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Basic Information on taco
Task: taco
Purpose: Dynamic scheduling program.
Categories: misc
TACO is a scheduling program to sort a prioritized list into
an observing schedule using an atmopheric model or
phase monitor data to estimate the atmospheric fluctuations.
Key: in
Input prioritized list. No default.
The format is telescope dependent. For Hatcreek the format is:
project, ra[hhmm], dec[dddmm], atmax[millimeter], lstmax
Format: project*33,2i2,1x,i3,i2,3x,f4.2
column(64)=lstmax
Lines begining with `#' are not used.
'atmax' is the maximum atmospheric phase rms. Default=0.3 mm
(1/10 wave at 3mm wavelength) is a reasonable threshold
without Selfcal. Larger values can be used with Selfcal.
Smaller than 0.1 mm corresponds to very good seeing at Hatcreek.
For each project, 'lstmax' specifies the maximum number
of repeats for each hour of lst. The default is 1 repeat.
'lstmax' provides a quantized mechanism for specifying
the HA range wanted.
'F' denotes that uv-coverage is not important.
To sample the complete HA range, the integral of 'lstmax'
over the available HA range should equal the maxtime.
The UT range can also be specified explicitly.
Keywords specify some parameters which could be given
for each project, and vice-versa.
Key: telescop
name of telescope. Default=HATCREEK.
Get telescope parameters, such as 'latitude'.
Key: elevlim
Elevation limit. Default=10 degrees, zero wait time.
Time to wait for the source to rise can be changed by setting
elevlim below the actual elevation limit for the observation.
Key: maxtime
maximum scheduled time for each project. Default = 8 hours.
Key: mintime
Minimum interval for which a project can be scheduled.
(or 80% of time above elevlim, whichever is smaller)
Default = 1 hour.
Key: interval
LST scheduling interval used to re-evaluate schedule.
Default = 2 hours.
Key: wait
Interval to wait before re-evaluating schedule when
no project can be scheduled. Default=0.1 hours.
Key: lst
Starting LST in hours, given as a real number. e.g. 12.3.
Key: stop
LST stop time for schedule, given as a real number which
can be larger than 24.0 to represent more than one day.
Default = lst + interval, i.e. only one project will be scheduled.
If stop is greater than lst + interval
then TACO advances the LST and schedules the next project.
Key: phfile
Filename of phase monitor data used to estimate seeing.
The atmospheric phase rms is measured in a 5 min average on a
100 m baseline. The default file is '$MIRCAT/ovro_phase.1996'.
Key: phday
Starting time in phfile - decimal days since 01JAN
Used to estimate seeing. Default uses atmos model instead.
The unix command phday=`date '+%j'` sets the current day number.
Key: phfac
Phase factor used to multiply value in phfile to get path rms in
millimeters. e.g. 12 GHz phase monitor needs
phfac = 300/12/360 = 0.069 Default=1.0.
Key: atmos
Three values giving the mean and rms atmospheric fluctuations
in millimeters, and the atmospheric time constant in hours.
Default=0,0,1 i.e. perfect weather. atmos=.3,.1,0.05 is reasonable.
Typical values range from .1,.1,4 in good weather to 2,2,0.01 in bad.
Key: log
Output log file of the observing schedule. Default is the terminal.
Key: statin
Input filename containing the status of the observations.
TACO keeps track of the integration time
and HA range aquired for each project. This status can
be read in as a starting point for observations,
and/or written out as a record of the current status.
Lines begining with `#' are not used.
Default: no files are read or written.
Key: statout
Output filename containing the status of the observations.
This file is updated after each observation scheduled.
Key: options
Extra processing options. Possible values are:
debug Print more output to monitor scheduled observations.
histo Print histogram for atmospheric phase,
and run time statistics.