Folks
I expect line wrap problems here but am poorly equipped to deal with them
at present. Errors, omissions, outright lies?
Thanks,
Al
BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
June 20, 2005 -- July 3, 2005
******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT*****************************
As some of you may be aware, we have received news from ESO of a delay
in their ALMA antenna procurement process.
In a meeting earlier this week, the ESO Council strongly reaffirmed
their strategic commitment to ALMA. However Council requested a fuller
understanding of the overall financial situation as a result of the
rebaselining exercise, which is not yet completed. Therefore ESO is not
yet in a position to place an antenna contract.
We here in North America, like ESO, remain 100% committed to the success
of ALMA and, along with NSF and NRC, are working very closely with our
colleagues in Europe and on the ALMA Board to help bring a rapid and
successful solution to this situation.
K. Y. Lo
Adrian Russell
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The ALMA Board will meet 21-22 June in the Lissabon Zaal of the Dutch
Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The Minister will open the
meeting with remarks.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Band 4 and Band 8 cartridges will have Preliminary Design Review at NAOJ
in Japan this week.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A Report was released Friday 10 June by the National Academies. The
report assesses the impact of a possible descope of the ALMA to 40 or 50
antennas on its technical performance and scientific program.
You may see a version of the report at:
http://books.nap.edu/catalog/11326.html
though the table there lists an ALMA of 50 50m antennas as a descope option.
Excerpt:
"Two of the three Level One requirements, involving sensitivity and
high-contrast imaging of protostellar disks, will not be met with either
a 40- or a 50-antenna array."..."Severest degradation is in image fidelity,
which will be reduced by factors ot two and three with descopes to 50
and 40 antennas, respectively."
For a more thorough discussion, please see the Feb 2005 ASAC Report.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
As you know, the committee structure in the House was changed this year so
NSF and NASA are in with a different lot of agencies.
H.R.2862: Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies
Appropriations
Act, 2006
House Report 109-118 was just released.
National Science Foundation is increased $171 million over last year and
$38 million above the budget request. Total funding is $5.64 billion.
Includes $4.38 billion for research, $157 million over last year; and $807
million for education and human resources, $70 million above the request.
From
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/?&db_id=cp109&sid=cp109s7FJj&r_n=hr118.109&item=&sel=TOC_354405&
we learn:
The Committee recommendation includes funding for the following major
projects: $49,240,000 for Atacama Large Millimeter Array construction;
$50,620,000 for EarthScope; $50,450,000 for the IceCube Neutrino
Observatory; and $57,920,000 for the Scientific Ocean Drilling Vessel. The
recommendation does not provide for any new project starts, as none were
requested."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Gurwell noted that if 3C454.3 continues to brighten exponentially
that we will need to institute a zone of avoidance in the pointing
software to protect the Smithsonian Submm Array (see Test Log Entry 9513).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Past issues of this Calendar may be viewed at
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html
See also the ALMA Calendar overview at:
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
ALMACalendar6Jun05.txt
*******************************************************************************
General Happenings
Santiago: Rebaselining: Third Version frozen and distributed;
insertion into COBRA begins; SOW review underway; Risk register information
being evaluated.
OSF: Start of Camp Manager services is scheduled for 01-Jul-2005.
Contracting for First Aid Services is under way (by JAO). Service start is
scheduled for 01-Jul-2005. Ambulance procurement is under way. Delivery
expected on 01-Aug- 2005. Construction start for the continuation of the
road construction above km 28 is scheduled for 01-Jul-2005. The extension
of the ALMA camp to 30 bed capacity has been substantially completed.
Currently there are approximately 27 persons working at the site
AOS: A large earthquake which struck much further north in Chile did not
cause damage at any ALMA site. Analysis of ALMA seismometer data is in
process.
Tucson: Tucson, the central LO, antenna LO and RF simulator racks are being
disassembled and packed for shipping to NRAO-Socorro for the beginning of
combined system testing. Tucson lab, equipment, furniture packed and moved
June 27.
John Fitzner, Frank Gacon leave NRAO - July 30. Thanks guys, and best
wishes!
ATF: A draft Water Vapor Radiometer (WVR) Preliminary Design Review report
is now available for internal review. Preparation of WVR field testing at
the SMA, instead of the ATF, is underway. Shepherd and Hale reviewed new
interim control GUIs at the ATF.
AOC: Central LO rack delivered to Socorro from Tucson: June 22
Computing IPT Review3 telecons held. Output will be ~200 actions on CIPT
personnel.
System Requirement Review Meeting will be done in Charlottesville 26 and
27 of July.
Correlator throughput tests with the ALMA archive computer system continue;
Interface tests between 2nd LO and control computer continue;
Digitial Transmission System (DTS) Fiber Ooptic links 1 and 2 and digitizer
tests are restarted.
NTC: FE delta PDR plans are nearly complete. The review meeting will be
held at ESO in Garching on 6 - 7 July ’05. PAI of cryostat #2 took place
on 2-3 June ’05 at RAL, UK and was successfully passed. This cryostat will
be shipped first to IRAM to be used in the sub-system design verification
of the Band 6 receiver.
After completion of this verification the cryostat will be shipped to the NA
Front End Integration Center (FEIC) at the NTC. Tests continued
successfully on the first prototype Tunable Filter Bank (TFB) card for the
correlator in the test fixture. Preparations including software are being
made for installation into the first quadrant of the correlator. The ACA
Correlator PDR was held in Mitaka; the review was very successful, only
minor reservations were noted to be addressed.
Many personnel changes--welcome, folks!
Jason Castro started with BE-LO Photonic group: June 8
Bill Shillue transferred to CV-NTC: June 13
Chris Jacques transfers to CV-NTC: July 1
Glenn Diaz starts with BE-LO Photonics group: July 11
Juanita Banda transfers to CV-NTC: July 18
Rodrigo Brito transfers to CV-NTC: Aug 1
HIA: Band 3 cartridge: Noise measurements with 1 GHz resolution have been
performed. Gain stability has been measured to meet specification at
0.1-1 seconds.
NAASC: FITS files of the protoplanet plus disk simulations performed by
Sebastian
Wolf were obtained for further ALMA simulation. Guiseppe Lodato provided
FITS files
for a protostellar disk simulation which he has made. Face-to-face
meeting of the
ANASAC was held 12 June in Boston followed by a meeting on submillimeter
astronomy
featuring the SMA.
*******************************************************************************
DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
Mon 20 June
All Day: JAO-Executive meetings, Scheveningen, Holland.
Tue 21
All Day: ALMA Board meeting, The Hague.
Bands 4 & 8 PDRs, Tokyo
Wed 22
All Day: ALMA Board meeting, The Hague.
Bands 4 & 8 PDRs, Tokyo
Thu 23
Bands 4 & 8 PDRs, Tokyo
Fri 24
Bands 4 & 8 PDRs, Tokyo
Sat 25
Sun 26
Mon 27
9:30 AM-10:30 AM: North American Project Office Meeting
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
Tue June 28
4:00 PM-5:00PM: NAScienceIPT teleconference (open to all interested
parties) (434)296-7082
Agenda: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/
Wed 29
Thu 30
9:30 AM-11:00 AM: Management IPT Teleconference
Fri 1 July
Sat 2 July
Sun 3 July Deep Impact probe impact of comet Temple 1.
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ******************************
ALMA Calendar--https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
* June 21-22 -- ALMA Board Meeting, The Hague, Netherlands
* June 21-24 -- Bands 4 & 8 PDRs, Tokyo
* Jul 3-4 -- Deep Impact probe impact of comet Temple 1.
* Jul 6-7 -- Front End IPT delta PDR, Garching
* Sep 4-5 -- Tentative ASAC Meeting, Los Angeles
* Oct 6 -- Rolling Stones come to Scott Stadium, Charlottesville
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS
*******************************
ALMA Memo #529 Velocity and structure function of phase screen aloft
Chajnantor
Author: Hideharu Ishizaki and Seiichi Sakamoto
Abstract: We analyzed the phase data from simultaneous measurements with
the two sets of radio seeing monitors aligned in series at the ALMA site.
During the one month period in summer from 1999 November 11 to December 12,
the median value of the spatial phase structure function exponent deduced
from the 300 m and 600 m baseline data was 0.59.
The exponent independently extracted from the temporal phase structure
function at the 300 m baseline was 0.62, supporting the above value
obtained from the spatial phase structure function. These median values
lie midway of the values for thin screen (1/3) and thick screen (5/6). No
evidence for diurnal variation of the temporal phase structure function
exponent was found in our data on the contrary to the previous report.
The phase screen velocity calculated from the lag time of the maximum
correlation of the two sets of phase data had good correlation with the
surface wind velocity at 8 m except for higher values by about 1.2. This
indicates that the screen height deduced using the surface wind velocity
as the screen velocity needs to be corrected upward. Provided the
logarithmic wind profile and plausible roughness length (z_0 ~ 0.05), the
measured small ratio is understood as a reflection of small height
difference of the flows, namely very low height to the phase screen (~ 100
m).
This memo will shortly be available at www.alma.nrao.edu
A copy may be obtained at edm.alma.cl: http://tinyurl.com/ar5xa
******************************ALSO OF INTEREST******************************
******************************************************************************
Please send information for upcoming calendars by Friday evening of the
preceding biweekly period to Jennifer Neighbours or Al Wootten via e-mail
(jneighbo at nrao.edu or awootten at nrao.edu).
The calendar will be issued between late Friday and sometime on Monday by
e-mailto all NRAO scientific staff members and anyone else interested. A
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Past issues are available at
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html