Engineering topics

Himwich, Ed

Publications and source records attributed to Himwich, Ed.

10 records

NASA NTRS2013

Network Coordinator Report

This report includes an assessment of the network performance in terms of lost observing time for the 2012 calendar year. Overall, the observing time loss was about 12.3%, which is in-line with previous years. A table of relative incidence of problems with various subsystems is presented. The most significant identified causes of loss were electronics rack problems (accounting for about 21.8% of losses), antenna reliability (18.1%), RFI (11.8%), and receiver problems (11.7%). About 14.2% of the losses occurred for unknown reasons. New antennas are under development in the USA, Germany, and Spain. There are plans for new telescopes in Norway and Sweden. Other activities of the Network Coordinator are summarized.

Himwich, Ed↗

NASA NTRS2013

GSFC Technology Development Center Report

This report summarizes the activities of the GSFC Technology Development Center (TDC) for 2012 and forecasts planned activities for 2013. The GSFC TDC develops station software including the Field System (FS), scheduling software (SKED), hardware including tools for station timing and meteorology, scheduling algorithms, and operational procedures. It provides a pool of individuals to assist with station implementation, check-out, upgrades, and training.

Himwich, Ed↗

NASA NTRS2010

Coordinating, Scheduling, Processing and Analyzing IYA09

The IVS scheduled a special astrometric VLBI session for the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA09) commemorating 400 years of optical astronomy and 40 years of VLBI. The IYA09 session is the most ambitious geodetic session to date in terms of network size, number of sources, and number of observations. We describe the process of designing, coordinating, scheduling, pre-session station checkout, correlating, and analyzing this session.

Gipson, John↗

NASA NTRS2010

E-Control: First Public Release of Remote Control Software for VLBI Telescopes

Automating and remotely controlling observations are important for future operations in a Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS). At the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell, in cooperation with the Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, a software extension to the existing NASA Field System has been developed for remote control. It uses the principle of a remotely accessible, autonomous process cell as a server extension for the Field System. The communication is realized for low transfer rates using Remote Procedure Calls (RPC). It uses generative programming with the interface software generator idl2rpc.pl developed at Wettzell. The user interacts with this system over a modern graphical user interface created with wxWidgets. For security reasons the communication is automatically tunneled through a Secure Shell (SSH) session to the telescope. There are already successful test observations with the telescopes at O Higgins, Concepcion, and Wettzell. At Wettzell the software is already used routinely for weekend observations. Therefore the first public release of the software is now available, which will also be useful for other telescopes.

Neidhardt, Alexander↗

NASA NTRS2010

Differences Between S/X and VLBI2010 Operation

The intended VLBI2010 operation has some significant differences to the current S/X operation. The presentation focuses on the problem of extending the operation of a global VLBI network to continuous operation within the frame of the same given amount of human resources. Remote control operation is a suitable solution to minimize operational expenses. The implementation of remote control operation requires more site specific information. A concept of a distributed-centralized remote control of the operation and its implications is presented.

Hase, Hayo↗

NASA NTRS2004

VLBI2010: Networks and Observing Strategies

The Observing Strategies Sub-group of IVS's Working Group 3 has been tasked with producing a vision for the following aspects of geodetic VLBI: antenna-network structure and observing strategies; source strength/structure/distribution; frequency bands, RFI; and field system and scheduling. These are high level considerations that have far reaching impact since they significantly influence performance potential and also constrain requirements for a number of other \VG3 sub-groups. The paper will present the status of the sub-group's work on these topics.

Petrachenko, Bill↗

NASA NTRS2004

Network Coordinator Report

This report includes an assessment of the network performance in terms of the yield of usable data over a 12 month period. A table of relative incidence of problems with various subsystems is presented. The current situation for the handling of correlator clock adjustments by the correlators is reviewed.

Himwich, Ed↗

NASA NTRS2004

GSFC Technology Development Center Report

This report summarizes the activities of the GSFC Technology Development Center for 2003. The report forecasts activities planned for the year 2004. The GSFC Technology Development Center (TDC) develops station software including the Field System (FS), scheduling software (SKED), hardware including tools for station timing and meteorology, scheduling algorithms, operational procedures, and provides a pool of individuals to assist with station implementation, check-out, upgrades, and training.

Himwich, Ed↗

NASA NTRS2001

GSFC IVS Technology Development Center Report

This report summarizes the activities of the Goddard Space Flight Center's (GSFC's) International Very Long Base Interferometry (VLBI) Service (IVS)Technology Development Center from the establishment of IVS to the end of 2000. The report forecasts activities planned for the year 2001. The GSFC IVS Technology Development Center (TDC) develops station software including the Field System (FS), scheduling software (SKED), hardware including tools for station timing and meteorology, scheduling algorithms, operational procedures, and provides a pool of individuals to assist with station implementation, check-out, upgrades, and training.

Himwich, Ed↗

NASA NTRS1999

Goddard Space Flight Center IVS Technology Development Center

The GSFC IVS Technology Development Center (TDC) develops station software including the Field System (FS), scheduling software (SKED), hardware including tools for station timing and meteorology, scheduling algorithms, operational procedures, and provides a pool of individuals to assist with station implementation, check-out, upgrades, and training.

Himwich, Ed↗