CORE-A046 (Continuous Observations of the Rotation of the Earth-A046) 1998 October 6 Notes prepared by Cynthia Thomas, NVI/GSFC Schedule name: CA046.SKD on CDDISA Nominal Start: 18:00 U.T. on October 6 (day 279) first observation at 18:00 U.T. on 1044+719 for AP-GC-MA-WF first observation at 18:00 U.T. on 0104-408 for HH-HO Duration: 24 hours Nominal Stop: 18:00 U.T. on October 7 (day 280) last observation at 17:44 U.T. on 0727-115 for HO last observation at 17:58 U.T. on 2145+067 for HH last observation at 18:02 U.T. on 0059+581 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) 325 72828201 Fairbanks A GC 1 (TT) 328 40476601 HartRAO J HH 3 (HDT) 217 72326201 Hobart H HO 2 (HDT) 168 72425901 Matera I MA 3 (HDT) 296 72435701 Westford E WF 1 (TT) 350 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. 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. Station Information =================== Matera's SEFD at S-band has been changed from 850 to 1300 for this experiment. 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 ./ca046.skd for experiment CA046 (all scans with at least one subnet station) SOURCE |0 6 12 18 | #SCANS #OBS #Obs/bl 0003-066I x x xx x I 5 9 1.5 0048-097Ix x x x xx x x xx x xx xx I 15 28 4.5 0059+581Ix x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x I 19 111 11.1 0104-408Ix x x xxx x xx x xI 11 15 4.8 0106+013I xxx x x x I 6 6 .9 0119+115I x x x x xx xx x x x I 11 25 3.2 0119+041I x x x x I 4 8 1.2 0208-512I x x x x x xI 6 6 2.4 0229+131I x x x x I 4 8 1.1 0235+164I x I 1 1 .1 CTA26 I x x x x x I 5 9 1.4 0402-362Ix x x xx x x x xx xx I 12 16 5.2 0454-234I x x xx x x x x xx x I 11 13 2.8 0458-020I x x x x x x x x x x xx I 12 20 3.2 0530-727I I 0 0 .0 0528+134I x xx x xx xx x x xx x x x x I 16 50 6.6 0537-441I x I 1 1 .3 0552+398I xx x x x x x xx x x x x x x x x x x xxI 21 88 10.2 0556+238I x x x x x x x I 7 18 1.9 0637-752I x x x x x x x x x x I 10 10 4.1 0718+793I x x x I 3 9 .9 0727-115I xxx xx x x x x xx xxx x xxI 17 28 6.2 0749+540Ix x x x xx x x x x x x x xx xxx x x x x I 22 117 11.8 0804+499Ix x x I 3 5 .5 0805+410I x x xx x xx x x x x x xx x x x xI 18 63 6.2 0823+033I x x x x x x x I 7 22 3.2 OJ287 I x x x x I 4 4 .5 0919-260I x x I 2 2 .8 0920-397I x I 1 1 .3 4C39.25 I x x x x xx x x xx x x x x x xx x x I 19 93 11.0 OK290 I x x x x xx x x x x I 10 18 2.0 0955+476Ix x x x x x x x x x x x xx x x x x I 18 75 8.7 1034-293I x x x x I 4 4 1.4 1044+719Ix x x x x x x x x x x x x xx x x x x I 19 108 10.8 1053+815I I 0 0 .0 1057-797I x x x x x x x I 7 7 2.9 1104-445I I 0 0 .0 1124-186I x x x x x I 5 5 1.2 1128+385I x x x x x x x I 7 16 1.4 1144-379I x xx x x x I 6 6 2.0 1219+044I I 0 0 .0 1255-316I x x I 2 2 1.3 1300+580I x I 1 3 .3 1308+326Ix x x xx x x x x x x x x x x x I 16 34 3.2 1313-333I x xx xx x x I 7 7 1.3 1334-127I I 0 0 .0 1351-018I x x x x I 4 8 1.3 1357+769I x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x xI 16 90 9.0 1424-418I xx xx xx xx x I 9 9 3.1 1451-375I x I 1 1 .3 1606+106Ixx xx xxx x x xx x x xx x xxx xxI 21 50 6.6 1610-771I x x x x x x x x I 8 8 3.3 1622-253I x x x xx xx x I 8 8 2.3 NRAO512 I x x x xx x x x x xx xx x xx x x xI 19 82 9.5 1726+455I x x x x x x I 6 25 3.0 1739+522I x x x x x x xx x xx x x xx x xI 17 85 9.0 1741-038Ix x xx xx x x xxx x xx x xx xx x x xxxxI 25 58 9.3 1749+096Ix x x xx x x x xx x x x x xxx I 17 53 7.5 1815-553I x I 1 1 .4 1908-201I xx x xx x x x x x xI 11 11 2.8 1921-293I xx x xx xx xx xx xxx xx xI 17 19 4.7 1954-388I x x x x xx x x x x x I 11 11 3.7 1958-179I x x x x x x x x I 8 8 1.8 2005-489I I 0 0 .0 2052-474I I 0 0 .0 2121+053I x x I 2 2 .3 2128-123I xx x xx x x xx x xI 11 13 2.2 2134+00 I x x x x I 4 4 .6 2145+067I x x x x x xx x x xxxx x x x x I 17 40 5.6 2234+282I x x x x I 4 10 1.1 2255-282I x x xx x x x I 7 7 2.3 Total scans, obs: 619 1674 Average number of obs. per baseline per source (normalized by up-time) = 3.4 Min = .0 Max = 37.9 (Baseline Gc-Ho on 0727-115) RMS = 5.8 Total time: 1444 minutes ( 24.1 hours). Key: Ap=ALGOPARK Gc=GILCREEK Hh=HARTRAO Ho=HOBART26 Ma=MATERA Wf=WESTFORD Ap Gc Hh Ho Ma Wf Avg % obs. time: 26 41 38 33 40 46 37 % cal. time: 3 3 2 1 3 4 3 % slew time: 54 18 43 24 17 13 28 % idle time: 15 36 15 40 38 36 30 # of tapes : 1.7 .7 2.3 2.0 2.4 .8 total # scans: 325 328 217 168 296 350 280 # scans/hour : 13 13 9 6 12 14 11.7 Avg scan (sec): 71 110 153 170 119 114 122 # OF OBSERVATIONS BY BASELINE | Ap Gc Hh Ho Ma Wf StnTotal -------------------------------------- Ap|325 239 19 7 149 312 562 Gc| 328 14 44 179 245 766 Hh| 217 119 111 29 302 Ho| 168 17 9 603 Ma| 296 181 768 Wf| 350 347 Number of 2-station scans: 329 Number of 3-station scans: 141 Number of 4-station scans: 142 Number of 5-station scans: 7 Number of 6-station scans: 0 Total # of scans, observations: 619 1674 Average baseline components for all observations Average XY = 4876. Average XZ = 4558. Average YZ = 3906. Average length = 5700.