2023-02-06 SSG Meeting notes

VLASS SSG Meeting Notes

Feb 6, 2023

• Introductions and review of SSG goals and resources – Mark Lacy
1. Terms of reference document: pdf 
2. VLASS Slack workspace and SSG channel
3. Confluence page

• VLASS News:
1. Science highlights – everyone!
• HiPS - Steve Myers

• Try it out if you haven’t yet!

• Roman Survey Call

• Short “science pitch” (1-2 paragraphs) due Feb 17

• Mark Lacy, Kristina Nyland, and Dillon Dong interested - anybody else?
• Dillon: IR counterparts to hostless transients
1. Observing and data processing status – Amy Kimball
• ? of Epoch 3.1 has been observed
• Correction: about ¼ of Epoch 3.1 has been observed
• New automated QA heuristics in use
• Progress on job openings for analysts
• Single epoch imaging is on pause
• Heuristics are good - VLA observing recommendations have changed

• Events:
1. Conferences of interest (input welcome)
• DSA-2000 meeting (March 20-22, 2023)
• https://www.deepsynoptic.org/2023-conference
• ngVLA/SKA meeting (April 30-May 5; abstracts due Feb 10)
• https://web.cvent.com/event/0b9d0692-1fed-412e-82f0-212f05a72434/summary
• Machine Learning conference of interest in March 
• https://www.nvidia.com/gtc/
2. Splinter session planning for AAS #242 (June 2023) – Steve Myers
• Goal: help users prepare for the Single Epoch data (cont and cubes) to build up to a Special Session at the January 2024 AAS in New Orleans.
• Deadline: TBD
• Length: technically unlimited; plan is to aim for half a day
• Morning - introduction
• Afternoon - TBD
• Content will include Ssme science highlights, some tutorials
• Science topics:
• Transients - Dillon
• Continuum
• Polarimetry
• Commensal science
• “Tutorials”/technical topics
• Overview of VLASS/data products
• Cross-matching surveys (Topcat, Aladdin)
• Astroquery
• Lessons from recent VLASS splinter sessions at AAS
• Provide catering 
• Crowd size: small (few dozen people)
• Think about how this session will support outreach/communication with broader community

• CIRADA updates – Bryan Gaensler
1. Polarimetry processing going well
2. Epoch 2 quicklook catalog now available! https://cirada.ca/vlasscatalogueql0
3. Transients:
• Dillon - Epoch 1 vs. Epoch 2 transient papers (in collaboration with Yuyang Chen); quantifying false positives and negatives rates, completeness
• Greg - Transient Marshall updates in progress 
4. CanDIAPL (successor to CIRADA)
• Canada will join SKA

• Next meeting: Monday, March 6th at 1pm EST / 11am MST / 18:00 UTC