1. EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
Transition to EVLA
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

2. EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
Plan for Talk
First, a short report on the current status of the Transition
Pause for Questions
Then Most of the Talk on Future Plans
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

3. EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
Transition to Date
Focus on Testing Hardware, Software Planning, Bringing EVLA antennas back into the Array.
Hard Work still ahead.
Delays have compressed Commissioning Schedule.
Scientific/Computing Staff very thin.
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

4. EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
Transition Planning
EVLA Coordination Meeting (Weekly)
Transition Coordination (Monthly)
Scientific Planning (Monthly)
Many Ad Hoc Meetings
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

5. EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
Current Status
Up to three EVLA antennas now being used for general research.
Three being outfitted or tested: = 25 antennas maximum available right now.
Some limitations in using VLA and EVLA antennas together: documented on web and in newsletter.
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

6. EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
Acceptance Tests
Before each antenna is returned to the array, it must pass a hardware test and be judged ready for use based on science tests.
Operations system/software tests ongoing.
A set of final EVLA acceptance tests exists.
Antenna/receiver tests should become routine shortly: turn over to a postdoc ?
Questions on Current Transition Status ?
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

7. EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
Future
Future Plans needs to combine the reality of changes in schedule and availability of staff with scientific priorities.
2006: Real Schedule becoming clearer but will be much better by the end of the year.
Time to discuss general ideas for the final transition to EVLA with the community.
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

8. EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
Future Schedule
Date EVLA VLA EVLA Receivers
Jan L,7K,7Q
Jan L,7C,13K,7Ka,13Q
Jan L,4S,14C,18K,13Ka,18Q
Jan L,7S,21C,24K,19Ka,24Q
Jan L,C,K,Ka,Q,12S,3X,6U
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

9. EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
WIDAR Schedule
Aug07: Prototype Correlator
Apr08: First Part of final WIDAR arrives at VLA with limited production boards.
Aug08-Aug09: Install Full WIDAR Correlator rack-by-rack. Slowly gain full WIDAR capability.
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

10. EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
Compressed Schedule
Correlator testing starts later but full WIDAR is still planned to be finished about on schedule.
This compresses the time-frame for Science Commissioning of EVLA.
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

11. Blue Sky Science Milestones
Feb07: Offer EVLA frequency bands with VLA Correlator
Aug07: Start Exercising Full Calibration Path
Apr08: Science Commissioning begins
Jan09: Early Science begins
Mar10: Open “Shared Risk” Observing
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

12. EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
Reality Check
Hardware meets plan ?
Software ready ?
Enough scientists available for commissioning ? Need about 8-9 more in 2008.
Help from outside of NRAO ?
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

13. EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
Scientific Staffing
The AOC scientific staff has shrunk from the levels in 2000 which we assumed in the Phase I proposal would be available to work on EVLA.
This is not entirely bad since the heaviest workload is from However, we now need to increase the staff to compensate and allow the project to succeed.
Lack of Sci Staff starting to hurt project in 2006.
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

14. Scientific Staff Tasks 2007-2010
Acceptance tests for all antennas/receivers
Correlator Commissioning
Scientific Guidance/Testing for e2e
Development of New Observing Procedures
User Documentation
Reduce Pioneer EVLA Projects and make results available to the community
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

15. Postprocessing Tasks 2007-2010
Develop CASA User Interface
Develop Wide-band Editing & Calibration
Develop Wide-band Imaging Algorithms
Document CASA for Outside Users
Help Outside Users learn CASA and how to use NRAO-provided (Cluster ?) computing.
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

16. EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
Brave New World
Astronomy with EVLA will be very different:
Often 1000X the data volume, channels
Octave bandwidths with full interference spectrum
Wide-band (wide-field) imaging
A New Reduction Package
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

17. EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
Brave New World
NRAO staff and Outside Users need to learn how to use the new telescope.
NRAO needs to learn how to provide the necessary services.
Everyone can’t just expect to do things the way they have in the past.
Will take time and people to develop.
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

18. EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
Scientific Staffing
Need to Rebuild AOC Scientific Staff to Reach EVLA Potential in a Timely Way.
Can Make Use of Long Term Visitors and Postdocs in
Also Need to Build a Younger Staff at the AOC for Long-term EVLA Success.
Need more staff to be engage community.
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

19. EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
Community Input
2006: Begin to raise basic ideas for scientific transition from VLA to EVLA with existing committees.
2007+: Work with EVLA Science Advisory Committee to converge on a Realistic Science transition plan.
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

20. EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
2006 Issues
How do we make new EVLA capabilities available to the community in a fair way given the practicalities of bringing up a new instrument ?
Should we pull the plug on the old VLA earlier than planned if that got us a better EVLA in the long-run ?
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

21. Current Ideas for First Science
Jan09: Begin using EVLA for Science: first with a few long-term visitors and slowly ramping up the number of users.
Reorder configuration schedule starting with D and moving toward A.
During this time carry out a small number of large Pioneer projects (defined in detail by the community) and put the resulting images on the web for anyone to use (like HDF and NVSS).
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

22. EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
First Open Science
Mar10: Open EVLA to general proposals with a limited set of modes:
Simple Spectral Line
Narrow-field, wide-band Continuum
Work toward making more complicated modes available: wide-field, wide-band continuum, multiple spectral windows etc.
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006

23. EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
Questions ?
Frazer Owen
EVLA Advisory Committee Meeting
May 8-9, 2006