Caillat Michel

Abstract Reference: 31073
Identifier: P8.6
Presentation: Poster presentation
Key Theme: 8 Other

A versatile software to support interferometric array configuration decision

Authors:
Caillat Michel, Boone Frédéric, Kasradze Nodar, Léon Stéphane, Kneissl Ruediger

Operating a reconfigurable interferometric array such as the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) implies moving the indi- vidual telescopes on the ground to meet imaging specifications. In the case of ALMA the antennas have to be on concrete stations and deciding the configuration means choosing the stations to populate. For a given sit- uation the number of possible configurations is finite and the most robust way to choose the best one is to assess all of them. In this memo we intro- duce a versatile software that can be used to pick the best configuration among all possible solutions to a given problem. We have developed this software in C++ and we have implemented a JAVA graphical user interface and a parallelized version together with a WEB service to take full advantage of computing facilities at Paris Observatory. This software is used by the ALMA project to decide the configurations when practical contingencies have to be taken into account and when the general plan initially foreseen for the configurations cannot be applied.