Australia Telescope National Facility

ATUC Meeting
Agenda

at the ATNF in Epping, Sydney

- March 23, 1999 -

AGENDA FOR THE ATUC MEETING ON TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1999.

MEETING TO BE HELD AT THE ATNF IN EPPING, SYDNEY

Open Session (9:00 - 12:00)


• Welcome & Introduction (Anne Green, 5min.)

• Director's Report (John Brooks, 20min.)

• Observatory reports

  • ATCA/Mopra (Ravi Subrahmanyan, 20min.)

  • Parkes/VLBI (John Reynolds, 20min.)

• Publication Analysis (Jessica Chapman, 5min.)

• RFI Mitigation update (Peter Hall, 5min.)

• The Future of AIPS (Neil Killeen, 5min.)

• Parkes spectral ripple (Lister Staveley-Smith, 5min.)

  Coffee break

• Triennium Funding - Science Cases

  • 2 GHz bandwidth upgrade to the ATCA (Bärbel Koribalski, 5min.)

  • Real time fibre link between Mopra and the ATCA (Dave Jauncey, 5min.)

  • ATCA operators (Ravi Subrahmanyan, 5min.)

  • Full 7mm system (Ravi Subrahmanyan, 5min.)

Closed Session (13:00 - 17:00)

• ATUC Business Meeting - Preliminary Items
  • Apologies
  • Additional Agenda Items

• Matters arising from the Director's response to the previous ATUC Report
  • ...

• Business matters:

  Issues concerning Triennium funding:
  

  1. Triennium funding (2000-2003). ATUC has been asked to assign priorities for a few additional projects (which were not discussed in the previous meeting) as a guide to the Steering Committee, which is to make recommendations for the next funding cycle for CSIRO. The science cases have been presented in the open session.
     • 2GHz bandwidth upgrade to the ATCA
       (was considered less important by ATUC in prioritising the triennium funding options during the last meeting)
     • Real time fibre link between Mopra and ATCA
     • ATCA operators
     • Full 7mm system

  2. Triennium funding (1997-2000). ATUC has been asked to comment on the "Objectives and Key Potential Outcomes 1997-2000 --- National Facility Operation" from the last triennium plan:
     
     • Operate, and provide access to, the observatories, the VLBI facility, and data reduction facilities, to the satisfaction of the community of scientific users.
     • Schedule at least 50% of time on the Parkes and Narrabri telescopes for astronomical observations, and ensure that time lost during scheduled observing periods as a result of instrumentation failures will be less than 5%.
     • Develop operational support for space VLBI missions and geodesy observations.
     • Provide the appropriate tools and information to ATNF users to enable them to extract the most science from their research.
     • Make the public aware of the sector through successful operation of the Parkes and Narrabri visitor's centres.

  3. How responsive is ATNF to suggestions by ATUC ? (question from the AT Steering Committee) What are the key performance indicators to be noted ?

     Issues concerning ATCA & Mopra:
     

  4. What is the value and potential of real time data processing ? (possible demonstration)

  5. Is there a scientific advantage if the new EW stations (352, 367) are both offered in one observing term ?

  6. Would it be useful for the Narrabri DA to carry a beeper ?

     Issues concerning Parkes:
     

  7. Parkes spectral ripple: can ATUC comment on the proposed modifications ?

  8. How broad is the interest in the Bonn Polarimeter ?

     Issues concerning VLBI:
     

  9. What are the implications of establishing a VLBI Centre in Hobart ?
     (SRC proposal has been submitted this year)

     General issues:
     

  10. ATUC has been asked to comment on the publication analysis, especially on the difference in publication output between Australian and non-Australian users.

  11. What is the time scale for withdrawing AIPS support ?

  12. Should the Epping visitor lodge be improved ? Specifically, should shared rooms be discontinued ?

  13. Next meeting - two days in November, 1999

  14. Suggestions to the Steering Committee for future members of ATUC.

  15. Other business?

  16. Report to the Director.