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As part of the JCMT Legacy Survey (JLS), the three surveys that utilise
HARP have started their programmes and used a significant amount of
telescope time. The JCMT Survey Oversight Committee (JSOC) has reviewed
progress in this first year of HARP operations of the JLS and reported
its findings to the JCMT Board. This message provides feedback on that process.
The JSOC considered, in the first instance, progress for each of the
three surveys using HARP. This included data acquisition, quality
control, data reduction, survey staffing and management, and scientific
utilization. The conclusion of the JSOC was positive; all teams appear
to be in control of their projects. No problems have been encountered in
generating the required staff effort and all teams appear to have
sufficient effort in place to keep up with the data flow. All teams
have advanced plans for the publication of initial survey results and
papers are already in preparation, submitted, or have been accepted.
This is very encouraging and shows the level of dedication of the JLS
teams.
Initial data processing and quality assessment was typically carried out
using custom scripts, usually developed with assistance from JAC staff.
Eventually, all survey data needs to be processed using the science
pipeline developed at JAC, and we encourage the survey teams to adopt
this, with its advanced recipes, to generate their final survey products.
The JSOC also considered the cases for the time required to complete
each of the surveys, within the scope defined by the Board-approved
science cases. The teams provided estimates of:
- the expected level of completion of the surveys (HARP components
only) if the present time envelope was maintained;
- the time required (including overheads) to complete the surveys to
the scientific scope originally approved by the JCMT board in 2005.
After due consideration, it was concluded that the case for an
additional time allocation to the JLS is very strong. The JCMT Board
therefore approved the JSOC recommendation for additional HARP time
allocations to all three surveys.
In making its recommendations, the JSOC took a number of general points
into account, including:
- Given that pressure on SCUBA-2 will be enormous from semester 10A
onwards, it would be highly desirable to complete as much of the HARP
components of the JLS by the end of semester 09B.
- The general principle that 45% of the available UK/NL/CA time is to
be retained for PI programmes, as confirmed by the JCMT board in
2005, should be adhered to. However, the JCMT Board determined that
if pressure on PI time is low in semester 09B, the fraction allocated
to the JLS may be increased, for semester 09B only, in the interest
of completing the HARP surveys by as much as possible by the end of
09B.
- While for scheduling purposes the surveys are run without relative
priorities, there were clear scientific priorities in the outcome of
the (independently peer-reviewed) survey selection process overseen
by the JSSG. Wherever necessary, the JSOC adopted these relative
priorities.
In total, 499 additional hours were allocated to the HARP components of
the JLS. These are summarised in the table below and in the Survey Allocations page.
Paul van der Werf
Chairman, JSOC
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