Committee on Radio Astronomy Frequencies
The exchange of observing schedule/traffic information between the radio astronomy station and the active application
The exchange of observing schedule/traffic information between the radio astronomy station and the active application
A condition in an agreement must be the exchange of schedule/traffic information between the parties to which the agreement applies,
for the purpose of optimising the operation of the stations involved.
on the radio astronomy stations:
No radio astronomy station or its funding agency will agree to unacceptable degradation of its scheduling and operational flexibility.
The following remarks specific to scheduling can be made:
A telescope observing schedule (including its priorities) is set up according to the conclusions of
a program committee, which evaluates each observing proposal on its scientific merits and decides on the
conditions for the observing schedule of the radio astronomy telescope concerned. This program committee
is external to, and independent from, a radio astronomy observatory.
The detailed telescope schedule is developed within the conditions set by the program committee.
Schedule information is usually not made public but exchanged only between the radio astronomy
station and the radio astronomers to which observing time has been assigned.
When possible, observations are scheduled prior to the actual observation on timescales allowing the
proper optimisation of the telescope These timescales depend on the telescope, the way it is operated and
the observing project(s) identified for the instrument concerned. Specific Target of Opportunity, or ToO,
projects may require a lead time of less than a few hours. The final scheduling of an observation may also
have lead times of less than an hour depending on the instrument and its operations.
on the operator of the active system:
Usually, technical and traffic information concerning an active system is not made available to third
parties because of commercial reasons. However, for scheduling purposes radio astronomy stations involved
in the coordination agreement need to know such details.
Last modified: December 9, 2002