ATUC Report to Director

Preliminary Items

Apologies: Steven Tingay

The committee extends a warm vote of thanks to the previous chair of ATUC, Dr. Anne Green.

Matters arising from Director's Response to previous ATUC report:

5.

ATUC will continue to solicit user feedback on the timeliness of AT schedule releases.

[action ATNF]

8.

ATUC requests a brief update on the progress of the VO project at the next ATUC meeting.

[action ATNF]

11 c)

ATUC will check on the status of the new process to warn VLBI observers of their proposal expiring after 11-months.

[action ATUC]

13.

ATUC considers the fixed $500 budget for student publications is an acceptable and straightforward policy. ATUC strongly recommends that the only affiliation be given as the University, and the footnote wording be -

* Affiliated with the Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO.

The reduced wording is intended to reflect that ATUC does not endorse identifying authors on papers as students.

[action ATNF]

15.

ATUC is pleased to see the NAPA/TOO payback time web page.

 

New Business items

1.

The Future Developments document is very useful for ATUC and the wider user community, who rely on it for planning future science.

a)  ATUC notes a few inconsistencies in the current version (2002 Nov 4) and requests that the Future Developments document is maintained rigorously by the project leaders.

[action ATNF]

b)  ATUC requests a target date be shown for each project, which is reviewed by the engineering group before the ATUC meetings. Abandoned projects should be flagged as such in the Completed Projects document.

[action ATNF]

2.

ATUC considers the current site safety procedures are adequate and welcomes the recent attention given to improving safety.

 

3.

a)  ATUC considers some more feedback from ATAC on individual observing proposals would be useful.
b)  We request a short distillation of the ATAC discussion on each proposal, and the summed score of the proposal.
c)  It would also be helpful to proposers to know the mean score of all proposals.

[action ATNF-ATAC]

4.

ATUC suggests the ATCA mm/cm swap system be run again in the 2003 mm observing season.
a)  We suggest that two boxes be added to the ATCA proposal form - "swappable project", and "service observing".
b)  Service observing should only be available to projects marked as available for swapping. A request for service observing may not automatically be granted, even if the proposal is successful.
c)  We support the option of employing operators on a casual basis to perform the service observations, assuming this will affect ~ 10 days per season.

[action ATNF]

5.

ATUC supports natural collaborations between ATNF and other CSIRO divisions, but sees no need to actively change the current strength of the ATNF in international and national collaborations.

 

6.

ATUC considers the observing term length for ATNF facilities should remain unchanged at 4 months.

 

7.

ATUC recommends the DA Checklist have cross references to the Compact Array Users' Guide and that a check be made that all the references actually resolve.

[action ATNF]

8.

ATUC encourages the idea of a synthesis workshop in May 2003, with an emphasis on mm observing & imaging.

[action ATNF]

9.

ATUC supports the proposal for overseas remote observing. ATUC will review this item in late 2003.

[action ATUC]

10.

ATUC urges the completion of the 10/50cm receiver.
a)  During the Mars tracking contract we suggest the 10/50cm receiver be installed (rather than the MultiBeam).
b)  We recommend the HI MultiBeam be serviced during this period (September 2003 to March 2004). We will review this at the next ATUC meeting, in light of progress on the 10/50cm receiver.

[action ATNF]

11.

ATUC has no objection to stopping the subscription to the paper copies of the main astronomical journals in the facility libraries (Narrabri, Parkes and Epping), assuming online subscriptions are in place.

[action ATNF]

12.

ATUC recommends that the VLBI strategic meeting in early 2003 consider the level of support provided by ATNF and University of Tasmania.

[action ATNF]

13.

ATUC suggests that targeted promotion of a single high-profile ATNF project at the January meeting of the American Astronomical Society would be a good way to raise the international profile of ATNF.

[action ATNF]

14.

ATUC looks forward to the mm science workshop, and emphasising mm-wave observation in the synthesis workshop. We encourage the work being done on improving other aspects of the observing system. ATUC encourages Australian mm experts to bring in "new faces" to mm projects.

[action ATNF]

15.

a)  ATUC is concerned at the slippage in particular projects although we appreciate the long-term strategic need for external contracts. However it is clear that the community is unhappy with the current state of internal development projects. We make the comment that timely communication of delays to the user community is vital.

[action ATNF]

ATUC expressed strong concerns about the delays in the 3mm system development.

b)  ATUC suggests that a listing of future 'horizon' project ideas be incorporated into the Future Development document, to help us to consider possible synergies.

[action ATNF]

16.

ATUC requests that the Director ensures there is a report to the ATUC open meeting on the TAC proposal statistics. We request the statistics for the last reporting period be provided to the committee.

[action ATNF]

17.

a)  ATUC repeats its request that the SKA Project Scientist provide a demonstrator science case for each of the ATNF SKA demonstrator options discussed at the Open Session on November 5.

[action ATNF]

b)  ATUC will schedule MNRF2 update segment in the next ATUC open meeting.

[action ATUC]

18.

ATUC is pleased to learn of the LOFAR siting white paper. We encourage ATNF to pursue options for participation both in science and technology relating to LOFAR. We support the suggestion for a LOFAR science discussion in early 2003.

[action ATNF]

19.

ATUC requests a compilation of the proposal statistics be made available on the web, showing breakdowns along the lines of the annual report presentation.

[action ATNF]

20.

ATUC is pleased to hear that a new ACC will be installed at Mopra before winter 2003. We also look forward to the hiring of a new staff member to focus on improving Mopra operations, such as observing software, pointing and antenna efficiency.

[action ATNF]

21.

Date of next meeting - Monday 3 March and Tuesday 4 March, 2003 in Sydney.