NRAO AIPS++ Users Group Meeting - PRELIMINARY AGENDA

Date: 2003-12-19 (Friday - NOTE SPECIAL DAY)
Time: 1300 MST
Video Hub: SOC-conf (CV should call in to Socorro)
Rooms: SOC317/CV311

AIPS++ Threat Level is: Yellow = Elevated
  [Santa might bring us a lump of coal.]

Agenda:

1. NAUG News

   o SS3 was made available on Dec 3.  To use, setup your environment via

        . /aips++/stable_ss3/aipsinit.sh

     or

        source /aips++/stable_ss3/aipsinit.csh

     and then invoke aips++ as usual.  Note that this is indeed just a
     "snapshot" of the stable as of that date that will remain available
     as a super-stable basis for testing.  There will be the usual stables
     (and weeklies and dailies) that will incorporate new developments 
     building up to the next SS4 on Jan 15.

   o Take a look at the AIPS++ Testing page available from the project 
     office page at

        http://projectoffice.aips2.nrao.edu/alma_testing.html

     This is also linked from the SS3 targets - click on the link under 
     the "Ready" items in the "NAUG Test" column.  On this page you will 
     find links to the relevant docs, scripts, and test data.  Happy testing!

     *Note - some of the docs/scripts for SS3 were missing, these will be
      provided asap.  Also, the link from targets to testing aren't always
      clear (maybe just missing).  We will try to sort this out.

   o NAUG testing continues.  There has been alot of testing by the 
     AIPS++ team using the test data, in addition to NAUG testing.

     *Testers will make brief testing reports

2. AIPS++/ISD Status Report

   o No news that I know of!

3. ALMA

   o December testing based on SS3 and later increments is underway, building
     to the critical SS4 (15Jan03) which will go out to ALMA testers.
     
     *See testing reports above.  Are there any critical bugs/missing 
      functionality that must get in for SS4?

   o Reminder - Debra has compiled a user test definition for Jan 2004
     testing:

     http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~dshepher/alma/offline.tests/

     Latest version is Jan04.TestPlan.21oct03.txt 
     Latest update was dated 26-Nov-2003

     *Update - the L02D and H121 data are not at the locations given in
      26-Nov-2003 version of the plan, but were moved to directories under:

     /home/sola/dss/alma.tsting.data.tmp/

4. EVLA

   o As Kumar reported on the NAUG list on 18-Dec-2003, he reran Ed's
     wide field imaging test scripts with parameters that better matched
     the AIPS and aips++ runs, and also optimized facet pixelization.

     From Kumar:

     "I reran Ed's scripts with some modifications so that the comparison is
      as best apple-to-apple comparison (to the the best I understand)

      For the aips script i changed the depth of cleaning so that it matches
      what aips++ was doing. In aips++ I've changed the number of pixel to
      8100, so that 8100/5 facets on a side is still a composite number (we
      should make this a warning or an internal padding to hide this from
      the users); the Clark clean FFT works faster then.

      Caveats: The aips and aips++ way of seaching components across facets 
               are way different.

      Results on ballista (4 cpu's, 2.8 GHz, 2 GB RAM):

               aips++ took ~22000 s
               AIPS took   ~55000 s

      in aips++ I used the in memory FTMachine
               imager.setoptions(ftmachine='wfmemoryft') 
      if I used the normal machine then aips++ take approximately 3000s more.

      The scripts and images are at 

               /home/ballista2/kgolap/BENCHMARK

      PS - this is NOT using the new algorithm described in EVLA Memo 67."

   o Speaking of which, EVLA Memo #67:

     "W PROJECTION: A NEW ALGORITHM FOR NON-COPLANAR BASELINES"

               by T.J. CORNWELL, K. GOLAP, AND S. BHATNAGAR

     Abstract: Wide-field imaging is key to many of the science goals of the
     EVLA in both Phase I and Phase II. Optimization of wide-field imaging
     algorithms is therefore vital. In this memo, we consider the existing
     algorithms for dealing with non-coplanar baselines and propose a new
     algorithm with markedly superior performance. At roughly equivalent
     levels of accuracy, this new algorithm, which we call "w-projection",
     is about an order of magnitude faster than the corresponding facet-based
     algorithms. The new algorithm is now available in AIPS++.

     View a pdf version of EVLA Memo #67 at:
     http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/evla/geninfo/memoseries/evlamemo67.pdf

 5. Main Event - Presentations and Discussion Items

   o There is no "Main Event" scheduled this meeting

6. AIPS++ Developments - see latest targets and info at Project Office:
     http://projectoffice.aips2.nrao.edu/

   o SS3 Targets -- see Project Office page for testing info.
     NEW: 

     *calibrater: interpolation

      From the "Documentation" link I can't figure out what this is.

      It says "Developer Testing" and also "Ready" for NAUG testing,
      my guess is that the former is still true.

     *calibrater: gain curve calibration

      Deployed, tested, and Passed.

     *Data selection unification

      See "Data Selection Design" documentation at the Wiki page
      http://almasw.hq.eso.org/almasw/bin/view/OFFLINE/DataSelection

     *viewer: statistical editing of data
      viewer: add parameters to cursor readout

      These are ready for testing

   o SS4 Development - Project Office page

     *focus is on robustness and some functionality improvements

7. Upcoming meetings and deadlines:
   o 2004 Jan 15         AIPS++ SS4
   o 2004 Jan 15         ALMA User Testing begins?
   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/