From nch@roe.ac.uk Fri Mar 15 18:22:41 2013 Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2013 14:05:52 +0000 From: Nigel Hambly To: Eckhard Sutorius , Nicholas Cross , Rob Blake , Ross Collins , Mike Read , Mark Holliman , Clive Davenhall Cc: Lorenzo Rimoldini , Bob Mann , Jim Emerson , Keith Noddle , Norman Gray , Tom Shanks , Stephen Warren , Simon Dye , Stelios Voutsinas , Tom Kerr , Mike Irwin , Andy Lawrence at ROE , Nigel Metcalfe , Maria-Rosa Cioni , Alastair Edge , James Dunlop , Matt Jarvis , Richard McMahon at IOA , Dante Minniti , Phil Lucas Subject: WFAU VDFS Science Archives project meeting, 15/3/2013 Present: MAR, RPB, ETWS, RGM, NJC, NCH, RSC, MSH Apologies: JPE, AL, STV, MSH, NG, KTN DoNM: 10am Friday April 12th 2013 in the Villas meeting room MAR in the chair (room is booked). Actions discharged this time: ----------------------------- ACTION: ETWS (with help from NJC as necessary) to add FeII 1.644 micron filter details into the WSA. Discharged (it was A/Eb-v not Vega to AB that needed calculating - my bad) ACTION: NJC to contact CASU to enquire about the latest CASU software and the availability of a stacker for VST. Discharged; MJI maintained nothing has changed in the SW and pointed to the existing READMEs, but the latter are incomplete with respect to the options necessary for correct stacking for the various instruments... maybe a bit of trial-and-error is needed? NJC may pester JRL again in the near future when the GES dust has settled a little (see below) ACTION: MAR to do VHS QC (mainly deprecating duplicates) and contact Alastair about VIKING QC requirements. Discharged (the latter by NJC); VHS QC done by MAR and VIKING requirements are the same, so the same will be done there too. ACTION: MAR to liaise with STV over updating new UI webpages. Discharged; this concerns the new OSA interface. STV and MAR will continue to work on this next week. Actions partly discharged but continuing: ----------------------------------------- None this time. Actions carried forward from 1/03/2013 meeting ----------------------------------------------- ACTION: ETWS, with RPB, to develop an automated helper script to keep release DB files links updated. Continues; this one still has low priority. ACTION: MAR to supply a list of non-survey projects to be released. Continues Specific points and new actions: -------------------------------- Project management: RGM updated the team concerning various staff positions. WFCAM, VISTA and VST updates: Nothing to report. Comments and issues arising from CASU minutes: The team noted the minutes of the meeting of 27th Feb. The only substantial comment concerned the versioning of Vista processing, and some confusion at this end over the exact details of the header, catalogue and pixel(?) changes that need to be mirrored at this end. ACTION: ETWS to contact EGS to get details of the versioning differences V1.0-1.3 in Vista processed products Networking: ETWS noted that WFCAM data transfers are now up-to-date to end Dec 2012 (VISTA/VST were already there). WSA/VSA/OSA/GES Operations: ETWS reported: -- Transferred Nov and Dec 2012 WFCAM data via the VISTA machine at CASU while apm7 was offline. -- apm7 is now back again and I'll setup the login again. -- P89 ingests into the VVV are going well and approximately two thirds of the data is now ingested. -- Worked on the OSA browser pages for the new UI. NCH updated the team on the current status of Gaia-ESO Science Archive ingests. He proceeded to turn the air blue with expletives, noting that working groups are supplying data to the Cambridge operational suppository (to coin a phrase) in various ad-hoc formats including plain ASCII with sometimes missing and/or non-unique headers, hardly any units, often missing attributes descriptions, poor choice of default values (what happens if a star has Teff = 9999 K ...?!), and the icing on the cack (and that's no typo) being FITS-minus, i.e. FITS tables with an XML VOtable contained in the PHDU, but consisting of simply a list of attributes, again with no descriptions, units etc. So the plaintive cry of "standard FITS binary tables only please" from both NCH and JRL last year fell on deaf ears then. Anyway, NCH and RSC are gamely undertaking to define some sort of useful schema out of this lot, and assemble a working archive in plenty of time for the meeting in Nice. Hardware and Systems: MSH noted that all's well on the hardware front, with even the new Gaia DB server up and running for Intersystems Cache installation. MSH also noted that some kind of test plan for roll-out of MS SQL 2012 (SQL 2008 due to fall off support within the next 3 years?) is probably needed, so has volunteered to install on the a test DB cluster node for further software testing. RSC volunteered to run some standard tests once the DB node is installed. Survey Data Release: The VVV P87 release continues, currently still working through neighbour table and variability curation (CU16/6). VMC was released a week or so ago to the respective survey consortium. VHS P89 release DB has been prepared on the public server and is undergoing DB statistics checks; VIKING P89 is next in the queue. ATLAS consortium release with sparkling new User Interface is pending some final work by STV and MAR; it was noted that we are also awaiting a consortium user list from the ATLAS PI... NJC noted an email exchange with VPHAS PI Janet Drew concerning curation of that VST public survey in the OSA. This prospect is much appreciated by the team since it means the generic OSA work will be deployed in support of more surveys/users. Software: NJC noted further work on the archive-end list-driven photometry process, with "luptitude" code now implemented but with the black-magic softening parameter needing a bit of attention. RSC and NCH have been working on the GES archive ingest tools and schema. Non-survey Data Release: It was noted that there are plenty of WFCAM and VISTA PI non-survey programmes that can be release if ops have any spare time. Astrogrid deployment, VO & Data Analysis services: Nothing of note. Miscellaneous: NJC noted some ESO feedback on data deliveries. ============================================================= Nigel Hambly Tel: +44-131-668-8234 Institute for Astronomy Fax: +44-131-668-8416 School of Physics and Astronomy University of Edinburgh Email: nch@roe.ac.uk Royal Observatory Blackford Hill Edinburgh EH9 3HJ The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. ============================================================= -- Scanned by iCritical.