MeerKAT archive search

Owned by Vasaant Krishnan (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Feb 15, 2022 by Sharmila Goedhart
2 min read

The MeerKAT archive search allows you to efficiently query the MeerKAT archive for observations within a search radius (max 10°) centred on user-specified coordinates.

Logging in and out

You will need a SARAO account in order to use the MeerKAT archive search. First-time users should read the Getting a SARAO account page.

Sessions that are left unattended for approximately 30 minutes will timeout, requiring you to log out and log in again (see Known issues below). To log out, click on the user icon (top right) to access the menu.

Importing coordinates

Users can either input coordinates directly into the field at upper left and click Update or import an ascii.csv list containing one coordinate per line in this format: HH:mm:ss.s,±DD:mm:ss. You will be allowed to import a maximum of 100 unique coordinates at a time.

Each time you upload a list, a pop-up message at the bottom of the page will indicate the number of lines that were successfully read. If the value does not tally with what you expect, check the format of the coordinates in your file.

Your list of coordinates will be presented in a column along the left margin of the screen. Coordinates with matches in the Archive will be displayed in black. You can click on these to get the corresponding observation details.

At any time you can add more coordinates using the input field or import a new ascii.csv list.

Output fields

You can mouse-over the table headers in the MeerKAT archive search for more information about the output fields.

Source name

Name assigned to the target during the observation

Source coordinates

Coordinates used for the observation displayed

Separation

The angular distance in degrees between the input and output coordinates

Duration

The on-source time for this particular target

Dump period, Channelisation and Band

The correlator setup that was used for the observation. Note that only observations that used the 4k or 32k modes will be presented

Observed date

The UTC date of the observation

Proposal title

Title of the project associated with this observation. See this link for details of the projects supported by MeerKAT

Open date

The date from which this data is publicly available. If available this will be a URL link to the data on the archive. Users should read the Archive Interface User Guide on accessing the data

Known issues

Users can encounter the following error messages which pop up at the bottom of the screen and indicate that the MeerKAT archive search is disconnected from the server.

This message indicates that the session has been inactive for 30 minutes or longer and the user has been automatically logged out:

  • Session timeout - please log out and log in again.

Users will be able to Dismiss the following error messages and try again when the connection to our servers has been restored:

  • Server not responding. Please try again later.

  • Internal server error. Please try again later.