rdv60 (Astrometric/Geodetic VLBA-60) 2007 March 27 17:30 Day 086 Notes prepared by Leonid Petrov, NVI/GSFC Schedule name: rdv62.skd Pointing files: rdv60crd.br, rdv60crd.fd, rdv60crd.hn, rdv60crd.kp, rdv60crd.la, rdv60crd.mk, rdv60crd.nl, rdv60crd.ov, rdv60crd.pt, rdv60crd.sc ftp://vlbiobs@aspen.nrao.edu/home/aspen6/astronomy/mar07/rdv62 Summary file for correlator: rdv62.sksum on aspen PCFS file: ftp://vlbigeo@cddisa.gsfc.nasa.gov/vlbigeo/mar07/rdv32.skd http://lupus.gsfc.nasa.gov/sess/2007/sesshtml/rdv62.html This experiment uses the VLBA and 7 IVS stations. SUBNET Br-Fd-Hh-Hn-Kb-Kk-Kp-La-Mk-Nl-Ny-Ov-Pt-Sc-Ts-Wz-Zc Key: Br=BR-VLBA Fd=FD-VLBA Hn=HN-VLBA Hh=HARTRAO Kb=KASHIM34 Kp=KP-VLBA La=LA-VLBA Mk=MK-VLBA Nl=NL-VLBA Ny=NYALES20 Ov=OV-VLBA Pt=PIETOWN Sc=SC-VLBA Ts=TSUKUB32 Wf=WESTFORD Wz=WETTZELL Zc=ZELENCHK Br Fd Hh Hn Kb Kk Kp La Mk Nl Ny Ov Pt Sc Ts Wz Zc Avg % obs. time: 47 52 57 44 41 46 52 50 43 49 53 48 51 47 36 51 41 48 % cal. time: 4 4 2 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 3 4 3 3 4 % slew time: 23 22 32 22 31 16 22 23 21 22 14 22 22 20 14 5 37 22 % idle time: 24 20 7 29 22 34 20 21 30 24 29 25 21 29 46 39 18 26 total # scans: 373 385 200 337 334 305 381 385 327 366 272 362 388 295 353 240 285 328 # scans/hour : 15 16 8 14 14 13 16 16 14 15 11 15 16 12 15 10 12 14 Avg scan (sec): 109 116 249 114 108 130 119 113 115 115 170 114 114 137 88 185 123 130 Total GBytes: 935 1014 1005 874 827 704 1020 993 854 957 980 940 1008 888 748 786 786 901 Total GB(M5): 831 901 893 777 735 625 906 883 759 851 871 836 896 789 665 699 699 801 # of tapes : 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 1.0 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 tape change times (hhmm): Total number of tapes: 2.1 Total GBytes (M5) recorded: 13616.8 # OF OBSERVATIONS BY BASELINE | Br Fd Hh Hn Kb Kk Kp La Mk Nl Ny Ov Pt Sc Ts Wz Zc StnTotal ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Br| 289 9 217 75 172 295 308 209 276 101 300 308 173 91 43 55 2921 Fd| 9 237 47 148 355 360 190 301 73 309 366 213 60 32 33 3022 Hh| 48 52 0 6 8 0 29 87 2 7 54 53 155 175 694 Hn| 36 87 215 235 115 287 118 191 228 258 51 72 74 2469 Kb| 148 54 48 120 40 124 62 53 10 322 71 96 1358 Kk| 165 155 263 120 53 177 160 68 156 17 23 1912 Kp| 355 212 277 73 323 369 195 67 30 34 3025 La| 198 304 80 318 374 208 63 35 38 3087 Mk| 152 51 227 204 95 130 17 22 2205 Nl| 98 255 295 244 54 49 54 2835 Ny| 67 78 91 134 133 134 1495 Ov| 325 165 70 25 29 2845 Pt| 203 66 34 37 3107 Sc| 24 70 70 2141 Ts| 80 112 1533 Wz| 197 1060 Zc| 1183 Number of 2-station scans: 42 Number of 3-station scans: 237 Number of 4-station scans: 167 Number of 5-station scans: 67 Number of 6-station scans: 82 Number of 7-station scans: 49 Number of 8-station scans: 53 Number of 9-station scans: 75 Number of 10-station scans: 57 Number of 11-station scans: 60 Number of 12-station scans: 26 Number of 13-station scans: 14 Number of 14-station scans: 5 Number of 15-station scans: 2 Number of 16-station scans: 2 Number of 17-station scans: 0 Total # of scans, observations: 938 18446 First observations: name yyddd-hhmmss Br Fd Hh Hn Kb Kk Kp La Mk Nl Ny Ov Pt Sc Ts Wz Zc 0059+581 07086-173000| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300| 4C39.25 07086-173000| 300 300 | 1823+568 07086-173645| 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 | 1417+385 07086-173651| 40 40 40 40 | Last observations: name yyddd-hhmmss Br Fd Hh Hn Kb Kk Kp La Mk Nl Ny Ov Pt Sc Ts Wz Zc 2134+00 07087-171932| 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 | 4C39.25 07087-172300| 300 300 | 0059+581 07087-172831| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300| Special Notes for this session: - IMPORTANT. In this RDV ALL stations will record on Mark5. The session will be correlated in 3-passes. - IMPORTANT: The synch time for the VLBA correlator using Mark5 is 25 seconds. Because of this, stations recording with Mark5 disks will start taking data 25 seconds prior to the normal scan time. They will continue to take data between scans if the there is the gap is less than 25 seconds. - All stations participate in two initial long (5-min) scans and two final 5-min scans. - Wettzell and Kokee are absent from 18:20 to 19:40 because of the intensive. - The fluxes use our most recent models. Purpose ======= This is the second of six bi-monthly coordinated astrometric/geodetic experiments in 2006 that use the full 10-station VLBA plus up to 10 geodetic stations capable of recording VLBA modes. This year's series is a continuation of the highly successful RDV series begun in 1997. These experiments are being coordinated by the geodetic VLBI programs of three agencies: USNO, NASA, and NRAO. The experiments have been designed so that the same data set may be used by each agency for its particular goals. USNO will perform repeated imaging and correction for source structure. These sources will establish a set of core reference sources with known structure and precisely known positions. These data will provide the basis for evaluating the long term stability of the radio reference frame and the ultimate accuracy of wide angle astrometric measurements of extragalactic radio sources using VLBI. NASA will analyze this data to determine a high accuracy terrestrial reference frame. The data will incorporate the VLBA stations into the VLBI reference frame through the inclusion of other geodetic stations for which we have long histories. The data will also produce the most accurate Earth rotation results ever produced. We will use these data to make accurate absolute measurements of UT1. NRAO will use these sessions to provide a service to users who require high quality positions for small numbers of sources. While the quality of these results will be high, the observing and data reduction overhead required will be minimal because such sources can be incorporated into a session of the regular geodetic observations, instead of requiring special observations. Sources for this series of experiments will be selected using the proposed approach. For each experiment we will select a set of 70-80 sources out of the pool of ~400 Northern Hemisphere ICRF sources. About 40-50 of these will remain the same from experiment to experiment and will be chosen to optimize the goals of the three groups. Schedule ======== This is a new schedule generated by Leonid Petrov using sked. SOURCE SELECTION There are a total of 104 sources in this session. There were 8 requested sources: 0159-117 02 01 57.1000 -11 32 32.600 2000.0 0.0 Preston 0336-017 03 39 00.8000 -01 33 07.000 2000.0 0.0 MOJAVE 0741-063 07 44 21.6500 -06 29 35.600 2000.0 0.0 MOJAVE 0828-222 08 31 02.2400 -22 24 58.095 2000.0 0.0 2007b 1019+416 10 22 02.0440 +41 26 05.660 2000.0 0.0 KQ apriori 1330+022 13 32 53.2000 02 00 44.800 2000.0 0.0 Preston 1328+254 13 30 37.6907 +25 09 10.877 2000.0 0.0 MOJAVE 2203-188 22 06 10.4172 -18 35 38.748 2000.0 0.0 MOJAVE The sources marked MOHAVE are the only 4 shouirces from the MOJAVE project which were not observed in RDV's (requested by Yu. Kovalev). Source 1019+416 was the only source from the KQ object that was not observed in RDVs. Source 0828-222 was correlated in rdv59 with apriori coordinates which were 4' off and therefore, has to be re-observed. Sources marked as Preseton are bright sources from the Preston catalogue not observed in RDV's. All requested sources are observed in all VLBA network in two scans of 480 sec long. Monitored sources: 30 sources were selected which had not been recently observed. Other sources. The remaining sources where chosen from the geodetic catalog to complement the sky distribution. SCHEDULING ALGORITHMS This schedule also uses the "SRCEVN SQRT" mode. In the absense of any constraints, Sked will preferentially observe strong sources that have high visibility. This mode attempts to smooth out the number of observations per source. In this schedule observations involving Hobart, Hartrao and Tigo were given preference in scheduling. Recording Mode and Frequencies: same as previous experiments ============================================================ The data will be recorded using the following setup: 8 channels 1:4 fan-out 16 MHz sample rate 1-bit sampling This recording mode is designated 128-8-1. The correlator speed-up factor is 2. The frequency sequence covers 500 MHz in 8 channels. This span fits in one VLBA receiver passband but it uses both the high and low parts of the geodetic receivers. Because only 8 channels are available when observing with the VLBA stations, a wider spanned bandwidth is not advisable. These tables list the setup for the VLBA stations, the geodetic stations with VLBA back ends, and the geodetic stations with Mark IV back ends. These are the SAME frequencies used in all the standard RDV sessions. Geodetic stations: please read the special procedures in the next section! VLBA Fairbanks Kokee Chan Sky Tracks LO IF BBC | LO IF BBC #| LO IF BBC # 1 X 8405.99 2, 4, 6, 8 7900 B 505.99| 7600.1 A 805.89 3|7600 A 805.99 3 2 X 8475.99 10,12,14,16 7900 B 575.99| 7600.1 A 875.89 4|7600 A 875.99 4 3 X 8790.99 18,20,22,24 7900 B 890.99| 8080.0 C 710.99 5|8100 C 690.99 5 4 X 8895.99 26,28,30,32 7900 B 995.99| 8080.0 C 815.99 6|8100 C 795.99 6 5 S 2232.99 3, 5, 7, 9 2900 A 667.01| 1540.1 B 692.89 9|1500 B 732.99 9 6 S 2262.99 11,13,15,17 2900 A 637.01| 1540.1 B 722.89 10|1500 B 762.99 10 7 S 2352.99 19,21,23,25 2900 A 547.01| 1540.1 B 812.89 13|1500 B 852.99 13 8 S 2372.99 27,29,31,33 2900 A 527.01| 1540.1 B 832.89 14|1500 B 872.99 14 VLBA | Tsukuba Chan Sky Tracks LO IF BBC | LO IF BBC # 1 X 8405.99 2, 4, 6, 8 7900 B 505.99| 7680 A 725.99 3 2 X 8475.99 10,12,14,16 7900 B 575.99| 7680 A 795.99 4 3 X 8790.99 18,20,22,24 7900 B 890.99| 8080 A 710.99 5 4 X 8895.99 26,28,30,32 7900 B 995.99| 8080 A 815.99 6 5 S 2232.99 3, 5, 7, 9 2900 A 667.01| 1600 B 632.99 9 6 S 2262.99 11,13,15,17 2900 A 637.01| 1600 B 662.99 10 7 S 2352.99 19,21,23,25 2900 A 547.01| 1600 B 752.99 13 8 S 2372.99 27,29,31,33 2900 A 527.01| 1600 B 772.99 14 Medicina, Wettzell, Matera, GGAO, TIGO VLBA | Westford, NOTO, HartRAO, Onsala Chan Sky Tracks LO IF BBC | LO IF VC VC# Patch 1 X 8405.99 2, 4, 6, 8 7900 B 505.99| 8080.0 1 325.99 3 H 2 X 8475.99 10,12,14,16 7900 B 575.99| 8080.0 1 395.99 4 H 3 X 8790.99 18,20,22,24 7900 B 890.99| 8580.1 3 210.89 5 L 4 X 8895.99 26,28,30,32 7900 B 995.99| 8580.1 3 315.89 6 H 5 S 2232.99 3, 5, 7, 9 2900 A 667.01| 2020.0 2 212.99 9 H 6 S 2262.99 11,13,15,17 2900 A 637.01| 2020.0 2 242.99 10 H 7 S 2352.99 19,21,23,25 2900 A 547.01| 2020.0 2 332.99 13 H 8 S 2372.99 27,29,31,33 2900 A 527.01| 2020.0 2 352.99 14 H Special procedures for non-VLBA stations ======================================== SEE THE NOTE AT THE START ABOUT MARK5 recording. Special procedures for Medicina, Westford, Onsala, Wettzell, Tsukuba, Matera, GGAO, TIGO ================================================================== These stations have Mark IV formatters. If you are using Field System 9.x, use the procedures and snap files generated by DRUDG. The IF3 command in the procedure IFDSX assumes that VC3 will be patched to High. Please verify that the switches for your IF3 module are wired this way, and if they are not please edit the IF3 command to change the switches. If you have questions about the wiring, please contact Brian Corey at Haystack. Special procedures for Kokee ================================================== These stations have VLBA back ends. Use the procedures generated by DRUDG. BBCs 3,4,5,6 are used at X-band with IFs A and C. BBCs 9,10,13,14 are used at S-band with IF B. CHECKLIST for non-VLBA stations =============================== Please follow the checklist below to ensure you have done all the necessary steps for this experiment: 1. Make .prc file with DRUDG and check them out, or use the procedures from last session. Check out parity check procedures. 2. Make the .snp file with DRUDG. 3. Set up your system to monitor the clocks with the "gps-fmout" or "fmout-gps" commands. If you have questions about this, please contact Ed Himwich as soon as possible. 4. Send a "ready" message an hour or so before the experiment to the ivs-ops mail list. Copy analysts@nrao.edu on your ready message. 5. Send a "start" message soon after you have started recording. Copy analysts@nrao.edu on the message. 6. At the end of the experiment, send a "finish" message summarizing how the experiment was conducted. Copy analysts@nrao.edu on your message. 8. Transfer your log files to your normal log file data center. The directories for three possible servers are listed below: directory on cddisa: mar07 directory on vlbeer: mad07 directory on aspen: /home/aspen6/astronomy/mar07/rdv62 NOTE: If you don't normally use aspen, you should not put your log file on that server. The VLBA correlator knows where to find your log files. Correlation =========== This experiment will be correlated at the VLBA Correlator. Disks should be shipped to Socorro as soon after the experiment as practical.