Session Notes for RD1203 Prepared by D. Behrend, NVI, Inc./GSFC =========================================================== PURPOSE AND GENERAL NOTES =========================================================== With the start of the IVS observing program in 2002 (based on the WG2 Report), sources were only scheduled when they had an angular distance to the Sun of more than 15 deg. Based on data from RDV and VCS experiments, Sebastien Lambert (Paris Observatory) expects that the inclusion of sources closer to the Sun can improve the determination of the post-Newtonian parameter gamma by 15% (even with a modest number of observations below 15 deg per session; for instance, 1-2 observations per session). The purpose of RD1203 is to provide observational data to support this claim and, if successful, to eventually change the general IVS scheduling to include one or two observations per session close to the Sun. This is the fourth session to support observations close to the Sun. The RD1202 schedule uses the R1 frequency setup. It was generated using SNRs of 20 at X-band and 15 at S-band for all stations except TIGO which was scheduled with values of 18 and 12. All stations have been fully scheduled; TIGO was given extra weight. The schedule uses a selection of 120 sources from the good geodetic source list plus eight extra sources with a closer angular distance to the Sun. There are nine sources with an angular distance less than 15 deg to the Sun: 0342+147, 0358+210. 0406+121, 0430+289, 0440+345, 0446+112, 0506+101, 0507+179, and 0515+208. The limit for the angular distance to the Sun was set to 4 deg and a regular R1 scheduling was done. This resulted in 29 observational scans with a distance to the Sun ranging from 10.3 deg to 14.7 deg. These scans are observed by subnets of the following seven stations: Kk, Ma, Ny, Ts, Wf, and Wz. There are no scans close to the Sun for Ft and Tc. The sources 0358+210, 0430+289, and 0507+179 could not be scheduled. Scans with observations close to the Sun Source Start DURATIONS name yyddd-hhmmss Ft Kk Ma Ny Tc Ts Wf Wz ------------------------------------------------------- 0440+345 12151-195323| 82 82 | 13.0 deg from sun 0515+208 12151-205736| 334 334 97 | 10.8 deg from sun 0440+345 12151-212047| 120 120 | 13.0 deg from sun 0506+101 12151-213019| 102 102 | 14.7 deg from sun 0446+112 12151-214913| 62 46 62 | 11.3 deg from sun 0506+101 12151-220836| 102 102 | 14.7 deg from sun 0440+345 12151-221141| 123 123 | 13.0 deg from sun 0515+208 12151-221419| 81 81 | 10.7 deg from sun 0440+345 12151-233405| 134 134 | 13.0 deg from sun 0342+147 12152-013122| 200 200 | 13.3 deg from sun 0446+112 12152-031811| 102 102 40 | 11.3 deg from sun 0506+101 12152-033529| 111 111 | 14.6 deg from sun 0440+345 12152-043410| 205 81 205| 12.9 deg from sun 0446+112 12152-043812| 124 124 40 | 11.2 deg from sun 0406+121 12152-051111| 151 151| 11.2 deg from sun 0446+112 12152-052217| 143 143 66 81| 11.2 deg from sun 0440+345 12152-054927| 194 81 194| 12.9 deg from sun 0406+121 12152-060633| 141 141| 11.2 deg from sun 0446+112 12152-062422| 140 140 66| 11.2 deg from sun 0342+147 12152-062615| 159 159| 13.5 deg from sun 0440+345 12152-065528| 189 80 189| 12.9 deg from sun 0446+112 12152-073809| 111 111 66 59| 11.2 deg from sun 0515+208 12152-081844| 65 65| 10.3 deg from sun 0440+345 12152-090627| 124 124 | 12.9 deg from sun 0446+112 12152-131732| 170 110 170 74| 11.2 deg from sun 0440+345 12152-132309| 184 184| 12.8 deg from sun 0446+112 12152-155944| 139 139 136 78| 11.2 deg from sun 0446+112 12152-170208| 123 123 | 11.2 deg from sun 0446+112 12152-174002| 109 109 63 | 11.1 deg from sun ------------------------------------------------------- Sources with observations close to the Sun (indicated by an 'x') 4 chars/hour SOURCE | 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 | #SCANS #OBS #Obs/bl ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0342+147| x x | 2 2 0.3 0358+210| | 0 0 0.0 0406+121| x x | 2 2 0.4 0430+289| | 0 0 0.0 0440+345| x x x x x x x x x | 9 15 1.3 0446+112| x x x x x x x x x x | 10 40 6.1 0506+101| x x x | 3 3 0.3 0507+179| | 0 0 0.0 0515+208| x x x | 3 5 0.6 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total scans, obs: 29 67 Kokee and Wettzell will observe INT I12151 during the time from 1815 UT to 1945 UT. =========================================================== ----- Parameter listing -------------------------------------- Experiment: RD1203 Description R&D-03 2012 Scheduler: NASA Correlator: HAYS Start: 2012-151-18:00:00 End: 2012-152-18:00:00 Current yyyyddd: 2012151 (2012.41) ( 16078 MJD, WED. 30MAY.) Greenwich sidereal time: 10:34: 0.00 (18: 0: 0 UT) Sun's RA and DEC: 4h 32.2m 21d 54.3 =========================================================== First observations Observation listing from file ./rd1203.skd for experiment RD1203 Source Start DURATIONS name yyddd-hhmmss Ft Kk Ma Ny Tc Ts Wf Wz 0727-115 12151-180000| 83 102 102 43 69| 2209+236 12151-180000| 40 40 40 | ...... End of listing. =========================================================== Last observations Observation listing from file ./rd1203.skd for experiment RD1203 Source Start DURATIONS name yyddd-hhmmss Ft Kk Ma Ny Tc Ts Wf Wz ...... 0420-014 12152-175433| 134 40 134 49 | 1803+784 12152-175636| 91 91 40 40 40 40| 0059+581 12152-175900| 40 40 40 40 40 40| End of listing. =========================================================== SKED Summary from file ./rd1203.skd for experiment RD1203 (all scans with at least one subnet station) Calculating rise/set times: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128... done. Average number of obs. per baseline per source(normalized by up-time) = 3.7 Min = 0.0 Max = 102.9 (Baseline Ma-Ts on 0606-223) RMS = 8.2 Total time: 1440 minutes ( 24.0 hours). Key: Ft=FORTLEZA Kk=KOKEE Ma=MATERA Ny=NYALES20 Tc=TIGO Ts=TSUKUB32 Wf=WESTFORD Wz=WETTZELL Ft Kk Ma Ny Tc Ts Wf Wz Avg % obs. time: 46 52 50 57 60 45 52 49 51 % cal. time: 3 5 4 5 3 6 4 5 4 % slew time: 34 19 26 19 5 21 16 11 19 % idle time: 16 24 18 19 30 28 27 34 25 total # scans: 228 403 365 393 268 517 372 421 370 # scans/hour : 10 17 15 16 11 22 16 18 15 Avg scan (sec): 176 110 120 124 194 75 122 101 127 # data tracks: 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 # Mk5 tracks: 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 Total GBytes: 1441 1603 1571 1761 1871 1394 1628 1528 1600 Total GB(M5): 1281 1425 1396 1566 1663 1239 1447 1358 1422 # of tapes : 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 tape change times (hhmm): Total number of tapes: 8.0 Total GBytes (M5) recorded: 11375.5 # OF OBSERVATIONS BY BASELINE | Ft Kk Ma Ny Tc Ts Wf Wz StnTotal -------------------------------------------------- Ft| 38 57 17 188 4 110 39 453 Kk| 24 94 108 264 136 44 708 Ma| 201 43 145 120 278 868 Ny| 10 227 172 250 971 Tc| 23 111 33 516 Ts| 112 200 975 Wf| 144 905 Wz| 988 Number of 2-station scans: 576 Number of 3-station scans: 252 Number of 4-station scans: 164 Number of 5-station scans: 54 Number of 6-station scans: 21 Number of 7-station scans: 1 Number of 8-station scans: 0 Total # of scans, observations: 1068 3192 =========================================================== Recording mode Name Code GEOSX SX Recording mode setup for: FORTLEZA KOKEE MATERA NYALES20 TIGOCONC TSUKUB32 WESTFORD WETTZELL Mode Tot.Rate Tot.BandW #chan #bits Barrel Mk341:2 256.000 Mbits 128.000 MHz 14 1 NONE Chan.BW #Subpasses Tracks(*fan) Tot.tracks Speed 8.00 MHz 1 16(*2) 32 0.00 X-band spanned bw= 720.0 MHz rms spanned bw= 280.4 MHz S-band spanned bw= 140.0 MHz rms spanned bw= 50.9 MHz Effective number of channels recorded per sub-pass X S Total 10.000 6.000 16.000 =========================================================== Tape types ID Station Tape length Density Passes Ft FORTLEZA Mark5A Kk KOKEE Mark5A Ma MATERA Mark5A Ny NYALES20 Mark5A Tc TIGOCONC Mark5B Ts TSUKUB32 K5 Wf WESTFORD Mark5A Wz WETTZELL Mark5A =========================================================== SNR Targets Minimum SNR by baseline for multi-baseline scans X-band (margin 0) S-band (margin 0) Ft Kk Ma Ny Tc Ts Wf Ft Kk Ma Ny Tc Ts Wf Kk 20 Kk 15 Ma 20 20 Ma 15 15 Ny 20 20 20 Ny 15 15 15 Tc 18 18 18 18 Tc 12 12 12 12 Ts 20 20 20 20 18 Ts 15 15 15 15 12 Wf 20 20 20 20 18 20 Wf 15 15 15 15 12 15 Wz 20 20 20 20 18 20 20 Wz 15 15 15 15 12 15 15 ===========================================================