Australia Telescope Compact Array

ATCA Calibrator Information

A variety of information and measurements have been collected on calibrators and candidates (potential calibrators) for the ATCA. This information is currently stored under

  /DATA/KAPUTAR_1/operations/cals

with many subdirectories

raw: data before final calibration of a calibrator observation run. The observations are stored in date-named subdirectories (e.g. 060113a). When calibration is complete, the data should be moved to the parallel caled subdirectory
caled: calibrator data sorted by date, each observation in a date-named subdirectory (e.g. 060113a)
cal: a copy of the calibrator data stored in caled, but sorted by source; kept in source-named subdirectories (e.g. 1934-638)
all: a copy of the non-calibrator (ie candidate sources) data from caled, stored in source-named directories.
flux: contains scripts and historic information on source fluxes
cats: contains catalogues, scripts and position information. This includes the file positions.txt, which is a list of all sources whose positions are exceptions to the default rule for determining the source's position.
obs: Scripts, etc, used to generate schedule files.
papers: Some papers of relevance in searching for calibrators.
pmnatca: The images from the Wright/Tasker ATCA PMN follow-up

Scripts

There is a mixture of perl and cshell scripts. Most, if not all, scripts not only produce new results, but also clean up old files/directories. Scripts are started manually and can often be run with several qualifiers, creating only partial updates.

Scripts in `raw` subdirectory

These scripts are templates to use to calibrate a day's observation.

Calib.csh: centimetric calibrator run calibration
Calib-3mm.csh: millimetric calibrator run calibration
FluxCmp.pl: flux computation

Scripts in `caled` subdirectory

Copy.pl: Copy calibrator observations from a date-named directory to a source-named subdirectory under the cal and all directories.

Scripts in `cal` subdirectory

DoAll.csh: is the master script that will process all data and post the new results on the web. The output includes that produced by Generate.pl, defect information, and it updates the calmerge.txt flux density information.
Generate.pl: will create new gif files and copy them onto the web It produces GIF files of visibility functions, Fourier plane coverages and flux histories. It also produces text listings of flux history.

Scripts in `flux` subdirectory

DoAll.csh: recalculates sources fluxes for ``all'' available information, including C007 runs, updates file calmerge.txt and posts it on the web
DoC007.csh: recalculates sources fluxes using C007 runs, updates file calmerge.txt and posts it on the web

Files

calmerge.txt contains source names, positions, fluxes, position accuracy information and references.

allmerge.txt contains source names, positions and references. It contains all sources - both calibrators and candidates.

The master copies of these files live on the web!

Example for calibrating one day's calibrator run

In raw create a subdirectory for the observation date, e.g. 060113a (second run on 13/01/2006). Then change directory into that subdirectory. and make a copy of the relevant calibration script.

  mkdir 060113a
  cd 060113a
  cp ../Calib.csh .

Locate the new data file on /DATA/CACCC_1/ and process it directly from there (Calib.csh includes an atlod command). Also do not forget to manually set the name of the primary calibrator in the 'source = "..."' statement at the top of the script.

Calib.csh creates three output files:

  c007.uv
  c007.freq1
  c007.freq2

If necessary, flag data (especially at 1.4 GHz). In such a case, execute Calib.csh in two runs. First the atlod command (enter an "exit" command to terminate there), and after editing the data only the rest of the script.

For the data selection, use tvflag interactively and then use its output to create commands that can be run as part of the script, such as:

  uvflag vis=c007.uv flagval="flag" select="time(20:44:00,20:47:30),freq(1.3,1.5)" line="channel,4,6"
  uvflag vis=c007.uv flagval="flag" select="time(20:40:50,20:42:00),freq(2.2,2.5)" line="channel,3,11"

Since there is only one output file at this stage, c007.uv, one must distinguish between the two IFs by frequency. Then re-run the Calib.csh, which will create new output files.

Example for moving data from `raw` to `cal` and `all` subdirectories

When satisfied with the results, move the data directory first from raw to caled:

  cd ..
  mv 060113a/ ../caled

and then

  cd ../caled
  Copy.pl 060113a/

This will

import allmerge.txt and calmerge.txt files
output are split sourcename.freq files that go into directory ../cal or ../all (the latter for sources that are candidates rather than calibrators)

Then, to post individual new results on the web, run script Generate.pl, e.g.

  cd ../cal
  Generate.pl l 1934-638

for a 1934-638 update (L-band only).

The input format for script Generate.pl is

  Generate.pl [lscxkqw] [srcnam]

where lscxkqw are band qualifiers and srcnam is the name of the directory in which the data are located, sorted by source name. One must always use a band qualifier; in the source name input wildcards are allowed. An empty field will work on all sources.

To update all calibrator information on the web (about once per month, typically), run script cal/DoAll.csh. Comment out the section for printing out a report.

DoAll.csh invokes a general run of Generate.pl and cleans up a bit, plus it updates the flux tables.

Adding a calibrator to the ATCA calibrator database

To add a calibrator to the ATCA calibrator search page ...

Add its position and name to the auxillary calibrator list, and update the history of the calibrator list.
```
  %  cd $OPER/cals/cats
  %  vi aux.txt
  %  vi calibrators.txt
```
Update the table of interesting sources (allmerge.txt) and at$cat:calibrators.cat
```
  % Merge.pl
  % Calibrators.pl
  % ftp leon
  Username:
  Password:
  ftp> put calibrators.cat at$cat:calibrators.cat
  ftp> quit
```
(Note: the previous information is out of date - the observing system is on a LINUX machine now).
Assuming that there are observations for this source in the all subdirectory tree, move across the observed data from the candidate area to the calibrator area. Then generate the web information for this [this does not update the defect information].
```
  % cd ../all
  % mv xxxx ../cal
  % cd ../cal
  % Generate.pl lscxkqw xxxx
  % cd ../flux
  % DoC007.csh
```

Enter any notes on this calibrator

  % rcp zephir:/www/apache/cgi-bin/Calibrators/calnotes.txt .
  % vi calnotes.txt
  % rcp calnotes.txt zephir:/www/apache/cgi-bin/Calibrators/calnotes.txt

Adding a new family of sources to the candidates list

The scripts to handle the generation of the candidate list are in the directory cats. The candidate list is the file allmerge.txt. To do this, you will need to modify Merge.pl to load in a additional family of sources. The DoAll.csh script runs the merging process and copies the result to the web area.

Original: Bob Sault (14-Jan-2006)
Modified: Michael Dahlem/Bob Sault (24-Feb-2006)

ATCA Calibrator Information

Scripts

Scripts in raw subdirectory

Scripts in caled subdirectory

Scripts in cal subdirectory

Scripts in flux subdirectory