Weather forecasting and dynamic scheduling for a modern cm/mm wave radiotelescope

Nasir, Francesco; Castiglia, C.; Buffa, Franco; Deiana, Gian Luigi; Delitala, Alessandro M. S.; Tarchi, A.

doi:10.1007/s10686-013-9339-0

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…For a detailed description of the tool and of its usage, we refer to Vacca et al (2013). Meteo Forecasting: this tool uses a numerical weather prediction model on timescales of 36 h to allow for dynamic scheduling (for more details, see Nasir et al 2013;Buffa et al 2016). ScheduleCreator: this tool produces properly formatted schedules for Nuraghe, the telescope control software, for all available observing modes (sidereal tracking, on-off, OTF crossscans, raster scans, and mapping in the equatorial, galactic, and horizontal coordinate frames).…”

Section: Preparing the Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sardinia Radio Telescope

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et al. 2017

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Context. The Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) is the new 64 m dish operated by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF).Its active surface, comprised of 1008 separate aluminium panels supported by electromechanical actuators, will allow us to observe at frequencies of up to 116 GHz. At the moment, three receivers, one per focal position, have been installed and tested: a 7-beam K-band receiver, a mono-feed C-band receiver, and a coaxial dual-feed L/P band receiver. The SRT was officially opened in September 2013, upon completion of its technical commissioning phase. In this paper, we provide an overview of the main science drivers for the SRT, describe the main outcomes from the scientific commissioning of the telescope, and discuss a set of observations demonstrating the scientific capabilities of the SRT. Aims. The scientific commissioning phase, carried out in the 2012-2015 period, proceeded in stages following the implementation and/or fine-tuning of advanced subsystems such as the active surface, the derotator, new releases of the acquisition software, etc. One of the main objectives of scientific commissioning was the identification of deficiencies in the instrumentation and/or in the telescope subsystems for further optimization. As a result, the overall telescope performance has been significantly improved. Methods. As part of the scientific commissioning activities, different observing modes were tested and validated, and the first astronomical observations were carried out to demonstrate the science capabilities of the SRT. In addition, we developed astronomeroriented software tools to support future observers on site. In the following, we refer to the overall scientific commissioning and software development activities as astronomical validation. Results. The astronomical validation activities were prioritized based on technical readiness and scientific impact. The highest priority was to make the SRT available for joint observations as part of European networks. As a result, the SRT started to participate (in shared-risk mode) in European VLBI Network (EVN) and Large European Array for Pulsars (LEAP) observing sessions in early 2014. The validation of single-dish operations for the suite of SRT first light receivers and backends continued in the following year, and was concluded with the first call for shared-risk early-science observations issued at the end of 2015. As discussed in the paper, the SRT capabilities were tested (and optimized when possible) for several different observing modes: imaging, spectroscopy, pulsar timing, and transients.

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Section: Preparing the Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sardinia Radio Telescope

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et al. 2017

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“…Estimation of sky opacity, based on recorded atmospheric data, forecasts τ<0.15 (50 th percentile) at 93 GHz during winter nights. The PWV in the same conditions is about 8 mm [13]. Estimates of the SSB (Single Side Band) system noise temperature referred to the receiver input, Tsys,SSB , were derived with the program described in [13], which utilizes a molecular absorption model and allows to predict it several hours before the astronomical observation, therefore offering the possibility of dynamic scheduling.…”

Section: A Srt Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The PWV in the same conditions is about 8 mm [13]. Estimates of the SSB (Single Side Band) system noise temperature referred to the receiver input, Tsys,SSB , were derived with the program described in [13], which utilizes a molecular absorption model and allows to predict it several hours before the astronomical observation, therefore offering the possibility of dynamic scheduling. The predicted system noise temperature Tsys,SSB (at 90 deg elevation angle) has broad minima in the range 85-105 GHz and achieves values of order 100 K or lower during winter [14], having assumed a receiver noise Trec,SSB=60 K, based on expected instrument performance (to be discussed in detail in the following sections).…”

Section: A Srt Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…W-band observations will also allow correlating star formation rates in different types of galaxies with the abundance of CO, HCN, and other molecular tracers. The wide instantaneous receiver frequency range and the new digital spectrometer will also allow detecting the 12 CO(1-0) and the 13 CO(1-0) line transitions in highredshift galaxies [41]; c) Mapping of the radio emission from the Sun and use of these observations for Space Weather applications.…”

Section: Science Drivers For the W-band Multibeam Receiver On The Srtmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Feasibility Study of a W-Band Multibeam Heterodyne Receiver for the Gregorian Focus of the Sardinia Radio Telescope

et al. 2022

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We report on the feasibility study of a W-band multibeam heterodyne receiver for the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT), a general purpose fully steerable 64-m diameter antenna located on the Sardinia island, Italy, managed by INAF ("Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica," Italy). The W-band front-end is placed at the telescope Gregorian focal plane and will detect radio astronomy molecular spectral lines and broadband emission in the 3 mm atmospheric window. The goal specification of the receiver is a 4×4 focal plane array operating in dual-linear polarization with a front-end consisting of feed-horns placed in cascade with waveguide Orthomode Transducers (OMTs) and LNAs (Low Noise Amplifiers) cryogenically cooled at ≈20 K. The instantaneous FoV (Field of View) of the telescope is limited by the shaping of the 64-m primary and 7.9-m secondary mirrors. The cryogenic modules are designed to fit in the usable area of the focal plane and provide high-quality beam patterns with high antenna efficiency across the 70-116 GHz Radio Frequency (RF) band. The FoV covered by the 4×4 array is 2.15×2.15 arcmin 2 , unfilled, with separation between contiguous elements of 43 arcsec. Dual-sideband separation (2SB) down-conversion mixers are placed at the cryostat output and arranged in four four-pixel down-conversion modules with 4-12 GHz Intermediate Frequency (IF) bands (both Upper Side Band and Lower Side Band selectable for any pixel and polarization). The receiver utilizes a mechanical derotator to track the parallactic angle.

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“…Meteo Forecasting: this tool uses a numerical weather prediction model on timescales of 36 hours, to allow for dynamic scheduling (for more details, see Nasir et al 2013;Buffa et al 2016).…”

Section: Etcmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sardinia Radio Telescope: From a Technological Project to a Radio Observatory

Prandoni,

Murgia,

Tarchi

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Context. The Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) is the new 64-m dish operated by INAF (Italy). Its active surface, made up of 1008 separate aluminium panels supported by electromechanical actuators, will allow us to observe at frequencies of up to 116 GHz. At the moment, three receivers, one per focal position, have been installed and tested: a 7-beam K-band receiver; a mono-feed C-band receiver; and a coaxial dual-feed L/P band receiver. The SRT was officially opened in October 2013, upon completion of its technical commissioning phase. In this paper, we provide an overview of the main science drivers for the SRT, describe the main outcomes from the scientific commissioning of the telescope, and discuss a set of observations demonstrating the SRT's scientific capabilities. Aims. The scientific commissioning phase, carried out in the 2012-2015 period, proceeded in stages by following the implementation and/or fine-tuning of advanced sub-systems such as the active surface, the derotator, new releases of the acquisition software, etc. One of the main objectives of scientific commissioning was the identification of deficiencies in the instrumentation and/or in the telescope sub-systems for further optimization. As a result, the overall telescope performance has been significantly improved. Methods. As part of the scientific commissioning activities, different observing modes were tested and validated, and first astronomical observations were carried out to demonstrate the science capabilities of the SRT. In addition, we developed astronomer-oriented software tools, to support future observers on-site. In the following, we will refer to the overall scientific commissioning and software development activities as Astronomical Validation.Results. The astronomical validation activities were prioritized based on technical readiness and scientific impact. The highest priority was to make the SRT available for joint observations as part of European networks. As a result, the SRT started to participate (in shared-risk mode) in EVN (European VLBI Network) and LEAP (Large European Array for Pulsars) observing sessions in early 2014. The validation of single-dish operations for the suite of SRT first light receivers and backends continued in the following years, and was concluded with the first call for shared-risk/early-science observations issued at the end of 2015. As discussed in the paper, the SRT capabilities were tested (and optimized when possible) for several different observing modes: imaging; spectroscopy; pulsar timing; and transients.

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Weather forecasting and dynamic scheduling for a modern cm/mm wave radiotelescope

Cited by 8 publications

References 6 publications

The Sardinia Radio Telescope

The Sardinia Radio Telescope

Feasibility Study of a W-Band Multibeam Heterodyne Receiver for the Gregorian Focus of the Sardinia Radio Telescope

The Sardinia Radio Telescope: From a Technological Project to a Radio Observatory

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