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Create an account. Front Matter: Volume Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks. To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on SPIE. Operations Benchmarking and Metrics. Primas , S. Marteau , L. Tacconi-Garman , V. Mainieri , S. Mysore , M. Rejkuba , M. Hilker , F. Patat , M. Sterzik ,et. The latter was considered to be the most promising way to ensure the observing flexibility necessary to execute the most demanding scientific programmes under the required, usually very well defined, conditions.
Since then new instruments have become operational and 1 st generation ones replaced, filling the 12 VLT foci and feeding the VLT Interferometer and its four Auxiliary Telescopes. Operating efficiently such a broad range of instruments installed and available every night of the year on four 8-metre telescopes offers many challenges. Although it may appear that little has changed since , the underlying VLT operational model has evolved in order to accommodate different requirements from the user community and features of new instruments.
Did it fulfil its original goal and, if so, how well? How did it evolve? What are the lessons learned after more than 15 years of operations? The main goal of DOME is to provide robust metrics that can be followed with time in a user-friendly manner. Here, we summarize the main findings on the handling of service mode observations and present the most recent developments. The impact of science operations on science return at the Very Large Telescope.
Sterzik , U. Grothkopf , A. Kaufer , B. Leibundgut , S. Mieske , F. Romaniello , L. The operational implementation of observing programs influences the scientific return of an Observatory.
Bibliometric parameters are used to derive program productivities and citation rates and their relation to scheduling realizations such as service and visitor mode , program types and service mode rank classes.
In this contribution we present a set of performance indicators comparing specific program execution parameters. Results of this analysis help us to identify strengths and weaknesses of the adopted operational model, as well as possible improvements for an integrated VLT and ELT operations scheme in the next decade. Improving SALT productivity by using the theory of constraints.
Johannes C. To achieve this competitive advantage, specific design tradeoffs had to be made leading to technical constraints. On the other hand, the telescope has many advantages, such as being able to rapidly switch between different instruments and observing modes during the night. We provide details of the technical and operational constraints and how they were dealt with, by applying the theory of constraints, to substantially improve the observation throughput during the last semester.
A bibliometric analysis of observatory publications for the period Dennis R. This paper examines the primary scientific output from a number of telescopes, which is the collection of papers published in refereed journals based on data from each telescope. Observatory bibliographies: a vital resource in operating an observatory. Sherry Winkelman , Arnold Rots.
By linking the published articles with the individual datasets analyzed in the paper, we have the opportunity to join the bibliographic metadata including keywords, subjects, objects, data references from other observatories, etc. This rich body of information is ripe for far more sophisticated data mining than the two repositories publications and data would afford individually. Throughout the course of the mission the CDA has investigated numerous questions regarding the impact of specific types of Chandra programs such as the relative science impact of GTO, GO, and DDT programs or observing, archive, and theory programs.
Most recently the Chandra bibliography was used to assess the impact of programs based on the size of the program to examine whether the dividing line between standard and large projects should be changed and whether another round of X-ray Visionary Programs should be offered.
Traditionally we have grouped observations by proposal when assessing the impact of programs. For this investigation we aggregated observations by pointing and instrument configuration such that objects observed multiple times in the mission were considered single observing programs. This change in perspective has given us new ideas for assessing the science impact of Chandra and for presenting data to our users.
In this paper we present the methodologies used in the recent study, some of its results, and most importantly some unexpected insights into assessing the science impact of an observatory.
Archive Operations, Surveys and Legacy Datasets. Mark Lacy. Radio astronomy archives present particular challenges due to the complexity of the data processing. New radio telescopes such as the Jansky-VLA and ALMA also have much larger data volumes than the previous generation of instruments, requiring large amounts of storage and processing.
This includes traditional approaches of pipelining and imaging, and also on-demand server side processing, visualization and analysis. We discuss how the size of the image products is related to that of the visibility data, and how this places variable demands on the data flow from the telescope and its data center as configurations are changed throughout the year.
Validation of ESO Phase 3 data submissions. Delmotte , M. Arnaboldi , L. Mascetti , A. Micol , J. The data validation phase is an essential step of the Phase 3 process at ESO that is defining and providing an infrastructure to deal with interactions between the data producers and the archive. We are using a controlled process to systematically review all Phase 3 data submissions to ensure a homogeneous and consistent science archive with well traceable and characterised data products, to the benefits of archive users.
How the Phase 3 data validation plan is defined and how its results are subsequently managed will be described in the presentation. For a description of its technical implementation, please refer to the contribution by L.
Publication of science data products through the ESO archive: lessons learned and future evolution. Delmotte , Laura Mascetti , Alberto Micol. Phase 3 denotes the process of preparation, submission, validation and ingestion of science data products for storage in the ESO Science Archive Facility and subsequent publication to the scientific community.
In this paper we will review more than four years of Phase 3 operations at ESO and we will discuss the future evolution of the Phase 3 system. Virtual Observatory. Providing comprehensive and consistent access to astronomical observatory archive data: the NASA archive model. Mazzerella ,et. Since the turn of the millennium a constant concern of astronomical archives have begun providing data to the public through standardized protocols unifying data from disparate physical sources and wavebands across the electromagnetic spectrum into an astronomical virtual observatory VO.
This includes evaluating what optional capabilities in the standards need to be supported, the specific versions of standards that should be used, and returning feedback to the IVOA, to support modifications as needed. We discuss a standard archive model developed by the NAVO for data archive presence in the virtual observatory built upon a consistent framework of standards defined by the IVOA.
Our standard model provides for discovery of resources through the VO registries, access to observation and object data, downloads of image and spectral data and general access to archival datasets. It defines specific protocol versions, minimum capabilities, and all dependencies. The model will evolve as the capabilities of the virtual observatory and needs of the community change.
Public surveys at ESO. ESO has a strong mandate to survey the Southern Sky. In this article, we describe the ESO telescopes and instruments that are currently used for ESO Public Surveys, and the future plans of the community with the new wide-field-spectroscopic instruments. We summarize the ESO policies governing the management of these projects on behalf of the community.
We then present the impact of these projects in terms of current numbers of refereed publications and the scientific data products published through the ESO Science Archive Facility by the survey teams, including the independent access and scientific use of the published survey data products by the astronomical community.
Not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good: steps toward science-ready ALMA images. Amanda A. Historically, radio observatories have placed the onus of calibrating and imaging data on the observer, thus restricting their user base to those already initiated into the mysteries of radio data or those willing to develop these skills. In this talk, I will describe on-going efforts at the Northern American ALMA Science Center to produce more uniform imaging products that more closely meet the PI science goals and provide better archival value.
As a first step, the NAASC imaging group produced a simple imaging template designed to help scientific staff produce uniform imaging products.
This script allowed the NAASC to maximize the productivity of data analysts with relatively little guidance by the scientific staff by providing a step-by-step guide to best practices for ALMA imaging. Finally, I will describe the role of the manually produced images in verifying the imaging pipeline and the on-going development of said pipeline. The development of the imaging template, while technically simple, shows how small steps toward unifying processes and sharing knowledge can lead to large gains for science data products.
Martino Romaniello. We describe here the steps that ESO undertakes to fulfill this, namely ensuring that instruments are working properly, that the science content can be extracted from the data and, finally, delivering the science data to our users, PIs and archive researchers alike. Metrics and statistics that gauge the results and impact of these efforts are discussed.
Time Domain and Transient Surveys. Caballero , J. Zechmeister , E. Alonso-Floriano , P. Amado , J. Here we describe the CARMENES data flow from the different subsystems, through the instrument control system and pipeline, to the virtual-observatory data server and astronomers.
Value is added by annotating incoming alerts with existing information from previous surveys and compilations across the electromagnetic spectrum and from the history of past alerts. Comparison against a knowledge repository of properties and features of known or predicted kinds of variable phenomena is used for categorization. The architecture and algorithms being employed are described. DDOTI: the deca-degree optical transient imager. Alan M. Watson , William H.
Lee , Eleonora Troja , Carlos G. Butler , Alexander S. Kutyrev , Neil A. DDOTI will be a wide-field robotic imager consisting of six cm telescopes with prime focus CCDs mounted on a common equatorial mount. The set of six will provide an instantaneous field of view of about 72 deg 2. DDOTI uses commercial components almost entirely. Such geographic diversity would give earlier access and a higher localization rate.
We are actively exploring this option. Site and Facility Operations I. Operations concept for the Square Kilometre Array. Gary R. Davis , Douglas C. Bock , Antonio Chrysostomou , Cornelius Taljaard. SKA1 is scheduled to commence operations in and, in order to appropriately influence the design of the system, operational planning has commenced.
This paper presents an overview of the operational concept for SKA1. Lisa Harvey-Smith. It will be operated by a dedicated team of observatory staff with the support of telescope monitoring, control and scheduling software. These tools, as well as the proposal tools and data archive will enable the telescope to operate with little direct input from the astronomy user.
The paper also discusses how close engagement with the telescope user community has been maintained throughout the ASKAP construction and commissioning phase, leading to positive outcomes including early input into the design of telescope systems and a vibrant early science program.
Power monitoring and control for large scale projects: SKA, a case study. Large sensor-based science infrastructures for radio astronomy like the SKA will be among the most intensive datadriven projects in the world, facing very high demanding computation, storage, management, and above all power demands. The geographically wide distribution of the SKA and its associated processing requirements in the form of tailored High Performance Computing HPC facilities, require a Greener approach towards the Information and Communications Technologies ICT adopted for the data processing to enable operational compliance to potentially strict power budgets.
Addressing the reduction of electricity costs, improve system power monitoring and the generation and management of electricity at system level is paramount to avoid future inefficiencies and higher costs and enable fulfillments of Key Science Cases. Here we outline major characteristics and innovation approaches to address power efficiency and long-term power sustainability for radio astronomy projects, focusing on Green ICT for science and Smart power monitoring and control.
A preliminary operations concept for the ngVLA. A future large area radio array optimized to perform imaging of thermal emission down to milliarcsecond scales is currently under consideration in North America. The large number of antennas and their large geographical distribution pose significant challenges to ngVLA operations and maintenance.
Bernhard Lopez , Nicholas D. ALMA consists of 54 twelve-meter antennas and 12 seven-meter antennas operating as an aperture synthesis array in the sub millimeter wavelength range.
Since the inauguration of the observatory back in March there has been a continuous effort to establish solid operations processes for effective and efficient management of technical and administrative tasks on site. Here a key aspect had been the centralized maintenance and operations planning: input is collected from science stakeholders, the computerized maintenance management system CMMS and from the technical teams spread around the world, then this information is analyzed and consolidated based on the established maintenance strategy, the observatory long-term plan and the short-term priorities definitions.
This paper presents the high-level process that has been developed for the planning and scheduling of planned- and unplanned maintenance tasks, and for site operations like the telescope array reconfiguration campaigns. We focus on the centralized planning approach by presenting its genesis, its current implementation for the observatory operations including related planning products, and we explore the necessary next steps in order to fully achieve a comprehensive centralized planning approach for ALMA in steady-state operations.
Robotic observations started mid , and the primary scientific driver is monitoring of stellar-activity related phenomena. The STELLA Control System SCS software package was originally tailored to the STELLA roll-off style building and high-resolution spectroscopy, but was extended over the years to support the wide-field imager, an off-axis guider for the imager, separate acquisition telescopes, classical domes, and targets-of-opportunity.
The SCS allows for unattended, off-line operation of the observatory, targets can be uploaded at any time and are selected based on merit-functions in real-time dispatch scheduling. We report on the current status of the observatory and the current capabilities of the SCS. Site and Facility Operations II. Jessica T. Dempsey , Paul T. In just three weeks, the facility needed to run up completely mothballed observatory operations, introduce the telescope to a vast new scientist base with no familiarity with the facility, and create a non-existent science program.
The handover to the EAO has since been a succession of challenging time-lines, and nearly unique problems requiring novel solutions. The results, however, have been spectacular, with subscription rates at unprecedented levels, a new series of Large Programs underway, as well as an exciting Future Instrumentation Project that together promises to keep JCMT at the forefront of wide-field submillimeter astronomy for the next decade. Julio A. Varela , Ignacio Romero.
The calibrations showed a correlation of 0. The calibrated PWV series brought median values of 3. Twenty five percent of the time, PWV is less than 1. Becerril , C. Amado , M. Abril , I. Ferro , E. Mirabet , R. Morales , D. The operation start-up was mandatory to be before the end of This plays in contradiction to the very complex, calm-requiring tasks and development phases faced during the AIV, which has been fully designed and implemented at IAA through a very ambitious, zero-contingency plan.
As a large cryogenic instrument, this plan includes necessarily a certain number cryo-vacuum cycles, this factor being the most important for the overall AIV duration. Indeed, each cryo-vacuum cycle of the NIR channel runs during 3 weeks.
This plan has therefore been driven to minimize the amount of cryo-vacuum cycles. The detailed description of this planning, as well as the way how it was actually performed, is the main aim of the present paper. Response to major earthquakes affecting Gemini twins. Both Gemini telescopes, in Hawaii and Chile, are located in highly seismic active areas.
That means that the seismic protection is included in the structural design of the telescope, instruments and auxiliary structure. We will describe the specific design features to reduce permanent damage in case of major earthquakes. At this moment both telescopes have been affected by big earthquakes in and respectively. There is an opportunity to compare the original design to the effects that are caused by these earthquakes and analyze their effectiveness.
The paper describes the way the telescopes responded to these events, the damage that was caused, how we recovered from it, the modifications we have done to avoid some of this damage in future occasions, and lessons learned to face this type of events. Finally we will cover on how we pretend to upgrade the limited monitoring tools we currently have in place to measure the impact of earthquakes.
LBTO's long march to full operation: step 2. Christian Veillet , David S. Ashby , Julian C. Christou , John M. Hill , John K. Little , Douglas M. Summers , R. Step 1 Veillet et al. Step 2 is now focusing on the first two years of implementation of this plan, presenting the encountered obstacles, technical, cultural and political, and how they were overcome.
Weather and another incident with one of the Adaptive Secondaries slowed down commissioning activities. All the facility instruments should have been commissioned and offered in binocular mode in early or mid It will happen instead by the end of On a brighter side, the first scientific publications using the LBT as a m telescope through interferometry were published in and the overall number of publications has been raising at a good pace.
Three second generation instruments were selected, scheduled to come on the telescope in the next three to five years. Less progress than hoped was made to move the current observing mode of the telescope to a whole LBT-wide queue. In two years from now, we should have a fully operational telescope, including a laser-based Ground Layer AO GLAO system, hopefully fully running in queue, with new instruments in development, new services offered to the users, and a stronger scientific production.
Crawford , David A. We present an update on all observatory performance metrics since the start of full science operations in late , as well as key statistics describing the science efficiency and output of SALT, including the completion fractions of observations per priority class, and analysis of the more than refereed papers to date.
After addressing technical challenges and streamlining operations, these first years of full operations at SALT have seen good and consistently increasing rates of completion of high priority observations and, in particular, very cost-effective production of science publications. A collimated beam projector for precise telescope calibration. Michael Coughlin , T. The precise determination of the instrumental response function versus wavelength is a central ingredient in contemporary photometric calibration strategies.
This typically entails propagating narrowband illumination through the system pupil, and comparing the detected photon rate across the focal plane to the amount of incident light as measured by a calibrated photodiode. A collimated beam projector that projects a mask onto the focal plane of the instrument can distinguish focusing light paths from stray and scattered light, allowing for a precise determination of instrumental throughput.
This paper describes the conceptual design of such a system, outlines its merits, and presents results from a prototype system used with the Dark Energy Camera wide field imager on the 4-meter Blanco telescope. A calibration scheme that blends results from at-field images with collimated beam projector data to obtain the equivalent of an illumination correction at high spectral and angular resolution is also presented.
In addition to providing a precise system throughput calibration, by monitoring the evolution of the intensity and behaviour of the ghosts in the optical system, the collimated beam projector can be used to track the evolution of the filter transmission properties and various anti-reflective coatings in the optical system. Jonathan H. A critical aspect is that the operation is less likely to be responding to occasional targets of opportunity, and more likely to be responding to a continuing flow of events that must be efficiently prioritized and observed.
We discuss the implications for observatory operations, including potential modifications to the telescope itself or to the instrument suite. Organizational transformation to improve operational efficiency at Gemini South. In this paper we will describe how the Gemini South Engineering team has been reorganized from different functional units into a cross-disciplinary team while executing a transition plan that imposes several staff reductions, driven by budget reductions.
Several factors are of critical importance to the success of any change in organization. Budgetary processes, staff diversity, leadership style, skill sets and planning are all important factors to take into account to achieve a successful outcome. We will analyze the organizational alignment by using some proven management models and concepts. Program and Observation Scheduling I.
Sharing the skies: the Gemini Observatory international time allocation process. Steven J. Gemini Observatory serves a diverse community of four partner countries United States, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina , two hosts Chile and University of Hawaii , and limited-term partnerships currently Australia and the Republic of Korea. Observing time is available via multiple opportunities including Large and Long Pro- grams, Fast-turnaround programs, and regular semester queue programs.
The slate of programs for observation each semester must be created by merging programs from these multiple, conflicting sources. This paper de- scribes the time allocation process used to schedule the overall science program for the semester, with emphasis on the International Time Allocation Committee and the software applications used. Karl Forster , Kristin K.
Madsen , Hiromasa Miyasaka , William W. Craig , Fiona A. Harrison , Vikram R. Rana , Craig B. Markwardt , Brian W. The X-ray detector arrays are located on the spacecraft bus with the optics modules mounted on a flexible mast of The motion of the telescope optical axis on the detectors during each observation is measured by a laser metrology system and matches the pre-launch predictions of the thermal flexing of the mast as the spacecraft enters and exits the Earths shadow each orbit.
However, an additional motion of the telescope field of view was discovered during observatory commissioning that is associated with the spacecraft attitude control system and an additional flexing of the mast correlated with the Solar aspect angle for the observation. We present the methodology developed to predict where any particular target coordinate will fall on the NuSTAR detectors based on the Solar aspect angle at the scheduled time of an observation.
This may be applicable to future observatories that employ optics deployed on extendable masts. The automation of the prediction system has greatly improved observatory operations efficiency and the reliability of observation planning.
Feature-based telescope scheduler. Elahesadat Naghib , Robert J. Vanderbei , Christopher Stubbs. Feature-based Scheduler offers a sequencing strategy for ground-based telescopes. This scheduler is designed in the framework of Markovian Decision Process MDP , and consists of a sub-linear online controller, and an offline supervisory control-optimizer. Online control law is computed at the moment of decision for the next visit, and the supervisory optimizer trains the controller by simulation data.
Choice of the Differential Evolution DE optimizer, and introducing a reduced state space of the telescope system, offer an efficient and parallelizable optimization algorithm. Preliminary results for a simplified model of LSST is promising in terms of both optimality, and computational cost. Ongoing evolution of proposal reviews in the Spitzer warm mission. Lisa J. Storrie-Lombardi , Suzanne R. Dodd , Nancy A. Silbermann , L. The Spitzer Space Telescope is executing the seventh year of extended warm mission science.
The cryogenic mission operated from to The observing proposal review process has evolved from large, week-long, in-person meetings during the cryogenic mission to the introduction of panel telecon reviews in the warm mission. Further compression of the schedule and budget for the proposal solicitation and selection process led to additional changes in Large proposals are still reviewed at an in-person meeting but smaller proposals are no longer discussed by a topical science panel.
This hybrid process, involving an in-person committee for the larger proposals and strictly external reviewers for the smaller proposals, has been successfully implemented through two observing cycles. While people like the idea of not having to travel to a review it is still the consensus opinion, in our discussions with the community, that the in-person review panel discussions provide the most satisfying result.
Program and Observation Scheduling II. Francisco Delgado , Michael A. It would be much appreciated if someone who knows them could let them know that we would like to have their details. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website.
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