1. Science Operations Phil Edwards | Head of Science Operations
24 November 2014
CSIRO ASTRONOMY & SPACE SCIENCE

2. Outline
2015APR proposal statistics Support model ATCA issues and 16cm RFI Parkes LBA 2014 publications Citation Impact Large and small projects Time Assignment Committee Notes for 2015OCT
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3. 2015APR proposal statistics
Number of proposals
Number of proposers
Ave. per proposal
Number of unique proposers
Ave. unique PI/co-Is per proposal
ATCA 79
662
8.3
421
5.3
Parkes 33
303
9.2
128
3.8
Mopra 13 83
6.4 70
5.4
LBA 16
130
8.1
106
6.6
Tidbinbilla 5 25
5.0 22
4.4
Altogether, ~620 unique proposers for 2015APR

4. New support model
First-time observers will be required to come to the SOC, and will be provided with telescope orientation and training sessions
Parkes projects must designate a Project Expert from within the team who is the first point of contact for observing support for that team.
The requirement for Parkes observers to return to the SOC annually will be dispensed with: the PI must ensure the observers on their team are trained and competent observers.
All observers coming to the SOC will be provided with an ATCA Friend for the duration of their stay. The requirement to observe from the SOC annually in order to be “remote qualified” will be retained for most observers.
Regular, competent observers (typically, people observing on at least three separate occasions or for more than 10 days per semester) can extend the time between their return visits by 6 months.
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5. Computing issues
UNIX password aging is now enabled. Passwords will start to expire after 15 Jan 2015. Reminder s will be sent, starting from 14 days before expiration. Passwords only need to be changed once per year. If your password expires, your SSH key will stop working also.
Passwords for the VNC observing sessions are now changed each semester. The same password is used for ATCA (xbones and caccc1), Parkes and Mopra. To obtain new password:
A new (JIRA based) Fault Report and Tracking System has been introduced. Observers can submit reports by , or after authenticating with their ident and NEXUS password.
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6. ATCA
Since October 2014, the default location for ATCA observing is the SOC. First-time observers must observe from the SOC, and those wishing to re-qualify for remote observing. Robin Wark has moved from Narrabri to Sydney, and the DA role has been moved to the SOC. The ATCA Portal (i) allows observers to book in advance for slots, (ii) sends reminders 2 & 1 weeks before the observation if no-one has booked, (iii) lets us know where users will observe from, (iv) has a chat window for staff, DA, and observers to communicate. First on-line training video available (see Jamie’s talk). SOC requires CSIRO/visitor card to access after hours: this is provided to all visitors who submit a booking reservation (see the SOC user guide –
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7. ATCA sky cam http://www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/ATCACam/
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9. ATCA use of Observing bands
2012—14 APR semesters
2012—14 OCT semesters

10. ATCA observing by band (APR semesters)
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11. Array configurations 2012 – 2014
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12. ATCA 16cm band
Mid-week RFI was first seen in June It did, for 1~2 years, wipe-out a number of 16cm observations. When it is strong enough to saturate the receivers, as it often was in the early days, no amount of flagging will recover useful data.
However, it is not always so strong that it saturates the receivers, and in those cases it can readily be flagged with pgflag.
The producers of mid-week RFI now usually provide some advance warning of likely episodes.
Some investigation of other options for reducing the impact of mid-week RFI, such as real-time flagging of data in CABB, has been made.
Generally, ~30% of 16cm band data needs to be flagged.

13. ATCA RFI survey comparison
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14. ATCA RFI weathermap
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15. Perytons Petroff et al. 2015 MNRAS submitted (arXiv:1504.02165)
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16. Parkes
Issues with the reliability of DFB3 remain unresolved: at present DFB3 is able to be used with reduced functionality. DFB4 or CASPSR should be considered as alternatives to DFB3.
MBCORR functionality is increasingly being replaced by HIPSR. MBCORR will only be available when a compelling science case is made for its use.
MB20 will be removed from the focus cabin for an extended period early in the 2015OCT semester to allow the testing and characterising of a Phased Array Feed (PAF) receiver. The PAF will not be available for scientific observing in 2015OCT.
A number of receiver changes will be made during 2015OCT so that the 10cm/50cm receiver and H-OH receiver ( GHz) will be available at times during semester.
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17. Parkes
Ettore Carretti stepped down as Parkes Senior System Scientist in December George Hobbs has been acting Parkes Lead Scientist while position readvertised. The Senior System Scientist will be actively involved in PAF testing and Ultra-Wide-Band feed characterisation. Details available from Apply on-line at Application deadline 30 June 2015.
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18. LBA
Addition of Warkworth 30m: First light at 6.7 GHz in 2014 (Petrov et al. arXiv: ), and at 8.4 GHz in March 2015
Increased AuScope availability at X band
2015APR is last semester for National Facility use of Mopra
Reduced Parkes availability due to limited receiver changes
Plan to transfer correlation from Curtin to UTas in October

19. LBA: publications in 2014
“TANAMI monitoring of Cen A: The complex dynamics in the inner parsec of an extragalactic jet” Müller et al., 2014, A&A, 569, A115
“Unusual flaring activity in the blazar PKS during ” Buson et al., 2014, A&A, 569, A40
“TANAMI blazars in the IceCube PeV neutrino fields” Krauss et al., 2014, A&A, 566, L7
“The unusual multiwavelength properties of the gamma-ray source PMN J ” Müller et al., 2014, A&A, 562, A4
“Multi-epoch VLBI Observations of the Nuclear Starburst Region of NGC 253: Improved Modeling of the Supernova and Star formation Rates” Rampadarath et al., 2014, AJ, 147, 5
“Multiwavelength observations of the the binary system PSR B /LS2883 around the —2011 periastron passage,” Chernyakova et al., 2014, MNRAS, 439, 432

20. Publications
2014
In 2014, ATCA = 66, Parkes = 39, Mopra = 16, LBA = 6

21. Impact
Rank
No. of papers
No. of citations
Citations/paper 1
VLA (582.2)
VLA (8478)
Ryle (19.9) 2
ATCA (139.4)
ATCA (1704)
Parkes (16.9) 3
VLBA (105.2)
Parkes (1669)
VLA (14.6) 4
Parkes (98.6)
VLBA (1161)
Green Bank (13.1) 5
Arecibo (84.7)
Arecibo (969)
ATCA (12.2)
Results for cm-band radio telescopes from Trimble & Ceja (2008), examining impact for papers published in 2001, 2002, and 2003, based on citations in the following three years.

22. Impact based on papers 2008-2011
No. of papers
No. of citations
Citations/paper
VLA
487 < n < 869
11246 < n < 21490
23<n<25
ATCA
167
3293 20
Parkes
111
3965 35
Results for ATCA and Parkes (based on ATNF publications lists)
and VLA (based on ADS), examining impact for papers published in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, based on citations as given by ADS in the following years.
(N.B. Not all papers in publication lists are reporting results from observations with the telescope.)

23. The impact of large and small projects
The most highly cited VLA paper is NVSS: 2900 citations ATCA LMC imaging, 12 papers: 1050 citations The Parkes Multibeam Pulsar Survey’s 8 papers: 1120 citations The PMN Survey’s 8 papers: 950 citations The most highly cited ATCA paper is Kulkarni et al 1998: 430 citations AT20G, 10 papers: 330 citations The ATCA Cen A imaging’s 2 papers: 65 citations (See ATNF News No. 75, Oct 2013 for ATCA’s most highly cited papers)
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24. The impact of large and small projects
Too early to draw any definitive conclusions, but …
… large projects can achieve good citation/hour rates
… large projects can take a long time to publish
… large projects have enough momentum to publish
… small projects can also achieve good rates
… ToO/NAPA projects can also do very well
… it’s likely a smaller fraction of small projects get published
… but small projects can be good training/experience
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25. Time Assignment Committee
Proposal deadline is 5pm AEDT Wednesday June 17th. There is a count-down clock in OPAL for this deadline! A document outlining TAC procedures is available from the TAC webpage: We ask users to include their proposal codes in their publications.
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26. (Selected) ATCA papers published 2008-2011
TAC
grade
Number of citations
(Mean = 20, median = 16)

27. Notes for 2015OCT … and 2016APR
Information on telescope status for 2015OCT is available at Parkes: Removal of MB20 from the focus cabin for an extended period is planned for the 2015OCT semester to allow PAF testing. Some 20cm capability will be made available in its place. Observing with the PAF will not be possible in 2015OCT. DFB3 is becoming increasingly problematic. Mopra: 2015APR was the last semester in which Mopra was offered as a National Facility telescope. ATCA: We will be advising observers for 2016APR that the ATCA 3mm receivers are aging and that we have no spare LNAs. Observing in the 3mm band will be offered on a best-efforts basis, but the loss of one polarisation one antenna is possible.
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28. Thank you CASS/ATNF Philip Edwards Head of Science Operationse w
CSIRO ASTRONOMY AND SPACE SCIENCE

29. LBA observing time (in hrs) by year & band
‘04
‘05
‘06
‘07
‘08
‘09
‘10
‘11
‘12
‘13
‘14
20cm 36 37
107
142 58 65 44 20 84 64
223
13cm 54 91 51 11 70 75
6cm 22 60 42 14 95 88 72 31
114 48
3cm 98
192
127 99
226
168
290
247
148
210
1.5cm 24 12 21
105 57
113 82
106
9mm 4 3
total
244
333
341
366
505
396
519
463
445
473
490

30. NVSS (Condon et al.) citation history

31. Large projects
Moving to an increased number (or exclusively) large projects on the ATCA offers the advantages of
Self-supporting teams requiring minimal training and support
Greater flexibility in accommodating lost time
Consideration needs to be given to
Scheduling inefficiencies of non-”all sky” projects
Maintaining opportunities for ToO and NAPA observations
Whether large projects outperform small projects on the basis of citations per hour of observing
Presentation title | Presenter name | Page 31

32. Large projects
Parkes has a smaller number of projects than ATCA. They are on average larger. The majority are on-going. There is a sizeable, relatively stable, user community. This has led to the current support model where each team designates one or more project experts as the first point of contact for after hours observing support.
Presentation title | Presenter name | Page 32

33. Queue mode observing
The ATNF user=observer model is described in an SPIE paper
Queue mode is well suited for “standard” projects
Reducing/dispensing with requirements to travel to SOC may increase user community
What fraction of projects benefit from being interactive?
Do users want the option of monitoring their observations?
It is tempting to think queue mode leads easily to dynamic scheduling…
Should we move away from the binary decision scheduled/non- scheduled?
Presentation title | Presenter name | Page 33