-- RobertLucas - 04 Jun 2004

Contact Information

• 2004-06-09 15:00 UT
• Duration: 1 hr
• USA Toll Free Number: 888-795-6990
• Toll Number: +1-484-630-4370
• Passcode: 99640
• Leader: Robert Lucas

Attendance:

Robert Lucas, John Richer, Philippe Salomé, Steve Scott, Debra Shepherd, Ken Tatematsu, Francois Viallefond, Melvyn Wright, Al Wootten

Minutes

1. Subsystem Scientist Activities (all)
   • Though some subsystem scientist reports are quite extended and informative, several are often missing. Please remember to fill in (or email me) me a few lines each month to summarize the activity in your Subsystem and the issues that arise each month. Remember that those reports are also useful to the Computing Group management.
2. SSR Membership (RobertLucas)
   • Gary Fuller (g.fuller at umist.ac.uk) from University of Manchester, UK, is joining the SSR and becomes the SSR Archive Subsystem Scientist, to follow up Archive developments and in particular requirements granularity, test use cases, test plans, VO etc. He replaces in this role Francois.
   • Francois becomes the SSR Data Model Scientist, remaining attached to the Archive subsystem. He will be responsible for seeing that requirements in the Data Model/Data Format area are well understood and correctly implemented. This is a new role that deserves to be put in evidence and kept separate from others, given the effort required. This implies talking with other subsystems as well, i.e. those that are producers/users of the Science Data Model.
   • Thanks to Gary for accepting his new role starting mid-way, and for taking up some back-log work. Both Gary and Francois will attend SSR meetings as well as take part in the Archive subsystem meetings, as organized by Andreas.
3. Testing Status and SoftwareSubsystemsDetailedRequirements (DebraShepherd)
   • Numbering proposal for granular requirements: Old_SSR_Number --> Old_SSR_Number-SUBSYSNumber
     • where: SUBSYS = ACS, AR, COR, CTR, EX, OT, OFF, PL, SCH, & TC represents granular requirement for a specific subsystem.
     • Example: 3.0-R11 -> detailed requirements for TelCal^?: 3.0-R11-TC1, 3.0-R11-TC2, ...
   • Status of detailed requirements:
     • Pipeline detailed requirements are available, as well as a draft for the Quick Look requirements.
     • Drafts are available for Obs. Prep., Tel. Cal., to be finalized soon.
     • A detailed requirements document exists for the Correlator, and is being extended for the new tunable input filter. These are not only science requirements but also technical requirements.
     • A draft exists for Science Data Model archive requirements (Francois).
     • Debra is in contact with Executive and Scheduling leads to draft detailed requirements
   • Testing:
     • correlator tests are prepared but not started. They will be delayed one month.
4. R2 Plans and implications for SSR (see ReleaseTwoTestPreparation)
   • The Use Cases for the R2 test (Single Field interferometry - antenna position measurement) have been updated at the above URL. Please comment by email!
5. Calibrations in Observing Tool (LeonardoTesti)
   • Leonardo raises an issue in his report (in red). As he cannot attend today, the proposal is to discuss this by e-mail and come back to the issue in our next meeting, in July.
6. Data Rate Memo (RobertLucas):
   • submitted as alma memo 501, in review process
7. Next meeting is on 2004-07-13 (15:00 UT) Note: Tuesday to avoid July 14th (Bastille Day)?
   • Please send e-mail to Robert if the change is a problem.

Subsystem Scientists Activity Reports

Please include your Subsystem Scientist report here (HowtoEnterYourReport), or email it to RobertLucas

Bryan Butler -- Control

Tom Oosterloo -- Executive

John Richer -- Telescope Calibration

Little to report this month. Attended the regular telecons, and am now commenting on the detailed requirements which Robert has drafted. R1.1 tests planned for June 25th in Grenoble.

Steve Scott -- Correlator

Very little activity despite the best intentions. Attended one control/correlator teleconf and started reading tunable filter documents from Comoretto.

Debra Shepherd -- Off-Line Analysis

• The position of technical assistant for software testing has been filled. Andy Hale will start work for ALMA on 21 June 2004. His primary responsibility will be to support user tests with the SSR and integrated tests. Andy will be attending CDR2 in Boulder, CO in July.
• CDR2 document review - I'm reviewing plans, requirements, and procedures for all subsystems in preparation for the pre-CDR2 meeting in Washington, D. C. 10-12jun04
• Reviewed issues with Joe McMullin^? relating to GUI development schedule, possibly using data from the Japanese 12m for development, TST2 definition, and single baseline requirements.
• Sent Leonardo Testi an e-mail describing the offline GUI development timescale.
• Work on detailed requirements for all subsystems:
  • Reviewed ObsPrep^? requirements and sent detailed comments to Leonardo Testi.
  • Wrote a draft of the new requirements that might be needed for single baseline analysis for the ATF and during the ALMA commissioning. Sent this to Joe McMullin^?, Brian Glendenning, and Steve Myers. At this point, I'm not sure if it will be added to the offline requirements or not.
• Did some testing for Chris Wilson - she and the heuristics team wanted to know how to view flagged data in a different colors.
• Wrote a draft of the ALMA Offline TST2 plan, sent it to Joe McMullin^? and Brian Glendenning for review. Test is expected to begin in mid-August. Testers will be:
  • Carlos De Breuck (eso)
  • Martin Zwaan (eso)
  • Crystal Brogan (SMA)
  • James Di Francesco (Canada)
  • Rein Warmels (eso)
  • Debra Shepherd (nrao)
• Wrote a lecture on mm-interferometry for the VLA summer school, discusses ALMA capabilities and project scope.
• Corresponded with Chris Wilson about the pipeline test2 datasets.
• Attended the ALMA Science workshop in Maryland and acted as 'facilitator' for the star formation breakout session.
• Robert Lucas and I presented a review of development prioritization, testing, and requirements tracking for the ASAC in Cambridge, England. Presentation is available at http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~dshepher/alma/asacMay04DSRL.pdf
• Discussed commissioning and software test issues with Dave Silva, Robert Laing, and Robert Lucas at the ASAC meeting.
• Talked to Masato Ishiguro, NAOJ project director, at the ASAC meeting about the possibility of getting single dish images from the Japanese test antenna for development testing. The Japanese may be able to do this if we need it - I need to follow up with Jeff Mangum to discuss whether this type of dataset would be useful.

Leonardo Testi -- Observing Program Preparation

• (I may not be able to dial in if it is good weather in Cile as I am observing the night before the telecon).
• Received comments on the refined requirements from Debra Shepherd, I will implement them when I get back to Florence next week.
• Discussed calibrators issues within the OT team. The goal is to implement the possibility for the user to select a calibrator manually from a supplied list of observatory calibrators or to leave the choice to the system at run time. (This more or less applies to all types of calibrations). A possible item for discussion within the SSR is how much freedom should be allowed in the OT to set rules for calibration (all types). My feeling is that the OT should offer the possibility of setting calibration goals (accuracy) for all types of calibration, these would be normally defaulted to some sensible values, but experienced users will be able to change them. The methods for achieving those goals should be outside the OT. Alternatively the user may choose a calibrator (any type of calibration?) from an observatory supplied list, but in this case there will be no guarantee that the calibration requirements will indeed be achieved. Note that since the methods to achieve the calibration goals will reside outside the OT and since the calibrator list will be based on old observations, the OT will only be able to offer (at most) guess estimate of the calibration accuracy to be achieved with the user selected calibrators.
• Discussed user interface and presentation issues with the team.
• Plans for next user tests:
  • AT1 is going to be at the end of July focus on reviewing some of the UT1 issues and score requirements (which was not done at the time) and possibly to test some of the expert mode development on the way to R2. Testers will be myself, Debra Shepherd and Philippe Salome.
  • UT2 is planned for the October/November timeframe after R2. We will have a large pool of external testers

Francois Viallefond -- Archive

Chris Wilson -- Pipeline

• revised the granularity for the Science Pipeline in response to comments from Lindsey Davis, Debra Shepherd, Allen Farris. Document should now be in close to final form and is posted in the requirements area
• revised Quick Look requirements for increased granularity and hopefully a better match with the new philosophy in the Operation Plan; revised first version in response to comments from Lindsey; circulated revised version to Lindsey and Debra, with a couple of specific questions to Robert Lucas; still waiting for their responses; I have posted the current version in the requirements area even though it is not yet final in case anyone needs to look at it
• participated in two telecons to discuss pipeline heuristics; have drafted and circulated within the subsystem a plan for the second pipeline user test which will focus on heuristics and be held sometime between July 1-August 15 2004; I have a couple of outside testers tentatively identified to participate in this test besides myself (James di Francesco and Brenda Matthews); still need to confirm with them they can participate and use AIPS++ in the test ...
• participated in Pipeline/Offline Contact telecon

Mel Wright -- Scheduling