14 November 2003 Present: MJI, JRL, PSB, DWE, STH Agenda ------ 1. Actions from last meeting 2. Comments on WFAU minutes 3. Report on Q4M1 VDMT monthly meeting 4. Progress on ISAAC reductions 5. Report on interpolation trials 6. Upcoming UKIDSS meeting 7. Goals for ESO visit 8. AOB Minutes ------- 1. Actions from last meeting STH is currently investigating the supplied UFTI photometric standards files and will have finished by the UKIDSS meeting (21 Nov) - ongoing <<<< STH has extended the number of fields that he has established for WFCAM to the south for use by VISTA. 90 fields have been identified, each with more than 100 2MASS stars in them. A discussion on the WFCAM/VISTA footprints and possible contamination by bright stars ensued. These issues will be investigated by the UKIDSS meeting and the surviving fields incorporated in the relevant WFCAM and VISTA documentation <<<< STH the numbering of documents is about half done and when complete the authors will be emailed with the appropriate information. <<<< MJI is still waiting for details about the QE variations of the 4 science-grade detectors. He will discuss this with Mark Casali at the UKIDSS meeting. <<<< MJI contacted JPE regarding a list of the sections missing from the User Requirements Document and Calibration Plan document. JPE then discussed this with PSB. The main issues were to do with camera templates and photometry, which were resolved. JRL have made progress understanding the properties of and reducing MJI the FIRES/ISAAC data (see item 4.) PSB has arranged an ESO visit (with Malcolm Stewart and Michele Peron) for 4/5 December (see item 7.) ALL comments concerning the V1.0 FITS header document were emailed to MJI who collated them and passed them on - resulting in V1.1 ! ALL comments regarding Steven Beard's camera software document were emailed to MJI who collated them and passed them on. STH acquired the 3 (not 6) sets of UFTI service data and placed them on apm3. It was agreed that STH would be generally responsible for acquiring any new UFTI data and overseeing the processing. <<<< JRL the reduction of this UFTI data is ongoing <<<< STH will ask SJW on Monday if he wants to pursue the issue of CIRSI and ISAAC FIRES comparisons <<<< ALL should think some more about how the process of pipeline acceptance should be organized. This may be discussed at Monday's telecon and possibly at the UKIDSS meeting. <<<< STH has not looked at the spatial systematics in the UFTI standards data ongoing <<<< 2. Comments on WFAU minutes It was noted that WFAU were ready to ingest updated CIRSI-based dummy WFCAM data - see item below. 3. Report on Q4M1 MC monthly meeting STH reported on the meeting. The CASU report was favourably received given the recent good progress, especially wrt to the achievements of JRL's JAC visit, the signing off of the WFAU ICD, agreement on the list-driven photometry parameters and the near s/o of the JAC ICD. WFAU now has a test archive online (http://thoth.roe.ac.uk/ssa/). We were encouraged to try it and send feedback. CASU agreed to supply WFAU with WFCAM-CIRSI test data with updated headers to test WSA data ingestion. MJI volunteered to sort out updating the FITS headers now that we have signed off the WFCAM FITS header document. <<<< The terms of reference of the proposed VDFS User Committee (VDUC) were discussed at length. VDUC will comprise a mixture of astronomical users, representatives from UKIDSS (CSS, CFT), PPARC, VDFS and AstroGRID, with roughly 10 full time members. The first meeting is anticipated to be in January 2004. Risk registers were briefly discussed. DWE pointed out that long term sickness of group members was missing from the list. This needs adding <<<< VDFS/VEGA funding was discussed. There is some confusion about when VDFS funding began. Irrespective of this JPE has asked for the VDFS spend since April 2002 as part of the input required for the next VDFS bid in Januray 2004. Future budget requirements for this bid are also required for discussion at the next VDMT meeting. <<<< Reminder: abstracts for the SPIE conference on Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, to be held in Glasgow next summer, are due by 24th November. <<<< JPE expressed the wish to spend more time working with PSB and Will Sutherland to progress the ESO VDFS documentation. 4. Progress on ISAAC reductions The FIRES data from ISAAC on the VLT is being used as a dry run test for tuning and commissioning the pipeline on previously unseen data. ISAAC provides the closest match to the expected properties of WFCAM/VISTA data and to the processing strategy we plan to adopt. In processing this data (several thousand science frames) CASU will be able to compare pipeline science products with science results from already published high quality and manually tuned processed data (Labbe et al. 2003, AJ 125, 1107). The ISAAC data processing is highlighting some interesting properties of current NIR arrays and controller systems: our old pal the reset anomaly is significantly present and interestingly appears to be a strong function of both exposure time and average illumination level on the detector, but otherwise appears to be stable; the dark frame properties are a function of exposure time but otherwise are stable; as noted by Labbe et al. the flatfield properties of ISAAC appear stable over long periods; residual data reset anomalies after subtraction of the equivalent exposure frame are a function of average illumination level on the detector and leave systematic background variations at a typical level ~+/-100 ADUs (cf. typical single integration photon noise of ~15 ADUs rms) in Ks the thermal emission from the telescope subsystems varies; assorted tests of sky subtraction and flatfielding strategies have been made; an interesting unanticipated feature were the subtleties involved in generating twilight flats due to the sky level changing during the readout (at the ~1% level) leading to interesting "sector"-based patterns; the FIRES data is not relevant for image persistence or cross-talk tests since no seriously bright image present in field (HDFS); there will be a presentation on some of the results at the UKIDSS meeting. 5. Report on interpolation trials DWE summarized the work done on interpolation to date. Tests have been made on simulated data generated for the interleaving investigations using SWarp to resample the data. The main conclusion was that the interpolation method of choice depends on what the data is going to be used for. For example: nearest neighbour while great for noise properties is not good for accurate mas astrometry; sincx-like methods are excellent for astrometry but impart ringing artefacts around bright images, or defects, as well as leaving interesting noise covariance properties; bi-linear is not a bad general purpose method but causes the worst noise correlation. A few traditional alternatives (Hann/Hamming, hyperbolic tangent, and bi-cublic spline) still need investigating. An interim report (with added version number) will be released shortly on the VDFS web pages via a note in the diary and documentation pages. <<<< 6. Upcoming UKIDSS meeting It was noted that the schedule was a bit tight and that rather than JRL, MJI and STH all giving presentations it would be better to focus on an overview of the plans and progress to date and a brief discussion of the calibration plans, leaving question time for more detailed discussions. MJI will ask SJW for an up-to-date agenda during the Monday telecon and we can then decide who needs to attend, and who needs to speak . <<<< 7. Goals for ESO visit PSB noted that while the first draft of the DID had been completed and delivered to SMB over a week ago, it was still being worked on. The visit of PSB and JRL++ to ESO has been arranged for 4/5th December and the agenda is being actively developed in conjunction with ESO. <<<< The current topics being proposed for discussion are: get an understanding of the infrastucture that will run the VISTA pipeline; get documentation for CPL. Have detailed discussion on some examples and the technical issues involved in sharing/reusing CPL and new VISTA reduction modules; WFCAM Data transfer. Get a copy of the software that was discussed at ADASS that will be used to transfer WFCAM data to ESO. Find out exactly what we need to add/replicate in the WFCAM headers so that ESO's archive FITS reader will be happy; based on this can we progress plans for data transfer for VISTA ? other possibles: bounce the current DID and data definitions around and see if we are heading in the right direction regarding DID and OBs; photometric standards - perhaps not yet observing blocks, allowed structure in particular wrt survey operations. 8. AOB There will be a telecon on Monday at 11:30 in JRL's office. The main purpose of this is to clarify several issues with SJW as outlined in a recent email from JPE. A considered reply to this email will be sent out by close-of-play today so that the telecon will be better focussed and hopefully more effective. <<<< PSB noted that a new SRIF-funded Gbit port switch (with 24 Gbit/s ports) had been installed in the APM building on the IoA's 2 Gbit/s LAN backbone. This gives a minimum 1 Gbit/s connectivity to SuperJanet and the outside world. Currently only two Linux systems (APM3 and APM6) are connected to this. MJI reminded everyone about the vdfs/ alternative entry point to the web pages (or he would have done if he hadn't forgotten). And he also forgot to mention the following email from AA - d'oh! "I've been noticing an item on your page about the survey manager here. I have not exactly finalised this but I will shortly - the person concerned will be Jane Buckle, who will take responsibility, while WFCAM is on, for monitoring the "queue", reinstating MSBs which need redoing etc. on a timescale approximately three weeks to a month. the more strategic monitoring of final archive quality is something for the UKIDSS scientist and food taster. If you need more details, let me know." Continuing Actions ------------------ STH finish investigating the supplied UFTI photometric standards files by the UKIDSS meeting (21 Nov) STH finish the southern extension of the photometric standards, incorporate PSB changes for WFCAM calibration document and with PSB incorporate extension within VDFS documents STH finish off numbering of documents and email authors with the appropriate information MJI acquire details about the QE variations of the 4 science-grade detectors JRL finish reduction of UFTI service data STH acquire UFTI service data as it becomes available and oversee UFTI reduction and comparison STH ask SJW on Monday if he wants to pursue the issue of CIRSI and FIRES comparisons ALL more thought on pipeline acceptance required STH look at the spatial systematics in the UFTI standards data New Actions ----------- MJI supply WFAU with WFCAM-CIRSI test data with updated headers to test WSA data ingestion. STH update risk registers (illness risk) MJI provide JPE with budget requirements for next VDFS bid (Jan) and also STH the spend since April 2002 All think about abstracts for the SPIE conference (24 November deadline) DWE release interpolation report on the web MJI ask SJW about agenda for UKIDSS meeting PSB finalise agenda and goals for ESO visit JRL MJI reply to JPE about UKIDSS telecon email by end of today STH