Report from CASU ================ Data transfers -------------- These are running smoothly as usual through completion of 11A and the first few months of 11B. The raw WFCAM data archive in Cambridge is up to date, as are the transfers of all raw UKIDSS and calibration data to the ESO archive. For the current state-of-play including transfers and processing status see http://casu.ast.cam.ac.uk/surveys-projects/wfcam/data-processing/ The standdown period from June 28 to July 22 was used to fulfill two long- standing requests for reprocessing (described later). Cassegrain UKIRT archive ------------------------ No change WFCAM processing ---------------- Semester 11A processing was completed on time and the first two months of 11B processed data have now passed their final QC checks and monthly photometry updates and will be shortly flagged as ready to copy for WFAU. There were only a few minor data foibles to deal with over the last six months and other than those processing operations were routine. Pipeline updates ---------------- We have added a new header keyword to record the number of available 2MASS astrometric standards in the detector footprint which will be used as part of checks for sensible astrometric convergence. This arose as a desirable minor upgrade after checking all WFCAM data for (lack of) convergence of the WCS solution, a problem spotted occassionally, but only in GPS data. The existing small number of occurrences were fixed by adding a further WCS solution iteration. From 1st October column#58 in the catalogues will record the average confidence level for a detected object. This update replaces a redundant parameter and should aid in spotting spurious outliers in, for example, unusual colour-selected objects. It would be feasible to back propogate this change to pre-existing catalogues if there is sufficient demand. We were asked to reassess the issue of WFCAM processing given the loss of one of the cameras for one or more nights. The current pipeline sidelines any nights where this has happened. The simplest solution would be to operate a modified processing pipeline for those nights rather than complicate the existing working pipeline. This would require only a modest amount of rescripting of the pipeline flow control. User queries ------------ No major issues and only one minor oddity found by Steve Warren during checking for DR9. This was eventually tracked down to inconsistent interleave jitter offsets that resulted in a stack of two LAS superframes requiring different offsets for the 4 detectors [this should never happen and is not allowed in the robustified processing adopted a few years back]. This problem has happened a couple of times before, though has proven hard to pin down exactly where in the observing system it originates. Software release ---------------- As noted previously we have made some of the more general purpose processing software available as standalone programs, for more details see http://casu.ast.cam.ac.uk/surveys-projects/software-release The slight increase in external software support has proven to be more than balanced by a reduction in requests for extra post-pipeline processing steps and in particular has shifted the emphasis to users to carry out project-specific tests such as catalogue completeness. Fast-track releases ------------------- There have been large numbers of requests for instant access to processed data over the last six months. Although not a major issue to deal with, we would like to flag that the number of these have been steadily rising over the last year or so, particularly from the "paying customers". Interestingly there have been no "dribble" requests since making the software freely available. WFCAM reprocessing ------------------ During the WFCAM standdown, as noted earlier, we took the opportunity to fulfill two long-standing requests for reprocessing. The UDS H-band data for 56 nights scattered throughout 05b-07b was finally reprocessed and sent off for testing. Results look good and this will be integrated back into the main processed data repository after all interested parties have got a copy. Assorted GPS reprocessing in readiness for GPS-DR8 was done including: nebulising; further refining some frames with imperfect astrometry; and photometric recalibration for all GPS frames to enable better zeropoint solutions in high extinction regions. This was a two-fold operation involving deriving updated aperture corrections and revisiting the photometric calibration with an improved way of dealing with high extinction zones. After much deliberation we decided to update ALL other WFCAM photometry to make it all consistent. The changes were deliberately restricted to only catalogue headers, not contents. We also took the opportunity to introduce another header parameter recording the "average" computed modified E(B-V) to aid in later diagnostic tests. The relevant catalogue header updates were also made in the associated image files. Funding for WFCAM processing ---------------------------- We are about to submit a (delayed) grant request, under urgency procedures, for assorted project-based funding including support for WFCAM processing and user support at the current level i.e. 1 FTE/yr to run from April 2012 to March 2015. Given the uncertainties regarding the longer term duration of WFCAM surveys such as UHS, we decided to be upbeat.