helioschedule

Schedule MWA observations close to the Sun

Instructions

All of the metadata required to schedule the entire observing run (as well as the locations of generic data files) are all recorded in a yaml-format configuration file. See the examples.

A typical scheduling run consists of 4 discrete commands. Each command reads from a single file and produces a single output file. These files are all specified in the configuration file. There is a single python script in the helioschedule directory corresponding to each of these commands, which can be run as follows.

Run get_local_noons [yaml_file] - this determines the UTC time (and Local Sidereal Time) of local noon for each day. All scheduling is done relative to this LST.

Run convert_coordinates [yaml_file] to get position in ecliptic and equatorial coordinates for each pointing for each day

Run schedule [yaml_file] This is where the actual optimised scheduling happens.

Run generate_observations [yaml_file] to generate the commands that the MWA operations team can use to schedule the observations.

It is suggested to use a simple Makefile to orchestrate this process. See the examples.

Project Organization

├── LICENSE            <- Open-source license if one is chosen
├── Makefile           <- Makefile with convenience commands like `make data` or `make train`
├── README.md          <- The top-level README for developers using this project.
├── data
│   ├── README.md      <- README
│   ├── azel.json      <- Mapping from delays to nominal azimuth and elevation.
│   ├── generate_beams <- Generate beams in HA/Decl. from `mwa_lookup_beam` lookup table
│
├── docs               <- A default mkdocs project; see mkdocs.org for details
│
├── examples           <- Set of example scheduling scenarios
│
├── tests              <- Simple test
│
├── notebooks          <- Jupyter notebooks. Naming convention is a number (for ordering),
│                         the creator's initials, and a short `-` delimited description, e.g.
│                         `1.0-jqp-initial-data-exploration`.
│
├── pyproject.toml     <- Project configuration file with package metadata for helioschedule
│                         and configuration for tools like black
│
├── requirements.txt   <- The requirements file for reproducing the analysis environment, e.g.
│                         generated with `pip freeze > requirements.txt`
│
├── setup.cfg          <- Configuration file for flake8
│
└── helioschedule                <- Source code for use in this project.
    │
    ├── __init__.py    <- Makes helioschedule a Python module
    │
    ├── get_local_noons.py             <- Pre-calculate local noons over the whole observing timerange
    ├── convert_coordinates.py         <- Convert target coordinates to RA and Decl.
    ├── get_flags.py                   <- Poll MWA services to discover existing observations to flag
    ├── schedule.py                    <- Carry out scheduling
    ├── generate_observation_script.py <- Convert to a script containing commands to schedule on MWA

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