From nch@roe.ac.uk Mon Feb 16 08:32:06 2004
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 12:01:06 +0000 (GMT)
From: Nigel Hambly <nch@roe.ac.uk>
To: WFCAM Science Archive Team -- Eckhard Sutorius <etws@roe.ac.uk>,
Harvey MacGillivray <hmg@roe.ac.uk>, Ian Bond <iab@roe.ac.uk>,
Mike Read <mar@roe.ac.uk>, Nigel Hambly <nch@roe.ac.uk>,
Bob Mann <rgm@roe.ac.uk>
Cc: CCs for WSA weekly meeting minutes distribution -- Clive Davenhall
<acd@roe.ac.uk>, Andrew Lawrence <al@roe.ac.uk>,
Andy Adamson <a.adamson@jach.hawaii.edu>, Peter Shillan <gps@roe.ac.uk>,
John Taylor <jdt@roe.ac.uk>, Jim Emerson <j.p.emerson@qmul.ac.uk>,
Martin Hill <mch@roe.ac.uk>, Mike Irwin <mike@ast.cam.ac.uk>,
Peredur Williams <pmw@roe.ac.uk>
Subject: WFAU WSA weekly meeting minutes, 13th February 2004
Minutes of WFCAM Science Archive meeting: 13th February 2004
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Present: MAR, NCH, AL, ETWS, RGM, PMW, IAB
Apologies: JPE, JMS, GPS, MCH, HMG, JDT
DONM: 10am, Friday 20th February 2004, plate library.
Actions discharged:
-------------------
ACTION: PMW to order another 2 boxes of Ultrium2 LTO tapes.
Done (tapes haven't arrived yet thought)
ACTION: NCH, IAB and ETWS to meet Tues PM for another joint programming
session.
Done; another scheduled for Friday pm for final iteration on CU1
Actions partly discharged but continuing:
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ACTION: ALL to review risk register and think of any new internal or
external risks that should be documented in the risk register.
Defered until top level plan is explicitly defined. PMW tabled
the VISTA risk register as an example.
ACTION: JPE to design and set up centralised VDFS web pages. Progressing.
(there is now a link to it from our WSA Twiki).
- continuing; thanks for progressing these.
Actions carried forward from 23/01/04 meeting:
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None.
Specific points and new actions:
--------------------------------
Project management:
PMW noted that there was still no news from PPARC concerning the revision
of the WFAU RG, but emphasised that we should keep in mind the possibility
of a revised case being needed on a relatively short timescale as it is
our preference to get the RG revised sooner rather than later in order to
source any new e-science allocation as a result of the PPRP review
(specifically to recruit for Q4 this year).
Comments and issues arising from CASU fortnightly minutes:
The meeting noted the last lot of CASU fortnightly meeting minutes.
Two issues arose: NCH noted that WJS has produced a drafty draft of
a VDFS User Requirements document and that this has been circulating at
CASU. NCH has asked WJS to send the same to WFAU for our perusal; AL
emphasised the philosophical point that the VDFS user requirements should
really be driven from the user end, ie. the archive, to the pipeline and
not the other way around...
The other point arising was that CASU and WFAU have agreed (via ETWS
and MJI) various additional conventions concerning the practicalities
of the WFCAM data transfer (see the CASU minutes).
Networking:
Nothing new this week.
Hardware:
NCH noted that the Ultra320 servers were behaving reasonably well, but
that we are still awaiting firmware updates from Tyan for the on-board
interface cards.
ACTION: NCH to chase up Eclipse concerning the status of Tyan motherboard
U320 controller firmware updates.
(Note not discussed in the meeting: NCH had found the aircon in C1 to
be underperforming again at the beginning of the week; the problem
now seems to be fixed but we must keep an eye on the situation and
encourage the premises chaps to add in some spare capacity to the C1
aircon).
Software:
NCH, ETWS and IAB reported another most fruitful extreme
programming session; another is pencilled in for Friday pm.
IAB reported: "CU1 now has the following functionality: launching
of transfer script, scanning of fits files, communication and operation
with the data base. This can be effectively ticked off as
finished."
NCH noted that he has revised and simplified the image metadata schemas
in the WSA in the light of chats with MJI & IAB concerning calibration
frames. IAB suggested that we should look closely at some example
calibration frames from CASU to check that their metadata fits into
the revised relational model.
ACTION: IAB to contact MJI/JRL to ask about the possibility of some more
example calibration frames (eg. darks, flats, skys, defringes,
object masks).
(Note not discussed in the meeting: NCH & ETWS have agreed that ETWS
should consult with AJV concerning some hacking of the CVS repository
to tidy up by deleting some deprecated directories. ETWS will inform
the team when this is about to take place so that all outstanding
edits can be committed and private repository copies scrubbed).
SSA:
NCH noted that since we are awaiting final updates to stabilise the
catalogue servers, the opportunity is being taken to load in the
2MASS and USNOB external catalogues and to join these and SDSS DR1 to
the SSA to enhance the joint querying capabilites in line with the
WSA requirements. NCH also noted that the reload of the SSA Source
table (including l,b,d and Eb-v from Schlegel attributes) was nearly
done (should finish sometime over the weekend).
Miscellaneous:
NCH finally asked the team to discuss attendance at the VOProcPlus
meeting in Leicester on Feb 25th. Some discussion ensued as to the
likely format and content of the meeting, and the most appropriate
attendees. A decision was made that in addition to AL, MAR would
attend the meeting since his Java interface expertise is most
appropriate for the likely Astrogrid infrastructure presentations.
RGM also noted that attendance from the VO Team (MCH?) would also be
advantageous.