Australia Telescope Compact Array

Monitoring programs at the ATCA and Mopra

The following notes are a summary of the programs that are available at the Australia Telescope Compact Array and Australia Telescope Mopra Observatory for the monitoring of astronomical observations and telescope engineering parameters.

To indicate which programs are available at which observatory, the following icons have been used:

Australia Telescope Compact Array
Australia Telescope Mopra Observatory

Some monitoring programs will have neither icon. This will be to indicate programs which are either still being planned or still being dreamt about!

The bird in our hand

MoniCA

Displays: Essentially all observatory monitor points
Machines: Any platform (except VMS)
History: Long term archive
Graphics: Yes, Java GUI, graphs and other GUI displays are available
Printing: Full printing of graphs, tables, etc. Also export to PNG images.
Data source: Diverse.
Documentation: More needed, some online help.
Advantages: Very powerful, user configurable.
Disadvantages: Can be slow on slow computers.

CAMON

Displays: All monitor points and some OBSCOM and SACCOM data
Machines: Any ATCA VAX or MOPRA:: (AXP)
History: Current only
Graphics: Text only
Printing: Text dumps - can be printed
Data source: pntdef, OBSCOM, SACCOM, et al.
Documentation: Good (VMS/on-line, WWW, ATUG)
Advantages: Fast. Runs on character cell terminal
Disadvantages: Non-pntdef pages must be compiled. Lack of uniformity of pages.

ASSISTANCE

Displays: General telescope status and current faults. Certain scan, source and coordinate information is also shown.
Machines: Any ATCA VAX
History: Current only (limited memory for certain tests)
Graphics: Text only
Printing: None
Data source: pntdef, OBSCOM, SACCOM, et al.
Documentation: Poor (ATUG only)
Advantages: Expert system. Runs on character cell terminal
Disadvantages: New checks must be compiled in.

COR_DISP

Displays: Amplitude, phase etc. for all spectral channels, also displays lag spectrum etc.. Gives user control over averaged channels and hence is the sole controling point for the channels that are sent to NOEL:: (and hence to VIS, CACAL, ASSISTANCE etc.).
Machines: ATRIA:: or MOPRA::
History: None, but accumulation mode allows you to average spectra indefinitely
Graphics: PGPLOT
Printing: Can dump B/W plots, which can then be printed
Data source: Correlator/CACOR
Documentation: Good (ATUG)
Advantages: Only program to view spectral information. Only access to the LAG spectrum. Control of continuum channel data sent to NOEL::
Disadvantages: Limited to use from ATRIA::/MOPRA::

LOPLOT

Displays: LO phase correction measurements
Machines: Any ATCA VAX
History: Typically 4-8 hours, but extended archive mode available
Graphics: PGPLOT
Printing: Colour or B/W plots
Data source: LOMON
Documentation: Good (VMS/on-line, ATUG)
Advantages: Specialist program.
Disadvantages: Singular in purpose.

VIS

Displays: Visibilities, delays, UVW, baselines, closure phase, time, frequency, sky-coordinates, paralactic angle, LO phase correction, + up to 3 user defined monitor points
Machines: Any ATCA VAX
History: up to 5000 integration cycles (~13 hours @ 10 second cycles)
Graphics: PGPLOT
Printing: Colour or B/W plots
Data source: CAGET, pntdef
Documentation: Extensive (VMS/on-line, WWW, ATUG)
Advantages: Very flexible plotting options.
Disadvantages: VIS only remembers monitor point history from when it was started. CPU/Memory intensive.

CAMPR

Displays: Any monitor point
Machines: Any ATCA VAX
History: Up to a month, but tape archives extend this.
Graphics: PGPLOT
Printing: B/W plots
Data source: CAMPA
Documentation: WWW
Advantages: Full resolution, complete history. File output available allowing third-party plotting packages to be used (e.g. Excel)
Disadvantages: Very slow.

Fawlty

Displays: All monitor points
Machines: DELPHI:: (VAX)
History: 6 hours or 1 minute maxima/minima
Graphics: DECwindows and Xlib calls
Printing: B/W plots
Data source: HISTORIAN
Documentation: Poor & outdated
Advantages: Fast.
Disadvantages: 1 minute maxima/minima. Poor scaling options. Unmaintainable code. Single machine use. Requires a lot of system resources.

MPROBE

Displays: current values of any single monitor point for all antennas.
Machines: Any ATCA VAX
History: None
Graphics: None
Printing: None
Data source: pntdef
Documentation: None
Advantages: Simple. Displays all the "behind the scenes" information about the monitor point setup.
Disadvantages: Singular in purpose.

WINDS

Displays: Observatory wind speed and direction
Machines: Any ATCA VAX
History: Up to 1 hour. No preprogram memory
Graphics: PGPLOT
Printing: None
Data source: OBSCOM
Documentation: Very poor
Advantages: Simple
Disadvantages: Singular in purpose. No preprogram memory.

Weather station PC

Displays: Observatory weather environment
Machines: Dedicated PC
History: 24 hours
Graphics: LABview
Printing: None
Data source: Hardware
Documentation: None
Advantages: All weather parameters presented
Disadvantages: No user interaction available

SETIVIEW

Displays: SETI software status
Machines: MOPRA:: (AXP)
History: less than 1 minute
Graphics: Text only
Printing: None
Data source: SETIOBS, SETIMON
Documentation: Good (WWW)
Advantages: Good probe into software
Disadvantages: No user interaction available. Singular in purpose.

READ_LOG

Displays: Log files from SETIOBS or SETIMON
Machines: Mopra
History: To the extent of the log file
Graphics: Text
Printing: None
Data source: SETIOBS.LOG or SETIMON.LOG
Documentation: Good (WWW)
Advantages: Access to SETI information, even on currently open files
Disadvantages: Singular in purpose.

SCAN_LOG

Displays: Scans the log files from SETIOBS or SETIMON for interesting information
Machines: Mopra
History: To the extent of the log files
Graphics: Text
Printing: None
Data source: SETIOBS.LOG or SETIMON.LOG
Documentation: Good (WWW)
Advantages: Access to SETI information, even on currently open files
Disadvantages: Singular in purpose.

VAXstation clocks

Displays: AEST/UT/EDST or LST with dates, alarms and other novelties.
Machines: Any ATCA VAX
History: None
Graphics: X/Motif
Printing: None
Data source: VMS system time
Documentation: Good (WWW)
Advantages: Cute
Disadvantages: Singular in purpose.

The servers

The following programs are servers that exist to provide the data to some of the above programs:

MoniCA Server: Large historical archive (and current values) for most monitor points. Can be accessed from any programming language through a simple ASCII socket interface or even more easily with Java.
CAGET: 5000 integration storage of visibilities, delays, source name, frequencies, RA/Dec. Derives its data from OBSCOM.
OBSCOM, SACCOM, PNTDEF: Global memory. Maintained on NOEL and copied about the VAX cluster by CADATA. Data insertion by programs like ARRAY CAOBS and the Correlator Ghost.
CAMPA: Compact Array Monitor Point Archiver. Stores changed monitor point values along with their timestamps in UT-day files. Compression ratio of 4:1 is achieved. Hard-disk storage for 1 month and then DAT tape.
LOMON: Local Oscillator MONitor. Retrieves LO phase correction data from the LO Phase Stabilisation PC (via serial line). Stores the data in a shareable file and writes the current values to OBSCOM.
HISTORY: Saves six hours of one minute characterisations for the FAWLTY database.

Miscellania

The following minor programs and monitoring facilities also exist.

atdrivemon: Look at antenna servo/drive performance.
atlogobs: Updating log of useful messages.
ADM: Antenna Direction Monitor
TkMON: Tcl/Tk version of MPROBE
CABSLN, CAPT, TIP and other calibration programs
VMS monitoring tools

Future plans and dreams

New software to monitor mosaicing observations.
VIS++ : Complete monitor point and visilbility plotting package. Completely generic with the option of keyboard or mouse command entry. Will require access to the CACHE server.
Revised ASSISTANCE. Complete expert system with more AI. Can be used to auto determine data limits. Accomplishes what FAWLTY never quite did in the intelligent fault diagnosis role.
Revised version of CASNAP. More user interaction and on-line image profile analysis. On-line 2D imaging may be catered for.

Original: dmckay (12-MAR-1995)
Modified: David Brodrick (4-APR-2006)