[mmaimcal] MAC Agenda Weds 14 April Daylight Noon

Tue Apr 13 15:51:32 EDT 1999

Hi, Ed

Thanks for the minutes.  It is time for another MAC meeting.  Here is an
agenda which I will send to all.  Additional items are welcome.

Agenda for meeting Wed, 14 April 1999 at 12pm EDT.

Phone: (804)296-7082 (CV SoundStation Premier Conference phone).

Agenda

Index
--------
1) October Meeting--latest schedule at
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/schedule.htm
2) MMA/LSA has become ALMA, an MOU has been initialled
3) MDC Project Progress
4) Longest baselines in the array
5) Lowest frequency on the array
6) Critical upcoming dates

Meeting Status - Wootten

A WWW page is in place at http://www.mma.nrao.edu/science/science99.html
I think that registration will be working by meeting time.

The meeting will be held 6-8 October 1999.
Science with a Large Millimeter Telescope Array will be an international
conference on the occasion of the planned signing of a Memorandum of
Understanding to combine North and South American, European and Asian plans
for construction of a large array of millimeter telescopes into a single
large project. It will begin with a demonstration and reception for members
of Congress in the Capitol at 5:30 pm Wednesday, 6 October 1999. This will
be at 2325 Rayburn. We have this room from 4:30-5:30 for setup, during
which an LOC subcommittee will arrange a computer link through which to
demonstrate remote observing to the NRAO 12m and/or other telescopes wishing
to participate. There will be a display of the Chajnantor site. There
will be a display of the high technology parts of receivers, with
documentation on radio astronomical contributions to science and technology. 
There may be room for some poster displays. Food and drink will 
be arranged with the House caterers. Attendees are invited to invite their 
congressional representatives to attend and to explain the project to them. 
We are investigating how many this room may hold.  If you don't know if
your congressman is on relevant committees, see 
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/congress.html

Gene Runion and Jeff Mangum, of NRAO, will arrange technical matters including 
internet access to the room and computer availability. Kevin Marvel will act as
liason to the Congressional staff. The room has been arranged by Billie
through Rep. Ehlers, of the House Science Committee, with his Assistant
Loraine Kehl as the point of contact. Carol Whitley will arrange for food
service with the House caterer. Lectures and posters will be presented at
the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1600 P St. NW. Accommodations have
been arranged at the nearby Omni Shoreham Hotel for the period including the
nights of 5 Oct through 9 Oct. To be sure of getting a room, reserve early.
I will be putting instructions for that on the WWW page but we are still
negotiating some contract terms so it is not final yet.
The penalty for blocking out too many rooms was severe (I would have to pay
for any rooms untaken below a 15% leeway) so I have only reserved 125 rooms.
The number of rooms in the block (at $149)
is: 50 for the 5th, 125 for the 6th, 125 for the 7th, 125 for Friday -
10/8 125 for Saturday - 10/9 The banquet will take place at the hotel on
10/7/99. The MAC/SAC/JAC meeting will take place in a meeting room there on
10/9/99. A press conference will begin the proceedings at 8am, to explain
the world collaboration to the media and the public. 

The scientific
proceedings will follow at 9am. Posters will be displayed in the reception
area just outside the lecture hall. The purpose of the conference will be to
highlight the science that this powerful world array will accomplish, with
particular focus on: -Investigation of galaxies near the time of their
formation -The formation of stars -Detection and study of planets and disks
forming them around nearby stars -Study of the origin, distribution and
evolution of the elements and their isotopes The conference will be
organized and hosted by Associated Universities, Incorporated and the
National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The Scientific Organizing Committee is
composed of Ed Churchwell, John Bieging, Geoff Blake, Roy Booth, Bob Brown,
John Carlstrom, Ewine van Dishoeck, Neal Erickson, Neal Evans, Yasuo Fukui,
Stephane Guilloteau, Mark Gurwell, Tetsuo Hasegawa, Richard Hills, Masato
Ishiguro, Ryohei Kawabe, Gill Knapp, Karl Menten, Jim Moran, Steve Myers,
Naomasa Nakai, Luis Rodriguez, Larry Rudnick, Peter Schloerb, Peter Shaver,
Jean Turner, Malcolm Walmsley, Jack Welch, Eric Wilcots, Al Wootten (Chair), 
and Satoshi Yamamoto. Science with a Large Millimeter Array will be limited 
to 200 participants. Information has been posted on the Millimeter Array web 
site with the URL http://www.mma.nrao.edu/science/science99.html 
The registration page is almost final, invitations have been mailed to 
some of the speakers and the rest will follow as soon as the SOC blesses the
final schedule (there have been a few changes since last month).
The WWW pages do not list the speakers, pending their invitations being
issued and accepted. The list of prospective speakers which we have arrived
at may be found at http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/schedule.htm
(no 'l' on the end).

--------

ALMA Status - Wootten

The NSF and European Agency representatives agreed on a name for the joint
array: Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). Alma is the Spanish word for
soul.

Brown reported: 'On March 30 the NSF and the European Negotiating Team
initialed a Memorandum of Understanding for a joint design and development
program. Once signed in a matter of weeks, this MOU will govern the D&D
program for the next 2 years. It sets out a management structure headed by a
project coordination committee to be composed of six individuals named by
the NSF and six named by the European Coordinating Committee. The Project
itself will be managed by an Executive committee made up of the MMA Project
Director and Project Manager and the LSA Project Manager and Project
Scientist. A joint science and technical committee and a joint oversight
committee will provide advice to both the Executive Committee and the
Coordinating Committee. Work in the US will be managed by the MMA Project
team as is the case now; work in Europe will be managed by the LSA Project.'

The Executive Committee will meet the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month.
Chairmanship of the committee will rotate once per quarter.

There will be an antenna preproposal meeting in Europe, to follow the US one
on 18 May.

The Europeans will try to get attendees to our PDR meetings.

The WWW page will evolve toward www.alma.nrao.edu or www.alma.eso.edu as
www.alma.xxx is taken.

I have heard no more on the possibility of Japanese collaboration.

--------
The Design and Development Phase of the MMA includes development of
specific items at MDC partners.  I have short reports on several of these
from MDC partners.

Amplitude Calibration at BIMA - Bock

Amplitude calibration hardware was installed behind the sub-reflector of a
single antenna at Hat Creek during December, 1998. The associated control
hardware and software is complete and integrated into the existing observing
systems. The rotating mirror arrangement has proved reliable throughout the
winter, during which it was operated regularly during observations. The
temperature of the loads was maintained to within a few tenths of a degree.
The coupling of the calibration system to the main beam has been measured
over a range of wavelengths in the 1mm and 3mm bands. We are presently
integrating the calibration hardware with existing data acquisition systems
to evaluate its effectiveness in typical observations.

--------

Progress on BIMA WVR Correlator - Harris

* We have a complete correlator module (16 channels over about 3.5 GHz)
ready for testing -- just have to get the analog-to-digital converters to
read out properly.

* I've just spent a couple of days visiting David Woody at OVRO (I'm in
Pasadena at the moment), where we'll install the first correlator to see
what we can learn about hardware, line shapes, try to get some information
on altitude distribution, and see if we can improve matters by feeding
16-channel data into his 3-channel system. We expect to bring the correlator
and cooled front end together on the telescope in June.

* Johannes and Lee have been making good progress on packaging the software
in a flexible way to try double-blind modeling and test phase recovery
schemes.

The latter two topics tie directly into investigating the suitablility of
the 183 GHz line for the higher site.

--------

Longest Baseline - Wootten

There will be a Preliminary Design Review for the IF System on 17 May
in Socorro.  This fixes the decision as to the longest baselines in the
array.

In my opinion, the longest baseline for which a reasonably cogent scientific
case has been made is 10km. The case was partly made in the Tucson science
sessions, as it specifically affected the MMA. It was expanded to the
'Atacama Array' when we had the discussions with the Japanese, but I'm not
sure that there is any written record of that. In my opinion, the case can
be pretty solid for baselines as long as thermal brightness temperatures can
be detected on.  The site will comfortably contain a 10km configuration but
we do not know that it will contain a 20kn configuration.

Napier talked to Guilloteau, who agrees that he knows of no well-founded
reason for baselines in excess of 10km.

I recommend that the IF System PDR address an array of baselines of 10 km
maximum.
--------

Lowest Frequency - Wootten

John Carlstrom agreed to review the case for the 30 GHz band at the March
meeting.  What is it?   MMA Project Book Version 2.0 1998 December 01 lists
front-end #1 as 30-40 GHz  Brundage pointed out that it would be good to
include both the protected bands in this region at  31.3-31.8 GHz and 
42.5-43.5 GHz bands.  We have decided to aim for a receiver which covers
30-45.5 GHz with sensitivity maximized in the 33 GHz range.  This will
ensure overlap with VLA/VLBA bands as well as covering the clearest
portion of the window.  We will change the project book to reflect this.

The final version of the project book will be issued on 15 April.

------
Other items

The Holography PDR will be 19 April in Tucson.
The NSF MMA Oversight Committee will meet in Tucson on 12-13 May.
The IF System PDR will be held 17 May in Socorro.
The antenna vendors prebid meeting will be held 18 May in Socorro.
The next MAC meeting is scheduled for 12 May.  This conflicts with the
MOC meeting and might usefully be changed.

Clear skies,
Al
+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Alwyn  Wootten   (http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/)	 |
| Project Scientist, The Millimeter Array                |
| Astronomer, National Radio Astronomy Observatory       |        
| 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475, USA |
| (804)-296-0329 voice Help us build The Millimeter Array|
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