At Allegro we offer various kinds of user support. That happens on a low level for proposal preparation or help with CASA. But two big points should be highlighted here, since they require a bit of extra attention: PI projects and face-to-face visits.
PI projects are a dedicated category in our project management classification. Such a project generally starts after the approval of the ALMA project with the preparation of the scheduling blocks (SB).
Generating a PI project with the Project Manager Wizard results in the creation of two extra directories in the project root directory:
sb: In this directory, the different versions of the scheduling blocks can be saved.
proposal: Here you can store the proposal. A PDF version of the proposal can be extracted from the SB .aot-file by calling
$ proposal_from_aot.sh aot-file
After data acquisition, the PI can ask you to support them with data calibration and imaging. This can then lead to a face-to-face visit.
A face-to-face visit can be when a user visits Allegro to get support for ALMA data. That can be either a PI with some recently obtained data, a scientist who wants to work on some archival data, or simply somebody who wants to know more about interferometry.
The project category for face-to-face visits would generally be the open project (unless it is a PI, which is already handled by us through the PI project).
If the user brings along data, he/she can grant you access to the dataset, which should be copied and extracted into the archive directory. Make sure to set the permissions properly.
Warning
Data in the archive should never be modified! Set the permissions properly by calling
$ allegro_permissions.sh archive
in the archive directory. This calls chmod -R go=u,go-w *, which recursively sets the same permission for all users, but removing write permission for all but the owner (which is user alma).
When the user is not a member of the Sterrewacht, we can give him/her a temporary user account. We have 5 accounts called allegro* available. Visitor accounts can be activated by using the visitor tab of the project manager wizard.
After the face-to-face visit ends, the visitor and the contact person should fill out questionnaires:
Generally, communication with the user happens through the ALMA helpdesk system. In case of PI projects, a ticket is opened by ESO and assigned to the Contact Scientist. For face-to-face visits, a ticket is opened by the visitor and assigned to the general Allegro account allegronode.
| Status | Action |
|---|---|
| open | user awaits reaction from you |
| pending | you wait for an answer from the user |
| on hold | waiting for input from other side |
| resolved | problem solved |
A typical sequence for a PI project might be:
The ticket is opened by ESO and assigned to you (Status: open)
Set the status to pending, since ESO already has provided an intro message
Once you have the SB-file (*.aot) from the JIRA ticket, check it, and send it to the user (Status: still pending)
The user replies - either he/she approves or has questions (Status: switches to open)
After a few rounds, the PI accepts the SB. Inform the P2G through the JIRA ticket about the approval. Set the status to on hold.
Note
Note that the PI has to write the acceptance (include also the SB Version that is accepted) into the ticket.
Wait for the observations to be taken. After delivery of the data, set the status to resolved.
A typical sequence for a face-to-face visit might be: