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European VLBI
Network Newsletter Number 21 September 2008 |
For obvious reasons, I'm particularly happy
about the news reported in this issue of our Newsletter on the first participation
of the Yebes 40-m antenna in the EVN observing session at 22 GHz on May 30,
2008. The Yebes observatory enjoyed of the cooperation of different nodes of
the Network (in particular JIVE and the Max-Planck-Institute in
This Newsletter also reports on many technical improvements and achievements of
the EVN. In particular, the EVN continues with real-time VLBI development
as the network connectivity at all EVN stations continues to improve. As
reported in this Newsletter, additional MERLIN antennas are being incorporated
into the e-EVN significantly increasing the capabilities of the real-time
array. On the other hand, at the last meeting of the EVN CBD in Bordeaux, it
was approved to move towards upgrading the EVN to work at 4 Gigabits per second
(Gbps). In this regard, it should be underlined the
recent achievement reached during the seventh e-VLBI Workshop held in Shanghai
on June 17th 2008, when the engineers at the Helsinki University of Technology
TKK/Metsahovi radio-observatory made a world record
in data
transfer by achieving 8 Gbps over the common Internet (the transferred data was
a telescope radio signal sampled in real-time).
Nevertheless, it should be noted that in order to make the e-EVN a competitive
instrument, not only the real-time data transfer is important, but also a new
concept and logistics of the Network are needed. In this respect, the recent
tests of EVN dynamical scheduling reported in this Newsletter open a new era of
major flexibility for the Network.
The new call for proposals included in this Newsletter integrates the request
of observing time for the "standard EVN" sessions (disk recording)
with those for the real-time "e-EVN" sessions. This is a further demonstration
that the
EVN is moving firmly towards the operation in real-time, while keeping the same
or even better performance than that obtained with the traditional VLBI methods
of observation.
Some new very interesting scientific results obtained at the EVN are also
highlighted in this issue, such as the radio detection at 1.6 GHz of the gamma
ray source 3EGJ2020+4017 (IGR J2018+4043), in preparation for further
observations with GLAST. Also of very high interest were the results presented
at the 4th workshop on Compact Steep Spectrum and Gigahertz Peaked spectrum
Radio Sources which was held in Riccione last May.
After 9 years of serving as at-large member in the EVN Programme
Committee (PC), Patrick Charlot had announced, owing
to his new commitments at the directionship of the
Bordeaux Observatory, his wish to leave the Committee. At its last meeting (in
I would like to take this opportunity to remind how the European Framework Programmes (FP) are providing a wonderful opportunity for
the EVN institutes to strengthen both the links among us and our links with
other institutions. The results from FP6 RadioNet
(coordinated by Dr. P. Diamond), a project that is now reaching its end, have
been extremely fruitful. We are now looking forward to the starting of a new RadioNet in FP7 (now under the coordination by Dr. M.
Garrett) which appears to be very promising.
At the time of writing these lines, we all look now forward to meeting at the 9th
EVN Symposium. The conference, which will be kindly hosted by our IRA (INAF)
colleagues in
Rafael Bachiller,
(This text is
also available on the web at http://www.ira.inaf.it/evn_doc/call.txt)
Observing proposals are invited for the EVN, a
VLBI network of radio telescopes spread throughout
The observations may be conducted with disk
recording (standard EVN) or in real-time (e-VLBI).
The EVN is open to all astronomers. Use of
the Network by astronomers not specialized in the VLBI technique is encouraged.
The Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE)
can provide support and advice on project preparation, scheduling, correlation
and analysis. See EVN User Support at http://www.jive.nl.
2009
Session 1 |
Feb
26 – Mar 19 |
18/21cm,
6cm, 5cm, 7mm |
2009
Session 2 |
May
28 – Jun 18 |
18/21cm,
6cm, ... (7mm) |
Proposals received by 1 October 2008 will be
considered for scheduling in Session 1, 2009 or later. Finalization of the
planned observing wavelengths will depend on proposal pressure. Other wavelengths
which may be scheduled in 2008-2009 are 90cm, 50cm, 30cm, 1.3cm, and S/X.
2008
Dec 4 – Dec 5 (start at 13 UTC) |
18/21cm,
6cm, 5cm, 1.3cm |
2009
Jan 22 – Jan 23 (start at 13 UTC) 2009
Feb 10 – Feb 11 (start at 13 UTC) 2009
Mar 24 – Mar 25 (start at 13 UTC) 2009
Apr 21 – Apr 22 (start at 13 UTC) 2009
May 19 – May 20 (start at 13 UTC) |
18/21cm,
6cm, 5cm, 1.3cm 18/21cm,
6cm, 5cm, 1.3cm 18/21cm,
6cm, 5cm, 1.3cm 18/21cm,
6cm, 5cm, 1.3cm 18/21cm,
6cm, 5cm, 1.3cm |
Minor changes are still possible in the 2009
calendar.
There are three e-VLBI observation classes:
general e-VLBI proposals; triggered e-VLBI proposals; short observations.
General and triggered e-VLBI proposals must be submitted by the October 1
deadline to be considered for scheduling in the above e-VLBI sessions; requests
for short observations may be submitted up to three weeks prior to any e-VLBI
session.
Continuum and spectral line observations can
be carried out.
See http://www.ira.inaf.it/evn_doc/guidelines.html for details
concerning the e-VLBI observation classes and the observing modes.
·
MERLIN is normally available for joint EVN+MERLIN
observations in all standard sessions, for any EVN wavelengths which MERLIN
supports (18/21cm, 6/5cm, 1.3cm). During the e-MERLIN construction in 2009 only
an incomplete MERLIN array may be available due to limited resources. For
updated information please consult the web at http://www.merlin.ac.uk//evn+merlin.html.
Large projects
Most proposals request 12-48hrs observing
time. The EVN Program Committee (PC) also encourages larger projects (>48
hrs); these will be subject to more detailed scrutiny, and the EVN PC may, in
some cases, attach conditions on the release of the data.
The on-line proposal
submission tool Northstar now replaces the
old Latex-email way of submission for all EVN and Global proposals; EMAIL
PROPOSAL SUBMISSION IS NOT POSSIBLE ANYMORE. Global proposals will be forwarded
to NRAO automatically and do not need to be submitted to NRAO separately.
To use Northstar,
people should register (at http://proposal.jive.nl, only for the
first proposal submission), enter the information about the
investigators and the technical specifications of the proposed observations
(equivalent to that previously in the coversheet) using the on-line forms, and
upload a scientific justification in pdf or ps format. The scientific justification should be limited
to 2 pages in length. Up to 2 additional pages with diagrams may be included.
The deadline for submission is 23:59:59 UTC on 1 October 2008.
Further information on Global VLBI, EVN+MERLIN
and e-VLBI observations, and guidelines for proposal submission are available
at: http://www.ira.inaf.it/evn_doc/guidelines.html
The EVN User Guide (http://www.evlbi.org/user_guide/user_guide.html) describes the
network and provides general information on its capabilities.
The current antenna capabilities can be found
in the status tables. For the standard EVN see http://www.evlbi.org/user_guide/EVNstatus.txt. For the e-VLBI
array see http://www.evlbi.org/evlbi/e-vlbi_status.html
The On-line VLBI catalogue (http://db.ira.inaf.it/evn/) lists sources
observed by the EVN and Global VLBI.
Tiziana Venturi - Chairperson of the EVN
Program Committee
Using the INTEGRAL/ISGRI instrument, Bykov et al. (2004) discovered the hard X-ray source IGR J2018+
On April 28 2008, Longo et al. (ATeL#1492)
reported the detection by the AGILE mission of significant and variable
gamma-ray emission (with photon energies above 100 MeV)
from a source in the Cygnus region, positionally
compatible with 3EG J2020+4017 and suggested that a possible counterpart within
the ~1 degree AGILE error box can be the galaxy 2MASX J20183871+4041003. This
detection stimulated further investigations: Ajello
et al. (2008, ATeL#1497) reported the presence of a Swift/BAT source in the
error box of the AGILE source, Halpern (2008,
ATel#1498) argued that there is no evidence of current blazar
activity from the candidate point source based on infrared I-band images,
and Dubner et
al. (2008, ATel#1518) discovered a source exactly at the position of the IGR
J2018+4043/2MASX J20183871+4041003 source based on
Cheung carried out new VLA observations of the
radio source discovered by Dubner et al. using in
this case the array in the D-configuration, concluding that the radio source is
unpolarized and not variable, making it unlikely a blazar or X-ray
binary origin. This lack of variability was later confirmed in the X-ray range
by Pandel et al. (2008, ATeL#1595) based on
XMM-Newton observations.
On June 23 2008, the AGILE team reported a
possible re-brightening of the gamma-ray source beginning on June 20 and also
the detection of a slightly shifted gamma-ray point source based on the
integration of several months of data. It has to be noted that the positions
reported by AGILE in the successive communications are inconsistent with each
other.
Despite the uncertainty in the exact location
of the AGILE source, because of the lack of other bright hard X-ray sources in
a ~1 degree vicinity of 3EG J2020+4017, one may conclude that IGR J2018+4043,
3EG J2020+4017 and the new AGILE source are the same object. In this direction,
Trejo et al. (2008, ATeL#1597) carried out
the highest resolution radio observations of the candidate counterpart at 1.6
GHz, using 7 antennas of the e-EVN network on June 24 2008. These observations
showed that the source has a compact, but partially resolved structure,
consistent with AGN activity in the host. Further observations are planned at 5
GHz to reveal the detailed structure and minimize the effect of scatter-broadening
which likely affect the data. The observed AGN activity indicates that our
target is a good candidate counterpart to the peculiar variable gamma-ray
source, but the final answer will be given by GLAST next year.
References:
Bykov, A. M. et al. 2004, A&A, 427, L21; Swanenburg,B.N. et al. 1981, ApJ,
243, L69
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Elsa Giacani and
Gloria Dubner, for a bigger collaboration.
IntraDay Variability (IDV) is currently being interpreted as
result from at least two effects: (i) interstellar
scintillation caused by the ionized interstellar medium (ISM) located along
line of sight and/or (ii) source intrinsic (physical) variability. Since
January
An anisotropic scattering model is fitted to
the J1128+5925 data of 2004-2007. According to this model, a slow-down of the
variability was expected for spring 2008 (around DOY 120). The new data,
however, now reveal a much faster variability at this time. At present it is
unclear, whether this is due to a change of the intrinsic source size or caused
by short time scale variations of the interstellar medium, i.e. a variation of
the electron density and/or fluctuation index. In the latter case, variations
in the ISM must appear on timescales of the order of 1 year or less. A VLBI
monitoring performed in parallel to the IDV observations should provide further
constraints to this problem.
An even more extreme example of a rapidly
variable radio source is shown for J1156+295, which only recently was discovered
in the VLBI data of the
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X. Liu (Urumqi Radio Observatory), T.P. Krichbaum (Max-Planck Institut für Radioastronomie)
The 4th workshop on Compact Steep Spectrum
and GigaHertz Peaked spectrum Radio Sources was
held in Riccione (FC) in the week 26-29 May 2008.
The need of the VLBI radio astronomical community to meet and discuss the
nature of CSS sources started in 1990, when our understanding of their nature
was still very poor. From that time, the VLBI community working
on this subject met regularly every 6 years, with the goal of sharing results
and defining the state of the art of the knowledge. A lot has happened since the first meetings.
First of all the study of CSS and GPS sources is no longer limited to the
radio band. Infrared, optical, and X-ray observations have considerably
improved our understanding, and are now essential investigation tools. |
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Even though it seems fairly well established
that CSS and GPS sources are young, as confirmed by the estimates on their radiative and kinematic ages, the properties of the
interstellar medium of their hosts raise a lot of interest, and the possible
role of confinement is still under study. Over the past few years the number of
CSS and GPS samples has considerably increased. This of course is important,
however attention should be kept high in order to avoid confusion and mix up of
very different astrophysical situation.
Despite an overall better understanding of the
observational properties of this class of sources and their role in the radio
source evolutionary scenario, some theoretical questions are still unsolved. In
particular, it is difficult to evaluate the role of the intergalactic medium in
the evolution of such sources.
There seems to be room for a Fifth workshop in
the series, most likely in six years from now.
The meeting has been very successful, with
more than 50 participants coming from all over the world (all five continents were
represented), who have kept the discussion very lively the entire workshop
through. A large number of participants were either PhD students or young postdocs.
Contributions to the workshop were given by
the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), by the
Tiziana Venturi (IRA-INAF, Italy)
The Istituto di Radioastronomia
(INAF) on behalf of the European VLBI Consortium,
will host the "9th European VLBI Network Symposium on The role
of VLBI in the Golden Age for Radio Astronomy" and the EVN Users Meeting
on September 23-26 2008. The Symposium will be held in
The
purpose of this conference is to report on the very latest VLBI and e-VLBI
results, including both recent scientific and technical developments in an era
during which many new powerful radio facilities, e.g. e-MERLIN, e-VLA, LOFAR,
ALMA, SKA, etc. are coming along. The meeting will have an informal character
and includes reviews, contributed talks, and posters.
The
list of topics includes AGNs and jet physics,
Starburst Galaxies, VLBI surveys, gravitational lenses, masers, supernovae and
their remnants, active stars, transients, new developments in hardware and
software techniques. During the conference, also the EVN Users Meeting will be held.
The
Symposium is sponsored by INAF and RadioNet. For details, check the web: http://www.ira.inaf.it/meetings/evn9/
The
recently constructed
This is
an important achievement for OAN and for the EVN. Yebes 40-m telescope will
soon observe also at S/X bands (after September 2008), and C bands (5 and 6
GHz), enhancing the sensitivity and capability of the network at those
frequencies.
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Plots courtesy of Stefanie Mühle (JIVE) and Dave Graham (MPIfR).
The EXPReS project engineers at the Helsinki University of
Technology TKK/Metsähovi radio observatory made a world record in data transfer
and achieved eight gigabits per second (Gbps) over the common Internet during
the seventh eVLBI Workshop in Shanghai, China June
17th 2008. The transferred data was a telescope radio signal sampled in
real-time.
The
equipment was based on the iBOB (Internet Break-out
Board) developed at the |
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Data
was streamed from
The
effect of the demonstration on the SUNET network can be seen in this figure;
astronomers succeeded in increasing the whole academic traffic between In
our first demonstration the antenna signal was transferred at 6.4 Gbps. Later
we achieved 8 Gbps and filled the Finland-Sweden 10Gbps link to more than 90%
capacity. The networking people of Funet, SUNET and
NORDUnet have done an amazing job, no packetloss or errors could be detected. In the bottom of
the graph you can see the normal level of the foreign traffic of the SUNET
network on the test day. |
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The
achieved 8 Gbps data transfer rate is an important milestone for eVLBI as the currently typical rate in European VLBI is 512
Mbps and maximum that has been achieved before is little below one Gbps.
Increasing the rate eightfold is an important breakthrough, the sensitivity of
the VLBI instrument increases 2.8-fold.
These gigabit transfer rates exceed the maximum transfer rates that are common
in personal or academic use. The new fast and powerful transfer methods
demanded by eVLBI have been specifically developed in
Metsähovi within the EXPReS project and are ideally
suited for spin-off applications like HDTV streaming.
TKK and Funet have been pioneers in implementing fast
Internet connections. In 2006 the Metsähovi radio observatory was the first
radio telescope in the world to attain a 10 Gbps Internet connection. The data tranfer experiment between the telescopes became possible
in Summer 2008 when the OptoSUNET connection to
Onsala was completed. The Funet network service of
CSC, the Swedish SUNET and Nordic NORDUnet made it
possible to perform the demostration that touches the
theoretical maximum limits of networks with a very short warning notice of a
couple of days.
This work has received financial support from the European Commission
(DG-INFSO), within the Sixth Framework Programme
(Integrated Infrastructure Iniative contract number
026642, EXPReS).
Jouko Ritakari, Jan Wagner, Guifré Molera, Minttu Uunila and Ari Mujunen (TKK/Metsähovi Radio Observatory); and Simon Casey
(Onsala Space Observatory).
On July
22nd we performed a special test involving the Merlin telescopes at
A
similar setup has been used in the past for disk-based VLBI where the data from
multiple Merlin telescopes are recorded to the same diskpack.
These are then sent to JIVE where they are duplicated and played simultaneously
to be correlated. When using real-time VLBI, the data must be somehow sent to
multiple receiving Mark5s at JIVE simultaneously. In the experiment of the 22nd
of July we achieved this by using the 'port monitoring' functionality of the
central JIVE switch/router to 'snoop' on all the networking traffic towards one
Mark5 and send duplicates to a second Mark5. With this setup we were able to
achieve fringes between all three stations at the same time (see image).
After
this initial success, Harro Verkouter
included IP Multicast functionality in the jivemark5a e-VLBI software. We also
upgraded the central JIVE switch/router to support Multicast, and used this
network protocol to perform the packet duplication, this time without having to
undertake major changes to the networking at JIVE. We ran a follow-up
experiment during the e-VLBI session of Sept 9th to successfully demonstrate
this setup and also achieved the first real-time fringes to the Knockin station at Merlin.
Having
the shorter Merlin baselines available significantly improves the sensitivity
of the e-EVN to larger scale structures, and JBO and JIVE are cooperating to
include more Merlin telescopes simultaneously in the future.
Paul Boven (JIVE).
On July
the 7th we succeeded in transferring formatter data at a rate of 1024Mb/s from
the WSRT to JIVE. The formatter at WSRT was configured for 16 tracks, 2
bit/track, 32MS/s. The WSRT Mark5A is running the standard Debian
Sarge distribution (with SMP support) and the only
significant change to it is the addition of an extra 1Gb/s networking card.
As
1024Mb/s simply won't fit through a 1Gb/s Ethernet connection, we are using the
Linux 'Ethernet bonding' driver to create a virtual network interface that
consists of two 1Gb/s Ethernet cards. Traffic sent to this virtual interface
will be transmitted over both physical interfaces in a round-robin fashion so
that even at 1024Mb/s, each physical interface only transmits 512Mb/s of the
traffic.
We have
recently upgraded the 34.4km dark fiber between WSRT and JIVE to use multiple
wavelengths (CWDM), with each wavelength able to carry 1Gb/s. Two of these
wavelengths are used to bring both 1Gb/s Ethernet links to JIVE where they are
connected to our central switch/router.
From
our switch/router, there is a 10Gb/s Ethernet link to one of our Mark5 servers.
This server is already running Debian Etch in order
to support the 10Gb/s interface, and a pre-release version of SDK8.1. We've
recompiled Harro's jive5a to link against this
pre-release SDK on Etch.
The
test ran for 30 minutes and only 17 packets were lost altogether. We had
steady green leds all the time on the receiving SU
and once we had things running, it was once again quite 'uneventful'. The
image shows the traffic on the two optical wavelengths we used. |
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Of
course, one telescope does not make a fringe, so please consider this an
invitation to join us in producing the first 1024Mb/s e-EVN fringes.
As several
of the EVN telescopes now have more than 1Gb/s of connectivity to JIVE, we hope
that this first demonstration will inspire you to upgrade your Mark5 to support
1024Mb/s e-VLBI, either by installing a 10Gb/s card or a second 1Gb/s card.
Paul Boven (JIVE)
The EXPReS team at JIVE is pleased to announce that on Thursday
28 August a successful test was made of dynamic scheduling, which involved
switching between the sources DA193 and 4C39.25 during an e-VLBI run. The
switch was made at
Two
schedule files were prepared in advance of the test, each containing both
sources in the $SOURCE block but referencing only one source in the observation
schedule. The schedule file for
observing DA193 was processed using log2vex to create a full vex file as in
normal operations. At the time of the
switch between sources a composite vex file was developed by merging scans from
the schedule file for 4C39.25 into this vex file using a new tool developed at
JIVE, such that the new vex file accurately represented the history of the
observation. The additional clock
information in the full vex file is ignored by drudg
in creating a snap file for the stations, but it is necessary for correlation.
This
updated vex file was then copied to and 'drudg'ed at
the stations to create a new snap file, without modifying the existing proc
file, and the field systems were then updated with the new schedule via the inject_snap command. All of this was done by 'remote
control' using a Python script running at JIVE - no new software was required
at the field systems. The correlation
job was restarted at JIVE with the new vex file, and fringes between
This
first attempt at EVN dynamic scheduling shows that in principle on-the-fly
schedule changes are feasible with any station using the standard Field System
- with the caveat that the observing setup remains the same. This is an important milestone towards the
goal of developing the EVN into a rapid response instrument which allows
flexible scheduling of Target of Opportunity requests.
Des
Small and Zsolt Paragi
(JIVE)
At JIVE
we're currently involved in two projects to develop the SFXC software
correlator that was developed for tracking the Huygens probe into a distributed
correlator usable for "normal" astronomy. One is the NWO-funded
SCARIe project, the other is the FABRIC JRA which is
part of EXPReS.
Since May 2007, SFXC has been used to produce fringe plots for the FTP fringe
tests. Since then we've spent quite a bit of effort to make the
correlator run faster and deal with all the different modes our support
scientists come up with. The whole process has also been streamlined by
transferring the data directly to the machine used to run the software
correlator and adding a script that automatically generates a web page with
results/feedback after the correlation finishes.
This summer, the software that translates the output of the EVN hardware
correlator into an aips++ Measurement Set has been
adapted such that it understands the output of SFXC too. This allows us
to use all the tools developed for analysis of the results of the hardware
correlator. Since software to translate a Measurement Set into FITS
already exists, data correlated with SFXC can now be loaded into AIPS. We
expect to have a first image in the near future.
Earlier this year, the SCARIe project has been
approached by the GEANT2 AutoBAHN team with the
question if the software correlator would be a a good
application for their Bandwidth-on-Demand facility. The AutoBAHN
system allows one to dynamically allocate network bandwidth between computer
systems across
Mark Kettenis (JIVE)
The 7th
International e-VLBI Workshop was held in
The workshop
gathered 87 participants working on both radio astronomy and network science
in 11 countries around the world. 27 oral presentations and six posters were
presented on topics covering the status of e-VLBI, on-going projects in
e-VLBI facilities around the world, latest scientific outcomes using high
data rate and e-VLBI technology development. Two
panel discussions took place following the presentation sessions each day:
internet connection and e-VLBI technology on June 16, and a standard for
e-VLBI data format and transfer protocols was lively discussed on June 17.
The astronomers reached a consensus to standardize the e-VLBI data format and
transfer protocol, and a sub-group was set up to work on the task. |
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Two
live demos were also given, demonstrating e-VLBI research on scientific and
engineering work respectively. The e-CVN demo on June 16 involved the Chinese
VLBI Network consisting of four telescopes (
Overall
the workshop provided an opportunity to broaden international and national
cooperation in e-VLBI activities and to strengthen the cooperation between the
network scientists and radio astronomers. Additional workshop photos are
available at http://www.shao.ac.cn/eVLBI2008/photo/photo.html.
Tao An
(SHAO,
The
Centro Nacional de Informacion
Geografica - Instituto Geografico Nacional (CNIG-IGN) of
Spain, in cooperation with the EXPReS Project, is
pleased to host the “Science and Technology of Long Baseline Real-Time Interferometry / 8th International e-VLBI
Workshop”, to be held on 22-26 June 2009 at the premises of the National
Astronomical Observatory in Madrid, Spain. Please save these dates on your
calendar.
The
multi-day meeting will be split into two parts. Half will focus on the
technologies and engineering developments that have made e-VLBI possible, with
the other half focusing on the scientific findings and results. Papers will be
collected and published online by the Proceedings of Science (PoS).
Additional
details regarding the meeting will be made available on the web pages http://www.oan.es/expres09/ over the
coming months.
2008
Session 2: 30 May - 18 June
Wavelengths: 1.3cm, 18cm, 6cm, 5cm
This session proved something of a nightmare to schedule, given the number of
well-rated projects requiring additional, non-EVN telescopes. There were 5
global projects scheduled requiring 8 separate observations. Of these, the GBT
was needed for 4 observations,
A total of 22 user observations were scheduled. For the first time the new
Yebes 40m antenna (Ys) took part in the 1.3cm section
of the session, observing user project EB037C and the network monitor run.
A special, additional, test observation at 1.3cm was also scheduled at
some telescopes in order to explore the EVN performance at higher frequencies
at K-band. Another "first" was the participation of the phased-eVLA (using a subset of eVLA
antennas with receivers capable of observing at 6.1 GHz) in 4 observations
together with
Richard
Porcas (EVN Scheduler)
o THE JOINT
INSTITUTE FOR VLBI IN EUROPE (JIVE) is seeking candidates for SENIOR
STAFF MEMBER/project leader astronomical processing to be located at
JIVE, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands. Deadline: 15 October 2008.
The Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE) operates the central data
processor (correlator) of the European VLBI Network (EVN). It is the focal
point of EVN network and user support, providing various tools that facilitate
access to and processing of the data product. JIVE is involved in a number of programmes to advance the future scientific capabilities of
VLBI, including the development of e-VLBI and new correlator initiatives.
Enhancements of the user facilities include further development of the archive
portal, the proposal and scheduling tools, as well as data reduction software (ParselTongue). JIVE is also actively involved in projects
related to the definition of the SKA. JIVE is located in Dwingeloo,
in the
We invite applications for a senior staff position. The responsibilities of
this position could include:
o Take the lead on an international project on radio-astronomy
data reduction software
o Carry out VLBI-related astronomical research
o Supervise a small team of scientific programmers working on algorithm
development as well as operational tools
o Participate in international projects dealing with
astronomical computing or radio-astronomy initiatives
The position requires a Ph.D. in astronomy or another relevant field. The
position calls for an affinity with astronomical computing, including
radio-astronomical data reduction tools. The successful applicant has thorough
knowledge of radio-astronomy techniques, preferably VLBI, with a track record
as an active
radio-astronomer. Experience in supervising a small team, possessing good
communication skills and experience with managing software projects is an
advantage.
Candidates who fulfill part of the above requirements and have the ambition to
develop further in order to fit the above profile are also encouraged to apply.
Applicants of any nationality are eligible for this position.
The appointment is offered for a one-year trial period, after which time the
position would become permanent. The appointee will be in the formal employ of
the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). The position
carries a competitive salary plus an excellent package of secondary benefits,
including relocation expenses.
Please send your application to:
Ms Diana Verweij Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe Postbus 2 7990 AA Dwingeloo The
Applications should include a CV, together with three letters of reference,
which may be sent separately. All application materials should arrive by 15 October 2008, mentioning ref. No
JIVE2008/06. Responses are preferred by e-mail. Further information can be
obtained from Dr. Huib van Langevelde (langevelde@jive.nl,
+31-521-596515).
At
JIVE, the open operator position has been taken up by Bert Harms, who previously had experience operating the Westerbork array. Nico Kruithof has left the position in the SCARIe project, where he worked on distributed software
correlation. This position has recently been taken up by Aard Keimpema who joins us from
Michael Nolan has been appointed the
Interim Director of the Arecibo Observatory after Robert Kerr, the previous Arecibo Director, resigned in late
August. On June 1st, Don
Campbell became the new Director of NAIC after Robert Brown stepped down of that position.
María Rioja has temporarily left OAN (
Two new
PhD students have joined the MPIfR group in
Anupreeta More received her PhD from
EVN Newsletter No. 21. ©
2008 European VLBI Network. Edited by Francisco Colomer
(OAN, Spain).