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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

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

7. 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

8. 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