(This schedule was re-made with higher SEFDs for Hobart) CORE-A034 (Continuous Observations of the Rotation of the Earth-A034) 1998 April 21 Notes prepared by Cynthia Thomas, NVI/GSFC Schedule name: CA034.SKD on CDDIS Nominal Start: 18:00 U.T. on April 21 (day 111) first observation at 18:00 U.T. on 4C39.25 for AP-GC-MA-WF first observation at 18:00 U.T. on 1451-375 for HH-HO Duration: 24 hours Nominal Stop: 18:00 U.T. on April 22 (day 112) last observation at 17:56 U.T. on 1749+096 for HO last observation at 17:57 U.T. on 4C39.25 for HH last observation at 18:00 U.T. on 0749+540 for AP-GC-MA-WF Correlator: Washington **Frequency Sequence**: CDP-WBCA - Modified CDP wide-band SX sequence. (720 MHz wide at X, 125 MHz wide at S), Shifted to avoid RFI at Matera 1 letter 2 letter Station Code Code # of tapes # of obs Occupation Code Algonquin G AP 2 (HDT) 327 72828201 Fairbanks A GC 1 (TT) 320 40476601 HartRAO J HH 3 (HDT) 205 72326201 Hobart H HO 2 (HDT) 141 72425901 Matera I MA 3 (HDT) 326 72435701 Westford E WF 1 (TT) 363 72097301 Purpose ======= The CORE-A sessions measure EOP simultaneously with NEOS, using an independent network of comparable or better precision. The purpose of the parallel sessions is to assess the true accuracy of VLBI results for EOP by comparing the measurements from the two networks. Note on Core-A 1998 results to date: As of early January 1998, 18 CORE-A sessions from 1997 have been completed and analyzed. The comparisons of the EOP results from these sessions with NEOS are quite encouraging. The levels of agreement for daily measurements are 125 micro-arcsec for X-pole, 105 micro-arcsec for Y-pole, and 7.4 microsec for UT1 and 20 microsec for LOD. The corresponding Chi-squares per degree of freedom are 1.2, 1.3, 2.2, and 2.4, respectively. The goals for EOP in the Mark IV era are 25 micro-arcsec for the pole components and 1 microsec for UT1. (No goal for LOD has been set.) We have a lot of work remaining, but these goals are not out of reach. Schedule ======== This is a new schedule generated by C. Thomas with the automatic mode of sked. The following are the characteristics of the schedule: 1) This schedule was optimized for sky coverage. 2) Only the observations in the previous hour of the schedule were considered for the minor options. The best 70% of the configurations were considered for minor options. 3) The "minor options" were set to select observations to maximize the total number of observations, to minimize the idle time between scans, and to minimize time between scans on the same source by twenty minutes. 5) The minimum SNR limits for most baselines were set to 20 for X-band and 15 for S-band. 6) This schedule was made using 59 sources which helped improve the sky coverage. Station Information =================== Hobart has been having problems with their receiver for the past serveral CORE-A experiments. They recently fixed the problem that they had with their vacuum pump. They are currently hunting down a small leak in one of their helium lines. This schedule was remade with higher SEFDs for Hobart in case they cannot cool their receiver down in time for this experiment. The SEFDs were modified to the following: Was Now === === X-band 710 1500 S-band 915 1000 Flux Information ================ Several years ago John Gipson wrote a program called snranal which compares the measured performance of an experiment with respect to the predicted. One of the things this program calculates is an empirical flux density for each source. Recently J. Gipson compared the fluxes generated by this program with those from more careful modeling. The agreement is generally good (~15%) for those sources which have been observed more than 20 times. In order to account for changes in the flux catalog since the last update, J. Gipson adjusted the fluxes in the flux catalog for the sources in the current source catalog using the 98Mar03 NEOS-A253 and the 98JAN27XA CORE-A028 experiments. Procedures ========== Please use the modified CDP Wide-band SX sequence, CDP-WBCA, for this experiment. Correlation ========== This experiment will be correlated at the Washington Correlator with all baselines being correlated. SKED Summary from file ./ca034.skd for experiment CA034 (all scans with at least one subnet station) SOURCE |0 6 12 18 | #SCANS #OBS #Obs/bl 0003-066I x x x xx xx xx I 9 21 3.7 0048-097I x x x xx xx xx x x x x xx I 15 27 4.4 0059+581I x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x I 20 108 10.8 0104-408I xx xxx x xx x x I 10 12 4.0 0106+013I x x x xx x xx I 8 8 1.2 0119+115I I 0 0 .0 0119+041I I 0 0 .0 0208-512I x x x x x I 5 5 2.0 0229+131I I 0 0 .0 0235+164I I 0 0 .0 CTA26 I x x x x x I 5 9 1.4 0402-362I x x xxx x x x x I 9 9 3.1 0454-234I x xxx xxxx x x x x x xx I 15 25 5.1 0458-020I x x x x x x I 6 8 1.3 0530-727I I 0 0 .0 0528+134I x x x x x xx x x x x x xx xx x I 17 49 6.5 0537-441I I 0 0 .0 0552+398I x x x x xx xx xx x xx x xx xx x x x I 21 101 11.6 0556+238I x x x x x I 5 16 1.7 0637-752I x x x x x x x x x x x I 11 11 4.5 0718+793I x x I 2 6 .6 0727-115I x x xx x xx xx xxx x x x x xx x xI 20 34 6.8 0749+540I x x x x xx x x x x x x x x xxx x x x xI 21 120 12.1 0804+499I x I 1 1 .1 0805+410Ix x x x xx x x x x xx xx x x x x I 18 55 5.3 0823+033I x x x xx x x x x xI 10 27 3.9 OJ287 I x x x x I 4 6 .7 0919-260I x x x I 3 3 1.2 0920-397I x I 1 1 .3 4C39.25 Ix xx x xx xx x xx x x xxxxx xx x x I 22 111 11.6 OK290 I x x x xxI 5 15 1.6 0955+476Ix x x x x x x x xx x x x x x x x I 17 73 8.5 1034-293I x x x x xx x x I 8 8 2.2 1044+719I x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x xxI 18 99 9.9 1053+815I I 0 0 .0 1057-797I x x x I 3 3 1.2 1104-445I I 0 0 .0 1124-186I x x xx x x x x I 8 8 1.6 1128+385Ix x x x x xx x I 8 25 2.2 1144-379I x x x x x x x I 7 7 2.4 1219+044I x x xx I 4 12 1.7 1255-316I x I 1 1 .6 1300+580I I 0 0 .0 1308+326Ix x x x x x x xx I 9 19 1.9 1313-333I x xI 2 2 .4 1334-127Ix x x x xx xx x xxxx xx xI 16 20 3.3 1351-018I xx xx x I 5 13 2.1 1357+769Ix x x x x x x x x x x x x x x I 15 78 7.8 1424-418I x x x x xI 5 5 1.7 1451-375I x x x x I 4 4 1.4 1606+106I x x x xx x xx xxxx x x x x I 16 30 3.9 1610-771Ix x x x x x x I 7 7 2.9 1622-253I x x x x x I 5 5 1.8 NRAO512 I xx x x xx x x x x xx x x x x x x x x x xI 22 95 11.0 1726+455I x x x x x I 5 24 2.9 1739+522I x x x x x x x x xx x x x x x x xx x xI 20 106 11.3 1741-038I xx x x xx x x xxx x xx xx xx x xx xxI 23 52 8.3 1749+096I x x x x xxx x x xx x xx xx xx xx x xx x I 24 71 9.8 1815-553I x I 1 1 .4 1908-201I x x x xx x x x x I 9 9 2.4 1921-293Ix x x x x x x xx x x x xxx I 15 15 4.1 1954-388Ix xx x x x x I 7 7 2.4 1958-179I x xx x x x x x I 8 8 2.0 2005-489I I 0 0 .0 2052-474I I 0 0 .0 2121+053I x I 1 3 .4 2128-123Ixx x xxx x xx xx x I 12 16 2.8 2134+00 I x x x x xxx I 7 7 1.1 2145+067I x x xx xx x xx xx xx x x xx x xx x xI 22 56 7.8 2234+282I x x xx x x I 6 16 1.6 2255-282I x xx x x x xx x I 9 11 3.3 Total scans, obs: 612 1704 Average number of obs. per baseline per source (normalized by up-time) = 3.5 Min = .0 Max = 28.6 (Baseline Gc-Ho on 0727-115) RMS = 6.1 Total time: 1442 minutes ( 24.0 hours). Key: Ap=ALGOPARK Gc=GILCREEK Hh=HARTRAO Ho=HOBART26 Ma=MATERA Wf=WESTFORD Ap Gc Hh Ho Ma Wf Avg % obs. time: 26 39 35 28 40 43 35 % cal. time: 3 3 2 1 3 4 3 % slew time: 54 19 41 20 19 13 28 % idle time: 14 37 20 49 35 38 32 # of tapes : 1.8 .7 2.1 1.8 2.5 .8 total # scans: 327 320 205 141 326 363 280 # scans/hour : 13 13 8 5 13 15 11.7 Avg scan (sec): 70 106 148 174 108 104 118 # OF OBSERVATIONS BY BASELINE | Ap Gc Hh Ho Ma Wf StnTotal -------------------------------------- Ap|327 225 26 5 164 324 585 Gc| 320 18 46 187 241 773 Hh| 205 91 124 32 303 Ho| 141 13 7 604 Ma| 326 201 766 Wf| 363 377 Number of 2-station scans: 319 Number of 3-station scans: 139 Number of 4-station scans: 143 Number of 5-station scans: 11 Number of 6-station scans: 0 Total # of scans, observations: 612 1704 Average baseline components for all observations Average XY = 4815. Average XZ = 4485. Average YZ = 4017. Average length = 5681.