MPEC 2018-W60 : SUBMISSION OF CORRECTED OBSERVATIONS
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M.P.E.C. 2018-W60 Issued 2018 Nov. 27, 19:45 UT
The Minor Planet Electronic Circulars contain information on unusual
minor planets and routine data on comets. They are published
on behalf of Division F of the International Astronomical Union by the
Minor Planet Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory,
Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Prepared using the Tamkin Foundation Computer Network
MPC@CFA.HARVARD.EDU
URL https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/ ISSN 1523-6714
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE NEW MPC OBSERVATION ACCEPTANCE PIPELINE
On November 7, the Minor Planet Center adopted a new observation
acceptance routine, as part of an upgrade of our data processing pipeline.
Following the changeover, a number of observers reported that their new NEO or
NEOCP submissions did not get handled correctly. In all of these cases, it
was determined that the submission did not conform to the approved schemes for
identifying batches containing "interesting" objects. As noted in
MPEC 2018-N52 (ADES SUBMISSIONS AND THE NEW PROCESSING PIPELINE) the new
pipeline requirements are much stricter, to allow data processing to be more
automated.
We remind observers of the approved methods for indicating that a
submission contains observations of objects that need special handling. The
descriptions below indicate required keywords or phrases that must be included
in the ACK header line. For e-mail submission of obs80 observations, the
keywords/phrases can be included instead in the e-mail subject line, but
passing the information via the ACK header line is preferable.
The case of the keywords or phrases is not important.
1. Submitting New NEO Candidates
--------------------------------
Include the phrase "NEO CANDIDATE".
2. Submitting Observations of NEOCP Objects
-------------------------------------------
Include the keyword "NEOCP".
3. Submitting Observations of New Comet Candidates
--------------------------------------------------
Include the phrase "NEW COMET".
Note that new comet candidates must be submitted in batches that contain
no other objects. A subsequent e-mail message to mpc@cfa.harvard.edu must be
sent, containing details of the cometary appearance of the object and full
details on the circumstances of the discovery.
Observers reporting the visual discovery of a comet must send an e-mail to
mpc@cfa.harvard.edu, with the subject line "VISUAL COMET DISCOVERY", reporting
at least two positions (which can be approximate) of the new object (to show
motion) and full details on the circumstances of the discovery.
4. Required Use of AC2 Header Keyword
-------------------------------------
For batches submitted in the obs80 format via the web form or via cURL, it
is required that the submitter include the AC2 header line, with an appropriate
e-mail address, to indicate where e-mail acknowledgements and notifications are
to be sent.
5. Recommended Use of the ACK Header Keyword
--------------------------------------------
In addition to the required uses of the ACK header line listed above, it
is recommended that observers make their ACK Lines more informative. It is
also recommended that, at a minimum, the observatory code and the date and
time of submission (or preparation) be included. Examples would be:
ACK NEO CANDIDATE F52 2019-08-18 13:23:54 or
ACK NEW SITE XXX 2019-03-23 17:34:51.
NEW NEWNEO AND NEOCP PROCESSING ROUTINES
Work is proceeding nicely on the new NEWNEO and NEOCP routines. The
former checks incoming new NEO candidate batches, and posts new potential NEOs
to the NEOCP. The latter processes observations of objects already on the
NEOCP. The new routines are being tested in parallel with the existing
procedures, and are using the real submissions as test data. During this test
phase, we will be sending NEWNEO log files and NEOCP log files to observers
(with the subject lines of the e-mails modified to indicate that the referenced
observations have already been processed), so that they know the status of
their submissions.
SUBMISSION OF CORRECTED OBSERVATIONS
Observers who wish to submit corrections to previously-submitted
observations can no longer just send in a corrected batch. They must inform
the MPC (via e-mail to mpc@cfa.harvard.edu) that individual observations or
entire batches are to be corrected.
If they have received a new-style ACK message, then they will know both
the submission ID (for the batch) and the obsid (for the observations). Their
e-mail must list either the submission ID (if the whole batch is being
corrected) or the obsids (if only certain observations are to be corrected).
Once the MPC has dealt with the necessary alterations to the database, they
will be asked to submit the corrected measures. In a change from the
requirements of the old pipeline, this resubmission must not flagged as
"CORRECTED"
If they are correcting observations for which they do not have submission
IDs or obsids, then the obs80 (MPC1992) representation of the observations need
to be included. Once the MPC has dealt with the necessary alterations to the
database, follow the instructions above.
Once all the various pipeline tasks are running in the new pipeline this
procedure will be handled more automatically. There will also be explicit
instructions for surveys or observers who wish to report rereductions of their
astrometric history.
A. U. Tomatic (C) Copyright 2018 MPC M.P.E.C. 2018-W60
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