Quality Control: closing the loop Reinhard Hanuschik, DFO/QC

1. Quality Control: closing the loopReinhard Hanuschik, DFO/QC 1. Principles 2. Processes 3. Critical components 4. Conclusions Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

2. 1. Principles • purpose of calibration: • calibrate the science observations = remove (atm+tel)*(ins+det) • know the status of tel+ins+det maintenance, intervention • calibrate the instrument • purpose of QC: • ensure that calibs can do that • to a known and predictable accuracy Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

3. QC group: • 7+1 scientists • data processing and quality control • roughly 400 GB raw data per month, 11,500 processing jobs • 80 SM packages • 9 VLT, 2 VLTI; 2 survey telescopes Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

4. aspects of QC: • formal compliance of file format: PSO, DMD/DBCM, DMD/SAO • compliance with user constraints:PSO(OB grading) • check raw files against reference files: PSO • check pipeline products, do optimized association, optimized processing: QC group • compare to similar data (trending):QC group Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

5. raw  proc (off-line pipe) certification trending • standard QC Paranal SciOps raw  proc (on-line pipe) fits file transfer QC Garching 10 days Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

6. standard QC Paranal SciOps raw  proc (on-line pipe) HC monitor ops log ftp fits file transfer raw  proc (off-line pipe) certification QC Garching HC process trending 10 days < 1 day • shared QC: close the loop • feedback to enable corrections Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

7. 2. Processes Components: • On-site QC • Health Check monitor • QC processing and certification • QC trending 10 days! Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

8. On-site QC • day/night astronomers: • completeness check • visual quality checks: exposure level, patterns • inspection of pipeline products: are there any? do look reasonable? Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

9. Reference frames • www.eso.org/qc/ALL/ref_frames/ref_frames.html Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

10. Health Check monitor • www.eso.org/qc/ALL/daily_qc1.html • day astronomer + QC scientist: • how do new calibs compare to previous ones • do new calibs show up at all • outliers, alerts? trigger actions • currently being upgraded to better organize information, closeups etc. Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

11. upgraded: Giraffe, VIMOS Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

12. QC process, certification • QC scientists in Garching: • process all calibration data, SM science data • associate best-possible calibs to new data • best: closest in time, certified, dynamically updated • correct dependencies (following the cascade) • process with best-possible pipeline setup • optimized, customized parameters • maybe patched/improved beta versions • measure and assess product quality • customized QC reports, experience • trending analysis • certify products • released for archiving and delivery • released for usage in processing other data Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

13. Trending • done and maintained by QC group • set of current and history trending plots • customized for each product type or instrument component • access to ASCII data • www.eso.org/qc Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

14. useful for: • maintenance planning (“by how much do the zeropoints degrade over a year by dust accumulation”) • complete instrument history (“how often in the past has grating XZ shown this kind of shift”) • InsScientists, PIs, archive users (“how does my current dispersion rms compare to earlier observations in P74”) Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

15. 3. Critical components, challenges • calibration plan • definition of calibs and frequency must be complete • must include Health Check calibs • execution must be complete: • daytime (calOBbuilder) • twilight/nighttime (…) Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

16. on-site QC, Health Check monitor • define within IOT: • regular set of HC calibs (regular spacing, daily or so) • set of key QC1 params to be included (cannot be all, must focus on most critical ones): • DET, FILT, GRISM/GRAT, LAMPs, system throughput etc. • don’t expect all trending info on the HC monitor • simply too much … • find under www.eso.org/qc/: • full history, all plots, all tutorial info, all text files Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

17. pipelines • QC1 parameters need to be pipeline-produced and included in ops log files, to show up on the Health Check monitor • Health Check monitor, trending: • maintenance continuous effort • complexity is a challenge! Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

18. dvdMonitor • Data transfer • delay by 8-14 days • large impact on QC task: • large data volume affected by any problem discovered in Garching • delivery bursts  processing delays may happen Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

19. complexity • supporting 9 VLT + 2 VLTI plus 2 VST/VISTA • publish and maintain ~600 web pages • we are largely on our own with maintenance/ development of most components Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

20. IOTs • extremely important for setting up and maintaining the QC process • shared QC requires each side to know what the other side is doing and why • we visit you  come and visit us! Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago

21. 4. Conclusions • shared QC: • in excellent shape • but needs continuous efforts • can still be improved … • key issues: • data delivery pattern • daytime QC/HC monitor • operational stability Instrument Scientist Retreat, Santiago