CORE-A063 (Continuous Observations of the Rotation of the Earth-A063) 1999 June 01 Notes prepared by Cynthia Thomas and Nancy Vandenberg,NVI/GSFC Schedule name: CA063.SKD on CDDISA Nominal Start: 18:00 U.T. on June 01 (day 152) first observation at 18:00 U.T. on 0119+115 for AP-GC-TS-WF first observation at 18:00 U.T. on 4C39.25 for HH-MA Nominal Stop: 18:00 U.T. on June 02 (day 153) last observation at 17:54 U.T. on 0552+398 for AP-GC-MA-WF last observation at 17:56 U.T. on 1622-253 for HH-TS 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) 275 72828201 Fairbanks A GC 1 (TT) 292 40476601 HartRAO J HH 1 (TT) 174 72326201 Matera I MA 3 (HDT) 219 72435701 Tsukuba T TS 1 (TT) 262 73452301 Westford E WF 1 (TT) 291 72097301 Purpose ======= The purpose of CORE-A is to validate the CORE concept of measuring EOP continuously using different networks. Comparisons of the EOP results from simultaneous sessions in 1997 and 1998 have shown fairly good agreement, but there are some puzzling systematic differences. It is hoped that additional data to be obtained during 1999 will contribute to understanding this data set. The network for CORE-A includes Fairbanks, HartRAO, Algonquin, Westford, Matera, Medicina, Tsukuba, and Hobart. Tsukuba will begin to participate in CORE-A after April 1. This set of 8 stations includes two geographically paired stations: Algonquin/Westford and Matera/Medicina. For purposes of comparison with NEOS, we want to keep this network as constant as possible but we need to limit the network size to 6 stations. Whenever Tsukuba is available during non-network periods, we will drop Matera. Whenever Hobart is available we will drop Westford. Schedule ======== This is a new schedule generated by C. Thomas with the automatic mode of sked. Following are the characteristics of the CORE-A schedule file: 1) This schedule was optimized for sky coverage. 2) Only the observations in the previous 3 hours of the schedule were considered for the minor options. The best 50% 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 thirty minutes. 5) The minimum SNR limits for the baselines were set to 20 for X-band and 15 for S-band, with the exception of the HartRAO baselines. The minimum SNR limits for the HartRAO baselines were set to 15 for X-bannd and 12 for S-band. 6) This schedule was made using 63 sources which helped improve the sky coverage. Simulation Results ================== Simulated data from this schedule was used in a global solution to estimate the formal errors. The table below lists the formal errors for Earth orientation parameters. These results meet the simulation goals for the CORE-A network. Also shown in the table are the maximum correlations between the Earth orientation parameters and other parameters. The results from the 1998 CORE-A network showed very high (~70%) correlations between certain parameters and this was one of the motivations for re-design of the network. ____________________________________________ | | | | | | EOP |Formal| Other | | |Parameters |Errors|Parameters|Correlation| |____________|______|_________ |___________| | | | | | |X-Wobble | 58.94| ------- | under 40% | | | | | | |Y-Wobble | 52.92| ------- | under 40% | | | | | | |UT1-TAI | 2.08| Tsukub32 | 42% | | | | | | |UT1-TAI Rate| 4.47| ------- | under 40% | | | | | | ____________________________________________ 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 following databases: Date Experiment ==== ========== 99FEB01 EUROPE-47 99FEB02 NEOS-A301 99FEB08 IRIS-S135 99FEB09 NEOS-A302 99FEB11 COHIG-5 99FEB16 NEOS-A303 99FEB23 NEOS-A304 99MAR02 NEOS-A305 99MAR09 NEOS-A306 99MAR15 IRIS-S136 99MAR16 NEOS-A307 99MAR23 NEOS-A308 99MAR30 NEOS-A309 99APR06 NEOS-A310 99APR13 NEOS-A311 99APR20 NEOS-A312 99APR27 NEOS-A313 99MAY04 NEOS-A314 Procedures ========== Please generate the procedures for this session using drudg. Correlation ========== This experiment will be correlated at the Washington Correlator with all baselines being correlated. SKED Summary from file ./ca063.skd for experiment CA063 (all scans with at least one subnet station) SOURCE |0 6 12 18 | #SCANS #OBS #Obs/bl 0003-066I x x x x x x x xx x x xx x I 14 24 4.2 0048-097I x xx x x x x x x x I 10 28 4.5 0059+581I x x x x x x x x x x x x xx x x I 16 144 12.1 0106+013I x x x x I 4 4 .6 0119+115I x x x x x x x xx x x xx x xI 15 39 5.0 0119+041I x x x x x x x xI 8 12 1.7 0229+131I x x x x I 4 8 1.0 0235+164I x I 1 6 .7 3C84 I x x x x x x x I 7 7 .7 CTA26 I x x x x x x I 6 8 1.3 0402-362I x x I 2 2 .7 0454-234I xx xx xx x x x x x xx I 13 15 3.4 0458-020I x xx x x x x x x I 9 20 3.1 0528+134Ix xx xx x x x xx x x I 12 28 3.4 0552+398Ixx x x x xxx x xx xx x x x xxx x x x x I 23 150 15.3 0556+238I x x xx xx xx x xx x x I 13 17 1.7 0718+793I xx x xx x x x x I 9 11 .9 0727-115I xx xx x x x xx x x x xx xx x xx x xx xI 23 44 8.9 0749+540I x x x x x x x x x x I 10 64 5.5 0804+499Ix xx x x I 5 31 2.9 0805+410I I 0 0 .0 0823+033I xxx x x x x x x xx x I 12 30 4.3 OJ287 Ix x x x x x x x I 8 29 3.5 0919-260I x x x xI 4 4 1.6 0920-397I I 0 0 .0 4C39.25 Ix x x x x x xx x x x xx x x xx x xx x xx I 23 127 13.1 OK290 I x x x x x x x x I 8 14 1.5 0955+476Ix x x I 3 23 2.3 1034-293I x xx x x x I 6 6 1.1 1044+719I x x x x x x x x x I 9 71 5.9 1053+815I I 0 0 .0 1124-186I x x x xx x x xxx x xx x x xI 16 25 5.6 1128+385I x I 1 6 .5 1144-379I x xx x x x x I 7 7 2.4 1219+044I x x xx xxx xx x x x x x x x I 16 28 4.0 3C273B I xx x xI 4 4 .6 1255-316I x I 1 1 .6 1300+580I x I 1 6 .5 1313-333I x I 1 1 .9 1334-127I x x xx I 4 4 2.1 1351-018I x x x x xI 5 7 1.1 1357+769I x x x x x I 5 50 4.2 1424-418I x x I 2 2 .7 1451-375I I 0 0 .0 1606+106I x x x x x x x x xx x x x x xI 15 30 3.9 1622-253Ix x x x x xx x xx x xx I 13 13 3.0 NRAO512 Ix x x x xx x x x x x x x x x xx x xI 19 124 12.9 3C345 I x x x I 3 3 .3 1726+455I x x I 2 2 .2 1739+522I x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x xI 16 136 12.3 1741-038I x xx x x x x x x xx x x x x xx x x xx xxxI 24 61 9.6 1749+096Ix x x x x x x x x x x x xI 13 38 5.3 1908-201I x x x I 3 3 .9 1921-293Ix x x x x x x x x I 9 9 2.3 1954-388Ixx x x x x I 6 6 2.0 1958-179I xx x x x xx x x xx xxI 13 22 4.9 2121+053I xxx x x x x x xx x x xxx x x xx xxI 21 62 8.8 2128-123I x x xx x I 5 5 2.4 2134+00 I x x I 2 2 .3 2145+067I xx I 2 2 .3 2234+282Ix x x x x x xx x x xxx I 13 23 2.2 3C454.3 I x xx xx x x x xx xx I 12 12 1.5 2255-282I x x xx x x x I 7 9 2.7 Total scans, obs: 538 1669 Average number of obs. per baseline per source (normalized by up-time) = 3.5 Min = .0 Max = 37.9 (Baseline Gc-Ts on 0727-115) RMS = 5.6 Total time: 1438 minutes ( 24.0 hours). Key: Ap=ALGOPARK Gc=GILCREEK Hh=HARTRAO Ma=MATERA Ts=TSUKUB32 Wf=WESTFORD Ap Gc Hh Ma Ts Wf Avg % obs. time: 23 37 27 47 34 49 36 % cal. time: 3 3 2 2 3 3 2 % slew time: 53 20 34 14 24 11 26 % idle time: 20 37 36 35 38 35 33 # of tapes : 1.5 .7 .5 2.8 .6 .8 total # scans: 275 292 174 219 262 291 252 # scans/hour : 11 12 7 9 10 12 10.5 Avg scan (sec): 72 112 134 186 112 146 126 # OF OBSERVATIONS BY BASELINE | Ap Gc Hh Ma Ts Wf StnTotal -------------------------------------- Ap|275 165 32 88 88 267 438 Gc| 292 20 95 211 169 777 Hh| 174 137 58 46 401 Ma| 219 92 104 616 Ts| 262 97 709 Wf| 291 397 Number of 2-station scans: 301 Number of 3-station scans: 93 Number of 4-station scans: 89 Number of 5-station scans: 54 Number of 6-station scans: 1 Total # of scans, observations: 538 1669 Average baseline components for all observations Average XY = 5267. Average XZ = 4503. Average YZ = 4557. Average length = 6087.