are happening.

• Prior to Apr 2, performance test run was performed. Band 3 is ok and Band 6 is ok with caution.

April 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 11

Expected completion of Cycle 1 projects on May 31

• 320 h to transfer to Cycle 2 including all SBs requiring C32-6.

• Expected completion rates of each band are ~70 % (B3), ~60 % (B6), ~40 % (B7), ~25 % (B9)

• Probable better completion rates• With 35-36 antennas, reasonable coverage of two

array configurations. • Daytime observations covering the whole LST

range.April 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 12

Cycle 2 Readiness

Stuartt Corder

April 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 13

Software

• ~3 online problems remain that are critical for acceptance (1 likely solved)

• Other major items are resolved• Acceptance testing scheduled for week of April

22nd provided progress is made on remaining issues.

• Acceptance planned for end of May in preparation for June 2 start to Cycle 2 (June 1 is a EOC/CSV day)

April 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 14

Antennas/Receivers

• Goal of 45 antennas in use each night more or less regularly achieved in some bands

• Focus now on making the 45 antennas robust and having 45 at all bands

• Band 4/8 installations are at ~30, i.e. half the array. Schedule to complete all with 4/8/10 by Dec/Jan (4 are added each month on average)

April 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 15

Antenna Stations/Power/Weather

• Readiness of remaining extended configuration Cycle1/2 stations underway (about 16 remain for Cycle 1, 10 more for Cycle 2)

• Remote power recovery installed and functional on all stations in inner 3 of 6 configurations for Cycle 1

• Project defined and initiated for remote start on all stations

• Snow plow on site and installed

April 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 16

Cycle 3 Activities

Stuartt Corder

April 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 17

Recent Activities

• Focus has continued to be on readiness for software acceptance of the online system

• Session (recycled calibration) work in final testing phase

• Calibration stability (amplitude/bandpass) analysis nearly complete

• Speeding up the calibration of the correlator for the ACA

• Single dish validation still on goingApril 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 18

Current Activities: April/May (start 1 week in 3 available)

• Close out of single dish validation• Pre-tests for high frequency focus:– 90 deg switching (when unblocked)– Differential Gain Calibration (band to band transfer,

etc)– Fast focus full validation

• High precision ephemeris checks• Single dish rework planning• Observing modes meeting for Cycle 3 next week

April 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 19

Focused Campaigns

• High Frequency: June-August– Local lead: Takahashi– Detailed plan being prepared, folding in ACR

support and missions– Configuration changes in June-August optimized to

provide band 10 equipped antennas near the ACA– Goal: Improved approach to observing and

calibration at bands 9 and 10 as well as potentially low transparency parts of bands 7 and 8

April 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 20

Focused Campaigns• Single dish rework:

– Plan being defined to improve the overall performance of single dish

– Fast scanning delivered in November should allow better calibration and single dish continuum observations.

– Will include schedule for single dish sideband separation (this will likely compete with the high frequency campaign and may be in conflict, preference is given to interferometric improvements)

– Goal: A better single dish approach that utilizes more valid techniques and lessons learned in the previous approach. This will include more optimized observing efficiency.

April 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 21

Focused Campaigns• Long Baselines: September-November

– Local lead: Fomalont– Experts from the executives are being invited to participate for

specific areas (based on expertise or previous contributions)– Plan for configuration and timing done– Plan for detailed breakdown of tasks to be discussed in late May.– SV proposed sources not yet available (coming soon0– Station readiness is being tracked in weekly meetings– Goal: Statements about the long baseline performance, weather

requirements, and calibration needs. Should conclude with a set of requirements of restrictions for the Cycle 3 call for proposals (bands, lengths, etc) and a general calibration approach (fast switching, etc)

April 9, 2014

ASAC telecon 22

Focused Campaigns

• ALMA Phasing Project:– Local Lead: Not yet identified– Test time being discussed for software side tests.– Time agreement made with APP pending hardware

acceptance and software readiness• Solar: December– Initial tests for improved approach being conducted

now.– May not be included in Cycle 3 call but would do a

broad science verification campaign for 2015.

April 9, 2014