NIKA2 technical run #42 / February 25th - March 3rd, 2020
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Goals
The overall goal is to complete the commissioning of the polarization capabilities of the NIKA2 camera. Following the data and their analysis from December 2018, we identified 3 important questions to adress.
- Deriving a more satisfactory characterization of the leakage pattern/amplitude as a function of both elevation and focus. This is critical 1) to assess the range of elevations and acceptable focus offsets for which meaningful science observations can be acquired for the LP and 2) to implement a better correction of the data for instrument polarization (IP) effects in the reduction pipeline (in the absence of such correction, the IP level is ~2% for well-focused data at intermediate ~50 deg elevations and becomes worse at other elevations and/or for poorly focused observations). This requires observations of Uranus (at different elevations and on separate days to check the repeatability of the results).
- Obtaining a reasonably accurate absolute calibration of polarization angles on the sky. This calibration is not expected to vary with time but requires deep quasi-simultaneous observations of a handful of reference quasars (e.g. 3C286) with both NIKA2 and XPOL.
- Acquiring a few maps of astrophysical sources with well-known polarization patterns (e.g. Crab, OMC1, DR21, IRAS4A, B335) to check the robustness/repeatability of NIKA2-Pol results in terms of polarization angle/degree by comparison with published results from telescopes. Note that OMC1 and DR21 correspond to the central parts of two of the target fields of the LP, so assuming the results on these sources are satisfactory, they can be used for science purposes.
Before the run
DAQ v3 will be used in total power during the W19 4th science pool (Feb 11th-18th, 2020). The observations carried out in that week with the DAQ v3 will be only on science targets. The aim is to collect 3 full days of total power data with the DAQ v3, that will allow us to have enough statistics to finally conclude the validatation of DAQ v3. The data collected in those days will be not processed immediately
If the 4th science pool will not allow 3 full days of total power DAQ v3 testing, what is missing will be taken from this commissioning week (Feb 25th - Mar 3rd, 2020). Apart for this, run 42 is dedicated to polarimetry commissioning.
We need to make sure that the latest upgrades written by Juan Macias to the read-data library (fixing sync problems and other smaller modifications) are active, i.e. check with Juan if he has "committed" the latest version of the read-data library for DAQ v3.
Observers and Schedule
All the people who will participate to the run must appear in the table below; each one must inform Anaelle/Stefano/Samuel and contact Laura to reserve rooms in Granada and at the telescope. For those who travel on IRAM funds, contact Samuel; see also the NIKA2 travel rules.
Staff table of the nights spent at the observatory for the NIKA2 collaboration members participating to the run (T = Tuesday, 1 = night scheduled at the telescope, g = night in Granada office).
People\Date |
24 |
T25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
S29 |
1 |
2 |
T3 |
|
|||||||||
Anaelle M |
g |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
Philippe A |
g |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
Nicolas P |
g |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
Alessia R |
g |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
Hamza A |
g |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
Juan M |
0 |
0 |
g |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
Ioannis M |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
Samuel L |
g |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
People |
0 |
7/8 |
7/8 |
8/8 |
8/8 |
8/8 |
8/8 |
7/8 |
0 |
Rooms at obs. |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|||||||||
AoD. Angel B |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
0 |
(*) For the rooms, count persons from the NIKA collaboration and Grenoble, but not from IRAM Granada.
IRAM's http://www.iram.es/IRAMES/mainWiki/AstronomersOnDutySchedule.