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31st July 2003 

Present:   MJI, STH, JRL, PSB, JMI, DWE

Agenda
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1. Actions from last meeting
2. Comments on WFAU minutes
3. Monthly progress report on WPs
4. AOB

Minutes
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1. Actions from last meeting

STH  has still not received a reply from Sandy Legget re: photometric 
     monitoring data.  He will try again.                                  <<<<

JMI  have placed a preliminary report on difference imaging test results 
DWE  on the web - more in item 3
MJI

PSB  have made some progress in getting replacement desktops for JRL and STH
JRL  and a 2 Tbyte RAID array for the archive though there are still
MJI  vendor-based delays.  Issues regarding the office revamp etc. are 
     now out of our control and should be removed from the action list
     but still actively monitored.

PSB  have sorted out the reboot problem with the sybase server (cass38) and
JRL  sybase has been upgraded with minimal problems.

STH  has circulated updated management spreadsheets (internal/management)
     and incorporated received comments

MJI  has sorted out the location of the July WFAU minutes

STH  re-introduced the VISTA relevance factor into the management spreadsheets

MJI  has updated the overview WP spreadsheets for 2003,2004, but this has
STH  not propagated into the online documents yet                          <<<<

MJI  has asked NCH about the Ultrium I -v- II test. ATC have the Ultrium I
     equipment but not the Ultrium II yet.  From the WFAU minutes these 
     tests are on their todo list.

ALL  sent feedback corrections/comments on Q3 deliverables 

JMI  sent feedback to JRL of his attempt at running the INT WFC pipeline in
     order to help with documentation etc.

JRL  has not had a chance to package up a night of processed CIRSI dressed 
     in WFCAM clothing (ongoing)                                           <<<<

JMI  has placed preliminary simulations report on internal web page

MJI  pointed out that the list of simulation tests currently being done 
     is included in the above report
     
MJI  contacted and obtained from Mark Casali his WFCAM simulation parameters

JRL  has passed a first iteration of pipelines milestones on to MJI. This will
     be discussed with AA                                                  <<<<

MJI  has registered for ADASS together with PSB and JRL.  Oral and/or poster
     presentations were discussed and will be finalied before the abstract
     deadline.                                                             <<<<

PSB  obtained template ESO instrument calibration documents


2. Comments on WFAU minutes

Various points regarding the data transfer rates were commented upon.

The general feeling was that since the readily achieved 4 MB/s will 
transfer 100 GB of data in 7 hours, why spend a seemingly large amount 
more effort in trying to squeeze the pips further.


3. Monthly progress report on WPs

The monthly VDFS meeting will be held next Wednesday afternoon.  To save 
time everyone was requested to send in short reports (and percentage 
progress) on WPs to STH as soon as possible and raise any problems here
and now.                                                                   <<<<

JRL mentioned that he was having problems communicating with people on
Hawaii (they weren't responding to his emails).  MJI said that he would 
raise this issue at the MCM since this wasn't the only occurrence.         <<<<

DWE asked if anyone had heard anything regarding the appointment of a 
UKIDSS Survey Manager on Hawaii.   MJI will email AA about this.           <<<<

MJI has placed JPE's 1st August report to the VISTA Project Board in
the internal web pages. 

A lot of progress has been made with the simulations.  There are still
problems with reproducing realistic galaxy images using Skymaker. 
Although Artdata (IRAF) produces more realistic galaxy images (and is 
20x quicker) there are further unresolved issues regarding the generated
image parameters.  JRL suggested that we should contact Frank Valdes about
Artdata problems.                                                          <<<<

However, since a lot of the simulation trials could progress on PSF-like
images this aspect has been followed through, with the galaxy issue put
on hold, and a version 1. report written and place on the web pages for
comment.

It was also asked whether we need any more complexity than Artdata
provides (de Vaucouleurs and exponential profiles).   MJI pointed out
that for now this would be fine for the next stages since both are special
cases of Sersic profiles and can be used to test (version 2.) software
development.

DWE suggested talking to Carine Babusiaux since she has also investigated
Skymaker and IRAF for her GAIA simulation work.                            <<<<

JMI showed the current state of the image subtraction report and this was
discussed.  The difficultly of defining quantitative tests to catagorize 
the 3 software packages was noted.   MJI noted that measures based on the 
residual flux histograms should provide a first pass statistic and should
be investigated.  Various improvements for the presentation of the
intercomparison plots were raised and will also be incorporated in an 
updated report.                                                            <<<<

STH suggested spatial measures based on summed (unsaturated) residual 
images might be useful, but as this will involve correlating with the
direct images this should be deferred until the simpler metrics have
been investigated and compared with visual assessments.

DWE said that he had installed SWarp and was going to base the 
interpolation tests on this package since it incorporated all the well
known methods.


4. AOB

The Old Schools finance division in the University has had the 
wherewithall to issue new contracts for at least two weeks but must 
have all gone off to their Tuscany Villas for the duration.


Continuing Actions
------------------

STH  keep on pursuing Sandy Legget re: photometric monitoring data

STH  propagate the updates of the overview WP spreadsheets for 2003,2004
MJI  into the online documents 

JRL  package up a night of processed CIRSI dressed in WFCAM clothing

MJI  to discuss first iteration of pipelines milestones with AA
JRL

MJI  finalise and submit abstracts for ADASS presentations 
JRL
PSB

New Actions
-----------

ALL  send in short reports (and percentages) of WPs progress to STH 
     by Monday morning.

MJI  to raise issue of communication with JAC individuals at MCM.

MJI  to ask AA about progress UKIDSS Survey Manager appointment on Hawaii 

JMI  contact Frank Valdes regarding model image parameter problems
STH  with IRAF artdata
DWE

DWE  talk to Carine Babusiaux about simulations using Skymaker and IRAF 

JMI  make quantitative intercomparison of image subtraction based on simple 
DWE  histogram measures, improve intercomparison figures and update report.