CONT-M3,M4,M5 (Continuous-Mini3,Mini4,Mini5) 2001 March 26 (CONT-M3) 2001 March 27 (CONT-M4) 2001 March 28 (CONT-M5) Notes prepared by Brian Corey, Haystack Observatory Cynthia Thomas and Nancy Vandenberg,NVI/GSFC Session code: CONTM3, CONTM4, CONTM5 Schedule file: mar01/contm3.skd, contm4.skd, and contm5.skd on CDDISA ************************************************************************************* Nominal Start CONT-M3: 17:30 U.T. on March 26 (day 085) first observation at 17:30 U.T. on 0059+581 for GC-MC-WF first observation at 17:30 U.T. on 4C39.25 for HH-On-SH Nominal Stop CONT-M3: 17:30 U.T. on March 27 (day 086) last observation at 17:04 U.T. on 1739+522 for WF last observation at 17:08 U.T. on 1741-038 for GC-SH last observation at 17:13 U.T. on 0454-234 for HH-MC-ON Correlator: Washington Observing Mode: 2F (with barrel roll, see details below) 1 letter 2 letter Station Code Code # of tapes # of obs Occupation Code Fairbanks A GC 1 (TT) 358 40476601 HartRAO J HH 1 (TT) 166 72326201 Medicina B MC 1 (TT) 371 72435701 Onsala T ON 1 (TT) 233 73452301 Seshan C SH 1 (TT) 180 72137701 Westford E WF 2 (TT) 338 72308801 ************************************************************************************* Nominal Start CONT-M4: 18:00 U.T. on March 27 (day 086) first observation at 18:00 U.T. on 4C39.25 Nominal Stop CONT-M4: 18:00 U.T. on March 28 (day 087) last observation at 17:39 U.T. on 2234+282 for ON last observation at 17:39 U.T. on 1219+044 for HH-MC last observation at 17:41 U.T. on 2145+067 for WF last observation at 17:44 U.T. on 1741-038 for GC-SH Correlator: Washington Observing Mode: 2F (with barrel roll, see details below) 1 letter 2 letter Station Code Code # of tapes # of obs Occupation Code Fairbanks A GC 2 (TT) 360 40476601 HartRAO J HH 1 (TT) 160 72326201 Medicina B MC 1 (TT) 361 72435701 Onsala T ON 1 (TT) 229 73452301 Seshan C SH 1 (TT) 174 72137701 Westford E WF 2 (TT) 335 72308801 ************************************************************************************* Nominal Start CONT-M5: 18:30 U.T. on March 28 (day 087) first observation at 18:30 U.T. on 1053+815 for GC-MC-WF first observation at 18:30 U.T. on 1128+385 for HH-On-SH Nominal Stop CONT-M5: 18:30 U.T. on March 29 (day 088) last observation at 18:11 U.T. on 1749+096 for SH last observation at 18:15 U.T. on 2234+282 for GC-WF last observation at 18:16 U.T. on 0727-115 for HH-MC-ON Correlator: Washington Observing Mode: 2F (with barrel roll, see details below) 1 letter 2 letter Station Code Code # of tapes # of obs Occupation Code Fairbanks A GC 1 (TT) 363 40476601 HartRAO J HH 1 (TT) 157 72326201 Medicina B MC 1 (TT) 357 72435701 Onsala T ON 1 (TT) 229 73452301 Seshan C SH 1 (TT) 177 72137701 Westford E WF 2 (TT) 332 72308801 Purpose ======= The CONT-Mini sessions provides a 3 day continuous data set. The network will run simultaneously with the network running NEOS-A, CONT-M1, and CONT-M2. This data set will investigate the possible causes for the differences in earch orientation parameters (EOP) measured with different VLBI networks. EOP results from previous measurements obtained simultaneously on two independent networks have shown larger than expected differences between the networks. The previous 24-hour sessions with simultaneous networks have typically been spaced two weeks apart. Depending on the cause of the EOP differences, the EOP values from the two networks might be expected to track each other better when the sessions are run back-to-back, without interruption. By observing continously over 3 days with the CONT-mini networks, we therefore expect to obtain useful information about the origin of the EOP differences. The CONT-M3, M4, and M5 sessions will be recorded in a Mark 4 mode which requires that the participating stations have Mark 4 capability. Observing Mode ============== The mode for the CONT-M3, M4, and M5 sessions uses fan-out and records on all 32 tracks to achieve a data rate of 128 Mb/s, more than twice that of the standard geodetic Mode C which is 56 Mb/s. CORE Mode "2F" (twice the standard mode C, fanned out) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Number of frequencies 14 (standard wide-band frequency sequence modified to avoid RFI at Matera) Number of channels 16 (14 USB + 2 LSB) Channel bandwidth 4.0 MHz Sample rate 8 Mb/s Bits per sample 1 Total data rate 128 Mb/s Data rate on tape 4 Mb/s/track Fan-out 1:2 Tape speed 80 ips Tracks per pass 32 Passes per tape 14 Barrel roll yes (*) Track frame format Mark4 and VLBA (*) The 16 recorded channels are comprised of the standard 14-channel USB frequency sequence plus the LSB channels of the first and last frequencies at X-band. The two outer X-band LSB channels give extra sensitivity. They also slightly narrow the peak of the delay resolution function, resulting in better group delay precision. (*) Fairbanks, which has a VLBA backend, will use barrel roll during this session and record in VLBA (non-data replacement) format. Stations with Mark 4 formatters cannot barrel roll. Schedule ======== This schedule was made by C. Thomas using sked. Schedule setup parameters: Early start 10 sec Minimum scan length 30 sec Maximum scan length 600 sec Minimum SNR 20 at X-band 15 at S-band Automatic scheduling setup: optimize for uniform sky coverage at all stations, maximize the number of observations, minimize slewing time, minimize time between scans, consider the top 50% of ranked scans for selection, consider the last 1 hour of scans for sky coverage calculations, minimum 40 min between scans on the same source. The characteristics of the generated schedule are listed below. These will vary slightly for each schedule that is generated. Schedule characteristics for CONT-M3: Average scan length 110 seconds Average SNR 51.0 at X-band 30.6 at S-band Number of observations 1838 observations Average scans per station 274 scans Schedule characteristics for CONT-M4: Average scan length 112 seconds Average SNR 51.9 at X-band 31.8 at S-band Number of observations 1848 observations Average scans per station 269 scans Schedule characteristics for CONT-M5: Average scan length 112 seconds Average SNR 52.0 at X-band 30.8 at S-band Number of observations 1820 observations Average scans per station 269 scans Flux Information ================ Program snranal compares the measured performance of a session with respect to the predicted. The program calculates an empirical flux density for each source. In order to account for changes in the flux catalog since the last update based on source modeling, the fluxes in the flux catalog for the sources in the current source catalog were adjused using the following databases: Date Session ==== ========= 00OCT03 NEOS-A388 00OCT24 NEOS-A391 00OCT31 NEOS-A392 00NOV14 NEOS-A394 00NOV28 NEOS-A396 00DEC12 NEOS-A398 01JAN08 NEOS-A398 01JAN16 NEOS-A398 01JAN23 NEOS-A398 01JAN30 NEOS-A398 01FEB06 NEOS-A398 01FEB13 NEOS-A398 Simulation Results ================== Simulated data from this schedule was used in a global solution to estimate the formal errors. The table below lists the formal errors for Earth orientation parameters. These results meet the simulation goals for the CONT-M3, M4, and M5 networks. Also shown in the table are the maximum correlations between the Earth orientation parameters and other parameters. Simulation for experiment $01MAR26M3 -------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | Maximum | Correlating | | EOP | Formal | Correlation | Parameter | | Parameters | Errors | | | |------------+----------------+-------------+----------------------| | | | | | | X-Wobble | 34.7 mas | 0.15 | SESHAN25 Z COMPONENT | | Y-Wobble | 31.9 mas | 0.15 | SESHAN25 Z COMPONENT | | UT1-TAI | 1.6 musec | 0.18 | SESHAN25 X COMPONENT | | UT1-Rate | 2.9 musec/d | 0.10 | MEDICINA X COMPONENT | |------------|----------------|-------------|----------------------| Simulation for experiment $01MAR27M4 -------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | Maximum | Correlating | | EOP | Formal | Correlation | Parameter | | Parameters | Errors | | | |------------+----------------+-------------+----------------------| | | | | | | X-Wobble | 34.1 mas | 0.17 | SESHAN25 Z COMPONENT | | Y-Wobble | 34.0 mas | 0.15 | SESHAN25 X COMPONENT | | UT1-TAI | 1.6 musec | 0.22 | SESHAN25 X COMPONENT | | UT1-Rate | 2.6 musec/d | 0.07 | MEDICINA Y COMPONENT | |------------|----------------|-------------|----------------------| Simulation for experiment $01MAR28M5 -------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | Maximum | Correlating | | EOP | Formal | Correlation | Parameter | | Parameters | Errors | | | |------------+----------------+-------------+----------------------| | | | | | | X-Wobble | 34.5 mas | 0.16 | SESHAN25 Z COMPONENT | | Y-Wobble | 35.0 mas | 0.18 | SESHAN25 X COMPONENT | | UT1-TAI | 1.6 musec | 0.25 | SESHAN25 X COMPONENT | | UT1-Rate | 2.9 musec/d | 0.04 | MEDICINA Y COMPONENT | |------------|----------------|-------------|----------------------| Procedures ========== Please generate the procedures for this session using drudg.