IPAC 2MASS Working Group Meeting #105 Minutes

IPAC 2MASS Working Group Meeting #105 Minutes 10/01/96

Attendees: R. Beck, C. Beichman, T. Chester, R. Cutri, T. Evans, J. Fowler, L. Fullmer, T. Jarrett, G. Kopan, B. Light, C. Lonsdale, B. Madore, H. McCallon, S. Wheelock, J. White

AGENDA

  1. 2MAPPS 0.1 Testing
  2. Centralized Global Data
  3. New 2MASS Employees
  4. Delay in 3-Channel Data
  5. Table File Subset Utility

DISCUSSION

  1. 2MAPPS 0.1 Testing The 2MAPPS 0.1 test succeeded in passing data from the initial tape loading program through GALWORKS as of Monday morning, subject to limitations documented in the last several meeting minutes. This produced a spontaneous celebration. Now the job of removing liens will be udertaken.

  2. Centralized Global Data It has been recognized that some parameters are used by more than one subsystem and need to be maintained consistently. Examples of such parameters are aperture sizes used in photometry subroutines and calibration zero points. It was suggested that an organized procedure for central maintenance of these and other such global parameters be developed. Since the directory structure already has been designed with consideration given to multi-subsystem data maintenance and time-history dependence of data files, this fits well into the existing scheme and needs only specific visibility. Since multiple scientific-application subsystems are involved, it was decided that cognizance should be the responsibility of the software system engineers, hence the EXEC/PCP cognizant engineers, J. White and R. Beck. Team members are requested to identify parameters in their subsystems which might have previously unidentified corresponding counterparts in other subsystems, and in such cases to initiate dialogs to determine whether duplication has occurred and to centralize the parameters if appropriate. Such parameters should be reported to J. White.

  3. New 2MASS Employees T. Chester reported that the 2MASS project will hire two new employees in the near future, and opinions are welcomed on where these resources should be focused. Early indications are that one new data-management person and one new science analyst would probably be close to the optimal breakdown. Other thoughts are invited, as well as specific task breakdowns for these new employees. One suggestion was that the analyst might spend some time in support of the minor-planet catalog work, for which the securing of outside help from the planetary-science community has already gone well, but the local 2MAPPS software development has been on hold. One problem with seeking relatively specialized experience like this, however, is that the lead time needed is generally longer and may not fit into the schedule with which we are working.

  4. Delay in 3-Channel Data R. Cutri requested that subsystem cognizant engineers consider what impacts might result from an extended delay in obtaining 3-channel data at IPAC. The possibility exists that the opportunity to mount the camera on the Kitt Peak 50-inch telescope might slip away because of delays in camera assembly and alignment; this could mean that the first 3-channel data would come from the Mount Hopkins telescope in January of next year.

    Among the obvious impacts is the fact that increased risk due to lack of testing the software with realistic 3-channel data would have to be traded off against absorbing the additional expense of generating a more realistic simulation capability than had been foreseen. Since the project has adopted a very powerful pointing reconstruction algorithm that uses data from all three bands simultaneously to obtain the maximum yield of information, it is very deirable to test the pointing reconstruction software thoroughly with real data for a significant period before relying on it to process survey data. The GALWORKS subsystem also depends on realistic 3-channel data for testing at the level needed to ensure survey-processing readiness. Other impacts should be reported to R. Cutri.

  5. Table File Subset Utility J. Fowler reported that several team members have encountered the need to subset the rather long-lined table files for specialized tests; it would be nice to avoid the duplication of effort resulting from everyone developing their own subsetting utilities. It was pointed out that certain editors are quite able to handle long lines and work with columns, and that awk scripts should be easy to write (none have been volunteered so far, however). Anyone who has developed a general-purpose table-file subsetting utility is requested to inform the team.