[asac]Draft of ASAC Report: section on RSC

[Pierre.Cox at ias.u-psud.fr]

Dear All: 

Please find hereafter a first draft of the section 12 
`Regional Support Centers'. I apologize for the slight 
delay in  sending this to you, but I just returned back 
from Japan yesterday. 

With best regards,

Pierre

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\section{Regional Support Centers} \label{rsc}

In the October 2001 ASAC report, the roles of the Science Operations 
Center (SOC) and the Regional Support Centers (RSCs) were discussed. 
It was recommended that there should be `a single SOC, operated by the 
ALMA observatory, where the pipeline produces and stores the official 
archive' and that the RSCs `should be responsible for the support of 
the observer, from proposal preparation through data reduction and 
analysis'.  Further study and discussion were recommended on the core 
functionality of the RSCs and on the number of RSCs that are needed. 
The ASAC has considered the issues of the RSCs further and we report here
on the conclusions based on the various discussions which were held in 
the partner communities.

The need for a RSC has been recognized as being a critical aspect
in the success of ALMA through the support of the astronomical
community at large and in the scientific return of the project.
The main problem with interferometry is that it is a `cultural
change' for most astronomers, so that assistance is essential
for any new user. Astronomers therefore need support in the same
time zone, and new users need physical access to a Centre. There
should thus be one RSC for each partner community. Even experienced 
observers need to top-up their knowledge and talk to a team of 
people who are experts users in the instrument. The interaction of 
`ALMA-qualified' astronomers with the ALMA users will also be 
essential to develop tools and strategies for the best use of 
ALMA. Therefore it is important that such a Centre has close 
interactions with the instrument and the Operation Centre in 
Chile but also with the Project. The Centre should also provide 
easy access to the Data Archive.

The discussions led to strongly convergent views on the core functions of 
the RSC. These are the core functions that each RSC should have, to be 
distinguished from additional functions that different partners may add. 
It is the functions themselves, rather than the particular means to realize 
them, that we discuss here; the means may differ among the partners. These 
are the core functions that we have identified, in order of importance:

\begin{enumerate}

\item Providing user support for observing proposals, data reduction 
beyond the pipeline products, and archival research;

\item Providing feedback from the user to the project on performance;

\item Hosting a copy of the ALMA Archive or a link to it.

\end{enumerate}

\noindent
We note that the role in supporting archival research overlaps to some degree 
with the role of Virtual Observatories and the interaction between the RSC 
and these VOs needs to be defined. Whether each RSC has a physical copy of the 
archive or merely provides a link is a matter of implementation. Various 
communities have considered  other functions to be important (e.g., financial 
support for the US community, software development for the Canadian community), 
but the core functions listed above have been agreed to be the common denominator. 

Other aspects, which could be supported by the communities own resources outside
the ALMA projecs, include, e.g.:

\begin{itemize}

 \item Software development \& maintenance beyond the nominal operations

 \item Interferometric data handling \& new techniques

 \item Support for special projects such as public surveys with limited
       time-priority, legacy programs or projects which cannot be
       handled with the pipeline

 \item Organisation of post-docs (ALMA Fellowship), training program \&
       interferometry schools

\end{itemize}

\noindent
These non-core functions or development activities will depend on the 
community. Finally, the ASAC reiterates that it is crucial that the RSCs are 
operated with an international and collaborative spirit leading to close 
interactions between the RSCs for the benefit of the astronomical community 
at large.