[mmaimcal]Telecon today

[Al Wootten]

Folks,

Thanks for your discussion at today's telecon.  For the interest of
those unable to attend and for corrections by others and ACTION! by 
some, I append notes which I took.  Clear skies,  Al

Science IPT 13 Jan 04
Wootten, Conway,  Hills, Mangum, James DiFrancesco, Wilson, Holdaway,
Guilloteau, Sterling, Richer, Lucas, Pety, Hogerheidje, Hasegawa, Bacmann, 
Dutrey

CORRECTION:  The next meeting was announced as 4 Feb 2004 but this was an 
error; this is the time of the next ASAC telecon.  The next Science IPT 
telecon will occur at 1500 UT on 10 February.  Dates are listed for future
telecons on the ALMA Calendar at almaedm.

The Quarterly Report was mentioned, along with the Antenna 
CfT/RfP.   The latter occurred just
before the holidays; owing to that copies were not available 
to the Project Scientists.  ACTION:
WOOTTEN.  Subsequent to the telecon Wootten secured copies for examination.

Attention was drawn to the list of milestones, though discussion 
of individual elements was deferred
to the group reports.

The Calendar was discussed.  ACTION: WOOTTEN The AMAC meeting will be held 
11-12 March at the NTC in Cville.  Please see the ALMA Calendar on almaedm
for more complete information.  
The nature of the system review needs clarification.  
Technically inclined scientists should be 
represented on the committee; several such people were proposed to SE.

Hasegawa presented information on the status of Japanese 
participation.  Now that Cabinet support
had been achieved, the funding needs to pass the Diet.  An 
agreement between the bilateral partners
and Japan needs to be reached.  To this end, Tarenghi will visit 
Japan during January, followed in
February by convocation of a miniminiALMA Week 18-20 Feb.  The plan is for an 
agreement to be ready for
signature at the June Board meeting.

An operations plan was delivered to the JAO on 31 Dec 2003 by the 
Operations Group.  This plan will
be discussed at a face to face meeting in Charlottesville 22-23 
January.  It will be submitted to
external reviewers.  It is not at present a public document.

The ASAC will meet 10-11 May in Cambridge England to consider 
charges to be produced by the Board.

The Antenna CfT/RfP was issued about 18 December.  It is planned 
to have a production antenna contract
ready for signature by early Fall.  The AEC antenna is moving 
and has had the holography receiver
mounted; it has seen the transmitter.  The contractor is at the 
site; software issues are under
address.  Radiometric tests continue on the Vertex antenna.

Discussion over the new System Design document from D'Addario 
ensued.  Lucas noted that sideband
separation and use of both sidebands B8,9,10 was not a feature.  
Hasegawa noted that JP plans to
try to build sideband separating receivers for B8&10 but cannot 
demonstrate this currently.
Hills provided several comments, and 
some discussion occurred on phase stability.  It was felt 
that the project book goals for phase
correction by the WVRs should be maintained.  This puts short 
timescale losses 'coherence' at
88% at 950 GHz rather than the 83% in the proposal.  Wootten to 
discuss these items with SE. ACTION: Wootten.

The Science Requirements document is in a final editing process 
before being considered by the
Change Control Board on 19 Jan.  As this is a revision to PB 
Chapter 2, it needs to pass the CCB.
The SSR document is also to be placed before the CCB on 19 Jan.  
Please send comments to Wootten.
ACTION: All.

Reports
 Wootten reported good attendance at the AAS Town Meeting-about 
60-70 people attended even though
 this was the penultimate session of the last day of the meeting.
 Wootten announced plans for a NA Science Meeting on 14-15 May at 
U. Md.  This will be an ALMA
 Workshop, to focus on elements of the Operations Plan and 
particularly on the DRScience Plan.
 
The Calibration Plan has suffered from a lack of a few chapters.  
However, work has restarted on the
missing chapters and they should be available soon.  Some 
management may be needed to complete the
plan on schedule--a workshop perhaps?  There was discussion 
of a Science IPT meeting, for which this
may form a focus.  An optimum time would be adjacent to 
mini-ALMA Week.  Wootten and Wilson will
follow up.  ACTION: PS.  The item on calibration gain horn 
was missed; should be discussed next meeting.
ACTION: PS.

Michel gave a brief report on the DRSP.  Plans will be made soon 
for an Early Science version of this,
anther possible subject for a Science IPT meeting.  The SSR has 
made data rate and dataset size
estimates for about 30 of the 128 projects.  Robert reported that 
on the average, the data rates do
not tax the system--perhaps 3 MB/s.

Holdaway reported on a fast switching memo to be issued soon but 
available on his website.
Adopting the System Design goal of using 5th percentile 
atmospheric statistics, the phase jitter
expected over these moderate time scale calibration cycles 
is about 110 fs with about 25fs of drift
in 5 minutes.

Lucas reported on the SSR, which will meet tomorrow.  The 
data format review is urgently needed,
though the assignees for the task have not yet completed it.  
ACTION: Gueth, Holdaway.

Conway reported on configurations.  The reconfiguration plan 
and Y+ plan remain in IPT comment.
He reported that progress should be made on the antenna 
relocation plan, with a target date for a
report in mid-February.  This will include atmospheric effects 
on the accuracy of measurement.
A plan for the Early Science Array will be formulated.  There will 
need to be some iteration between
this, the Operations Plan, and the Early Science DRSP but a 
plan for the first array stations will
help get the process started.  ACTION: Conway.

Neither Radford nor Nyman were available for a site characterization 
report.  In a subsequent telephone
conversation, Wootten asked Radford to proceed with development of 
specifications for the 'ancillary
instruments' necessary for ALMA components to obtain information 
needed on atmospheric and other
conditions at the site.

CORRECTION:  The next meeting was announced as 4 Feb 2004 but this was an 
error; this is the time of the next ASAC telecon.  The next Science IPT 
telecon will occur at 1500 UT on 10 February.  Dates are listed for future
telecons on the ALMA Calendar at almaedm.

Respectfully submitted,
Al Wootten