CORE-A065 (Continuous Observations of the Rotation of the Earth-A065) 1999 June 29 Notes prepared by Cynthia Thomas and Nancy Vandenberg,NVI/GSFC Schedule name: CA065.SKD on CDDISA Nominal Start: 18:00 U.T. on June 29 (day 180) first observation at 18:00 U.T. on 1300+580 for AP-GC-MC-WF first observation at 18:00 U.T. on 1255-316 for HH-MA Nominal Stop: 18:00 U.T. on June 30 (day 181) last observation at 17:54 U.T. on 0454-234 for AP-WF last observation at 17:57 U.T. on NRAO512 for GC-HH-MA-MC 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) 278 72828201 Fairbanks A GC 1 (TT) 214 40476601 HartRAO J HH 1 (TT) 149 72326201 Matera I MA 3 (HDT) 318 72435701 Medicina B MC 2 (HDT) 321 72308801 Westford E WF 1 (TT) 299 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 | 71.43| UT1-TAI | 48% | | | | | | |Y-Wobble | 47.63| UT1-TAI | 48% | | | | | | |UT1-TAI | 2.52| Y-Wobble | 48% | | | | | | |UT1-TAI Rate| 5.78| ------- | 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 ./ca065.skd for experiment CA065 (all scans with at least one subnet station) SOURCE |0 6 12 18 | #SCANS #OBS #Obs/bl 0003-066Ix x x x x x x x x xx x I 12 43 7.0 0048-097I x x x x x x x x x I 9 38 6.2 0059+581I x x x x x x x xx x x x x x x xI 16 152 12.7 0106+013Ix x x xx x x I 7 7 1.0 0119+115I x x xx x x I 6 41 5.2 0119+041I x x xx x x I 6 21 3.0 0229+131I x x xx x x xx I 8 24 3.4 0235+164I x x x x x x I 6 45 5.8 3C84 I x x x x x x x x x x x x x x I 14 14 1.3 CTA26 I x x I 2 4 .6 0402-362I x x I 2 4 1.8 0454-234I x x x x xxxx x x x x I 12 34 8.1 0458-020I x x x x xx I 6 21 3.3 0528+134I x x x xx xx x x x xx I 12 67 8.8 0552+398I xx x xx xx x x x x x xx x x x x xI 19 144 15.0 0556+238I I 0 0 .0 0718+793I x x x I 3 5 .4 0727-115I x x x x x x xxx x x xx I 13 51 8.0 0749+540I x x x x x x x x x I 9 82 6.9 0804+499I x x x x x x x x x I 9 61 5.7 0805+410I x x I 2 9 .8 0823+033Ix x x x x x x x x xx xx I 13 39 5.6 OJ287 Ixx x x x x x x x x x xx xx xx I 17 84 10.6 0919-260I x x x x x x I 6 6 1.9 0920-397I x I 1 1 1.0 4C39.25 I x x x xx x x xx x x x xx x x x I 17 147 15.3 OK290 I x x x I 3 7 .8 0955+476I x x x I 3 19 1.8 1034-293I x x x x x I 5 13 3.3 1044+719I x x x x x x x x x I 9 82 6.8 1053+815I I 0 0 .0 1124-186I x x x xxx x x x I 9 38 8.6 1128+385I x x x x I 4 19 1.7 1144-379I x I 1 1 .3 1219+044Ixxx x x x x x x x x x I 12 39 5.5 3C273B I x x x x I 4 4 .6 1255-316I x x I 2 2 .8 1300+580I x I 1 6 .5 1313-333I I 0 0 .0 1334-127I xx xx x x I 6 13 2.4 1351-018Ix I 1 1 .2 1357+769I x x x x x x I 6 56 4.7 1424-418I x x I 2 2 .8 1451-375I x x I 2 2 1.7 1606+106I xx x x x x x x x x I 10 33 4.4 1622-253Ix xx x xx x x x xI 10 32 8.3 NRAO512 I x x xx x x x x x x xx xx x xx x xxI 20 173 18.2 3C345 I x x x I 3 3 .3 1726+455I I 0 0 .0 1739+522I x x x x x x x x xx x x xx x x x x xI 19 168 14.8 1741-038Ix xx xxx x x x x x xx x x xx xI 18 75 11.6 1749+096Ix xx xx x x x x xx I 11 78 10.8 1908-201I x xx x x xI 6 10 2.4 1921-293Ixx x x x x x I 7 15 3.9 1954-388I x x x I 3 9 4.7 1958-179I x x x x x x xx xx I 10 41 9.6 2121+053I x x x x x x x x x xx x x xx I 15 76 10.8 2128-123I x x x x x I 5 10 1.8 2134+00 I x x x x x xI 6 6 .9 2145+067Ix x I 2 9 1.3 2234+282I x x x x x x I 6 26 2.8 3C454.3 I x xx x x x x x x x x xI 12 12 1.5 2255-282I x x x I 3 3 1.3 Total scans, obs: 463 2227 Average number of obs. per baseline per source (normalized by up-time) = 4.8 Min = .0 Max = 29.5 (Baseline Hh-Ma on NRAO512 ) RMS = 6.2 Total time: 1440 minutes ( 24.0 hours). Key: Ap=ALGOPARK Gc=GILCREEK Hh=HARTRAO Ma=MATERA Mc=MEDICINA Wf=WESTFORD Ap Gc Hh Ma Mc Wf Avg % obs. time: 23 26 20 41 27 42 30 % cal. time: 3 2 1 3 3 3 3 % slew time: 56 13 28 17 36 13 27 % idle time: 16 57 49 37 31 40 38 # of tapes : 1.5 .5 .4 2.5 1.8 .7 total # scans: 278 214 149 318 321 299 263 # scans/hour : 11 8 6 13 13 12 11.0 Avg scan (sec): 72 106 120 112 75 123 101 # OF OBSERVATIONS BY BASELINE | Ap Gc Hh Ma Mc Wf StnTotal -------------------------------------- Ap|278 176 42 136 149 271 632 Gc| 214 21 129 142 186 780 Hh| 149 147 136 55 691 Ma| 318 306 161 749 Mc| 321 170 774 Wf| 299 828 Number of 2-station scans: 121 Number of 3-station scans: 166 Number of 4-station scans: 53 Number of 5-station scans: 111 Number of 6-station scans: 12 Total # of scans, observations: 463 2227 Average baseline components for all observations Average XY = 4199. Average XZ = 3866. Average YZ = 3985. Average length = 5138.