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Science Operations

Science Operations. CSIRO ASTRONOMY & SPACE SCIENCE. Phil Edwards | Head of Science Operations. 24 November 2014. Outline. 2015APR proposal statistics Support model ATCA issues and 16cm RFI Parkes LBA 2014 publications Citation Impact Large and small projects

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Science Operations

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  1. Science Operations CSIRO ASTRONOMY & SPACE SCIENCE Phil Edwards | Head of Science Operations 24 November 2014

  2. Outline • 2015APR proposal statistics • Support model • ATCA issues and 16cm RFI • Parkes • LBA • 2014 publications • Citation Impact • Large and small projects • Time Assignment Committee • Notes for 2015OCT Science Operations | Page 2

  3. 2015APR proposal statistics Altogether, ~620 unique proposers for 2015APR

  4. New support model • First-time observers will be required to come to the SOC, and will be provided with telescope orientation and training sessions • Parkes projects must designate a Project Expert from within the team who is the first point of contact for observing support for that team. • The requirement for Parkes observers to return to the SOC annually will be dispensed with: the PI must ensure the observers on their team are trained and competent observers. • All observers coming to the SOC will be provided with an ATCA Friend for the duration of their stay. The requirement to observe from the SOC annually in order to be “remote qualified” will be retained for most observers. • Regular, competent observers (typically, people observing on at least three separate occasions or for more than 10 days per semester) can extend the time between their return visits by 6 months. • http://www.atnf.csiro.au/observers/apply/ATNF-support.html Science Operations | Page 4

  5. Computing issues • UNIX password aging is now enabled. Passwords will start to expire after 15 Jan 2015. Reminder emails will be sent, starting from 14 days before expiration. Passwords only need to be changed once per year. If your password expires, your SSH key will stop working also. • Passwords for the VNC observing sessions are now changed each semester. The same password is used for ATCA (xbones and caccc1), Parkes and Mopra. To obtain new password: http://www.atnf.csiro.au/observers/passwords/ • A new (JIRA based) Fault Report and Tracking System has been introduced. Observers can submit reports by email, or after authenticating with their ident and NEXUS password. Science Operations | Page 5

  6. ATCA • Since October 2014, the default location for ATCA observing is the SOC. First-time observers must observe from the SOC, and those wishing to re-qualify for remote observing. • Robin Wark has moved from Narrabri to Sydney, and the DA role has been moved to the SOC. • The ATCA Portal (i) allows observers to book in advance for slots, (ii) sends reminders 2 & 1 weeks before the observation if no-one has booked, (iii) lets us know where users will observe from, (iv) has a chat window for staff, DA, and observers to communicate. • First on-line training video available (see Jamie’s talk). • SOC requires CSIRO/visitor card to access after hours: this is provided to all visitors who submit a booking reservation (see the SOC user guide – www.atnf.csiro.au/observers/SOC). Science Operations | Page 6

  7. ATCA sky cam http://www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/ATCACam/ Science Operations | Page 7

  8. 2012—14 APR semesters 2012—14 OCT semesters ATCA use of Observing bands

  9. ATCA observing by band (APR semesters) Science Operations | Page 10

  10. Array configurations 2012 – 2014 Science Operations | Page 11

  11. ATCA 16cm band • Mid-week RFI was first seen in June 2010. It did, for 1~2 years, wipe-out a number of 16cm observations. When it is strong enough to saturate the receivers, as it often was in the early days, no amount of flagging will recover useful data. • However, it is not always so strong that it saturates the receivers, and in those cases it can readily be flagged with pgflag. • The producers of mid-week RFI now usually provide some advance warning of likely episodes. • Some investigation of other options for reducing the impact of mid-week RFI, such as real-time flagging of data in CABB, has been made. • Generally, ~30% of 16cm band data needs to be flagged.

  12. ATCA RFI survey comparison Science Operations | Page 13

  13. ATCA RFI weathermap Science Operations | Page 14

  14. Perytons Petroff et al. 2015 MNRAS submitted (arXiv:1504.02165) Science Operations | Page 15

  15. Parkes • Issues with the reliability of DFB3 remain unresolved: at present DFB3 is able to be used with reduced functionality. DFB4 or CASPSR should be considered as alternatives to DFB3. • MBCORR functionality is increasingly being replaced by HIPSR. MBCORR will only be available when a compelling science case is made for its use. • MB20 will be removed from the focus cabin for an extended period early in the 2015OCT semester to allow the testing and characterising of a Phased Array Feed (PAF) receiver. The PAF will not be available for scientific observing in 2015OCT. • A number of receiver changes will be made during 2015OCT so that the 10cm/50cm receiver and H-OH receiver (1.2-1.8 GHz) will be available at times during semester. Science Operations | Page 16

  16. Parkes • Ettore Carretti stepped down as Parkes Senior System Scientist in December 2014. George Hobbs has been acting Parkes Lead Scientist while position readvertised. • The Senior System Scientist will be actively involved in PAF testing and Ultra-Wide-Band feed characterisation. • Details available from • https://jobregister.aas.org/job_view?JobID=51207 • Apply on-line at • http://csiro.nga.net.au/ • Application deadline 30 June 2015. Science Operations | Page 17

  17. LBA • Addition of Warkworth 30m: First light at 6.7 GHz in 2014 (Petrov et al. arXiv:1502.06802), and at 8.4 GHz in March 2015 • Increased AuScope availability at X band • 2015APR is last semester for National Facility use of Mopra • Reduced Parkes availability due to limited receiver changes • Plan to transfer correlation from Curtin to UTas in October

  18. LBA: publications in 2014 • “TANAMI monitoring of Cen A: The complex dynamics in the inner parsec of an extragalactic jet” Müller et al., 2014, A&A, 569, A115 • “Unusual flaring activity in the blazar PKS 1424-418 during 2008-2011” Buson et al., 2014, A&A, 569, A40 • “TANAMI blazars in the IceCube PeV neutrino fields” Krauss et al., 2014, A&A, 566, L7 • “The unusual multiwavelength properties of the gamma-ray source PMN J1603-4904” Müller et al., 2014, A&A, 562, A4 • “Multi-epoch VLBI Observations of the Nuclear Starburst Region of NGC 253: Improved Modeling of the Supernova and Star formation Rates” Rampadarath et al., 2014, AJ, 147, 5 • “Multiwavelength observations of the the binary system PSR B1259-63/LS2883 around the 2010—2011 periastron passage,” Chernyakova et al., 2014, MNRAS, 439, 432

  19. Publications 2014 In 2014, ATCA = 66, Parkes = 39, Mopra = 16, LBA = 6

  20. Impact Results for cm-band radio telescopes from Trimble & Ceja (2008), examining impact for papers published in 2001, 2002, and 2003, based on citations in the following three years.

  21. Impact based on papers 2008-2011 Results for ATCA and Parkes (based on ATNF publications lists) and VLA (based on ADS), examining impact for papers published in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, based on citations as given by ADS in the following years. (N.B. Not all papers in publication lists are reporting results from observations with the telescope.)

  22. The impact of large and small projects • The most highly cited VLA paper is NVSS: 2900 citations • ATCA LMC imaging, 12 papers: 1050 citations • The Parkes Multibeam Pulsar Survey’s 8 papers: 1120 citations • The PMN Survey’s 8 papers: 950 citations • The most highly cited ATCA paper is Kulkarni et al 1998: 430 citations • AT20G, 10 papers: 330 citations • The ATCA Cen A imaging’s 2 papers: 65 citations • (See ATNF News No. 75, Oct 2013 for ATCA’s most highly cited papers) Science Operations | Page 23

  23. The impact of large and small projects • Too early to draw any definitive conclusions, but … • … large projects can achieve good citation/hour rates • … large projects can take a long time to publish • … large projects have enough momentum to publish • … small projects can also achieve good rates • … ToO/NAPA projects can also do very well • … it’s likely a smaller fraction of small projects get published • … but small projects can be good training/experience Science Operations | Page 24

  24. Time Assignment Committee • Proposal deadline is 5pm AEDT Wednesday June 17th. • There is a count-down clock in OPAL for this deadline! • A document outlining TAC procedures is available from the TAC webpage: http://www.atnf.csiro.au/management/tac/ • We ask users to include their proposal codes in their publications. Science Operations | Page 25

  25. (Selected) ATCA papers published 2008-2011 TAC grade Number of citations (Mean = 20, median = 16)

  26. Notes for 2015OCT … and 2016APR • Information on telescope status for 2015OCT is available at http://www.atnf.csiro.au/observers/apply/avail.html • Parkes: Removal of MB20 from the focus cabin for an extended period is planned for the 2015OCT semester to allow PAF testing. Some 20cm capability will be made available in its place. Observing with the PAF will not be possible in 2015OCT. DFB3 is becoming increasingly problematic. • Mopra: 2015APR was the last semester in which Mopra was offered as a National Facility telescope. • ATCA: We will be advising observers for 2016APR that the ATCA 3mm receivers are aging and that we have no spare LNAs. Observing in the 3mm band will be offered on a best-efforts basis, but the loss of one polarisation one antenna is possible.  Science Operations | Page 27

  27. Thank you • CASS/ATNF Philip EdwardsHead of Science Operations t +61 2 9372 4717 e philip.edwards@csiro.au w www.atnf.csiro.au • CSIRO ASTRONOMY AND SPACE SCIENCE

  28. LBA observing time (in hrs) by year & band

  29. NVSS (Condon et al.) citation history

  30. Large projects • Moving to an increased number (or exclusively) large projects on the ATCA offers the advantages of • Self-supporting teams requiring minimal training and support • Greater flexibility in accommodating lost time • Consideration needs to be given to • Scheduling inefficiencies of non-”all sky” projects • Maintaining opportunities for ToO and NAPA observations • Whether large projects outperform small projects on the basis of citations per hour of observing Presentation title | Presenter name | Page 31

  31. Large projects • Parkes has a smaller number of projects than ATCA. • They are on average larger. • The majority are on-going. • There is a sizeable, relatively stable, user community. • This has led to the current support model where each team designates one or more project experts as the first point of contact for after hours observing support. Presentation title | Presenter name | Page 32

  32. Queue mode observing • The ATNF user=observer model is described in an SPIE paper • Queue mode is well suited for “standard” projects • Reducing/dispensing with requirements to travel to SOC may increase user community • What fraction of projects benefit from being interactive? • Do users want the option of monitoring their observations? • It is tempting to think queue mode leads easily to dynamic scheduling… • Should we move away from the binary decision scheduled/non-scheduled? Presentation title | Presenter name | Page 33

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