Scheduling Blocks: simulating their execution Andy Biggs (ESO, Garching)

Introduction SBs are created in the OT The SBs are actually executed by a Python script – This has a fairly fixed idea of how an observation should be executed – Just because you define a Target, doesn’t mean it’ll be executed An Observing Script Simulator helps – Takes an SB and reports the observation sequence SB Creation Workshop, 6 September 2011

Observing Script Simulator (OSS) Command line utility – Takes an SB and a Python observing script as input Output is the observation sequence – Which source, when and for how long Only available in Chile – Requires ALMA Common Software (ACS) to run – Need a user account SB Creation Workshop, 6 September 2011

AOT files Projects are saved to disk as “aot” files These are actually zip files – Standard “unzip” utilities will extract the contents Contained within the aot file are –ObsProposal.xml –ObsProject.xml –SchedBlock0.xml –SchedBlock1.xml – … SB Creation Workshop, 6 September 2011

Typical OSS usage Log on to an “STE” (Standard Test Environment) – Also known as a computer Start ACS if necessary (usually not) Script location – /alma/ACS ‑ 9.0/ACSSW/bin/ObservingScriptSimulator Options – ‑ y StandardInterferometry.py – ‑ x SchedBlock0.xml SB Creation Workshop, 6 September 2011

OSS output A summary is printed first – Pointing excursions – Power level optimizations SB Creation Workshop, 6 September 2011

OSS output Followed by a detailed scan breakdown – Sources, times, pointing offsets, subscans, intents SB Creation Workshop, 6 September 2011 Cumulative time Subscan TelCal Intents Subscan time

The future One obvious problem is that the OSS is not in the OT There are tentative plans to add it – Need to remove the ACS components – Would need to keep scripts synchronised An alternative is to place the OSS on a public server – This way a PI could run it themselves SB Creation Workshop, 6 September 2011