Weekly Report for Week Ending April 17, 2003

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday  April 21, 2003 will be:

 (Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)

STAFFING MEETING

Special Items:

Special Announcements:

Weekly Report Highlights
 

LSC Issues (Weiss)

no report

LIGO I Construction/LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

Petty Cash--(See action 58) Caltech indicated that they could not provide corporate checking accounts for the sites, but suggested that we could use convenience checks.  Cannot get a corporate checking account because trustees won't approve it.  Convenience check is like cash and considered by some not a good idea.  Gary likes convenience check idea, associated with a specific PCard, since machinery is already in place.  Audit is tight.  Responsible person has to guard the checks.  There is a stiff fee (2.5 percent) for each check, but this is paid by Caltech.

Flow chart for petty cash processing has been prepared by Florence and is being reviewed by Ed Jasnow.

Direct Deposit of Travel Reimbursements--about to be started.

Budgetary Issues--Some concern expressed as to whether Computing Group really will spend the funds budgeted under construction cooperative agreement.  It was suggested that Ed meet with Stewart Anderson regarding a schedule for LDAS Construction orders so that we can monitor progress.

Hanford Building Mods--Proposal in line with estimates.  Field Modification to be issued.  Should start shortly.

Livingston Drainage at Entrance--Concept is to raise the walkway a bit.  Alan proceeding.

Slab for storage building is being poured.

Coastal is also working on the access gate.

Property and Downtown Storage Area--Going to surplus the power supplies.  Going to move the blankets into the new storage building when complete.

Inventory at Hanford--scheduled for next week.

Safety Audit--Also scheduled a safety audit Wednesday and Thursday next week.

Hanford Site Administrator Search--Have narrowed search to two candidates.  Converging quickly.

Author List--Fred has provided information to Irena for shift taking purposes.  Sites, including MIT, requested to go to LSC roster, look at list one more time, and mark up who should be author on S1 papers.

Meeting Access Number--Last week we suggested that we go back to a constant number for accessing the site teleconference meeting.  Ed Jasnow agreed to set this up and report via EMAIL.

The list of current actions revised to reflect the status of open actions assigned through April 10, 2003 may be found at ACTION LIST.

From: Ed Chargois <chargois_e@ligo.caltech.edu>

• Nothing significant to report.

>From: Linda Turner - turner@ligo.caltech.edu>

Web pages for the DCC give simple how-to's for document numbering, easy access to the latest on-line documents, and search capabilities for the DCC database. Take a look. . .

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

No report.

• Reminder to LIGO staff:  Please make sure that as a minimum, each document submitted has a LIGO number, author's name, and date.  It's surprising how many documents are missing one of more of these essential pieces of information!.

ACTIVITY

• Processing of electronic documents in a timely manner has become quite a challenge.  As documents still continue to be submitted with various problems and with the accumulation of documents currently in the file with problems, it becomes more difficult and frustrating each day to determine which documents need attention.
• Continued to process LSC documents still trickling in.
• Volume of incoming packages for this period was a little higher than the norm.
• Continued working on organizing of old charge account files.
 

DCC Activity




WE 04/17/03	Packages	Faxes
In	48	35
Out	12	31

From: Esther Cunningham <esther@ligo.caltech.edu>

Press here for ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY DATA .

From: "Brambila, Ruth" <Ruth.Brambila@caltech.edu>

• Completed change order #1 to Star Engineering, change order #2 to Landscape Horizons, change order #2 to Excel Engineering, and change order #20 to MIT which has been federal expressed to them.
• Placed four large computer orders to ASA for Stuart, three large computer orders to Foundry, and several standard purchase orders in Gina's absence.
• Placed and reconciled pcard transactions.
• Working on change order #3 to Frequency Devices, and change order #126 to Triad.

No report this week.

From: Florence Kaufman <fkaufman@ligo.caltech.edu>

• No report this week.

 
• Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport

From: irena@ligo.caltech.edu (Irena Petrac)

• ADLIGO SEI Mechanical Structure/New Procurement: Preparation of proposals is under way.  Proposers conference is scheduled for the end of this month at Stanford.  Informational copies of the RFP were forwarded to NSF.
• AdLIGO Coating R&D/New Procurement: Released letter soliciting interest in forthcoming procurement for AdLIGO coating R&D (on the part of qualified domestic and foreign sources)..

• The field change order for the modifications to the LHO Laboratory Building will be issued tomorrow.  These modifications include double glass doors, sun shades and new carpet.
• Work is beginning on the LLO access gate.  The initial work includes widening the road and pouring concrete for the gate pedestal.  The gates themselves have been ordered.
• Work on the pre-fabricated storage building has begun with the pouring of the concrete footings.  The parts for the building itself are expected next week.

• Automatic deposits of travel reimbursement checks will begin with LIGO as the pilot project on May 1.  Further information will be distributed as the roll-out date gets closer.

SUPPORT (Baldon, Lloyd, Tischler)

>Irene Baldon

• Processed the paper work for six (6) new/revised trips.  There are nine (9) trips in various stages of completion before ticketing can be done and/or paper work completed.  Also assisted a number of P-Card holders with their travel plans/reservations or revisions.  Until further notice I will be doing travel for LHO travelers.
• The 2003 SURF Program will be held from June 16th thru August 22nd.  This LIGO/Caltech will have twenty (20) students, LIGO/Hanford will have seven (7), and LIGO/Livingston will have three (3), with four (4) going to Pisa, Italy.  I have started working with the thirty (30) coming to one of the three (3) LIGO sites and Pisa will be handling the four (4) going there.
• Completed sixteen (16) Expense Reports and there are three (3) reports yet to be done.  I continue to contact travelers who have outstanding Expense Reports (more than one (1) month old) to ask for their cooperation in sending me their receipts so that they can be closed in a timely manner.  Completed one (1) Expense Report for a traveler who has his own P-Card.
• Reconciled nineteen (19) P-Card items which required numerous phone calls to hotels, car rentals, etc., in order to track down which traveler incurred which charge; and the pulling of each traveler's file to assure that charges are correct for each fee incurred.  Assisted a few travelers with their questions in regard to their P-Card and/or reconciliation.    The 15th being month-end I closed my account and assisted a few other with their closing.
• I continued to collect a few EFT stragglers and hope that more will come.  It is anticipated that this pilot program will now start up by May 1, 2003.  Your cooperation in promptly returning the form to me (Irene Baldon, M.C. 18-34), filled out, with a VOIDED check or deposit slip attached, is greatly appreciated.
• Worked on the preparation and distribution of the Travel/Vacation Itinerary for April 14th and revised it on the 17th since I will be out of town next week.  Arranged six (6) new teleconferences; and entered four (4) new reservations on the LIGO Calendar.  Also performed normal recording and filing associated with Travel and Reimbursement.
• I continue to do MIT's travel to the sites for installation activities and also to assist them wherever possible.

• No report this week (vacation).
• Jim continues with data entry in the LIGO database and helping out in the DCC.

• Telecon re: NSF Review coordination -Sanders/Shoemaker.
• Travel support and NSF Review travel arrangements -Baldon.
• Proof press inserts at GAF.
• Quarterly Newsletter Preparation meeting -Sanders/Linquist/Beckett, Initial Quarterly Newsletter format/design.
• P-card reconciliation this week

Advanced LIGO (Frey)

Out of the office on April 11.

Weekly Advanced LIGO Project Controls meeting was held April 15 to discuss LDAS, DAQ, and Support Equipment.

For list of documents that are being used to develop Adv. LIGO Cost and Schedule, see http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/Cost_MTG_082002/

Advanced LIGO MRE Proposal (Highest Priority)

• Started making changes to the Adv. LIGO baseline schedule per my meeting with David Shoemaker on April 9.
• Prepared a Budget Summary as requested by the NSF.  Met with Phil and Gary on Tuesday to discuss.
• The following is a summary of status by sub system:
• COC - Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE.
• PSL -  No action items pending.
• AOS - Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE.
• IO -  Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE.
• SUS - No action items pending.
• SEI - Received revised (Version 3) data from Dennis and data input of WBS and BOE is in progress.
• ISC - Still need completed WBS dictionary and BOE.
• LDAS - No action required at this point in time.
• INSTALL - Dennis provided a revision and data input is in progress.
• DAQ - No action required at this point in time.
• PM - No action required at this point in time.
• FAC - No action required at this point in time.
• SUP - Need estimate for support equipment.  Action item to be executed by Dennis.

• Direction regarding plan revision is pending.

• ROSTER DATABASE:
• Working with Larry and Irena to set up a process by which the roster database updates selected alias lists.
• BK is continuing work on action items.
• Continued input of supervisor, dept., and specialty codes.
• Providing assistance to Irena on a as needed basis.

• COST BOOK DATABASE:
• BK is continuing work on action items.
• Continued to work on preparing format for hard copy version to be submitted for NSF reviews.

Project Web Site for posting schedule and progress related data continues to be updated with the latest and greatest.

• See http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/index.html

The Construction project quarterly report for the end of February was scheduled to be submitted at the end of March.  Irena has been working on this, but has been distrtacted by a number of other priority issues: LSC, contract activities for seismic isolation, core optics, etc.  We have discussed priorities, and the quarterly report is still slipping.
Dave Beckett and I have been gathering and editing materials for a brochure discussing the current state of LIGO and the plans for Advanced R&D.  Ryan has prepared paste-up drafts.  Elizabeth Krider  (Government and Community Relations) and April Burke (Government Relations) have reviewed the material and are providing recommendations concerning how to break it down into bite-sized pieces.  We are going to need some additional assistance preparing brochure quality graphics.

The following Change Requests were discussed and approved during the meeting of the LIGO Executive Committee on April 14, 2003:
 

Request No.	Description	Requester	Date
CR-030006	Seismic Upgrade at Livingston, Long Lead Procurements	D. Coyne	April 6, 2003
CR-030007	Additions for Livingston Civil Facilities	A. Sibley	April 11, 2003

Minutes have been prepared for the meetings held on April 7, 2003 (LIGO-M030077-00-P) and on April 14, 2003 (LIGO-M030080-00-P), which are being distributed.

From: Cindy Akutagawa <cindy@ligo.caltech.edu>

• Various personnel/payroll /HR related work.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

No report this week.

LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) and Interferometer Operations (Raab)

Summary of S2 & Commissioning Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory (compiled by M. Landry)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
S2 closed out Monday morning.  Cumulative duty cycles of the interferomters for the
run are 73.5% (H1) and 58.0% (H2), nearly identical to S1 (H1 - 73.1%, H2 - 56.7%).
The primary reason for lock loss is the well-known but not well understood 'LVEA bump',
an example of which Hugh Radkins elogged (see also R. Schofields elog below this entry,
which compares the event to our S1 MX dewar lock-killer events):
 http://blue.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=detector&date_to_view=04/13/2003&anchor_to_scroll_to=2003:04:13:07:51:05-hugh
Measurements and analysis will continue post-S2 on this lock-loss mechanism.

We had a DSC crash on the 2k Sunday night that rang up every optic (effecting watchdog
shutdowns).  The incident had no long term effects and the system was restored by major
reboots.

Post-run, a series of additional calibration sweeps and transfer function measurements
were made (e.g. driving the LSC MC2 path and reading out AS_Q to sample common to
differential conversion) to ensure we had a good understanding of the state of the
instruments during the run.

Commissioning efforts during the week focussed on the 4k.  Driving optics on the 4k AS port
with a mini-directional speaker, R. Schofield and A. Takamori identified the steering mirror
at the top of the periscope as a significant noise coupler.  Their aim is to distinguish
which optics are the worst noise couplers, and to understand the coupling mechanism:
clipping, backscatter or some combination.  L. Matone and P. Schwinberg resumed WFS
studies, measuring the full sensing matrix for all d.o.f. under all angular dithers.

LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) and Interferometer Operations (Coles)

report received but not usable

Detector/Technical Support (Coyne)

no report

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

• Suspended optics:
• Steve and Osamu (with help from Helena and Jay) suspended one ETM (ETM03), and balanced and damped it.
• They've glued the magnets and standoffs for the 2nd ETM (ETM02), and are in the process of balancing and damping it as of Thursday afternoon.
• They will move on to the two recycling mirrors next week, while the ETMs bake. We have three PRMs, with T = 6.5%, 7.0%, 8.0%. We'll start with the 8% mirror (which will give us the lowest gain, most over-coupled PRC), and change if necessary later.
• Bob is ready to bake both ETMs next week.
• PSL and ISS (O. Miyakawa, B. Abbott, R. Abbott, F. Nocera, D. Ugolini, S. Vass, C. Mow-Lowry):
• Conor and Dennis have been studying the power fluctuations on the light coming out of the AOM in the FSS path. They see very odd behavior, which depends on the VCO voltage. They will follow up, asking the experts.
• Last week, Osamu reported increased noise in the FSS loop and strange phase behavior in the open loop tranfer function. He has traced this to saturation due to the large signal he was injecting to do the measurements. He reduced the injected signal size, re-optimized the FSS gains, and now the noise is back to where it was, exept for a large peak at 20 kHz, which is the cross-over frequency for the slow and fast FSS paths. He concludes that the fast (high frequency) path needs higher gain, to increase the UGF and phase margin. So, it's time to implement the mods that Rick and Paul implemented on the FSS card for the LHO PSLs. Osamu will get started on that.
• Meanwhile, Conor will move on to optimizing the PMC performance.
• Ben's new stands for the ISS PD are fabricated and are scheduled to be done by the end of this week.
• The PCBs for the ISS PD transimpedance heads and the satellite electronics have arrived. Ben has stuffed and preliminarily tested three of the head units, and will begin stuffing the satellite electronics PCBs this week.
• Suspended mass mode cleaner (Ugolini, Miyakawa, Vass, Abbott): The Digital Suspension Controllers are in the process of being rebuilt, so there's been no work on the MC.
• Core digital suspension controllers (DSC), MC WFS, and other Electronics (B. Abbott, Heefner, Bork, Taylor):
• Ben and Bob finished all the rewiring (cross-connects, front and back panel) for the DSC system (racks 1Y4 & 1Y5).
• Ben has modified the DB and made up some new screens for the testing of the AUX crates in these racks, and will begin this testing tomorrow.
• From Rolf: Began installation of new systems at 40m lab:
• Suspension and IO WFS VME crates installed and running.
• Updated auxillary suspension controller EPICS databases and undergoing testing.
• Epics up and running on a Linux PC. New suspension screens added to epigen and then generated for all suspensions.
• One suspension controller PC installed and running; Remaining suspension PC and ASC PC are due in today.
• GDS router installed into the IO WFS VME unit; GDS software for suspension PCs should be complete today or tomorrow.
• Remaining 2Gbit network cards arrived; still waiting on network hub.
• Having problems with the AWG CPU; Alex is working on it.
• DAQ configuration updated to include new systems' DAQ/GDS signals. Main DAQ screen updated to reflect new systems and status. Also added a network layout and status screen.
• We should be ready for damping optics sometime next week.
• Bob will finish the last wiring for the mode cleaner WFS system (1Y2) this week. Alexei can begin commissioning that system, starting next week. We need to make sure that the WFS RF cables are all the same length, with a TDR (time delay reflectometer).
• Bob is wiring the cross-connects on rack 1X1, which controls the electro-optic shutters, mechanical shutters, illuminators, video switch.
• Lisa is learning how to develop EPICS screens and software, starting with the 1X1 video switch.
• Bob will maintain documentation for all the rack wiring, and log books for any changes.
• Optical sensing (Smith, Ourjoumtsev, Goggin, Miyakawa):
• OPTICS PARTS LIST, Received parts: Received repaired spare tilt platform S/N 70418.
• Orders pending: Repair of damaged tilt platform S/N 70416 with drive amplifier from Piezo Jena; 1 q-switch E/O shutter from Fast Pulse; 1 Brewster's angle polarizer for SPS anamorphic prism steering mirror from KLC; Brewster's angle polarizer mounts for the Faraday isolator are in process; .
• FARADAY ISOLATOR: Awaiting the polarizer mounts. They should arrive in the next week, after which the assembly will be fully checked out by Mike and Alexei, and then passed to Bob for vacuum prep.
• OPTICAL LEVER ASSY: Reworked parts were received and are awaiting checking and assembly.
• IFO STEERING MIRRORS: Awaiting one PZT tilt platform. Mike will get wiring requirements to Jay.
• MODE MATCHING TELESCOPE: All parts are in. Mike and Alexei will align with the autocollimator next week, then pass on to Bob for vacuum prep.
• INTEGRATED LAYOUT DRAWING: Updated the IMC_R layout with correctly positioned Guoy phase lens for the WFSs.
• Alexei will install the MCR WFS Guoy telescopes, verify that they are in the right place with the BeamScan, and proceed to commission the MC ASC system.
• Alexei confirmed with Mike Zucker that indeed, the electro-optic shutters (EOSs) operate at ~ 3.8 kV, not the ~ 1.8 kV implied by the LaserMetrics spec sheets. The DEI pulsers we purchased cannot operate beyond 3.5 kV, so we will return them for credit towards (more expensive) models that operate up to 6 kV. Jay will figure out what went wrong in ordering these HV pulsers.
• Alexei has assembled and tested two EOS assemblies, and will begin on the 3rd as soon as the 3rd Q-switch arrives.
• Facilities and vacuum envelope (Ugolini, Vass, Jones):
• The east end ion pump (EEIP) has failed and can't restart. Steve will work on it.
• One of the two HEPA filter fan motors on the top of the PSL enclosure started to fail, vibrating madly; the PSL FSS and PMC servos stayed in lock! Steve has removed the motor, and it will be repaired and re-installed by Caltech electricians. Meanwhile, we can run with the other HEPA filter.
• The controller card for the CC3 gauge is busted, and Steve has ordered a replacement.
• The maglev turbopump came back from the manufacturer, and Steve is trying to find out whether they'll guarantee it's cleanliness, before he re-installs it.
• The rain revealed a roof leak in the South Annex clean room.
• The STACIS and dust monitor systems are not being read out; Dennis will investigate, when he returns.
• South Annex Bake Ovens (Taylor, Cardenas): Bob has readied all the ovens for baking the suspended optics, and the MMT and Faraday isolator.
• Osamu is making progress in the development of a dual-recycling summation cavity for E2E.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

This week was mostly spent on the photothermal experiment and the interpretation of its data.  It appears that a mismatch in the thermal conductivity between sapphire and the coating is responsible for the high coating thermal expansion observed in the photothermal experiment.  We are studying what the implications will be for Advanced LIGO.
 

LASTI (Zucker)

LASTI (Allen, Coyne, Mason, MacInnis,
Mittleman, Ottaway, Rankin, Rollins, Zucker, Zuo)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
 

MEPI Progress
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 We spent some time investigating the 51Hz mode (which is mostly a
vertical flexing of the stiffening beams and rotation of the gullwings).
We have two proposals for damping this mode.  Jonathan Allen has proposed a piezoelectric damping scheme, similar to that used in snow skis. He has purchased two of these units and is preparing to install and test them. Lei Zuo is designing a tuned mass damper. The goal of both of these systems is to reduce the measured Q of this resonance from ~100 to 10 or
less.
 

We also did some more system ID and now have a complete set of HAM
transfer functions to 130Hz.
 

Most of the last week has been spent preparing for Fridays EPI review.
 

HEPI Progress
----------------------------------------------------------------------
No report; preparing for review
 
 

LASTI PSL
---------------------------------------------------------------------
More investigations of the flat plateau in RIN at about 3e-8/rHz.
We've established once again that this noise is not gain-limited and
is very white in character (uncharacteristic of beam jitter coupling,
the 'usual suspect' in these cases).
Some limited diagnostics varying the detected power from 5-20 mW
yielded inconclusive results. We have ordered a more transmissive beam
sampler to get more power on the detector (up to 200 mW) to rule out or confirm  electronic noise. Meanwhile some suspicious
low frequency non-linearities in the current shunt actuator
were observed. We
plan to do a gain re-allocation to test if this is causing some sort
of rectification or bilinear conversion noise.
 
 
 
 

Thermal Compensation Retrofit (Ottaway, Mason, Zucker)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Obtained quotes for ZnSe viewports for installation at suitable
vent opportunities this summer. We hope to get the ports on order
this week as they're long lead items (8 weeks). On the good side,
pricing is very favorable compared to budget estimates.
 

Also researched high-speed diffusion effect detectors for CO2 laser
intensity stabilization.  Samples are on their way for testing.
 

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)
E2E Physics meeting
--------------------
Matt presented details of the linear noise model. He also discussed
the advantage of the use of non-resonant SB signal from reflected port for
solving the 4k Schnupp asymmetry problem. Matt, Hiro, Biplab discussed
the Wave-front-sensor, dynamical misalignment and other issues.
 

France Trip
--------------
(Biplab)
During last 2 weeks of March, 2003, I attended Moriond conference
on Gravitational Waves and Experimental Gravity at Les Arcs, France
and also visited Virgo groups at Observatory Cote d'Azur, Nice and
Linear Accelerator Laboratory, Orsay.
In all these places I gave talks on e2e and demonstrated e2e's features
and simulation runs. In all places people got impressed by
(A) Alfi, the graphical user interface and the convenience it provides
    in representing the full SimLIGO models with all its subsystems and
    complex interaction among various modules,
(B) The convenience and ease with which parameter settings are managed
    in .mcr and .par files for running complicated set-ups like SimLIGO.
After seeing the convenience and ease of managing and using the
e2e simulation models, several Virgo scientists showed interest in
using e2e.
 

Linear Noise Model in Matlab
------------------------------
(Matt) Worked with Luca Matone and Mike Landry at LHO on a structured
 (recursive modular) linear noise model for use at the interferometers and
 with the simulation. The first version, which includes most of the details
 of the DARM loop, but does not include other loops, is complete.  This
 model runs in Matlab and draws upon a linear noise model written by Peter
 Fritschel (and modified by Mike Landry), a linear noise model written
 by me (Matt Evans) and upon the data contained in SimLIGO.  Its features
 include the ability to represent multiple interferometers, track changes
 in hardware, and download digital filter coefficients from the sites.
 

Mechanics and seismic motions
-------------------------------
(Hiro)
Sany, Hiro and Raghu have summarized the measurements and observations
at the LLO LVEA, related to seismic motions. It covers the seismic
correlations - propagations of longitudinal and transverse waves - and
the effects on the transmitted light of MC.
This will be submitted as a LIGO document.
 

The seismic motion will be simulated using two different methods. One
is a parameterization - rough frequency dependent coherence effect
included - based on a quiet and noisy time at LLO. This will be used to
study the rough estimation of the seismic effect.
Hiro is now mainly concentrated to complete this implementation.
Second is the method using the accelerometer attached to each stack. By
directly using the recorded time series of the accelerometer
signal, the simulation can include quite realistic correlations of
seismic motions under the various chambers in LVEA. This will
use the module under development by Virginio.
 

Tiffany of SLU uses e2e's 3D mass module to study her simple pendulum.
She found some funny result from the e2e simulation related Q values of
various oscillation modes, and Hiro is looking into this one to identify
the cause of the problem, either analysis or a bug of the module.
 

Dynamical misalignment
------------------------
(Biplab) Generated transfer functions from mirror misalignment dithers
 to reflected and dark port light for LIGO and reflected light for
 a triangular cavity and compared those with Daniel-Nergis's 2000 paper
 and T970058. The results are satisfactory but a number of conversion
 factors and other points need to be sorted out with Daniel.
 

Code development and maintenance
---------------------------------
Hiro has received the revised code of the expression parser by Melody
and is working to include that in the standard AdlibMM package.
This is expected to speed up the SimLIGO simulation substantially.
 

(Melody) Modeler:
 - Cleaned up the code containing the optimization changes.
 - Working on a new if-then-else construct for the modeler.
 

(Ed Maros) I have been working on getting the new build-e2e script
 to function properly with current RedHat installations.
 

Alfi
-----
Bruce is working to support the bundle data type in alfi level not in
modeler. This makes it much easier to use the bundle because the content
of a bundle is known to alfi, so the extraction of a data stream can be
validated in alfi. For now, the validation can be done only after modeler
starts running. In order to implement this in a streamlined way, Bruce has
implemented a superclass of "port", which can be used for the standard port,
junction port and a port handling bundle data stream.
 

(Melody) Worked on fixing a problem with the cut/copy/paste feature.
 

New LINUX box
--------------
One 3GHz x 2 Intel Linux box has been setup by Virginio
(ren.ligo.caltech.edu) and modeler is ready running. HPC took the other
unit due to a defective board, and the fix one has been delivered.
It will be setup soon.
 

LIGO Data Analysis System
 

Software Systems (Blackburn)
The interim release of LDAS passed its weekend testing and was pushed to
all LIGO Laboratory LDAS systems this week. It had fixes for the
frameAPI/frameCPP core dumps while running certain types of searches. It
also has improvements for the mpiAPI to prevent the lockups seen during
the science run. The WAVEBURST searches were started at LHO immediately
after the new interim release was installed there. This is one of the
jobs that was causing core dumps in the frameAPI during the science run.
The WAVEBURST jobs are now running successfully without any signs of the
core dumps. This release also has a diskCacheAPI better tuned to
interfacing with LDAS systems having the SAM/QFS tape storage archives.
At the same time, we have updated the IBM DB2 configurations at the
sites to provide for better performance and reliability from out
database server.
 

With the purchase order for the large LDAS Beowulf Clusters going out
the door, we have decided that it is best to start these new clusters up
with the Redhat 9.0 release so as to avoid having to re-install an OS on
these hundreds of boxes in a couple of months when LDAS has migrated to
the new version of the OS. Of course this means that we will need to get
the wrapperAPI and all of the packages that it depends on working for
Redhat 9.0 before the rest of LDAS. A rather intense couple of days have
been spent this week looking into what is different, what works and what
doesn't work with regards to the wrapperAPI under the new Redhat 9.0.
Early results are not very optimistic. Redhat 9.0 shipped a reduced
version of LAM which was the first clue that we would experience
problems. When attempting to install LAM on Redhat 9.0 using the current
development environment from our LDCG it failed to successfully patch
the files changes needed by LDAS. Once this was fixed the autoconfig and
the automake failed. We then attempted to go with the development
environment distributed with Redhat 9.0 but this also failed, though the
failures are easier to fix - just require a large effort. We have also
seen that the C++ OSpace socket communication library is not working. We
can also project that LAL and LALwrapper will fail out of the box based
on the particulars of the failure mode. I don't see anything that can't
be overcome with effort, but it is likely to impact our release schedule
or require very long hours. This was reported to the LAL librarian in
the LSUG Meeting this week.
 

On a more positive note, the new C++ XML parser/document library XERCES
has now successfully been adopted and LDAS has been upgraded to work
with it. This primarily impacted the lightWeightAPI, but small changes
were also needed in the eventMonitorAPI and one of the job control
macros. The good news is that the unit test for the lightWeightAPI now
run 2.7 times faster AND that the lightWeightAPI is now fully threaded
for each job. Prior to this migration, we had to invoke a mutex lock and
serialize the jobs through the lightWeightAPI. In system tests show
about a 50% speed up for jobs that only rarely use the lightWeightAPI.
Under heavy use, the performance should improve in proportion to the
number of CPUs available for it! This code base is now in CVS and part
of the nightly testing.
 

We have also made significant progress towards speeding up the
metaDataAPI. The strategy here has been to remove the generation of
slave TCL interpreters from the processing steps for putMetaData and
getMetaData commands. Preliminary results under Linux suggest that this
has reduced the time jobs spend in the metaDataAPI in half! We will be
testing under Solaris and on a full LDAS system later this week to see
if this performance holds under the more typical system environment
conditions.
 

The huge overhaul of all the the C++ to TCL interface functions to be
based on the newer (and greatly improved) SWIG (Software Wrapper
Interface Generator) package was finished this week (after nearly a man
month of effort). This establishes the ground work necessary for us to
migrate the the newer version of TCL/TK which also has many desparately
needed fixes to improve the reliability of LDAS.
 

We have begun testing the newest version of the IBM DB2 database
release. It is now up to version 8.1 with a new version release
scheduled for later this week. So far testing has only been carried out
under RedHat Linux, but the distributions for Linux and Solaris have
been downloaded and pushed to the sites. There are several changes to
this release which make our documentation for installing DB2 obsolete.
These have been identified and will be reflected in future documentation
once we are ready to migrate to DB2 V8.1 in the development cycle for
the 0.8.0 release of LDAS.
 

There was concern last week that DTT and LDAS had evolved two separate
versions of the LIGO_LW data object which was causing LIGO_LW documents
generated by LDAS to not be readable by DTT. This was reported as due to
the DTT reading in lines of the file instead of reading from streams. To
get around this the DTT took advantage of the base64 format. We have now
determined that LDAS can read base64 encoded LIGO_LW documents and will
be modifying user commands to allow users to specify the option to
generate with LDAS, LIGO_LW documents that are base64 encoded per the
LIGO_LW specification. This should go a long way toward making the two
software packages compatible.
 

Philip Charlton:
 

Main activity has been working on S2 data reduction. Currently I'm
reducing the last of the LHO data which is still on disk cache, and we
are still expecting more tapes from LLO. Once there is no more data to
process from disk, I'll start on what has already been archived but not
yet reduced. A rough estimate from disk usage is that we have 300-400
hours reduced so far (12-16 days, or about 25% done).
 

I've also started working on some new LDAS dataConditionAPI
functionality, firstly the addition of a "sum" action to calculate the
sum of the elements of a sequence. I don't plan this to be a whole new
class but will be adding it to the existing Statistics class since that
is one place where it will be used often. In the process I'm also
extending the Statistics class to allow it to work on complex data where
appropriate (at the very least, "size" and "mean" of a complex sequence
is something that would be useful).
 

Lastly, I've made some minor corrections to documentation, and also have
"signal generator" code from Antony Searle to check in.
 

Hardware Systems (Anderson)
Caltech
-------
(Dan Kozak)
 

* Upgraded the LDAS archive server to 8 processors which has successfully
  increased the rate in which S2 RDS frames are being generated.
 

* Obtained a price quote from STK for the missing piece of sheet metal
  required to install the additional 4 tape drives we have received.
 
 

(Al Wilson)
 

* Testing RedHat 9.
 

* Setting up kickstart. Have got a working ks.cfg file but the new boot
  disk does not have network drivers on it.
 

* Configuring rpmsync for RedHat 9.
 

* Systemimager is just about ready for another live test. This time it
  will be with 3 nodes.
 
 

(Stuart Anderson)
 

* The order for 420 Beowulf nodes has cleared Caltech and been received
  by the vendor. We are developing a shipment schedule that will span
  the month of May.
 

* The order for 3 large Gigabit Ethernet switches has been received by
  the vendor and the equipment should ship within 2 weeks.
 

* Worked with Larry Wallace to place an order for 12 new LDAS dual-processor
  Linux servers to run the Datacond and MPI API's on each of the 6 Lab LDAS
  systems.
 

* Have submitted the last iteration on the remaining large LDAS order
  to the vendor for a final price quotation.
 

* Received the last S2 raw data. Archiving should finish sometime
  on Saturday April 18.
 

* Researching ancillary equipment required for the new LDAS compute
  clusters: power strips, Ethernet cables, ...
 

* Upgraded all LDAS Solaris servers to the latest SSH, OpenSSL, and
  Apache web server security patches.
 
 
 

MIT
---
(Keith Bayer)
 

* Configuring LDR (with Scott Koranda's help).
 

* Working on network performance.
 

* Patched Solaris machine (ssh patch).
 

Livingston
----------
(Igor Yakushin)
 

* Last tapes with S2 data are sent to Caltech.
 

* Ordered IDE RAID.
 

* Expecting a StorageTek person today to finish tape robot installation.
 

* Ordered replacement for two T3 disks.
 

Hanford
-------
(Greg Mendell)
 

* The last of the raw frame data for S2 has been sent from LHO and has
  arrived at Caltech for archiving.
 

* The generation of S2 RDS frame data has finished at LHO. The channel
  list is at this pointer supplied by Isabel:
  http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~ileonor/ligo/s2/rds/rdstable_s2.pdf.  The
  rds frames were generated using the LDAS createRDS command.  Some
  channels were resampled (as indicated in the list) within LDAS, which
  includes the proper anti-alias filtering.
 

  The RDS data for LHO is on disk under this sequence of directories
  visible to fortress:
 

    /frame20/rds/S2/LHO/Data[0-135]
    /frame10/rds/S2/LHO/Data[0-118]
    /frame30/rds/S2/LHO/Data[0-54]
 

  There are 1024 frame files in each directory; each file contains 16 s of
  data in compressed frame format.
 

  Internal level 1 type gzip compression was used. The frame library
  should automatically be able to handle this.
 

  For example, a typical RDS frame file is named like this:
  H-RDS_R_L1-733479296-16.gwf.  The frame size is roughly 16 MB per file,
  but varies due to the compression.
 

  Guild shows that the RDS frames exist for the following GPS times.
(The
  gaps are due to missing frames from the DAQ system.)
 

    H RDS_R_L1 729273600 729627440 /frame20/rds/S2/LHO/Data*
    H RDS_R_L1 729627824 729901408 /frame20/rds/S2/LHO/Data*
    H RDS_R_L1 729903568 730353616 /frame20/rds/S2/LHO/Data*
    H RDS_R_L1 730353952 730361616 /frame20/rds/S2/LHO/Data*
    H RDS_R_L1 730361952 730664144 /frame20/rds/S2/LHO/Data*
    H RDS_R_L1 730664608 730846128 /frame20/rds/S2/LHO/Data*
    H RDS_R_L1 730846176 730846736 /frame20/rds/S2/LHO/Data95
    H RDS_R_L1 730846816 730847056 /frame20/rds/S2/LHO/Data95
    H RDS_R_L1 730871088 730872560 /frame20/rds/S2/LHO/Data95
    H RDS_R_L1 730872912 731453312 /frame20/rds/S2/LHO/Data*
    H RDS_R_L1 731453664 731461120 /frame20/rds/S2/LHO/Data131
    H RDS_R_L1 731461440 731783312 /frame*0/rds/S2/LHO/Data*
    H RDS_R_L1 731783600 732585264 /frame10/rds/S2/LHO/Data*
    H RDS_R_L1 732585584 732687712 /frame10/rds/S2/LHO/Data*
    H RDS_R_L1 732688192 733196000 /frame10/rds/S2/LHO/Data*
    H RDS_R_L1 733196288 733511712 /*/rds/S2/LHO/Data*
    H RDS_R_L1 733512496 734369536 /raid1/rds/S2/LHO/Data*
(Note that /frame30 is /raid1 inside the ldas network.)
 

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)
Reilly:
Most time was spent on the Stochastic analysis. I generated
and distributed ascii files of the finely resolved H1H2 coherence.
I attempted to make surface plot of the 90 second PSDs for H2-L1,
but matlab choked on 8e6 points and crashed. A useful but simple
thing I figured out was how to get gps times and other info
out of the matlab structures generated by reading in ilwd files. (Sometimes
this info is hard to get at.) Another point of interest may
be that using shorter job segments (90 seconds) gives 11% more data from the
H2 L1 coincident data during the S1 run. Generated  some plots of
the fractional difference (between 900 second jobs and the corresponding
90 second) in noise over the S1 run for H2 L1.  Analysis of H1 L1 and H1 H2
is now being run on LDAS at cit for 90 second jobs. This will take about a day.
 

I believe I am close to being finished describing to the grid folks what
we need to generate appropriate dataStandAlone commands. Still some
work needs to be done in explaining what goes back to LDAS.
 

From home I was working and I find that I get timed out from there
as well (just as I did at Livingston) when log into ligo.caltech computers.
Al Wilson and I have discussed some ways to find out what the problem
is.
 

Mendell:
1) Continuing to generated SFTs S2.
 

2) Analyzed 8 hours of S2 data for the times of the pulsar hardware
injections that were done Apr 09 2003 using the knownpulsardemod DSO
with LDAS and the stand-alone wrapper.  My resulting signal to noise
ratios were about 75% smaller than expected.  However, others in the
PULG group, using the code that is being used for the S1 analysis, did
recover the expected SNR within the expected uncertainties. Once this
code gets into LAL I can repeat the analysis to perform a proper check
of my code's validity.
 

3) Went through the latest draft of the PULG S1 paper, fixing references
and typos, as part of the groups effort to prepare this paper.
 

Weinstein:
- Working on Burst paper
- Preparing CaJAGWR seminar on burst analysis
- Generating software injection files for Szabi
- Understanding better how to filter large-bandwidth bursts
  for hardware injection
 

Yakushin:
1) At least doubled the sensitivity of the waveburst by fixing a bug in
the percentile transform.
2) Increased performance of the waveburst by about 1.5 times by avoiding
doing almost identical clustering twice.
3) Working on storing simulation parameters in the database.
 
 

General Computing (Wallace)
MIT:
(Keith)
-Installed extra harddrive in Ultra10
-Investigating IPSec over wireless
-Added new urop (Svetlin Tassev)
-Removed old accounts from system (mostly old urop accounts)
-Investigating duplicate e-mail for user
-Put extra batteries into new gc UPS unit
-Added several new MAC addresses to wireless units
 

Livingston:
(Shannon)
 
 

Hanford:
(Christine)
- The usual misc. user support.
- Pushing the Foundry rep to hurry with our quote.
- The usual purchasing of supplies and misc.
- Most of the week spent as my alter ego doing epics programming.
 

CIT:
-Had to reload Ken M.'s computer due to unknown login processes running in the
background that I could not correct. This computer had to be wiped clean
and reloaded from scratch. I had multiple engineering packages to load on
this computer. I also have an updated ghost image of this computer with
users current settings.
-Uninstalled solid works 2003 then reinstalled 2001+ back on to Janeens
computer.
-Loaded a new laptop with all GC software for Stuart and I also took a ghost
image of this computer.
-Wilson House: Finished up loading these two new computers with GC
software/protel-98
and transferred Ben's data over to his computer plus setup additional
software settings for him.
There is a problem with the Milling Table software. Once I upgraded the OS
from win98 to 2000 Pro the software does not recognize the hardware key. It
turns out I need a new software key in order for the software to recognize
the hardware key; this has to be generated from isopro. I have contacted
them and hope to resolve this issue today.
-The new NT server(pictor) is up and running. Thomas and I will be installing
PRIMAVERA software hopefully today. I have been in contact with Ansys tech
support and they have sent me my new license for PICTOR.
-Updated five of the loaner laptops that came back from Livingston that
included uninstalling software and updating service packs plus correcting
some OS problems.
 

(Lisa)
- Still working on the transition to a new ligo web server.  I have been
transferring everyone's individual public_html directories.  This uncovered an
unexpected problem in that users won't be able to use symbolic links to files
outside of public_html any more.
- Worked on a problem with ligo not properly backing up in the nightly backups.
It looks like there is a problem with the hard disk.  This makes the move to the
new web server more critical.
- Began installing the solstice 6.1 backup software on clients.  The server has
not yet been updated.
- Worked on a dhcp problem.  It turned out there was a competing dhcp server
doling out IP numbers intended for a martian network.
- Discussed with Thomas Frey how mailing lists work.
 

(Veronica)
- LIGO website: restored a DCC link dropped by the LIGO webserver. The
link, which points to docspublic and allows access to all public
documents, was dropped by the server.
Tracking a set of LIGO latex templates (surprisingly, there are not many
circulating).
Posted a few belated Aspen conference transparencies.
Updated various parts of the LIGO website.
Recorded and compressed the LIGO/CaJAGWR seminar by Teviet Creighton.
Working on the Advanced LIGO website.
- LSC website: posting the March meeting transparencies as they keep
arriving. The 'public' status of some talks needs to be verified before
posting. Updated en masse the list of past and future LSC talks.
- CaJAGWR website: usual upkeep. Posted the video of Teviet's talk.
 

(Larry)
-Spent a great deal of time working with different procurement issues.
Everything from major equipment orders, maintenance contracts to small misc.
items. Still need to get the new printers ordered.
Along the same line, worked on resolving some issues with the Pcard s/w. In most
cases just putting in the latest library resolved the problem. A Livingston
issues is still being worked on.
-Worked a number of PC issues. Most were small problems with configurations on
the programs needing to be adjusted.
The dual Xeon system, for Hiro, has been returned from the repair shop but will
need a OS reload.
-Working on the WEB server move.
-Assisted the DCC on a couple of file transfers and testing of a s/w pkg. they
are looking at.
-Started some of the local security checks on the servers and we have a number
of items to modify. We will be taking a more detailed look at things after a few
more of the servers are tested out.
-The pump, to remove the air-conditioning condensation, in the server room has
been replaced. It started leaking a few nights ago.
-Still working on documentation for a number of projects.
-Quite a bit more time assisting users on different projects. The one good thing
is the Solidworks group is now working on using the video-conferencing pkgs. to
communicate with their collaborators.
 

Advanced LIGO Development (Shoemaker)

For additional information about this report, contact sanders@ligo.caltech.edu