The Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA) project is the next generation instrument for high resolution long-millimeter
to short-meter wavelength radio astronomy. It is currently funded by NSF, with completion scheduled
for 2012. The EVLA will upgrade the VLA with new feeds, receivers, data transmission hardware, correlator,
and a new software system to enable the instrument to achieve its full potential. This software includes both
that required for controlling and monitoring the instrument and that involved with the scientific dataflow. This
manuscript presents an update on the overall design, and details for the pre-observing portions of the software,
including: user authentication; proposal preparation, submission, and handling; and observation preparation.
It will focus particularly on the observation preparation software, describing an implementation of a web-based
interface for creation of a detailed observation description, and plans to achieve common observation preparation
software with the ALMA telescope.
The Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA) project is the next generation instrument for high resolution and high sensitivity long-millimeter to short-meter wavelength radio astronomy. It is currently funded by NSF, with completion scheduled for 2012. The EVLA will upgrade the VLA with new feeds, receivers, data transmission hardware, correlator, and a new software system to enable the instrument to achieve its full potential. This software includes both that required for controlling and monitoring the instrument and that with emphasis on the scientific functions related to the telescope. The primary goals of the software are: to maximize the scientific return of the EVLA; provide ease of use, for both novices and experts; exploit commonality amongst all NRAO telescopes where possible. The software design methodology includes detailed initial use-cases and requirements from the scientists, intimate interaction between the scientists and the programmers during design and implementation, and rapid prototyping and development cycles (as short as a week). This manuscript is an update of a similar description published for the SPIE meeting two years ago; a more full description and background can be found there, while this document concentrates on the changes since then, specifically in the area of the high level design and pre-observing software (user authentication; proposal preparation, submission, and handling; observation preparation; and observation scheduling).
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