[asac] Capabilities for Cycle 0

[Richard Hills]

Dear All,

First thank you all very much for your most helpful advice and careful 
analysis on this topic at the meeting and especially for getting a 
preview of your report to us so quickly.  That was splendidly clear and 
well argued.

We have had a further thorough review of the topic and looked again at 
the practicalities.  Attached is the summary of the outcome of that. 
You will see that we concluded that it was not realistic to offer 
polarization without having demonstrated that it was in a state for the 
community to use, but that did feel that it was OK to go ahead with 
mosaics and that this will be a valuable capability for this first cycle.

We also realised that the limitations associated with the temporary 
power system are not a restriction for baselines of up to nearly 500 
meters.  Those foundations are all expected to be ready in the next 
couple of months.  (I am sorry for not explaining this more clearly at 
the meeting.  In retrospect it was a mistake to concentrate on the 750 
meter option at the meeting.)  There are good configurations available 
with maximum baselines of around 400 meters and this size has a number 
of advantages, including providing close to arc-second resolution in 
Band 3 and below 0.5 arcsecond resolution at band 7.  We therefore 
decided that this was a good choice for the maximum array size.

Do please get back to me if you have any questions.

Best Richard

-- 
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Richard Hills                Phone: +56 2 467 6175
ALMA Project Scientist       Mobile +56 97 608 1582
Alonso de Cordova 3107       Apmnt: +56 2 474 1642
Vitacura 763 0355            Fax:   +56 2 467 6104
Santiago de Chile            www.almaobservatory.org
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