[alma_na] ALMA Bi-Lateral DH/TL Meeting Minutes - December

[Carolyn White]

ALMA Bi-lateral DH/TL Meeting - 2001-Dec-17

Attendees: Avery, Baars, Baudry, Brown, Simon, Glendenning, Gray,
Guilloteau, Hasegawa, Ishiguro, Kurz, Mangum, Porter, Radford, Rafal,
Raffi, Sekimoto, Stanghellini, Ukita, Webber, Wootten

Status Reports -

Administrative - Rafal reported that the President has signed the NSF
appropriation bill, which includes the $12.5M for ALMA construction.  NSF
is going through formal processes to start construction.  Before spending
the funds, NSF needs to get approval from the NSB.  Their next meeting is
in March or April 2002.  The Board has been very supportive of the project
in the past and we anticipate no problems.

Antenna - Kingsley reported that there was a delta CDR last week which
resulted in all previous CDR issues being resolved.  We are currently
reviewing the CDD for completeness; we expect to close this item by the
end of December.  The panel fabrication is underway.  We will lift the BUS
onto the pedestal in April.  We will initiate mechanical and electrical
tests even if some panels are still to be delivered.  The delivery date
from Vertex is still April 2002; at this time the outer ring of the panels
may be missing.  Vertex will start at the ATF in January.

Baars reported that ESO will sign a new contract this week; it will be 16
months after this for delivery of the antenna to the ATF.  The current
Alcatel design is based on the original EIE design, but has a new panel
fabrication technique. The new panels will be electro-deposited nickel.
The panels have good solar properties and they are about ~20 percent
lighter than the original EIE panels.  The metrology system will be
included and will be defined in the next three months.

Peter Gray, the head of System Engineering for ALMA at NRAO, was welcomed
to the group.

Site - Radford reported on the site campaign.  Approximately ten people
were at the site from ALMA, ASTE, APEX and other projects.  Conway's group
was surveying the site and antenna locations.  They concluded that the
"Chajnantor South" location is good for the central configuration.  The
group also looked at outer locations for the 3-4 km configuration.  They
will need to work with a road engineer to finalize plans.  There will be a
configuration meeting in January to finalize configuration.  Radford also
installed and updated the weather monitoring equipment and launched
radiosondes.  During this visit experiments with supplemental oxygen
therapy was tested; people using the equipment felt better working on the
site.  ASTE and APEX groups were also there and did soil resistivity tests
of interests to ALMA.  In January there are plans to bore 16 soil test
holes.  Radford met with Hofstadt to further plan the site development.  A
site design review is planned for the period around mid 2002.

There are differences between the three designs that exist for the 3 km
array configuration.  The group sees the benefit and need to work closely
with a civil engineer to refine the site civil works and to optimize
antenna locations.  We need more detailed topographic maps to finalize our
plans.

Front End - Webber reported that the front end group has been discussing
the optical system; they have plans to complete optics studies, including
real calculations using physical optics for the cartridge configurations.
Edge taper on band 6 is now at -9.6 dB rather than ~12 as in previous
approximation in order to maximize the G/T.  Mirror sizes may need to be
adjusted.  This has long term effects on window sizes, leak rates, etc.
We now have a plan to carry out the needed detailed calculations,
including G/T. It looks like band 6 (OMT's) just fit into current
cartridges , band 7 (grids) also just fit.

Avery reported on band 3.  Yeung was appointed as the work package manager
for band 3.  The new Canadian budget was presented last Monday.  NRC
received significant new funding and we hope that high priorities in the
long range plan will be funded.  Prospects for ALMA are now very good, but
the details remain to be understood.

Back End - Baudry has little to report since our last meeting.  Following
the review, we have submitted a new design for the 2 bit digitizers, and
the design is at the foundry now.  We are working on the preliminary
costing of the sampler production.  There are no budget problems yet, but
details are still very preliminary.  The current plans include have a back
end, LO PDR during ALMA week.

Computing - Various documents are under review (see current web page).
Main activities in the US include the upcoming Vertex factory servo tests,
which should be in late January. The AIPS++ verification tests were due in
late November, but our goal now is to complete end-to-end IRAM data
reduction by the end of January. Guilloteau commented that AIPS++ data
structures may need modification to fully support millimeter array data
reduction.  We are planning to have several software meetings during ALMA
week.

Brown confirmed that ALMA week will occur April 23-27 in Granada, Spain.
There will be a preliminary session at the beginning of the week to update
status for everyone.

Baars reported that we need the project book updated before its submission
to the ACC on 2001-Feb-01.  DH/TL need to have their submissions in by
January 7.  Baars will do the cross checking and make the final editing
changes.

Science - There is a series of memos on simulation results.  Wootten is at
OVRO reviewing the WVR tests, but work is being slowed due to limited
availability of OVRO staff and poor weather.  At this time it doesn't look
like the WVR data will be in production use at OVRO this winter.

Guilloteau reported that there has been progress at the SMA site with the
WVR; more information will be available soon.  Small details measured by
the FTS on-site are now well reproduced by atmospheric models up to 1.5
THz.  Radford commented that there may be an FTS available to ALMA from
SAO in next year or so.  Canada plans to build two IRMA instruments and go
to Chile in late spring 2002.  They will compare their measurements with
the 11 GHz interferometer.  Radford and Avery will organize a telecon to
arrange the details.

Brown - The implementation of the IPT's is still on hold awaiting the ACC
action. Rafal reported on the background info for the IPTs.  ITPs are
management and senior engineering personnel from the NA and European sides
organized around major subsystems.  Each IPT has a lead and a deputy.  The
IPT lead is the designated point of contact, but major decisions should be
made by consensus within the IPT.  When consensus cannot be reached,
unresolved issues would be forwarded to project management.  There is not
a strong differential between the IPT lead and the IPT deputy; therefore
the lead and deputy must work closely together.  Changes affecting other
IPTs should lead to formal change requests and/or involvement of project
management.  A written notice will come from the AEC.  The list below is
still subject to approval by the ACC and the yet to be named Project
Director.  A report from the ACC is due in February 2002 that will outline
a plan for staffing of the Project Office.  For now the AEC will carry out
the functions of the Administration IPT.

Interim IPT Structure -

   Site 		Hofstadt			Radford
   Antenna		Kingsley			Stanghellini
   Front End            Wild				Cunningham
   Back End             Sramek				Baudry
   Correlator           Webber				Baudry
   Computing            Glendenning			Raffi
   System Engineering   Tan				Gray
   Science		Guilloteau			Wootten

Next meeting will be Monday, January 28, 2002 at 1500 UT.  The phone
number will go out with the meeting reminder.  And as a reminder to all,
the 804 area code in the Charlottesville, VA, area will no longer work
after January 15, 2002.  You must use the 434 area code, as a "global
replacement" for 804 for all numbers in Charlottesville.