(Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)
Calendar of future Executive Commitee Meetings
- The LSC-Virgo meeting was held in Budapest last week, with approximately 180 LSC and Virgo members present. The meeting took place on the campus of Eotvos Lorand University. In addition to the status reports and presentations by the projects, data analysis, and instrumental working groups, there were focus sessions discussing the required statistical confidence needed for detection as well as for addressing how instrumental backgrounds affect the data analysis groups. Three new groups (and two new countries!) joined the LSC - the Korean Gravitational Wave Group (a consortium of Korean universities), Tsinghua University (China), and California State University Fullerton.
- Two LSC articles appeared in Phys. Rev. D in September:
- "Search for gravitational wave ringdowns from perturbed black holes in LIGO S4 data" Phys. Rev. D 80, 062001 (2009)
- "First LIGO search for gravitational wave bursts from cosmic (super)strings" Phys. Rev. D 80, 062002 (2009)
- The pulsar group posted the paper "Searches for gravitational waves from known pulsars with S5 LIGO data" on the arXiv last week http://arxiv.org/abs/0909.3583. The paper is intended for the Astrophysical Journal.
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Luna)
>From: Rod Luna <rluna@ligo.caltech.edu>
Nothing significant to report.
DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Mak)
>From Cleveland Mak <mak@ligo.caltech.edu>
- In the process of uploading about 80+ RAL ADV LIGO SUS Drawings into the DCC.
- Continuing to do sample test searches on the DCC Test Site.
FINANCIAL SYSTEMS (Lindquist, Oracion)
>From: Karl Oracion <koracion@ligo.caltech.edu>
- The Accounts for FY 2010 Operations are now active.
- Link to Advanced LIGO accounts: https://dcc.ligo.org/DocDB/0000/M0900053/002/ADV.LIGO_Char_%20of_Accounts_Ver.6.pdf
- Link to LIGO Operations accounts: https://dcc.ligo.org/DocDB/0000/M080407/002/FY2009_LIGO_OPs_WBS_Final_Ver.6.pdf
- Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport/. (For passwords contact Karl).
SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Arvizu, Champagnie, Jasnow, Marroquin, Salone)
>From: Rudy Arvizu <arvizu_r@ligo.caltech.edu>
- New University of Florida Subaward 75-10770 for FY2010, two Scientists at LLO (50% FTE each) reverse signed by Caltech 9/28/09.
- See Advanced LIGO Report Below.
>From: Jacqueline Champagnie
See Advanced LIGO Report Below.
>From: Steve Marroquin smarroqu@caltech.edu
- Executed purchase order contract to the Department of Energy (Fire and Support Service Support) at LHO for FY10. (Tech Rep: J. Worden).
- Executed renewal purchase order contract to Dynamic Systems for computer hardware maintenance support. (Tech Rep: Larry. Wallace).
- Executed renewal purchase order contract to JDSU for 500mW NPRO laser 1064nm (Tech Rep. Daniel Sigg).
- Administration input in Oracle for invoice-attached billings.
- See Advanced LIGO Report Below.
>From: Ed Jasnow <jasnow@ligo.caltech.edu>
See Advanced LIGO Report Below.
PROPOSALS, REPORTS, BUDGETS (Lindquist, Beckett)
>From: Dave Beckett <beckett@ligo.caltech.edu>
- Have begun the monthly "highlights" report cycle. First announcement sent. The due date for submissions is Thursday, October 8th, and I will send out another reminder early next week. Beginning this month we will focus the "Enhanced LIGO" segment more specifically on the S6 run, and for this Stan has agreed to assume the writing duties.
- Developing a couple of entries for the LIGO news blog; one of the leads Jay had aimed me toward last month was the recently-completed GWIC roadmap. In view of the upcoming GWIC meeting here at Caltech next week, I am moving this story to the front of the queue.
CHANGE REQUESTS (Lindquist)
No open change requests.
HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)
>From: Cindy Akutagawa <cindy@ligo.caltech.edu>
- The next Staffing Committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, October 12th.
- All files for the Staffing Committee are up-to-date and posted on the SC web page .
Peter King & Bill Tyler - Preparing material for the LIGO Laser Safety Officers workshop that is scheduled for October 20 & 21, 2009 at Caltech. The workshop is focused on presenting the new laser safety training program that is in final edit and being prepared for the approval process.
Work continues, with the support of Phil Ehrens, on developing the new LIGO Lab-Wide Safety Web Page and Incident Reporting Process. Both new additions will enhance the response and abilities of the LIGO Safety Program to better serve the needs of the project.
Just a reminder to all of those who are exposed to working shift work duties that fatigue can play a negative role in both performance and safety. A few points to follow when switching between day hours and night hours of work schedule:
- It usually takes the body (on average) about two weeks to become fully acclimated to the time change.
- You need to try and sleep during the day when off shift, at least the same amount of time that you sleep at night.
- Try to go to sleep as soon as you get off shift and at the same time each day to help your body make the adjustments.
- Refrain from consuming alcohol, caffeine or nicotine prior to going to sleep, for this may disrupt the effects of a good rested sleep that one needs to function properly. Try to sleep in a dark setting so that your body can benefit from the same as in the darkness of night.
- Keep a regular meal schedule! But don’t have a heavy meal right before going to bed.
- Keep up a regular exercise routine! You sleep better when you’re fit.
- Most important of all: Get enough sleep. Don’t burn the candle at both ends!
- Over the past week we've been resuming science-mode running, interspersed with commissioning and calibration efforts. The duty factor for the week was thus low at 30%, with binary inspiral ranges of 15 to 18.5Mpc (the noise budget reports a slightly higher range, which is attributable to a calibration that lags h(t) and Sensemon - we will update). Lock stretches were ratty initially, and re-establishing 14W took several days as we sorted alignment issues and offsets in the mode cleaner, running for a time at 11W. Several large quakes complicated the restore.
- An upconversion sideband coherence monitor was devised, built on matlab mDV tools and a specialized script.
- FFEPI work continues with an eye on reducing the mean-time-to-lock, and perhaps extending locks durations. Weiner filters are being converted to foton format.
- The gigE camera on the OMC REFL path has had considerable attention this week. Network flooding observed to cause glitching and lock losses in the IFO on transition to DC readout was eliminated by switching communication to tcp/ip protocol. Image updates were smoothed and photos of the OMC REFL beam posted.
- A new version of Sensemon calcluated from h(t) is under testing at LHO; initial results agree well with standard Sensemon formed from h(f), and reports are made for H1, L1 and V1. See here.
- We received the HR mirrors which are being tested now. We are still working on the mirrors for the SHG. It is difficult to find anyone who can manufacturer them to our specifications. As it turned out the SHG from AEI has a mirror which was coated for an OPO. Even so it produces green, we won't be able to assess efficiencies until we have our own mirrors.
- Thomas finished the design of the new TTFSS interface board. It now has a 1U chassis form factor and has the capability for local controls. The procurement for additional TTFSS units has started. We received the fixed height mounts for EOMs and Faraday isolators as well as the fixed height 3/4" posts. These were designed by Sergio from UTB.
G. Mendell and F. Raab hosted LHO's IYA-related 4-hour Einstein Film Festival on 9/30. D. Ingram ran the concurrent kids' venue. Mendell and Raab were in top form; the films were interesting; community attendance was low.
The S6 science data taking continued this week. The BNS range has been 10-12 Mpc most of the week with 8 W input power. The reduction of the range is due to the broadband excess noise between 100 Hz and 1 kHz. The source of the noise has not yet been determined. There was an additional noise that brought the range down to 4-5 Mpc on Tuesday. It was found that this additional noise was affected by the OMC front end code and/or inter-code communication. Reverting the code to the earlier (mid July) version reduced the excess noise to the earlier level - the range is back to 11 Mpc. Other possibilities for the excess noise, such as the laser and IMC noise and the OMC front end electronics noise, are being pursued.
Hardware
- Carl continued training Chris Guido on the TCS system. The TCS ISS schematics were updated, and serial cables for new polarizer controller interface were installed.
- Jeremy Birch worked to fix PEM issues. An end-station temperature readback problem was traced to miswiring, which was fixed. The PEM ADC crate in the corner station was power-cycled and boards reseated to address remaining readback issues. Studies are ongoing.
Software
- Keith took the FB0 disk array offline to run maintenance software to remove errors being reported on it. No data was lost, however a new set of errors has started to occur again.
- The replacement tape library hardware was received and installed. Keith got the new tape library software fully set up, so backups can now be made.
- All fiber optics cables have been received for the laser lock noise test, but have not been installed yet.
- The CDS subnet project made some progress. During maintenance, Ethernet cables were rearranged on the main switch to clear a section to be converted to the new control-room subnet. Keith also met with the LIGO cyber-security manager (Abe Singer) to discuss the CDS networking upgrades being planned and any cyber-security implications.
- Keith set up a new TCS front-end computer and was able to build locally executables for the new polarizer controller software developed by Patrick Thomas at LHO. We now have to schedule time to test the new system.
- Keith worked with Valera and Tobin to find solutions to the excess interferometer noise seen after the commissioning break. With Rolf and Alex's help, they succeeded in reverting the OMC front-end to software running two months ago that solved some issues. Work is ongoing to fix the timing issues between the OMC and LSC systems that appears to be a major noise source.
- Keith changed the conlog setup to remove some new OMC diagnostic channels that were preventing a return to science mode.
(William Katzman)
- Conducted 4 programs for 240 people.
- Continued scheduling groups.
- Prepared for Project Ripple Professional Development.
- Finalized St. Tammany Parish District as large high performing district to utilize within the upcoming NSF grant as administered by BRAF.
- Finalized arrangements for 7 participating teachers to attend October Teacher’s Institute weekend at the Exploratorium in conjunction with 1 LIGO SEC member.
(Amber Stuver)
- Recruiting people to write articles for the Spring FEd newsletter. As editor, I've chosen the theme of outreach and education with special focus on the work done by graduate students. So far, so good. If you have a suggestion, feel free to contact me.
- Finishing writing a grant with Lisa Szechter to perform educational research on parent-child interactions in the SEC.
Nothing significant to report.
See also Advanced LIGO
No report for Ops received for the current week.
No report received for the current week.
This week Greg made some good progress on the cavity-assisted photothermal apparatus. He successfully added a slow path, actuating on the laser temperature, and locked to an asymmetric Michelson interferometer. The asymmetric Michelson is a quick and dirty way of measuring the laser frequency, and it lacks the complication of the thermal response of the Fabry-Perot cavity. His servo actuated on the laser temperature and the Michelson PZT, and his next step is to move the fast actuation over to the laser's PZT, then replace the asymmetric Michelson with the sample-containing cavity.
No report received for the current week.
Chad Hanna:
Kipp and I have been working with visitors Romain and Cristina to make the followup pipeline work on S5 highmass and S6 runs.
Anand Sengupta:
I have been working on the Network Fischer matrix code and tuning the trigScan clustering parameter for S6 run.
P. Ajith:
- Submitted the IMR phenomenological waveforms (spin) paper.
- Submitted the LAL bug report for checking in the IMR phenomenological waveforms.
- Working on the instrumental veto code using bilinear-coupling method.
Pinkesh Patel:
- With the help of Carsten, we have managed to strip all of the 2 year's data into smaller parallel SFTs. This has been a back and forth with the pulsar group to ensure that the whole 2 year stretch is usable.
- Also have been exploring phase changes due to interpolation, as requested by MAP.
Drew Keppel:
- Comparing detection statistics in the context of the S5 High Mass search.
- implementing the LVSTAT in sqlite post-processing tools.
- Investigating template interpolation using the SVD of the template bank.
Peter Kalmus:
- Opened box on A5 SGR 0501 search.
- Presented search at LV meeting.
- Estimated detectable GW distances from preliminary SGR GR simulations.
- Presented preliminary SGR simulation results at LV meeting (with Christian Ott).
- Obtained official list of AXP 1547 burst triggers from IPN network.
- Followed up H2 A5 calibration issues.
- Followed up GEO A5 calibration issues.
- Submitted SGR AAS abstract.
Stephen Privitera:
I've been working on generating a LIGO S5 PSD corresponding to a "typical" sensitivity as measured by BNS inspiral range.
Kipp Cannon:
- Attended LVC meeting in Budapest.
- Working with Romain, Cristina, and Chad on the CBC follow-up pipeline.
- Working on aspects of the post-processing and upper-limit stages of the S5 high-mass search.
- Working with Drew on techniques for extending false-alarm rate measurements in CBC searches.
Antony Searle:
- Trialling several new integration strategies for the Omega pipeline.
- Checking the validity of PRC injections with the GravEn/BurstMDC team.
Gregory Mendell:
Read a draft of the CBC S5/VSR1 paper and sent comments, as a part of review work for this search.
Amber L. Stuver:
- Traveled to and attended the LV Meeting in Budapest.
- Diagnosing issues with the Position Reconstruction Challenge MDCs.
- Assisting MatApps software stakeholders in testing that their packages still work in the new test SVN repository.
- Starting to incorporate codes into GravEn to be able to produce MDC's that simulate specific sky locations through time for the targeted burst search.
John Zweizig:
- I relased the new gds software and installed it on the online machines.
- I started SenseMonitor on the online h(t) so that H1, L1 and V1 sensitivities are calculated in a uniform manner.
- I reran kleineWelle on all S6a data on condor with the fixed code for use in S6 veto analysis.
Vladimir Dergachev:
- Moving to Pasadena (expected arrival: Monday).
- Redid first month of S6 with updated science mode information.
- Full S5 mid frequency dag finished, started analysis and cleanup.
- Investigated "loosely coherent" CW detection methods.
Joseph Betzwieser:
On shift at LHO.
Cristina Torres:
At Caltech for CBC follow-up pipeline development with Chad, Kipp, and Romain.
- The week's efforts have focused on understanding why the diskcacheAPI continues to coredump. An error in the use of one STL algorithm was identified and corrected. This resulted in a more stable diskcacheAPI. At least one more core dump issue persists. The symptoms are that the stat call times out and the system tries to setup for when the mount point becomes available. This may be a race condition as the file systems are immediately available. This was seen when the variable representing the timeout value was modified from 5 seconds to 10 seconds. All of the stat calls completed successfully and no core files were generated.
- The ldas-tools distribution has been given to the various package managers for building on a variety of systems. The CentOS 5 RPM is currently available for those wanting to integrate it into their solutions.
- Still having some problems with shared tape access (maybe?) at CIT, have deployed monitoring scripts but still trying to find the problem.
- More migration of S5 L1s from 9940 to T10KB tape.
- Working on case with Sun vis a vis morbo crashes, ongoing.
- Distributed fixed non-science S5 lists for clusterstage to use.
- Helped Keith Thorne with problems with bkup_frames at LLO.
- During CIT cluster downtime, patched many of the Solaris servers, worked on the shared tape drive problem (restarted ACSLS), redid FC zoning for the homeX 6140x and hooked up some 10gigE fibre links.
- Helped Igor with LLO 6140 disk replacement.
- Set up samhome2:/test3.
- Mailed 9940 tapes to observatories (7 boxes).
- Ran clusterstage verify on node40 & node177.
- ID'd broken Intel 64GByte SSD drive.
- Fixed broken staging & archiving at LLO.
- Removed 0 length minute trends from LHO/CIT/CIT cluster.
(Phil Ehrens):
- Assisted LLO with sendmail configuration, apache configuration, kerberos configuration, and certificate requests.
- Released "alpha" version of the safety-web. This immediately exposed a bug in kerberos that caused bizarre partial webpage returns and auth errors. A temporary fix was put in place, and a new version of kerberos will be installed that fixes the bug.
- Wrote utility script for sanity testing new htdbm databases before automatically archiving the old db and moving the new one into place. Script is written in ksh.
- Updated and re-deployed certcheck.sh on all head nodes.
- Debugged and fixed a corner case in prefilter.tcl that prevented incrementally added files from being properly added to the main index at 4 a.m.
- Discussed details of requirements for comprehensive visitor application website tools with Cindy Akutagawa.
- Upgraded all Linux nodes and servers to newest sofware, including kernel.
- Monitored and managed the cluster.
- Attempted to solve user problems.
- Got Intel to replace a SSD drive.
- Began building the replacement for ldas-gridmon.
- Read much of the documentation forpuppet(http://reductivelabs.com/products/puppet/).
- Upgraded two of the HP2910al switches to newest firmware.
- Debugged a problem with missing 32 bit packages in the CentOS and Epel repositories.
More bates work: added (kickstart) more racks of nodes; setting up node bios to redirect to port B (front); upgraded opennms (snmp monitoring) machine to 8GB; set up ldas-gridmon (still buggy); cleaned up (moved equipment/unracked machines to side office); tested out groundworks monitor software (opennms is superior); inventory of dead/malfunctioning nodes.
- Moved ldas-jobs and ldas-condor from old 32-bit hardware to x2200m2.
- SUN fixed many of the broken nodes: currently 243 out 252 nodes are up and running; the remaining ones are hard cases that will probably require system board change.
(Greg Mendell):
- After consulting with Det. Char. and DASWG, and getting approval, I added these channels the LHO Level 1 RDS frames: H0:PEM-LSC1_MAGX, H0:PEM-LSC1_MAGY, H0:PEM-LSC1_MAGZ, H0:PEM-OMC1_MAGX. At the same time these "dead" channels were removed from the raw frames, and thus also from the LHO Level 1 RDS frames: H0:PEM-EX_V2, H0:PEM-EY_V2.
- Assisted in tracking down problems with files not transferring, due to a number of different issues.
- Assisted in getting LDAS services running at LLO after a server crash there.
- I am working to make sure the raw, trend, RDS, LDAS hoft data are once again up-to-date at LHO, LLO, and CIT.
(Dan Moraru):
- Pursued warranty claim with Sun.
- Configured new ganglia server.
- Swapped tapes out of the L700 robot.
- Worked on various scripts for managing cluster.
(Fred):
- Finished setting up myron's computer.
- Another xp install.
- Some issues rs232 communications qbit (cds lab) software resolved.
- Some purchasing issues and follow-up; some issues with new scanner network setup.
- Some conference planning and evo testing with Larry.
Nothing reported.
(Jonathan):
- Documenting solaris & centos ldap setup for LIGO.ORG.
- Working with Shannon to get a local LIGO.ORG KDC running.
- Testing remapping of uidNumbers in the translucent proxy, this requires additional setup in the ldap server.
- More testing of LDAP setup on centos.
- Assisting Dave Barker with ssh support question.
- Assisting Dave Barker with building a new SVN machine, base OS install, patching, initial apache setup, LIGO.ORG kerberos authentication, local authorization, debugging kerberos problems. System has been handed off to Dave.
- User support Mary Kurtz, Dale Ingram.
- Installed sprint mobile software for Doug Cook.
- Setup workstation for new CDS hire Jim Batch.
- Ordered new laptops for ADLIGO project management expansion.
(Mike):
- Finished up backing up Calum's IBM "W500" laptop, and reloading it with Vista 64-bit. This was due to a XP32/64bit driver problems. His was a project, but everything seems to be working now.
- Loaded Engineering visitor's workstation with SW09 & Ansys 11&12.
- Installed Ansys 12 on many Engineering workstations. I also had to reinstall Ansys 11 due to Ansys 12 not being backward compatible with earlier versions of Ansys.
- Help Larry finish up Linux build on a new 4X4 server.
- Loaded a workstation for one of Rana's students.
- Ran end of month backups on critical NTSRV's.
- Continued work on ADVLIGO's Primavera/Prismpm backups.
- Worked on some pdmworks issues regarding the vault.
- Working the spam filters, training the new email appliance server.
- Other misc. onsite/phone user support, plus sysadmin tasks.
(Veronica):
- Set up a test installation of a digital asset management system.
- More work on a PAC wiki.
- Ongoing work on the old DCC migration.
- Addressing an issue with LIGO calendar links.
- WebComm: Attended a monthly telecon. Consistency in standard compliance remains an issue that contributing authors need to be aware of.
- Updates of various LIGO/LSC webpages.
(Larry):
- Worked a number of procurement items. Still waiting on quotes for new notebook computers for a couple of the engineers. Getting information together to see if we need to renew the licensing on one of the older
engineering pkgs. that has not been used recently. Signed off on the Dynamic Systems SUN contract.
- Worked on the installation of a new engineering/analysis server. It took some time to debug the unit, the h/w had some minor configuration issues but once that was cleared up the OS install was pretty quick. Mike was able to wrap-up the OS setup. Still application work to do on the unit.
- Minor changes to the DNS tables for different groups.
- Worked multiple mail issues: Cleaning of spam filters, helping debug a spam storm, alias modifications, checking and debugging of one of the old filtering units...
- Attended various meetings beyond the normal weekly meetings.
- Worked different logistical issues concerning the up-coming meetings and local building move.
- Some cable work done and setup in the computer rooms.
- Minor work on network switches.
- Some assistance on the DCC migration.
- Regular end-user support, including work on lab computers and work on broken computers (PC and Mac units).
(Melody):
DCC:
- Usual user support.
- Finished modifying the Search feature to exclude Author Groups as a default.
- Testing the glimpse search using the production files.
- Worked on displaying the public URL in the private document pages.
- Working on getting the Advanced LIGO Business group in the system. This requires some coding.
myLIGO:
- Responded to RT requests to transfer.
- Finished the implementing latest GEO roster changes.
(Christian):
- Configured system with our LIGO image this week.This computer will be used for EVO and will be located in 6flr Millikan.
- Toner cartridge replacements- 3flr W/B, Cindy's Office.
- Working on installing SSL certificate on harbor.ligo.caltech.edu.
- EVO testing this week with Larry at MIT.
- Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.
- Seeing various issues with the size and performance of file systems when running large number of E@H jobs to one side. Switched to using $OSG_WN_TMP on these sides and opened GOC tickets.
- Now running on 24 different OSG sites and exploring running on 9 new sites.
- Average credits is up from 300K last week to 600K this week.
- On average using 3000 cores from the OSG with a peak of 4000 cores seen over the weekend.
- Currently seeing a scale of by a factor of roughly 8 in the number of jobs as a result of porting over to Condor-G submission.
- The two month’s worth of frame data workflow continues to run on the OSG Caltech ITB cluster. It is running very slowly due to an issue with a Condor “stageout” issue. But no errors have been reported in the running workflow.
- OSG has advised that we not use MyOSG to collect SRM Storage Element configuration data. In its place we are looking to use Match-Making provided by a service at RENCI.
Open Science Grid Integration & Validation Testbed:
- Idle nodes on LIGO_CIT running Pegasus workflow seem to be caused by jobs hanging in the ‘STAGE_OUT’ phase. I opened ticket on condor-admin mailing list.
- Added a second OSG CE to the OSG Caltech ITB cluster to use as a secondary.
- Ramping up on the OSG content management program of work.
- Attending and giving a talk at Grace Hopper Conference (Women in Computing).
- Worked with RENCI staff to provide access to LIGO VO VOMS certification so that LIGO binary inspiral workflows could use new match making service. Worked with the LIGO VO VOMS administrator to implement this.
- Reviewed and gave feedback to several revisions to the Joint OSG/TG activities document.
- Reviewed and gave feedback on the written response to the OSG’s annual review.
- Discussed with Pegasus developers ways in which workflow planning could be improved to run across both TeraGrid and OSG.
- Worked with OSG staff to understand problem with “stageout” and explore ways to inlist additional help and improve the troubleshooting of this problem.
- Signed the OSG Statement of Work for Year four funding and sent to the OSG project manager for further signatures.
- Worked with accounts and contracts staff at LIGO to establish a subaward to Carlton College for their part in the EVO award.
- Updated the CompComm on recent SCAT and OSG items.
- Supported PKI certificate requests and LIGO Data Grid account requests as they came in.
from Carol Wilkinson
Project Controls
Part 1 of a change request to augment staff for the project to produce technical procurement documents and to support electronics procurements, fabrication, and testing is in draft form. The new staff will support active tasks as well as future tasks, as an aid in maintaining schedule. Part 1 will cover new staff for presently active subsystems: Core Optics, Facility Mods and Prep, Seismic Isolation, Suspensions, and Project Management. Part 2 will cover the remaining subsystems. Both requests will be implemented next month.
Staffing
Job ads and statements of work for the staff augmentation change request have been posted and resumes are being reviewed. Several candidates have been selected for advertised positions and job offers are being processed.
Procurements
For Ed Jasnow
No report this week.
For Steve Marroquin
- Reviewed and approved basic contract (75ADV-1087666) and Supplemental Agreement No. 1 (75ADV-1087825) to High Precision Devices for Fabrication of the GS-13 POD Flexures.
- Reviewed and approved basic contract (75ADV-1087540) to Lavallee Machine for fabrication of machine parts.
- Executed purchase order contract to Coastline Metal Finishers for Low Phosphor Electroless Nickel plating (Tech Rep. Doug Cook).
- Executed purchase order contract to General Standards Corporation for ADC and DAC boards (Tech Rep. Gary McIntyre).
- Executed purchase order contract to Apollo Sheet Metal for Weld and Install ALIGO LHO HEPI Phase I Mezzaine Piping per Item Drawing and SOW C0900710 (Tech Rep: H. Radkins).
- Executed purchase order contract to Reiboldt and Mallonee Construction for Frame, Sheetrock Lab Partition, Add double doors, Add grills to compensate HVAC system, Move two HEPA ceiling panels, Paint and texture to match and add covebase.
- Finalizing contractual submittal for SI-150B “HAM Vacuum Chambers Expansion Bellows” to Senior Aerospace.
- Preparing contractual documentation for SU-313B “OMC Suspension Machined Parts” for NSF review.
For Rudy Arvizu
- Nanometrics Inc, Seismological Instruments PO 75ADV-S078017- 9/28/09 Modification No. 1 clarified the acceptance of the 5-day burn-in period prior to shipment and the nominal noise curve for the model Trillium T-240 Seismometer. Reference HAM SI-107A.
- Astro Pak PO 75ADV-S078686 competitively awarded on 9/25/09, Large Plates UHV Chemical Cleaning, reference SI-149
- Stanford University for Brain Lantz – 9-30-09 Stanford updated proposal with no change to the budget for the period FY2010 - FY2012. Caltech is proceeding with this Subaward.
For Jacqueline Champagnie and Gina Salone
- SI-144: Storage Containers; RFQ issued to Vendors due 30 days; 2 additional Vendors received RFP for due date October 12, 2009.
- SI-145: Counter Balance; RFP issued to Vendors due 30 days.
- CO-102: Optics Metrology; On Hold.
- Updating DCC with procurement Event Pages.
- Loading Techmart Orders over $5,000 into DCC from July 2009-October 2009.
Invoice Administration/Admin Support
For Ruth Winstead
- Managed and processed invoices through Webnow.
- Email and phone tech reps and vendors on status of purchase orders.
- Delivered invoices to Procurement Services (Guillermo).
- Resolving issues with Mary Kurts on Basic Machining invoice.
- Resolve issues for end users regarding receipt of items and payment of invoices.
- Continued posting of packing slips and invoices to DCC.
Property Management
Rod Luna
- Finished posting ADV LIGO equipment in Oracle Fixed Assets.
- Reconciled ADV LIGO Capital Assets transaction from AP to Oracle Fixed Assets.
- Assisted G. Billingsley with shipping two plastic containers to Coastline Optics in Camarillo, CA.
.NSF Acquisition Approvals
- A request for approval for long term labor contracts for technical specialists is at NSF. This request incorporates several new contract hires in the staff augmentation change request.
- A second request for re-approval will be sent via Fastlane to NSF on Friday for machined parts for Suspensions. The awarded price was outside the pre-approved value, requiring re-approval by the NSF before award.
Progress Updates
The next progress update was due on September 28, 2009. Progress reports will be out by Wednesday, October 7.
Meetings & Reviews
- The next Monthly Progress Reporting Meeting will be on Thursday, October 8, at 8:30 AM PT. Subsystem leaders or their delegates need to attend.
- A meeting of the Advanced LIGO Project Advisory Panel will be held on Oct 15 and 16 at Pasadena.
Dennis Coyne <coyne@ligo.caltech.edu>, Peter Fritschel <pf@ligo.mit.edu>, Calum Torrie<ctorrie@ligo.caltech.edu>, Matt Evans <mevans@ligo.mit.edu>, Ed Chavez <chavez_j@ligo.caltech.edu>, Bob Taylor <taylor_r@ligo.caltech.edu>, Mike Smith <smith@ligo.caltech.edu>, Mike Zucker <mike@ligo.mit.edu>, Hiroaki Yamamoto <hiro@ligo.caltech.edu>
For a list of reviews, see the main AdL wiki page.
AOS Thermal Compensation System (TCS) PDR Report issued.
- Optical Lever Design Requirements & Conceptual Design Review (DRR/CDR): continues (Mike L. chair).
- Review of the UK provided ETM/ITM quadruple pendulum suspension electronics continues (Jay H., Vern).
Impending reviews:
- Systems Final Design Review (FDR): documents ready on or about 10/5.
- IO Final Design Review (FDR): documents ready on or about 10/2.
- SUS HAM Small Triple Suspension (HSTS) FDR: documents ready on or about 10/16.
Procurement Techncial Reviews:
See the procurement wiki.
Technical Review Board (TRB) (see the TRB log):
Nothing significant to report.
UHV Prep Lab (Bob):
- Found a source for Freon 113 for use with FTIR sampling. I will take delivery of a shipment of Freon on Wednesday next week. Freon 113 is not considered hazardous for shipping.
- Worked on preparing FTIR sample Viles for test samples.
- Relocated the FTIR spectrometer in the cleanroom.
- Recleaning RM HLTS welded structure. Mike has returned the structure to the bake lab. I may be able to bake this in vacuum.
Optical Contamination Cavity Testing (Bob T., Liyuan):
- Testing continues.
- Bob repaired cavity 2 in the OTF, by replacing the turbo pump controller. It had a turbo pump controller fail over last weekend. Will try to repair the controller.
Configuration Control & Documentation:
Nothing significant to report.
Contamination Control (Mike Z.):
Mike presented a plan for continuing developmenton contamination control at the systems meeting this week. In particular he outlined a plan to develop a contamination mobility experiment using the H2 interferometer.
Optical Layouts (Luke, Mike S., Dennis):
- Mike updated the L1 and H1 layouts and submitted them to the DCC.
- Luke finalized the H2 IO layout.
- Dennis extracted positon and yaw angle data from Mike's Zemax layouts for Ed to use in the System SolidWorks layouts.
Systems Layouts (Ed):
- I created a more representative envelope for HAM Table, to be able of adding Trim masses and have a better representation of CofG. With Calum’s help (setting mass for the envelope) I will replace this new model envelope on all HAM chambers.
- I updated the position for all components in HAM2-H1 and HAM8-H2 Chamber, based in Luke’s latest Coord’s he sent us 10/01/09. I also added the DLC components to the top level. I still have to add the angle location (waiting from Luke’s info).
- I updated the systems drawings for the following chambers: HAM3, 4 & 5 for H1.
- I re-created the Systems Tools in the HAM Chamber Fully Defined Configuration (D070447) and the HSTS model (D020700). Whenever I work in updating the Systems drawings, I double check the mates
for those models.
Cake Tins (Calum, Kurt, Ken):
- We are having 2 companies build 2 CP prototype cake tins each. This is currently with procurements.
- For production we are working on the drawings and associated paperwork to go back out for the production cake tin containers.
Quad Mock Up (Calum):
We have received quotes for parts to make a quad mock up at Caltech. We should have the orders placed tomorrow.
Modal Lab (Calum, Ken):
Overhead trolley for suspended table is now installed. The 2nd "ground" table will be installed tomorrow.
See the RODA status page and the Interface Control page.
From: Hiroaki Yamamoto hiro@ligo.caltech.edu
On travel, collaborating with Virgo colleagues.
From: David Nolting dnolting@ligo-la.caltech.edu
- Efforts are underway to assist both LLO and LHO Clean and Bake teams with developing the operating procedures for the new wash equipment. The focus is on establishing consistent procedures for both facilities.
- Ongoing participation in design reviews with various subsystem teams addressing safety related issues and concerns.
From: Mick Flanigan flanigan_m@ligo-wa.caltech.edu
- Working with Dwayne to create a wiki site for collaboration between the COC group and the suppliers performing coatings. Will allow the teams the share docs for editing, retain a risk registry, meeting minutes, and allow for sharing between entities scheduling through a wiki calendar. Dwayne hopes to have it stood up early this coming week, at which point I will start populating it with user accounts and initial display data.
- On SEI: We are running into some issues with handling parts at CIT during the clean process for the Large Actuators. Parts are coming from suppliers unmarked, un-serialized, with the expectation they stay in matched sets through the clean process. At the same time without any marking we have no way of realistically tracking what we have put through the clean process. These parts are being returned to the supplier, at which point they will assemble the parts and return to us an Actuator assembly with an assembly drawing and serial number. Currently Bob Taylor, Stephany Foley and I are looking at how we can make life a bit easier and track the parts. Stephany is getting in front of the small actuator issue so we don’t run into this again there, but for the large, we are proposing the following: Assign DCC Drawing numbers to the individual parts, ask that the parts get serialized and scribed while at CIT, and then entered in the ICS system, cleaned and returned to the vendor in matched sets as required. I have asked Bob to look for a solution to marking the parts in Pasadena, whether in house or contract it out, see how much it will be.
- 2 of 3 RFI’s (requests for information) have been cleared for the Large Blade manufacturing process this week, one for the method of measuring the blade to blade tolerances of a matched set, and one for the approval of a nickel plater. We are waiting on information for the electro-polishing requirements from the team, but is not holding up manufacturing at this time.
- Build schedule for last major phase 2 update is this coming week sometime. We will push the UI’s and several dozen bug fixes. We will also add to the system some limited assembly functionality, and come back a week or two later with the final bug set fixes and some minor enhancements to Assembly records.
- Had a chance to run through the defect records and modification records today with some of the team and identified some easy to fix errors in organization, terminology and display. Will be rolling these out next week as well.
- I still need to meet with a few of the Bake team members to sort out the attachments needed for the sites, what the super set of fields will be for LLO, LHO and CIT, and get programmed in. Easy fix, just need to get the right final data from the bake team.
From: John Worden <worden_j@ligo-wa.caltech.edu>
- LHO: Assembly test stands for SUS and ISI are going up in the staging building. The last of the concrete drilling is complete so the building can be kept in a cleaner state from now on.
- LLO: The DI water supply for parts washing is now complete.
From: Ken Mason kmason@ligo.mit.edu
HEPI Build Status - HEPI (Eric Allwine, Hugh Radkins, Jim Warner):
- Pump Stations--Cleaning and leak checking the Pump Station Fluid Reservoirs, will leak check Pump Stations shortly. Mezzanine Piping Contractor will start next week.
- Kaman Sensors about 1/2 done--a number do have issues and are being tested multiple times.
- HEPI Build--Working on the first BSC Housings now--on schedule.for completion by the end of October..
HAM SEI Design: constructed model of suspended mass of HAM ISI, to assist in determining necessary trim and ballast masses. Ran a simple tolerance stack-up analysis, to prepare for analysis of more complicated BSC ISI design.-Andy
- The update preliminary design review was held on Tuesday. It went well, we are asked to continue our effort on design until the FDR. We'll work more on testing after the FDR.
- Marc is working on the drawings. Celine is working on the loading tools. Andy has finished about half of the parts of stage 2. Michael is working on these drawings. Adrien has been making good progress on the damping struts for the BSC prototype. -Fabrice
- BSC ISI Stage 2 Redesign: completed preliminary FEA studies to predict mode shapes and frequencies with those predicted for prototype version of Stage 2. Populated model of Optical Table with optics mounting holes. -Andy
- Stage1-2 Actuator and Sensor mounting design is complete with most assembly model details included. Fab part drawings are in progress. Toleranceing still needs to be applied.
Stage0-1 Actuator and Sensor mounting design changes are still in preliminary stage. -Sam
From Janeen Romie and Norna
Robertson
(romie_j@ligo-la.caltech.edu, nroberts@ligo.caltech.edu)
- HLTS prototype: Mike Gerfen has finished installing the self-clinching nuts in the welded structure and it is now ready for shipment from Caltech to LLO. Many machined parts have now been received. Minor queries on some parts under fabrication have been addressed. Some fixture drawings are still to be finished.
- HSTS: Timing of FDR discussed - we will aim to have documentation finished by Oct 16th.
The structure and suspended parts drawings are pretty much completed. Remaining items to be completed are fixtures. Assembly document is being updated, and other documentation for the FDR is being prepared.- The current estimated delivery for the next batch of prototype blades is October 16th.
- We are collaborating with Trento LISA group who have offered to model the Adv LIGO suspension to look at effects of gas damping in the small gap between test and reaction mass, extending the work they have been doing on their torsional pendulums. Details of our geometry have been provided to them.
- Joe Odell from RAL is currently at LLO preparing for the quad alignment training exercise which will take place all next week. LIGO staff from MIT, Caltech and LHO will be traveling to support this exercise. Spare alignment tools and tripods have been shipped to LLO from LHO.
- SUS mechanical test stand assembly at LHO has been completed. Area will be cleaned once the SEI stand is finished.
- AOSEMs: Coiling winding of first articles coordinated, procured and completed. A few further heads are being procured from an alternative vendor for comparison. SOW for the procurement of the remaining production heads (~ 440) is being worked on. A back-of-the-envelope thermal analysis of the AOSEMs has been carried out. It was concluded that the thermal behaviour will be different from the original LIGO 1 OSEMs due lower heat conductivity and albedo of the carbon-loaded PEEK compared to ZrN-coated alumina, but that it shouldn't be a show-stopper. Apparatus for thermal testing have been collected and testing will take place shortly.
- Draft drawing of plans for the fibre production lab at LHO have been made and will be discussed next week.
- SUS staff participated in contamination control meeting.
- Inventory control of RAL quad parts is ongoing as drawings arrive to the DCC and crates arrive at the warehouse. This has involved a lot of coordination with RAL.
- A PO has been prepared for the Ni plating of the remaining 183 RAL blades.
- RODA on "Division of Responsibilities for Harnesses for Adv. LIGO Suspensions" has been uploaded to DCC (M090271)
- System layouts for the AdL SUS controls have been started. It will be a few months before they are complete.
- The UK will begin delivering the UIM coil drivers in Mid-October. These will be followed by the Triple Top coil drivers in November
From: Peter King <pking@ligo.caltech.edu>
Nothing significant to report.
- Most of the parts for a photodetector arrived from the AEI. The photodetector is identical to that used for their recent power stabilisation experiment. I hope to be able to compare this photodetector with the ISC photodetector performance some time in the near future.
- Went through the calculations for beam pointing on the power stabilisation photodetector that is located after the suspended modecleaner.
- Cost estimates for the laser area enclosure raised access floor have been done. In going from a height of 18"-24" to 42", the incremental cost is estimated to be a fraction of the floor cost, bringing the floor to
approximately $52k. Advice from some cleanroom engineers is that the best approach for the laser area enclosure, from a cleanroom standpoint, is to have a laminar flow approach where the air is drawn from the ceiling and is vented through the floor. This would also permit a relatively easy upgrade if the cleanliness requirements were subsequently found to be wanting.
From: David Tanner <tanner@phys.ufl.edu>
Advanced LIGO Design:
- We are working on on final design review documents. (all)
- The aligo IO H2 layout is finished, and at the DCC as D0900888. (Luke)
- We are sorking on ZEMAX IO layout for straight IFO - determining the location of the parking beam baffle for unlocked IFO. (Rodica)
Advanced LIGO Acquisition:
- We received bids for the coatings for IMC and SM.
- We are evaluating proposals for both coatings for the IMC and SM, and polishing for the small RMs. (Rodica, Dave, David)
ELIGO Commissioning:
A mode scan of the AS port beam was done using the OMC to try to uncover higher-order modes on top of the carrier. Also, we set up a new low noise photodiode in the POX beam path and used it to measure the RIN. (Kate)
From: GariLynn Billingsley <Billingsley_G@ligo.caltech.edu>
- The measurement result of the coating thickness uniformity of ETM04 is finalized. The result of about 0.57% increase of the coating thickness from center to edge (r=80 mm) is basically consistent with the previous measurement and analysis in CSIRO (LIGO-C090830-00-D). A note (LIGO-T0900465-v1) has been submitted to DCC.
- With Rand and Margot, continue to test the DW and FC cleanings with the AR coated ESW03 window at CASI.
- Read about 90 e-mails since coming back from Australia.
- Began collecting information for the action item list from the CSIRO kick-off.
- Working to set up technical information exchange between CSIRO, CIT, and MIT doing the ESD mask pattern work on the CP & ERM.
- Modified the coating specification spreadsheet, confirming there is no abs spec on Side 2 (AR) of all R3's and the FM.
- Struck the R3 figure modification after coating spec from the spec sheet. We estimate this gives CSIRO a bit of financial relief.
- Proposed then to CSIRO they design/fabricate/debug the Au coating masks based on a supplied CIT design, given the releif. No reply on this yet from CSIRO.
- Am beginning to write up a specific Accpetance Criteria document for the CSIRO coatings. This will take some time, thought, iterations with CSIRO. This is my #1 priority right now.
- Sketch out a FTIR quantitation plan for Dennis Coyne and Weiss which in principal works, but needs to work as go-no-go when you don't know precisely what contamination you are looking for, in the general realm of oils and plasticizers. Reading literature and the plan is to talk to Weiss at MIT to understand what has already been done. The method I developed is INDEPENDENT of the instrument used to make measurement of the contamination content, and Weiss and Dennis did like that.
- Trying to arrange to go to MIT to meet with Weiss and also understand LASTI and generate optics cleaning awareness.
- Sent an e-mail to LMA to try to schedule a kick-off meeting for coating in the next 3-6 weeks, in France.
- Continued developing statistics for the cleaning of FC success rate on the CASI.
- R3 shipping containers have been assembled and are being shipped to Coastline.
- 3 Fold Mirrors have arrived at Tinsley for inspection from Coastline.
- The shelving system for storing Advanced LIGO optics has been delivered, assembly is schedule for 2 October.
- Renovation of 014 Downs has commenced.
- We are still fact finding on the large aperture metrology procurement.
From: Michael Smith <smith@ligo.caltech.edu>
Work Under Project Budget
Optical Layout: Mike updated the L1 and H1 layouts and submitted them to the DCC.
Work Under Operations Budget
Mike is in the process of reviewing the applications for SLC mechanical engineering and designer/draftsman hires.
Output Faraday Isolator: The CIT facilities installed the overhead rail support system in the vibration lab. Niem has ordered all the parts for the suspension test table and is awaiting delivery.
WEEKLY REPORT FOR PHOTO CALIBRATOR
From: Rick Savage <savage_r@ligo-wa.caltech.edu>
- I did a 2-hour back-of-the-envelope cost/manpower/schedule estimate for the Photon Calibrator task last night. It seems to be roughly in line with the existing estimate for the "Project" phase. This afternoon I will meet with Carol, Mary, et. al. to discuss manpower, etc.
- It seems that no funds have been reserved for testing or prototyping during the conceptual design or preliminary design phases. It is not clear whether any manpower has been committed for this work either. I will talk with Eric Gustafson about this later today or tomorrow.
- I talked with technical people at Innolight in Hannover last week about a potential photon calibrator laser. Their MicroFlare Nd:GdV04ND laser operating at 1063.5 nm with 1.5 watts output power looks like a good candidate. They ran some test for me last week and emailed the results this morning. I am digesting them now.
TRANSMON WEEKLY REPORT
From: Eric Gustafson <egustafs@ligo.caltech.edu>
AOS TransMon Group Ken Mailand, Jay Heefner, Sam Waldman and Matt Evans
A TransMon design is being worked with a new table optics layout in which the telescope is mounted below the table and a periscope is used to transmit the beam to the level of the table optics. A preliminary suspension dynamics model has been completed and will be updated when the TransMon design is completed.
IAS WEEKLY
From: Dennis Coyne <coyne@ligo.caltech.edu>
Nothing significant to report.
OPTLEV
From: Eric Black
Andrea Lottarini gave his final presentation, before heading back to Pisa. His project was to look at using a ccd camera to replace the quad photodiodes to measure the position of the beam, after it is reflected from the suspended optics. The idea came about after we noticed that moving the coupling fiber produced a large displacement signal at the quad photodetector (pd), even if both ends of the fiber were strain relieved. We suspected that the mechanism for this was changing power in the cladding modes, which the ccd can distinguish from the Airy disk but confuses the quad pd. Andrea showed data demonstrating that data from a ccd, collected by and fitted to by computer, showed less noise and possibly less long-term drift than the analog signal from a quad pd. The next step in the project will be to match the acquisition bandwidths of the two systems and compare data taken in the same frequency spans.
From: Vern Sandberg <sandberg@ligo-wa.caltech.edu>
LHO -
Electrical - McCarthy
- Added temperature sensors to DAQ system at end stations, we can now monitor H0:PEM-BSC9,10 Temperatures.
- Replaced the 2-Omega board on the 4k. Last year this board exhibited problems, so we swapped it out with a spare. This required us to add a HP rf-amplifier on the floor in front of the LSC rack. The fix for the proper board required a remake of a daughter board (it was extremely sensitive to just about any environmental change) with a replacement of the ER-5 amplifier on the board. After adjusting I/Q-phases everything seems to be working.
- We have been in discussions with a vendor about DC power supplies. He will
be visiting the site today for further discussions.Computing - Barker
- Verified that the GigE Camera on OMC Refl port can cause network glitches when it views a dynamic image. The network flood caused the locking script to unlock H1. Joe Betzweizer changed his code to stop multicasting the video packets and instead send them on a point-to-point link.
- Work on a CDS SVN repository is almost complete. Jonathan Hanks configured the server to use ligo.org authentication and installed the SVN code. I am populating the repositories and testing the system.
- Patrick has completed the conversion of all the weather stations from VxWorks EPICS IOC to linux IOC. Now only the dust monitors run on the h0pem[ex,ey,mx,my] outbuilding systems.
LLO -
Hardware - Thorne
- Catch up for paper work with AdL SUS electronics testing.
- The TCS ISS schematics were updated and serial cables for new polarizer controller interface were installed.
- Jeremy Birch worked on PEM issues. An end-station temperature readback problem was traced to miswiring, which was fixed. The PEM ADC crate in the corner station was power-cycled and boards reseated to address remaining readback issues. Studies are ongoing.
- All fiber optics cables have been received for the laser lock noise test, but have not been installed yet.
Software - Thorne
- CDS-subnet project made progress, during maintenance, Ethernet cables were rearranged on the main switch to clear a section to be converted to the new control-room subnet. Met with the LIGO cyber-security manager (Abe Singer) to discuss the CDS networking upgrades being planned and any cyber-security implications.
- Set up a new TCS front-end computer and was able to build locally executables for the new polarizer controller software developed by Patrick Thomas at LHO.
- Keith worked with Joe Giaime to verify that software was in place to do blind injection frame creation at LLO, and documented the setup.
SUS - J. Heefner
- System layouts for the AdL SUS controls have been started. It will be a few months before they are complete.
- The UK will begin delivering the UIM coil drivers in Mid-October. These will be followed by the Triple Top coil drivers in November.
DAQ - R. Bork
- Working on documentation for upcoming review(s):
- Realtime code generator
- PEM
- IIR / FIR filter calculations done by realtime systems
- The first prototypes of the IO chassis backplane and the ADC adapter have been received and are being stuffed. Testing will begin this week.
- The final design of the AA/AI filter board (LIGO-G0900914-v1) was presented at this week's CDS meeting. We will build 4 prototypes for test and then begin production for AdL.
ISC - R. Abbott
- Working with the AOSEM team to get them a batch of fully assembled heads. A test, thermal and otherwise, is to be performed next week at LLO.
- Working on measurement details of the Advanced LIGO I&Q demodulator.