NRAO AIPS++ Users Group Meeting - PRELIMINARY AGENDA Date: 2003-8-27 (Wednesday) Time: 1300 MDT Video Hub: CV-conf Rooms: SOC317/CV311/GB241/TUCN505 AIPS++ Threat Level is: Yellow = Elevated [We have some breathing space, but the pressure is on.] Agenda: 1. NAUG News (Steve) o Requirements task areas (corresponding to the sections in the ALMA and EVLA offline req docs) are: - 1.0 General [Myers] - 2.0 Interface & Documentation [Shepherd, Van Moorsel] - 3.0 Data Handling [Myers, Butler] - 4.0 Calibration & Editing [Hibbard, Butler] - 5.0 Imaging [Fomalont, Butler] - 6.0 Analysis [Hibbard, Shepherd] - 7.0 Visualization [Brisken] - 8.0 Simulation & Special Modes [various] *Discussion - are these acceptable? Bryan and Debra will be naturally involved for EVLA and ALMA items respectively in any event. We could probably use someone else for Calibration/Editing for example. We will try to set up a system where the NAUG members are notified of stuff in each area to be tested (sort of like defect assignment within AIPS++, but more informal). o I am still in the process of revising the 2003 NAUG Plan. A draft will be found, when ready, at http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~smyers/aips++/plan/NAUGplan2003v3.pdf This plan is written as if the whole of 2003 is scheduled, but only the last 4 months are now available (e.g. 33% of the hours scheduled). o The highest priority is for pre-testing of ALMA deliverables for Release 1.0 (Oct03). An action item for Joe and me is to get the testing targets for September ready asap. 2. AIPS++/ISD Status Report (Joe, Steve) o Personnel - A split ALMA/AIPS++ programmer position has been filled. An AIPS++ architect position (Athol replacement) will probably be re-advertized. o Benchmarking - the target is to be within a factor of 2 of equivalent packages (AIPS & GILDAS) by R1.1. Sanjay and the team have been making good progress. Stay tuned. *FYI - Interested NAUG members should check out Sanjay's documents on the performance, which are linked under the first two items on the Current Release Status table on the Project Office page: Imager: http://aips2.nrao.edu/projectoffice/imager.ps Calibrater: http://aips2.nrao.edu/projectoffice/calibrater.pdf See also George's discussion item #5 below. o There is a proposal for changing the way code is checked in and built (from RCS to CVS). This has some (good) implications for testing. o Discussions have continued with the former consortium partner ATNF regarding mutual development of AIPS++. o The new stable snapshot is v1.9 Build 047, see http://aips2.nrao.edu/docs/reference/updates.html (Note - we have uprev'd from 1.8 to 1.9.) There is also a new stable v1.9 b075 as of Tuesday 26 Aug. 3. ALMA (Kumar, Steve, Joe) o Debra has assembled test datasets for the ALMA testing which could also form the basis for NAUG testing (it would good to pre-test using the ALMA datasets!). From Debra: *NGC7538 - a project that Miller has allowed me to work with. There are many fields, not overlapping, looking at different sources. Src D has the good continuum emission and expected weak NH3 line emission. I've done a real rough data reduction on the source D field but no continuum subtraction, careful flux cal, or analysis. I think I'll choose this data as an ALMA test but it is also applicable for VLA/EVLA testing. Data, preliminary script available in /home/sola3/dss3/alma/tsts/offline/tst1.jan04/NGC7538 *G192 - science observations of NH3, continuum subtraction required. My summer student and I have been working on this. It is almost done so it might not be appropriate for new testing although if someone else wants to reduce it along a different path, I'm happy to provide the data locally. I can also provide the script. Data and complete script available: /home/sola2/dss2/g192/vla.nh3/reduce *G192 - quick snapshot of water maser observations. Self-calibration needed (no flux cal or bandpass obs available). I've done a quick reduction in AIPS++, no self-cal done yet. The data and rough script are available at /home/sola/dss/current.projects/g192/vla.water.maser Debra also has other VLA and ALMA datasets being used for testing *FYI - see the benchmarking datasets at: http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~dshepher/alma/benchmarks/ *Note - IRAM datasets will be necessary to test some developments, such as multi-band capability. 4. EVLA (George, Steve, Joe) o Bryan Butler has taken on the EVLA Software Project Scientist job. He will start 1 October. o Data rates and test datasets - Sanjay, Rick, and Frazer have been thinking about test datasets for EVLA, and some processing projections for EVLA Phase I and II data rates for standard and hard projects. o Use Cases - I have did some prototype use cases for Continuum processing, see http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~smyers/aips++/vla/usecase/VLAUseCases.pdf These will be supplanted by more detailed specific EVLA use and test cases by Rick and Frazer, I believe. 5. Main Event - Presentations and Discussion Items o Calibrater performance - George will present a summary of the current status of performance improvements to calibrater. o FFTs in AIPS++ - Sanjay will lead a discussion of an issue regarding FFTs for imaging. In particular "With current changes, the AIPS++ CS-Clean is less than a factor of 2 slower than AIPS. The difference now is largely coming from our use of full polarization formulation of the emission which requires use of Complex->Complex FFTs at places where a specialization can use Real->Complex FFTs. Whether we want to make this specialization now is a scientific discussion and needs to be discussed more seriously." o Upcoming discussion items: - Visualization (Brisken) - Imager performance (Sanjay, Kumar) 6. AIPS++ Developments (Joe, Kumar, George, David, Sanjay) o Project Office - see latest targets and info at: http://projectoffice.aips2.nrao.edu/ o Specific development items (from minutes of last meeting): *Viewer - Dave King has added more MS editing functionality, such as statistical editing (RMS, deviation vs. mean), zoom fixes, and prototype image blinking. See the viewer docs for viewerdisplaypanel option records: http://aips2.nrao.edu/docs/user/Display/node182.html e.g. under "MS and Visibility selection" for RMS and running mean difference. Blinking demo was completed, and a usable version is forthcoming shortly. *uv-plane continuum subtraction (ms.uvlsf) - George has checked in this new function. See the daily URM entry for ms.uvlsf, currently http://aips2.nrao.edu/daily/docs/user/General/node355.html *image-plane continuum subtraction (image.continuumsub) - George has checked this in, see the daily URM entry for image.continuumsub, currently http://aips2.nrao.edu/daily/docs/user/General/node44.html *calibrater scan-based time gridding (calibrater.setsolve) - George has added this capability to calibrater, along with some critical performance improvements. From the URM: "The solution interval t, if > 0.0, specifies the duration of data used for each calibration solution. In general, the solution intervals are measured from the beginning of data segments for each field and spectral window. If t is large enough, a single solution may encompass data from more than one scan (as long as the field and spectral window are the same). The solution interval represents a coherence time, not an integration time w.r.t. gaps in the time series; in effect, such gaps are ignored, and the lastest time in the solution is never more than t seconds after the earliest time. If t = 0.0, one solution per scan will be performed and delivered, regardless of the (variable) scan durations." See the daily URM entry for calibrater.setsolve, currently http://aips2.nrao.edu/daily/docs/user/SynthesisRef/node24.html Comments on any of these are welcome. 7. Upcoming meetings and deadlines: o 2003 Sep 5-6 ASAC (ALMA) Meeting (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) o 2003 Sep 8-9 EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting (SOC) o 2003 Oct 1 ALMA Release 1.0 o 2004 Apr 1 ALMA Release 1.1 o 2004 Jun 1 ALMA CDR2 = Judgement Day! The agendas for past NAUG meetings are archived at: http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~smyers/aips++/agenda/ The minutes for past NAUG meetings are archived at: http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~smyers/aips++/minutes/