[asac] Telecon memo

[Toshikazu Onishi]

Dear all,

I am sending herewith a memo of the ASAC telecon on 10th.

Please inform me if there are any problems/errors.

Best regards,
Toshikazu Onishi

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ASAC Telecon memo
10th December 2009

Attending: Baker, Johnson, Johnston, Gueth, Ivison, Tacconi, Kuno, Hogerheijde
          Momose, Onishi, Nagar, Hills, Wootten, Morita, Peck
Apologies: Stacey, Testi, Afonso

Agenda: https://safe.nrao.edu/wiki/bin/view/ALMA/ASAC10Dec09Agenda

1. Membership
- See current listing at https://safe.nrao.edu/wiki/pub/ALMA/ASAC10Dec09Agenda/List_of_ASAC_members_-_as_of_September_2009.pdf
- Any information to the chair and to Richard.

2. Project Report
- Recent progress especially at the high site including interferometry.
 + The results will be officially open to public at the AAS meeting at Washington 
    in the coming January.  Please be patient.
- Basically, all the operations are being done from the OSF.
- Microwave link between the OSF and the AOS seems to be adequate for the current operation
    150Mbps bandwidth
- Processes for the next few weeks.
 + Investigate whether the current hardwares and softwares are adequate for the CSV phase
    which is expected to start from mid January.
- Six antennas at the high site is not scheduled until August next year
   due to the delay in front-end delivery.

3. Schedule
- No dramatic changes
 + Completion of the basic equipments by the end of 2012
- Contingency money almost exhausted
 + No additional fund expected from the funding agencies in the current situation
 + Still some contingency money should be kept by saving the money
    Very rough estimate from the project scientist:
       About $US30M in contingency as compared to about $US200M of money that we have yet to commit
 + Initial prioritization to be planned to be delivered to ASAC for discussion
    Possibly by the next telecon, more likely at the f2f meeting
 + Operation budget is also under the pressure to cut several millions of dollars
    Same situation as the construction budget
    There are a few meetings for this, and some outputs may come to the next f2f meeting
 + Joe McMullin will be returning to North America in the coming February
    This may hit the schedule if we consider his contribution to the project
    Deputy Nick Wyborn will overtake his work.

4. Reviews
- The Review of the Implementation Plan for Operations
 + Report of the panel and the project response to it will be circulated to ASAC
- The ALMA Annual External Review
 + Review committee: about 12 people, most of them have back ground of project management
 + To investigate the whole project in terms of technical, financial, management and so on
 + Comment at the meeting from the reviewers: Very supportive to the project as a whole
     New emphasis from the panel
       Should not be perfectionist
       It should be a time to go to a production stage by careful examination of the current technical status
         --> (Comment from Richard)
             The project cannot accept anything just because of the tight schedule and cost
             Performance issues should be the driver.
             Compromise for deadline and cost OR keeping the performance the best
     Waiting for their recommendations
- The Critical Design Review of the Calibration System
 + High performance hot and cold load should enables us to do a good job on absolute calibration.
     Worry is the cost.
- Systems Requirements
 + The top level document is not completed; will come to ASAC when finished

5. Items for discussion
- ALMA Board and response to the ASAC report
 + Board is very pleased to the ASAC report
- Proposal Review Process
 + Not finalized yet; especially about the wording.
 + Board telecon next week; If the draft approved, it will be circulated to the ASAC
- Development Plan
 + Suggested that the Project should try to put to together a small team to analyze 
   the technical rediness and rough costs of the various items under discussion.
   The results of this would need to be ready in time for the next ASAC meeting.

6. Discussion of new Board Charges
- Topic that should be discussed at ASAC
 + Possible impact of cut of the operation cost
 + Please send any ideas to the chair and Richard
- More environmentally friendly operation
 + No immediate action possible in the current situation.
 + The project and the Board are very conscious about this.

7. Reports from regions
- NA
 + The North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC) is seeking up to 3
     astronomers to join the scientific staff of the Science Center
     Commission postdocs at Chile.
 + Discussion on proposal review process
 + Discussion on workshop: Possibility merging eVLA and ALMA meetings
     We should not assume a pattern of ALMA workshop at North America every year 
- EA
 + Discussion on proposal review process
 + ALMA User's Meeting this month

- Europe
 + ALMA-VLTI Workshop at ESO early March
 + ALMA-Herschel Workshop mid-November
 + Band-5 workshop in May

8. AOB
- ASAC report is also for various sections of the project
 + The current case for computing group
   - Circulate the response to ASAC

9. Schedule
- Telecon 2010 Feb 3
- f2f meeting 9-10 March, Tokyo
 + Detailed information is expected to be available around the beginning January.