rdv67 (Astrometric/Geodetic VLBA-67) 2008 January 23 18:00 Day 023 Notes prepared by Leonid Petrov, NVI/GSFC Schedule name: rdv67.skd Pointing files: rdv67crd.br, rdv67crd.fd, rdv67crd.hn, rdv67crd.kp, rdv67crd.la, rdv67crd.mk, rdv67crd.nl, rdv67crd.ov, rdv67crd.pt, rdv67crd.sc ftp://vlbiobs@aspen.nrao.edu/home/aspen6/astronomy/jan08/rdv67 Summary file for correlator: rdv67.sksum on aspen PCFS file: ftp://vlbigeo@cddisa.gsfc.nasa.gov/vlbigeo/rdv67/rdv67.skd http://lupus.gsfc.nasa.gov/sess/2008/sesshtml/rdv67.html This experiment uses the 10 VLBA and 7 IVS stations. SUBNET Br-Fd-Hn-Kb-Kk-Kp-La-Mk-Nl-Ny-Ov-Pt-Sc-Ts-Wf-Wz-Zc Key: Br=BR-VLBA Fd=FD-VLBA Hn=HN-VLBA Kb=KASHIM34 Kb=KASHIM34 Kk=KOKEE La=LA-VLBA Mk=MK-VLBA Nl=NL-VLBA Ny=NYALES20 On=ONSALA60 Ov=OV-VLBA Pt=PIETOWN Sc=SC-VLBA TS=TSUKUB32 Wf=WESTFORD Wz=WETTZELL Zc=ZELENCHK Total time: 1440 minutes ( 24.0 hours). Key: Br=BR-VLBA Fd=FD-VLBA Hn=HN-VLBA Kb=KASHIM34 Kk=KOKEE 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 Hn Kb Kk Kp La Mk Nl Ny Ov Pt Sc Ts Wf Wz Zc Avg % obs. time: 47 52 46 51 58 52 51 51 47 59 49 52 48 43 50 64 44 51 % cal. time: 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 % slew time: 22 22 22 27 14 22 23 20 23 13 21 23 20 12 13 7 41 21 % idle time: 26 21 27 18 24 20 21 24 25 24 25 20 27 41 33 25 11 25 total # scans: 339 360 336 307 301 367 375 305 350 275 345 371 313 319 308 273 311 326 # scans/hour : 14 15 14 13 13 15 16 13 15 11 14 15 13 13 13 11 13 14 Avg scan (sec): 121 125 118 144 166 123 118 145 115 186 122 122 133 116 140 203 122 135 # data tracks: 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 # Mk5 tracks: 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 Total GBytes: 920 1006 739 961 811 1013 1000 962 916 1071 943 1013 916 838 942 902 848 930 Total GB(M5): 818 894 657 854 721 901 889 855 814 952 838 901 815 745 838 801 754 826 # of tapes : 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 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: 1.2 Total GBytes (M5) recorded: 14045.8 # OF OBSERVATIONS BY BASELINE | Br Fd Hn Kb Kk Kp La Mk Nl Ny Ov Pt Sc Ts Wf Wz Zc StnTotal ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Br| 238 193 84 192 256 262 220 242 96 277 259 169 84 175 78 83 2908 Fd| 214 43 153 331 332 208 278 57 277 336 226 47 193 52 50 3035 Hn| 59 110 202 228 127 268 75 188 219 261 66 264 81 71 2626 Kb| 153 47 53 100 61 225 61 51 38 306 70 212 248 1811 Kk| 165 166 232 134 138 180 165 90 154 127 106 124 2389 Kp| 336 221 264 59 307 345 203 51 176 56 52 3071 La| 213 297 67 301 361 225 57 201 62 60 3221 Mk| 171 87 233 213 125 103 116 57 73 2499 Nl| 72 253 286 246 64 226 72 68 3002 Ny| 69 64 51 226 91 218 238 1833 Ov| 300 176 62 163 62 62 2971 Pt| 220 55 192 61 59 3186 Sc| 41 226 66 53 2416 Ts| 75 214 255 1860 Wf| 95 80 2470 Wz| 238 1730 Zc| 1814 Number of 2-station scans: 22 Number of 3-station scans: 108 Number of 4-station scans: 119 Number of 5-station scans: 130 Number of 6-station scans: 71 Number of 7-station scans: 60 Number of 8-station scans: 64 Number of 9-station scans: 69 Number of 10-station scans: 39 Number of 11-station scans: 22 Number of 12-station scans: 47 Number of 13-station scans: 13 Number of 14-station scans: 5 Number of 15-station scans: 12 Number of 16-station scans: 9 Number of 17-station scans: 19 Total # of scans, observations: 809 21421 First four scan: Source Start DURATIONS name yyddd-hhmmss Br Fd Hn Kb Kk Kp La Mk Nl Ny Ov Pt Sc Ts Wf Wz Zc 1842+681 08023-180000| 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300| 3C418 08023-180559| 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 | 1101+384 08023-180720| 464 366 480 480 480 480 213 480 371| 0059+581 08023-180808| 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 | Last four scans: Source Start DURATIONS name yyddd-hhmmss Br Fd Hn Kb Kk Kp La Mk Nl Ny Ov Pt Sc Ts Wf Wz Zc 1101+384 08024-174435| 470 380 480 480 480 480 221 480 367| 1717+178 08024-174930| 64 56 105 63 58 63 118 83 118 | 1741-038 08024-175201| 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 | 1053+815 08024-175435| 325 325 325 325 325 325 325 325 325 325 325 325 325 325 325 325 325| 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 first of six bi-monthly coordinated astrometric/geodetic experiments in 2008 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 and Bordeaux Observatory 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 394 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 100 sources in this session. Among them, 30 sources are in the astrometric list and 12 sources were requested, predominately at low declinations. 0625-354 0625-354 06 27 06.4 -35 29 14.4 2000.0 0.0 Y. Kovalev 1046-409 1046-409 10 48 38.2 -41 14 00.5 2000.0 0.0 Y. Kovalev TON202 1425+267 14 27 35.604 +26 32 14.461 2000.0 0.0 Y. Kovalev 0131-367 0131-367 01 33 57.6 -36 29 34.9 2000.0 0.0 Chris Phillips 0558-396 0558-396 06 00 31.31 -39 37 01.7 2000.0 0.0 Chris Phillips 0918-297 0918-297 09 20 43.25 -29 56 30.6 2000.0 0.0 Chris Phillips 1251-197 1251-197 12 54 37.24 -20 00 56.2 2000.0 0.0 Chris Phillips 1333-337 1333-337 13 36 39.0 -33 57 58.2 2000.0 0.0 Chris Phillips 1531-352 1531-352 15 34 54.68 -35 26 23.8 2000.0 0.0 Chris Phillips 1645-329 1645-329 16 48 42.34 -33 01 47.7 2000.0 0.0 Chris Phillips 1705-353 1705-353 17 09 18.61 -35 25 21.0 2000.0 0.0 Chris Phillips 1710-323 1710-323 17 13 50.99 -32 26 08.9 2000.0 0.0 Chris Phillips 2332-531 2332-531 23 34 44.88 -52 51 19.4 2000.0 0.0 Chris Phillips First two sources are bright sources from Preston, 1985 catalogue. Remaining 10 sources are the brightest flat spectrum objects from the AT20G catalogue of bright sources (Massardi et al., 2007) with declination > -40 deg. 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 Hartrao was 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: aug07 directory on vlbeer: aug07 directory on aspen: /home/aspen6/astronomy/aug07/rdv65 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.