14th August 2003 Present: MJI, STH, JRL, PSB, JMI Apologies: DWE Agenda ------ 1. Actions from last meeting 2. Comments on WFAU minutes 3. Progress of VDFS ESO documents 4. Progress of simulations 5. AOB Minutes ------- 1. Actions from last meeting STH received a reply from Sandy Legget re: photometric monitoring data. Sandy is waiting until the most recent data is processed before forwarding the results - ongoing <<<< MJI have updated the overview WP spreadsheets and placed them online STH in internal/management/ - though MJI pointed out a error in the yearly totals <<<< JRL has produced a night of pseudo WFCAM data based on CIRSI data see /data/apm3_a/jrl/testwfcam/ JRL pipeline milestones and tasks still being iterated on with AA <<<< MJI MJI JRL and MJI submitted ADASS abstracts (on pipeline infrastructure JRL and photometry) and asked for oral presentations PSB ALL sent in their WP progress reports on time MJI raised issue about communication problems at MCM but decided to resolve internally MJI to ask AA about progress re: UKIDSS Survey Manager appointment on Hawaii - ongoing <<<< DWE found that the problems with artdata and galaxies was a bug in STH the way the random no. generation seeding was being handled, JMI now an official IRAF artdata bug. The score from the catalogue data/model comparison so far is: catalogues 2 0 simulations DWE talked to Carine about the GAIA simulations which helped resolve some of the skymaker problems, but not all. Since artdata is now working for both stars and galaxies, skymaker is solely being used as a sanity check on the stellar simulation comparison. JMI has incorporated the suggested improvements to the differencing imaging report and generated a global quantitative statistic for intercomparison of the methods 2. Comments on WFAU minutes There were no comments. 3. Progress of VDFS ESO documents PSB had placed the current version of these documents on the internal web page for discussion prior to the meeting. There ensued a long discussion about the content, purpose and intended audience of the DFS user requirements, calibration plan and DID documents. These were generally thought to be making good progress with one or two obvious areas requiring some injection of new thought/information. MJI (sic!) volunteered to update the overview (section 2.) of the user requirements document based on his understanding on the extant VISTA science requirements and OCDD. <<<< It was felt that the calibration plan document ought to at least mention all the processing steps required, even if not strictly calibration (eg. microstepping/interleaving, coaddition), as a place holder for dependent (subsequent) documents such as the data reduction specification doc. A few minor internal changes in layout and section headings were suggested to help clarify the overall structure. [After the meeting MJI noted that he had forgotten to mention a couple of salient points and forwarded them directly to PSB.] The DID is being developed from a list of defined FITS keywords and attributes. MJI brought along an example of an ESO WFI FITS header to provide inspiration, and both MJI and PSB brought along the out of data WFCAM FITS header document (V0.5) and asked JRL to place the current version (V0.6) on the docs web page. These two additional documents plus PSB's current version of the FITS specification give a fairly comprehensive basis for the first draft of the DID. <<<< A brief discussion over the allowed WCS possibilities ensued and a majority decision to stick with the CD matrix and the new ZPN PV2_n model currently being promoted for WFCAM was made. PSB raised the issue of reference systems. 2mass which we are proposing to use for at least the first pass astrometry, is based on the ICRS through direct calibration from Tycho 2. Systematics in 2mass have been independently measured (USNO + UCAC) to be better than ~100 mas. This meets the absolute astrometry goal. JRL and MJI urged PSB to keep the equinox keyword. The issue of intra-pixel sensitivity measurements was raised. Are any meansurements of this being planned for the VISTA NIR detectors ? Since it is a calibration issue this ought to be added to the calibration plan document and discussed at the upcoming camera design review meeting. <<<< 4. Progress of simulations Good progress has been made with these now that the bug with artdata has been cleared up. JMI presented a very good draft version of the report at the meeting and a few suggestions to improve the layout and clarify some issues were made. Overall the results were more or less as expected (finally) but with some interesting features highlighted. A favourable intercomparison with the WFCAM web page predictions has been made and is incorporated in tabular form. This gives us a good benchmark for the current catalogue software (designed for optical mosaic cameras) to be compared with later versions. Slight design changes: it would be easier to navigate if the x-y coordinate plots were combined into one positional error plot, and if the report was reorganised into major sections (eg. astrometry, photometry, classification, derived DQC parameters - seeing, sky level, sky noise, ellipticity). Appendices could contain some of the ancilliary plots to break up the rather large html page it has become. <<<< 5. AOB There were several miscellaneous items reported on: The move and rack mounting of JRLs SUN Sybase server equipment was completed last week together with rack mounting the other CASU SUN server equipment and installation of an additional rack-mounted 2 Tbyte RAID array in the same rack. Rack mounting the RAID arrays involved some ingenuity and some brute force - not necessarily in that order. This work also involved recabling assorted mains supplies and removing the first of the current APM hardware racks. An intermittent fault with one of the Sybase server disks came to light during the move. It is being removed and the relevant catalogues placed on a RAID array. Our local computer supplier has contacted his Edinburgh office to arrange further Ultrium I/II compatibility tests in conjunction with PSB and NCH. The quietness on the engineering test data front has been shattering. MJI will contact Mark directly and find out what the current status is. <<<< DWE sent in a brief report on his progress with SWarp commenting that he has managed to coerce it to generate 1/4 pixel shifts using various interpolation schemes, but that a more transparent way of doing this would be desirable. He is in touch with Bertin to further this. JRL asked about the parameter order in the new catalogue software. MJI said he had sorted that part out and would forward an updated version, and that it basically follows the order and naming given in the CASU-WFAU ICD. <<<< There has been no further news about the new job contracts. Paul Aslin is chasing up the relevant folk in the Old Schools finance division since we'll all be out of jobs next month. Continuing Actions ------------------ STH keep on pursuing Sandy Legget re: photometric monitoring data STH correct error in yearly totals for WP spreadsheet MJI to continue discussion of pipeline milestones tasks and dates JRL with AA MJI to ask AA about progress UKIDSS Survey Manager appointment on Hawaii New Actions ----------- MJI update section 2. of DFS user requirements document JRL place V0.6 of FITS header document on docs web page and see if we can speed up getting the next (final?) version out PSB update the DFS docs in the light of comments received JMI update simulation report and release on public side of web pages +ALL after receiving comments from rest of CASU group MJI to send JRL the latest version of imcore_wfcam MJI to contact Mark directly and find out about engineering data status