July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago Quality Control: closing the loop Reinhard Hanuschik, DFO/QC 1. Principles 2. Processes 3. Critical components 4. Conclusions

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago purpose of calibration: –calibrate the science observations = remove (atm+tel)*(ins+det) –know the status of tel+ins+det  maintenance, intervention –calibrate the instrument purpose of QC: –ensure that calibs can do that –to a known and predictable accuracy 1. Principles

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago QC group: –7+1 scientists –data processing and quality control –roughly 400 GB raw data per month, 11,500 processing jobs –80 SM packages –9 VLT, 2 VLTI; 2 survey telescopes

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago aspects of QC: –formal compliance of file format: PSO, DMD/DBCM, DMD/SAO –compliance with user constraints: PSO (OB grading) –check raw files against reference files: PSO –check pipeline products, do optimized association, optimized processing: QC group –compare to similar data (trending): QC group

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago standard QC Paranal SciOps QC Garching raw  proc (on-line pipe) raw  proc (off-line pipe) certification trending 10 days fits file transfer

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago standard QC shared QC: close the loop feedback to enable corrections Paranal SciOps QC Garching raw  proc (on-line pipe) raw  proc (off-line pipe) certification trending 10 days fits file transfer HC process HC monitor < 1 day ops log ftp

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago 2. Processes Components: On-site QC Health Check monitor QC processing and certification QC trending 10 days!

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago On-site QC –day/night astronomers: completeness check visual quality checks: exposure level, patterns inspection of pipeline products: are there any? do look reasonable?

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago Reference frames –

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago Health Check monitor – –day astronomer + QC scientist: how do new calibs compare to previous ones do new calibs show up at all outliers, alerts? trigger actions currently being upgraded to better organize information, closeups etc.

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago upgraded: Giraffe, VIMOS

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago QC process, certification –QC scientists in Garching: process all calibration data, SM science data associate best-possible calibs to new data –best: closest in time, certified, dynamically updated –correct dependencies (following the cascade) process with best-possible pipeline setup –optimized, customized parameters –maybe patched/improved beta versions measure and assess product quality –customized QC reports, experience –trending analysis certify products –released for archiving and delivery –released for usage in processing other data

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago Trending –done and maintained by QC group set of current and history trending plots customized for each product type or instrument component access to ASCII data –

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago –useful for: maintenance planning (“by how much do the zeropoints degrade over a year by dust accumulation”) complete instrument history (“how often in the past has grating XZ shown this kind of shift”) InsScientists, PIs, archive users (“how does my current dispersion rms compare to earlier observations in P74”)

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago 3. Critical components, challenges calibration plan –definition of calibs and frequency must be complete –must include Health Check calibs –execution must be complete: daytime (calOBbuilder) twilight/nighttime (…)

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago on-site QC, Health Check monitor –define within IOT: regular set of HC calibs (regular spacing, daily or so) set of key QC1 params to be included (cannot be all, must focus on most critical ones): –DET, FILT, GRISM/GRAT, LAMPs, system throughput etc. –don’t expect all trending info on the HC monitor simply too much … find under full history, all plots, all tutorial info, all text files

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago pipelines –QC1 parameters need to be pipeline- produced and included in ops log files, to show up on the Health Check monitor Health Check monitor, trending: –maintenance continuous effort –complexity is a challenge!

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago Data transfer –delay by 8-14 days –large impact on QC task: large data volume affected by any problem discovered in Garching delivery bursts  processing delays may happen dvdMonitor

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago complexity –supporting 9 VLT + 2 VLTI plus 2 VST/VISTA –publish and maintain ~600 web pages –we are largely on our own with maintenance/ development of most components

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago IOTs –extremely important for setting up and maintaining the QC process –shared QC requires each side to know what the other side is doing and why –we visit you  come and visit us!

July 2006Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago shared QC: –in excellent shape –but needs continuous efforts –can still be improved … 4. Conclusions key issues: –data delivery pattern –daytime QC/HC monitor –operational stability