Possible E-ALFA Software Topics for Discussion and Specification

• Data Acquisition (Observing setup, what gets recorded, etc)

  Item	Responsibility	Requirements/Specs needed
  User Interface (GUI)	NAIC	Observing modes, displays, remote capabilities
  Telescope Control	NAIC	Motions, rates
  Backend Control	NAIC	Spectrometer setup, dump times, blanking See current WAPP configurations (link to WG#2)
  Radar Blanking	NAIC	Multiple?
  Data Recording	NAIC	Dump times, formats, headers See SDFITS notes (also WG#2)
  Bandpass Calibration	NAIC	Schemes per observing mode
  Position Registration	NAIC	Encoders, catalog Xreference, pointing info
  Beam Pattern	NAIC	Sidelobe/comalobe per beam as fn (AZ,ZA,freq)
  Record Keeping	NAIC	What info?, access?
  Raw data Archive	NAIC	Capacity, format, location
  Basic documentation	NAIC	E-ALFA specific + general

• On-Line Monitoring (What we'd like to be able to see/do in real time)

  Item	Responsibility	Requirements
  Monitor display	NAIC
  Statistics tools	NAIC
  Real-time RFI removal	NAIC
  RFI identification	NAIC	Cross id with hilltop, known rfi
  NVSS cross reference	NAIC	Click to get NVSS id
  1beam bandpass	NAIC	Click to get a bandpass
  1beam spectra	NAIC	Click to get a spectrum
  1beam coordinates	NAIC	Click to get coordinates
  Quick-look T-F maps	NAIC	Time-frequency domain
  Quick-look X-Y maps	NAIC	Sky maps
  Cookbook/documentation	NAIC

• Level I processing (What we'd like to have soon after observing)

  Item	Responsibility	Requirements
  Bandpass subtraction	NAIC
  Continuum subtraction	NAIC
  RFI excision
  Astrometry
  Gridding		Scheme development
  Level I CLEANing		First pass cleaning (continuum removal?)
  Level I spectra
  Level I maps		"Dirty" maps
  Level I cubes
  Continuum catalog
  Data validation process
  Level I access tools
  Level I documentation
  Level I software export		available for small project ALFA users
  Level I archive		Contents? location? access?

• Detection algorithms (How we figure out what we've got)

  Item	Responsibility	Requirements
  Baseline fluctuations
  Noise characteristics
  Sidelobe "cleaning" schemes
  Object finding algorithms		SExtractor, Xcorrelation, etc.
  Template fitting
  Injection of "fake sources"
  Extended sources vs. point sources
  Documentation
  Data validation process
  HI source catalog

• Level II processing (The ultimate legacy)

  Item	Responsibility	Requirements
  Level II CLEANing
  Level II spectra		Calibrated, at any position/nearest grid point
  Level II maps
  Level II cubes
  Data validation process
  Level II archive
  Level II access tools
  Level II documentation
  Level II software export		available for small project ALFA users
  Portal to NVO

• Science tools (Really helpful things that we ought to have)

  Item	Responsibility	Requirements
  Survey simulator		RG already has some
  ALFA simulator		Simulates what ALFA will see
  Overlay tool		e.g. NVSS, DSS, SDSS, 2MASS
  Catalog Xreference tool		ditto
  Toolkit documentation		ditto

• Related requirements (Hardware, manpower, schedule: we'd better think about these too!)

  Item	Responsibility	Hardware	Manpower	Delivery date
  On-line data	NAIC
  Raw data storage	NAIC
  Level I storage
  Level II storage
  Level I reduction
  Level II reduction
  Pipeline platform
  Pipeline portability
  Documentation		Web site
  Synergies with G-ALFAs		Web site
  Access tools




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This page created and maintained by Martha Haynes.

Last modified: Sat May 10 10:34:19 EDT 2003