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Introduction

In the latest development plan for AIPS++ (Note 202), a goal is that it be a functional equivalent to the existing consortium packages by late 1999. At that point, AIPS++ will be a fully functional system, in use for production at a large number of astronomical (and non-astronomical) sites. To get some idea of the scale of the distribution that is plausible, we can sum the existing sites for consortium packages: AIPS, Unipops, SDE, Miriad, Newstar. This is in excess of 200 active sites. Presumably the majority of the active users will be astronomers doing science, but we should not forget that if AIPS++ is successful, then some fraction of these sites will host active AIPS++ programmers. AIPS++ will be the mechanism for observatories to provide support for astronomers using their telescopes, much in the same way that IRAF is used as a vehicle for data reduction packages for a number of organizationally distinct telescopes. This is different from the existing AIPS model, where one observatory, NRAO, has control. A close, but much smaller scale, model inside the consortium is the use of MIRIAD by BIMA and the ATNF. It is thus important that AIPS++ be clear from the beginning what type of role it will play in astronomy. We see it mainly as a platform or vehicle for a number of clients to use in their work.

Let us turn, therefore, to focus on the clients that AIPS++ will have in this operational phase. These clients split naturally into a number of categories.

Observatories

Observatories will use AIPS++ as the vehicle for providing support for particular telescopes. This will presumably have a number of components:

Software

for observing preparation, monitoring of observations, and reduction of data.

Distribution

of ancillary data for the telescope e.g. source lists, antenna coordinates, instrument history, physical parameters (such as ionospheric menasurements), etc.

Support

for astronomers using the telescope.

Astronomers

Astronomers will use AIPS++ for access to a common telescope reduction package, and for analysis tools that are not the specific responsibility of any one observatory. One can also envisage that AIPS++ will become a mechanism for collaboration and for publication, but we pay less attention to these possibilities here.

Programmers

Programmers (who may be active astronomers) will use AIPS++ as a resource for tools to solve problems and as a distribution mechanism for their products.

The overall goal of the AIPS++ package must be to aid science. As a working assumption, we will take it that all of these classes of clients are equally important in furthering that goal, and thus are equally deserving of support by AIPS++. We should thus aim to be as responsive as possible to all of these clients. Perhaps the most difficult problem of operations will be to find suitable compromises between the imperatives of all these different clients. Finding the right balance between conservatism and innovation will require a firm hand. We return to this problem below.

In the rest of this document, we describe the operations of AIPS++ in more detail. We see the operations of AIPS++ as splitting into a number of components. First, there are core operational functions that must be performed in order for the package to be installable and usable at any consortium site. Second, there is astronomer and programmer support, needed to support the use of the system by astronomers and programmers alike. Third, there must be a quality assurance program that ensures and tracks the overall quality of the system. Overseeing, coordinating and monitoring all of these functions is a management and oversight component. These are discussed in turn in the following sections.