The ALMA software architecture

Schwarz, Joseph; Farris, Allen; Sommer, Heiko

doi:10.1117/12.551712

Cited by 18 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…Our interpretation of this is to offer two views on the Observing System, Science view, in which users will be able to define their observing in terms of their science goals and astronomical concepts, and a System view, which will expose the user to Scheduling Blocks (SBs), the key, indivisible, blocks of observing on ALMA (see Schwarz et al 1 for a more detailed explanation of SBs). To move from the science view to the system definition we offer a Program Generator, which will typically create many SBs from a simple target mapping setup.…”

Section: Basic Requirements and Interpretationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proposal and observing preparation for ALMA

Bridger

Clarke

Chavan³

et al. 2004

SPIE Proceedings

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A number of tools exist to aid in the preparation of proposals and observations for large ground and space-based observatories (VLT, Gemini, HST being examples). These tools have transformed the way in which astronomers use large telescopes. The ALMA telescope has a strong need for such a tool, but its scientific and technical requirements, and the nature of the telescope, provide some novel challenges. In addition to the common Phase I (Proposal) and Phase II (Observing) preparation the tool must support the needs of the novice alongside the needs of those who are expert in millimetre/sub-millimetre aperture synthesis astronomy. We must also provide support for the reviewing process, and must interface with and use the technical architecture underpinning the design of the ALMA Software System. In this paper we describe our approach to meeting these challenges.

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Section: Basic Requirements and Interpretationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proposal and observing preparation for ALMA

Bridger

Clarke

Chavan³

et al. 2004

SPIE Proceedings

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“…The OES will be implemented as distributed software system using the ALMA Common Software (ACS) 4,5 , which is a set of application frameworks built on top of CORBA middleware. ACS is based on a container-component model and supports the programming languages C++, Java and Python.…”

Section: Observation Execution Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prototyping the central control system for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Melkumyan

Oya

Bobnar

et al. 2018

Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy V

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The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be the next generation ground-based observatory for gamma-ray astronomy at very-high energies. CTA will consist of two large arrays with 118 Cherenkov telescopes in total, deployed in the northern and southern hemispheres. The Observation Execution System (OES) provides the means to execute observations and to handle the acquisition of scientific data in CTA. The Manager and Central Control (MCC) system is a core element in the OES system that implements the execution of observation requests received from the scheduler subsystem. This contribution provides a summary of the main MCC design features and of the plans for prototyping.

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“…A huge part of the telescope operations will be handled through the ALMA software, which is divided into various subsystems, such as Control, Correlator, Pipeline, Archive, etc. (for a complete overview of the ALMA software architecture, see [18]). The Scheduling Subsystem is the one in charge of managing antenna arrays and executing observation blocks dynamically.…”

Section: The Alma Scheduling Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Survey on the Dynamic Scheduling Problem in Astronomical Observations

Mora

Solar

2010

Artificial Intelligence in Theory and Practice III

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The tasks execution scheduling is a common problem in computer science. The typical problem, as in industrial or computer processing applications, has some restrictions that are inapplicable for certain cases. For example, all available tasks have to be executed at some point, and ambient factors do not affect the execution order. In the astronomical observations field, projects are scheduled as observation blocks, and their execution depends on parameters like science goals priority and target visibility, but is also restricted by external factors: atmospheric conditions, equipment failure, etc. A telescope scheduler is mainly in charge of handling projects, commanding the telescope's high level movement to targets, and starting data acquisition. With the growth of observatories' capacities and maintenance costs, it is now mandatory to optimize the observation time allocation. Currently, at professional observatories there is still strong human intervention dependency, with no fully automatic solution so far. This paper aims to describe the dynamic scheduling problem in astronomical observations, and to provide a survey on existing solutions, opening some new application opportunities for computer science.

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The ALMA software architecture

Cited by 18 publications

References 0 publications

Proposal and observing preparation for ALMA

Proposal and observing preparation for ALMA

Prototyping the central control system for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

A Survey on the Dynamic Scheduling Problem in Astronomical Observations

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