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7th January 2005 Hoyle committee meeting room 10.30 - 12:50
Present: PSB, JRL, MR, RGM, MJI, DWE, STH (at dentist until ~10:55)
Apologies: WJS, EGS, RWA
Agenda
------
1. Actions from last meeting
2. Comments on WFAU minutes
3. Report on recent VDMT meetings
4. WFCAM commissioning update
5. Status of ESO documents for FDR
6. Status of Data Centre Archives
7. INT WFS products release
8. RAID arrays update
9. APM building news
10. AOB
Minutes
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Marco Riello(MR), who started on Tuesday, was welcomed to the group.
1. Actions from last meeting
MJI has made no further progress in comparing the FIRES project reduced data
with ours. He said that it was sensible to carry on with this since it
was the best data available - ongoing <<<<
STH JAC have taken over the task of generating the MSBs for the time being.
However, STH will still monitor the MSB status.
JRL has not had time to work on the ZPN WCS problem in IRAF due to the
commissioning. There was some discussion about giving this task a higher
priority since it is still a major bugbear. JRL agreed that after the
urgent WFCAM analysis is done he would work on this - ongoing <<<<
STH Sandy Leggett has acquired NIR spectrophotometry to help with the
photometric calibration. This will be a work package in the future.
WJS got hold of a copy of the latest SDT document
WJS the outcome of the issue of combining the two guide star data stream
is unknown - ongoing <<<<
STH has generated modified versions of JRL's diagrams
EGS has released the revamped INT WFC web pages. RGM said that there were
a few things missing. He will contact EGS regarding this. <<<<
MJI had also raised the issue of advertising the INT WFC products
database prominently on there to help satisfy requests for distributing
processed WFS data. <<<<
MJI raised the issue of ESO workstations and software with JMS. PSB has
now acquired the necessary information to obtain the software needed
to set up an ESO workstation. PSB said that he would start by trying
to install this on an existing Linux PC. This will become part of
workpackage to help JRL with the CPL+QFITS interface.
MJI found out from a VDMT meeting that the UK VISTA URD has been signed off
and released.
JRL has obtained dome flats by flying out to Hawaii and helping do them
himself and bringing them back on tape
WJS provided STH,MJI with the latest overhead figures (eg. time to change
filter etc.) for inclusion in the ETC
STH raised the issue at a VDMT meeting about the level of detail, for
example, the pseudo maths code (calculation forms) and other issues,
that needed to go into the ETC document. After much iteration with
JPE and MJI a version 0.9 ETC document was submitted on the 23rd
December. Instead of calculation forms a live ETC cgi script written
in Perl, fronted by a web form interface, was produced over the
Christmas period. It was felt easier to debug the code and also
investigate user interface issues with an active ETC in place. This
will lead to further changes in the ETC document.
PSB has redone the templates section of the Calibration Plan document
STH has reviewed the cascade diagrams
PSB did a short-term review of all the documents
MJI has proof-read Section 2 of the DRLD
PSB added the photometric calibration equations (~1 page) from the
Calibration Plan document to the DRLD
STH has added the diagrams needed for Section 3 (Functional Description)
JRL has written Section 5 (DRL Data Structures)
PSB has written a skeleton for Section 7 (Data Reduction CPL Plugins)
MJI formulated the maths for the various quality control parameters for
inclusion into Section 2.
JRL has written Section 11 (Data-Processing Table)
MJI raised the issue of Gavin Dalton's inclusion in the FDR process at
the VDMT meeting
ALL provided reports to STH
RGM supplied comments for the grant bid. MJI said that he would make sure
NAW that bound copies of the grant bid get produced and distributed <<<<
2. Comments on WFAU minutes
It was noted that the hardware problems at WFAU had been resolved.
MJI reported that he and STH had been shown the slick black hardware during
the last VDMT meeting.
PSB noted the report from the 17th December meeting stating that
the ATC-Cambridge networking setup was resolved.
It was also noted that the VDFS web pages action had been discharged. While
on the subject, MJI suggested that DWE show MR around our web site. <<<<
3. Report on recent VDMT meetings
There have been 2 VDMT meetings since the last CASU meeting. The previous
one was a telecon and superceded by the quarterly face-to-face meeting
on 6th January in Edinburgh.
MJI reported on this latter while STH was making his way back from the
dentist:
the ESO FDR will be held on 31st January at Garching. The confirmed
attendees will be MJI, PSB, JPE, JMS and Alistair McPherson.
It was also suggested that it would be very useful if WJS, Steven Beard
and Martin Folger could also attend in person. STH and JRL will attend
via telecon;
the ETC document was discussed with apparent agreement being reached on
the remaining changes required for version 1.0. An updated version would
be distributed today and MJI would update the live ETC appropriately over
the weekend. This would then be submitted on Monday for FDR along with the
ETC perl cgi script; <<<<
although the DID was not officially part of the FDR it was regarded as a
useful subset and that submitting it as part of the FDR (as agreed at the
PDR) would stimulate some feedback. MJI asked PSB to send the existing
data dictionary files to JMS for submission to ESO on Monday; <<<<
MJI noted that PMW reported at the meeting that he had heard from PPARC
that the CASU and WFAU rolling grant reviews may be held around the end
of February. This was news to MJI;
the VDMT also discussed when the UK VDFS should be held and the level of
documentation required for it. JMS suggested that any extra documentation
for the additional UK VDFS requirements should be at the functional
specification level, ie. without too much technical detail. The submission
of the documentation was set for 15th April, to be preceded by a VDUC
meeting late February to sign off the URD document requirements. The review
would then follow in May in a similar manner to that of the recent ESO
VDFS reviews;
MJI noted that there was some confusion regarding what the CASU supplied
summit pipeline actually does. This has now been sorted out. However, it
emphasises the fact that we should not presume too much prior knowledge
when making presentations to, for example, VDUC in February;
the PPARC WFCAM press release was noted. JPE suggested that we do a
similar colour picture before the VDUC meeting. STH was very keen and
volunteered to do this. This triggered some discussion about the web <<<<
presence of CASU for WFCAM data processing. MJI felt that this would
resolve itself when we present the result of the WFCAM commissioning data
analysis on our web pages;
WFAU asked for a sample (of good) WFCAM data for assessment. MJI said
that we will select some suitable data for this when all the data has
been read on, translated and MEF'd;
STH noted that the quarterly task list has not been finalised. MJI and
STH will draw up a list and circulate it for comment. <<<<
4. WFCAM commissioning update
JRL reported on his two week trip to Hawaii in November to help with the
WFCAM commissioning. Although there was the usual bad weather following
JRL around, there were several good nights and lots of relevant data was
obtained. Even during periods of bad weather, many calibration data files
could be generated.
At the moment there are many interesting features in the data that require
characterising. This analysis needs to be mainly finished by the end
of February before WFCAM goes back on the telescope.
JRL suggested that investigations mainly focus on data from the 8th November
onwards after which the system was reasonably stable (the ATC commissioning
team having departed by then).
The data is on 16 LTO tapes containing a total of about 2 Tbytes of data.
This is first read onto RAID disks, then converted to single extension
FITS using the same ORAC-DR recipe as at the summit (note that this step
will not be needed for normal WFCAM operations), finally the individual FITS
files are glued together into MEFs. These can be found at
/data/apm6_b/wfcam/MEFs/ sorted into directories for each night. This process
should be complete toward the end of next week.
There followed some further discussion regarding various web pages:
STH should contact Paul Hirst (and a suitable person at Edinburgh) to
change the CASU link to go to our VDFS web page rather than our group home
page. <<<<
DWE should add a WFCAM logo and link to the bottom of our VDFS web pages. <<<<
MJI needs to update the CASU group web pages entry point <<<<
5. Status of ESO documents for FDR
All bar one of the required documents have been submitted.
The Data Reduction Library Design (DRLD) document version 1.0 was completed
and had the most effort spent on it over the last 3 months. This document
was submitted for FDR on the 17th December.
The other FDR documents (URD, DRS and CAL) have been updated with all the
required responses to PDR RIXs and updated as far as possible to incorporate
the changes in template design and other design changes necessitated by the
switch from deliverable specification 1618 issue 1.0 to 1618 issue 2.0.
The other work package that has taken rather more effort than planned this
quarter is the ETC document. Although an interim ETC document version 0.9
was submitted on December 23rd, Version 1.0 of this, required for FDR, is
still awaiting final discussion and iteration. Many of the problems with the
design of the ETC are related to the overlap of the ETC requirements with
the design and requirements of the Survey Definition Tool. In addition a
live working ETC based on a perl cgi script was developed, accessible via a
web form interface (http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/vdfs/etc.html).
STH,MJI think closure on the design of the ETC and the content of the
document was reached at the VDMT meeting held on the 6th January.
6. Status of Data Centre Archives
RWA was unable to attend the meeting and submitted the following report:
ING archive:
We now have all the DVDs from La Palma up to and including early September
2004. There are 1950 for the INT, 450 for the WHT and the 76 from the JKT.
The latter stopped coming in 2003. All have been checked.
The dumping of the INT CDs awaits the allocation of a suitably large disk
space. With 7300 CDs each of 650 Mbyte, a fill factor of 0.9 and a Rice
compression factor of say 2.5 this will need ~2 Tbyte of space. The overhead
in reading this on (and the cost of extra disk space) will be more than
compensated by the much quicker response to requests - jobs that used to
take hours to fill will take a few minutes and can be largely automated.
AAT archive:
Another 112 DVDs have arrived, bringing the AAT archive up to September
2003. All 264 DVDs have been loaded in the DVD tower. There is room in
the tower for perhaps another 30 to 40 disks only but that is not a problem
give the upcoming retirement of the DVD tower.
UKIRT archive:
This is up to date with all the shipped DLTs online on DVDs in the DVD tower.
7. INT WFS products release
MJI said that he had received an email from Danny Lennon regarding public
availability of the processed WFS data, including catalog products. To make
these really useful the main task is to cross-calibrate the large areas
components. The individual data frames are already available. EGS is
investigating this calibration problem and will attempt to resolve the
problem in time for the Spring issue of the INT newsletter where the
access will be publicised. <<<<
EGS was unable to attend the meeting and submitted the following report:
A quick update on progress. I have almost finished the calibration of all
the WFS frames in the ELAIS regions taking as reference the calibrated
released ones. I need ~1 week to check the results, see why some files do
not have header keywords (e.g. airmass) and write a small report so you
can have a look before applying the corrected zero points and zero errors.
8. RAID arrays update
MJI reported on the various RAID arrays that we have available. Recently we
have obtained 17 x 300 Gbyte IDE discs which have been distributed to the
RAID arrays (with one to add to the spares). This means that there are a
number of 80 and 160 Gbyte IDE discs requiring a good home.
Official CASU data is spread over various machines and the intention is to
rationalise other processed data onto RAID arrays on apm2 and apm3.
The details are in the private minutes. STH was volunteered to make an
internal web page to keep track of this. <<<<
9. APM building news
The last two building liaison meetings were attended by PSB. He said that
the timescale for the roof construction had slipped a little, but by working
over the Christmas period the main roof assembly has now been completed.
He pointed out that the main network cables for the IoA will be placed into
proper cable runs rather than in a tangle under the floor of the APM
building.
The currently projected completion date is now mid-February. STH officially
conceded the bet, blaming his youth for his optimistic folly. PSB suggested
that the payment (lunch) be bought after completion.
10. AOB
MJI reminded everyone to fill in their .away forms to note their expected
absences. This is a very useful tool for planning meetings. <<<<
MJI said that he gave a presentation of group activities at the November
staff meeting and had some interesting feedback.
MJI asked about the data on cass38's old discs. JRL said that he hadn't done
anything with them yet. He said that RWA uses them as a staging area for
FTP access so would like to keep them as is.
PSB noted that cass36 and cass38 are getting a bit long in the tooth and will
need replacing soon. It was also noted that the DVD tower (on cass36) would
be decommissioned over the next year or so or when it goes wrong (whichever
comes first) since it is now not on a maintenance contract.
PSB also said that Acrobat 7.0 was out and that we get a licence discount on
10 or more. Since the secretaries are getting a batch, we should
join in for one or two. PSB will organize this. <<<<
RGM said that he had access to a free PDF writer. He said that he would
email any interested parties. <<<<
Continuing Actions
------------------
MJI continue with comparing FIRES project reduced data by further testing
of a CASU seeing-weighted stacking procedure
JRL finish resolving ZPN WCS problem in IRAF
WJS report on two guides better than one issue
New Actions
-----------
RGM contact EGS regarding missing items in the revamped INT WFC web pages
MJI organise production and distribution of bound copies of the grant bid
EGS make sure INT WFC products database access is advertised on wfcsur
web pages
DWE show MR around our web site
STH update and submit ETC document
MJI update ETC web form interface and perl cgi script
PSB send the data dictionary files to JMS so that he can submit them to
ESO by Monday
STH generate a pretty picture from the WFCAM data so that we can use it
for advertising (by the end of February or sooner)
MJI draw up a quarterly job list and circulate it for comments
STH
STH contact Paul Hirst (and a suitable person at Edinburgh) so that the
CASU link goes to our VDFS web page rather than our group home page
DWE add a WFCAM logo and link to the bottom of our VDFS web pages
MJI update the CASU group web pages entry point
STH make an internal web page describing our disk resources
ALL fill in .away forms to note expected absences
PSB sort out Acrobat 7.0 purchase
RGM email interested parties about free PDF writer
