Notes on SIRTF Legacy Meeting, 2001 January 12-13 at IPAC in Pasadena

Notes on SIRTF Legacy Meeting, 2001 January 12-13 at IPAC in Pasadena
In attendance: Churchwell, Clemens, Kobulnicky w/ PIs from 5 other legacy 
groups + instrument scientists + about a dozen SSC staff

Major Conclusions from Meeting:

Management Issues
----------------
List of Deadlines:
2001
  March 14: EPO proposals solicited
  April 6: Revised observing plan due at SSC
  May 2:  Revised proposal/cost plan due
  May 9: Extended abstract due
  May 16:  EPO Proposals
  July 1: Start up contracts extension
  Week of Sept 4: Observing strategy review at SSC
  October 3: Completed AORs due at SSC
2002
  March: Data review plan at SSC
  May: Cycle 1 call for proposals 
  July 15: Launch
  September: IOC (In Orbit Checkout) concludes
  Sep-Oct: Science Mission
  L+4: Cycle 1 proposals due

2) Our budget represents a CONTRACT, not a GRANT!  This means little for us
   but more reporting for the grants people.  heads up.

3) Out of this meeting will come a number of "working groups"
  One of these will be a Legacy Science Working group that will talk monthly
  and consist of:  the 6 PIs, the 3 instrument scientists, some SSC staff

There will also be a number of Interest groups organized loosely around
major issues such as
    data products
    MIPS tools
    IRAC tools
    IRS tools
Stay tuned....SSC will distribute a workshop report


Observatory Planning Issues
--------------------------
  -  We need to be concerned about IRAC saturation/latency effects of bright
       stars and start planning the survey regions carefully.  They have
       not documented this yet fully, but it will be a concern.

  -  We need to prioritize our survey area into Category I, II , III
	so that the central plane gets done first, then the higher
	latitudes, then the extreme longitudes perhaps.  We should
	discuss priorities.  We need to ask for substantial blocks
	of observatory time to maps efficiently, i.e., days at a time.

  -  Pointing accuracy will probably be 1-2".
  -  Next version of AOTs for IRAC will be released soon, and will
     probably include an independent 2 sec integration time, and
     1 of the 3 exposure times (0.4, 2, 12 s) in the high dynamic range 
     mode will be dropped due to data rates.  This from
     Bill Reach, the IRAC SSC lead.
  -  George Rieke says 15-30 minute time intervals would be sufficient o
     separate asteroids with multiple exposures (to hours...)
  -  Most instrument calibrations, saturation/latency effects have not
     yet been resolved.  We need to press for results from these test.

Data Analysis Issues
--------------------
   - Familiarize ourselves with the catalog+ image archive at IRSA (the
     Infrared Science Archives)
     where they keep 2MASS, MSX, IRAS data;  see irsa.ipac.caltech.edu
     Chip spoke with these people at the AAS and it's clear they
     have a lot of data serving, database, archive issues solved.  Check
     out their catalogs for a list of parameters that we might copy.

   -  Final word on data size.  Typical data is 25 times the raw data volume. 
      For us this means:
    25 x 2 bytes x 256^2 x 4 filters x 12x12 frames/sq deg x 240 sq deg
    = 4.5E11 bytes = 450 Gbytes x 2readouts (0.4 sec and 12 sec?) = 900 GB

  -  There is currently no plan to release simulated data, although we should
     be able to get a list of header-type info.  Some Legacy groups are
     working on simulations, and perhaps we should team up with their
     efforts if we want simulations done.

  -  The basic data reduction pipeline will be C programs with perl wrappers,
     no GUIs.  Note that there is the "Pipeline" which takes raw data and
     produces BCD (Basic Calibrated Data).  The Pipeline software will not
     be released.  SSC WILL release additional tools (some in IDL, who knows)
     which will perform additional processing including mosicing and
     source extraction.  

  -  We were given a packet on data processing/software plans in hardcopy.
     Anyone on the team dealing with software/reduction should read this
     as it describes the data processing for each instrument in detail.
     Ed will send you a hardcopy since SSC does not have it electronically.

  - We do not need to focus on pre BCD (Basic Calibrated Data) processing.
      Although they will release raw data, they do NOT intend to release
      the pipeline.  We could, of course, create, our own pipeline
      SSC will also provide mosicing tools and a source extraction tool
	  which will be written in C/Perl according to the handout.  These
	  will likely not be released until Launch, unless we can apply
	  pressure to get access to Beta versions.
      We should focus on cosmic ray/asteroid/Zodi removal, geometrical
	 distortion correction, re-pixeling, PSF fitting
	 and source extraction.  There will be a version of the HST Tiny Tim
	 PSF fabricator for SIRTF.  

  -  SSC will distribute all final data products.  We are not allowed to
        distribute anything directly to the community, we only deliver it
	to SSC.

  -  First SIRTF data taken will be the First Look Survey data, which we may be
       able to get access to.  Second data taken will be a small subset
       of our science to demonstrate feasibility.  For the actual
       observations, we will want to set up a triage system: reobserve, 
       reprocess, add-to-database

  Work through our liaison scientist, Tony Marston, tmarston@ipac.caltech.edu
    He would prefer we work through Ed rather than have all of us call him.

Items for further discussion
---------------------------
The following are suggestions for action items for discussion at
our next telecon, January 23rd, 11 a.m. Central time : 
   - prepare target lists due in April; format TBD but they will take AORs
   - build an automated AOR generator (in excel?) to rapidly regenerate
	   AORs for a broad range of observing blocks; have a chat with Tony/
	   SPOT people first.
   - make AOR tool to visualize areas and plan observations, both to
     visualize our field and to verify the SPOT software
   - we need to get our web page online and linked to from the SIRTF page
   - we need to prepare a 1-page summary of our program for general
     distribution and public release; this includes a catchy acronym and logo.
   - cc Our liaison scientist, Tony Marston, tmarston@ipac.caltech.edu in all
       group emails, and he should have the option of joining our telecons
   - we need to have an all-team meeting in Madison soon (by Feb) to talk through
	all the steps of data processing in great details + observing planning
	priorities & schedule;  revisit teams & tasks given what we've learned
	about SSC's responsibilities and ours.
   - Trim our proposal; discuss cutting extended source catalog given revised
     budget;  get revised proposal on the web; publicize it
   - should we have monthly telecon with everyone and weekly with different
     working groups on our team
   - We need to start on a SGPS Users manual!
   -  
 
Questions to have Tony Marston/SSC work on:

  -  Will there be background/Zodi models we can borrow from DIRBE?
     Who can we call? y  Probably Bill Reach at SSC
  -  How stable are the flats,darks, gains & instrument characteristics
  -  We need formulae for latency, saturation for IRAC?
  -  We need the new IRAC AOTs so that we know available modes for observing
  -  Need data format descriptions ASAP that will come from the pipeline!
  -  can we move the observatory while the array reads out?

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