[mmaimcal] FYI: 14 August BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
Al Wootten
awootten at nrao.edu
Wed Aug 9 17:07:06 EDT 2006
Folks,
Comments, commendations, criticisms or additions?
Al
BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
14 August 2006 - 28 August 2006
******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT****************************
Catherine Cesarsky, Director General of ESO, signed the contract for
construction of the Operations Support Facility on 03-Aug-2006. The
signing of contract by the contractor, VVMO (Vial y Vives Ltda., Chile)
is scheduled 10-Aug-2006. The Kick-Off Meeting will be held the same day.
The VVMO camp area has been prepared.
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A small stone corral, some 50 years old, used originally to contain animals
and also as sleeping quarters for some local Atacamenho herdmen was discovered
near the road from the Operations Support Facility (9600 feet elevation) to
the Array Operations Site (16500 feet elevation). It has now been restored
as a historical site. It was reconstructed the site with the help of the
local indigenous people and with the advice of the original owners. The
opening ceremony for the reconstructed corral was held on July 27. This
museum was opened to preserve and interpret this typical Atacameno
structure and also the giant cactus native to this region. Eduardo
Hardy, legal representative of Associated Universities, Inc. attended
the ceremony on behalf of NRAO. The governor of the second region of
Chile, Marcela Hernando, attended also, and delivered a speech. See
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMAmuseum.htm
A new book, 'Desert Tracks' ("Huellas del Desierto") on the archaeology
of the ALMA site may be obtained online at http://www.nrao.cl/
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There will be an ALMA booth and display at the IAU. Jean Turner will
speak on the morning of 16 August in the session on facilities of the
next decade. Later in the meeting there will be a special meeting
"The ALMA Era for Astrophysics Begins" Aug. 24, 2006 from 9:30 until 12:00
in Dressing Room 225. An updated agenda for this may be found at:
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMAIAU.txt
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On July 27 and 28, a 4th ALMA Science Working Group Meeting (also the
2nd Japan-Taiwan ALMA Science Meeting) was held at NAOJ in Mitaka.
About 70 researchers, mainly from Japan and Taiwan, attended.
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Tony Beasley writes: "Jody Bolyard has recently spent a year in Santiago
working for the JAO, helping document our safety policies and
procedures. I am pleased to announce that although he has now returned
to his duties at NRAO, in future Jody will spend 20% of his time as ALMA
System Safety Manager: in this role, he will be carry out the required
safety analysis and administration associated with reviews and
acceptance of designs, specifications, and bids for ALMA equipment;
participate in design reviews; support, review and acceptance of
completed Risk Analysis documentation and Statement of Conformity for
equipment; and respond to specific safety-related queries from the IPTs.
Jody will also be responsible for safety at the ATF site activities.
"Our safety program is an important part of ALMA development. Please join
me in welcoming Jody's continued participation."
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Past issues of this Calendar may be viewed at
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html
See also the JAO ALMA Calendar overview at:
http://www.alma.cl/alma_project
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General Happenings
Sky: Mars leaves the evening sky to Jupiter during these evenings.
Santiago: An option to purchase space in the Bicentenario building under
construction across the street from ESO for the permanent ALMA headquarters
remains under investigation. Occupancy could occur much sooner than it
would with new construction. A new balancing of value between the
Executives has been achieved.
AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): Sub-millimeter amounts of water
vapor are again being registered by APEX under the Chajnantor skies.
OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): OSF construction contract
is receiving signatures. Construction of the underground utilities to
the VERTEX, MELCO and ALCATEL SEF (Site Erection Facility) are under
way and expected to finish on Aug. 09. Fabrication of SEF building is
nearing completion and planned to ship to Chile in August for erection
at the OSF. Currently there are approximately 73 persons working at the
site of which approximately 62 uses the ALMA and Contractor's lodging
facilities.
NAASC: Factory acceptance tests for the Vertex production antenna azimuth
and elevation bearings have been successfully completed and are being
crated for shipment to Kilgore, Texas. PDR of the Antenna transporter
was held at Pfedelbach, Germany, at the Scheuerle factory. Participants
included ESO, NAOJ, JAO, NRAO, and external experts. The meeting was
though generally successful.
NTC: Measurements of gain compression confirm that Band 6 (1.3mm)
cartridge #1 meets specifications; this will shortly be delivered to
the NA Front End Integration Center (FEIC). The first delivered
Band 7 (.85mm) cartridge from IRAM was tested at the NA FEIC, with
Provisional Acceptance on-Site (PAS) completed. This first Band 7
cartridge was tested cold in cryostat #2 during and following the
face-to-face meeting in CV (Band 6 was first tested in cryostat #1
using cartridge test system electronics in April 2005). Basic
functionality and noise temperature were measured at three frequencies.
The results confirm the performance measured at IRAM, with mid-band
SSB noise temperatures below 40K.
The FE LO CDR was held in Charlottesville July 27-28. The CDR was
conditionally passed.
Plans for the conclusion of the SMA fields and return of the prototype
Water Vapour Radiometers (WVR) to ESO are being made.
Assembly of the transmitter section of the holography receiver was
completed and power was applied; assembly of M&C system
began. Functional testing of transmitter and receiver will start August
7.
Correlator: There have been no custom chip failures in 3.5 months.
Negotiations between ESO and U. Bordeaux for Tunable Filter Bank (TFB)
production have been completed.
AOC: Lab tests continue to reveal subtle and vexing timing issues.
Owing to slow progress towards lab interferometry, the move of the
prototype hardware from the lab to the ATF has been delayed until
mid-September.
ATF: PSI staff have been involved in diagnosing problems with both
Alcatel and Vertex prototype antennas.
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DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
Mon 14 Aug
All day: A Summer School on "(Sub)Millimetre Observing Techniques"
Victoria, BC, Canada 14-17 August 2006
Tue 15 Aug
Holiday, Chile (Virgin's Ascension)
IAU General Assembly, Prague begins
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
Wed 16 Aug ASAC telecon scheduled today postponed one week
Morning: In Prague at the IAU meeting, Jeam Turner speaks on ALMA in the
facilities of the next decade sessions.
Thu 17 Aug
11:00 EDT: Calibration Group telecon
Fri 18 Aug
Sat 19 Aug
Sun 20 Aug
Mon 21 Aug
Tue 22 Aug
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
Wed 23 Aug
Thu 24 Aug
0930 CEST: "The ALMA Era for Astrophysics Begins" IAU Dressing Room 225
Fri 25 Aug
Sat 26 Aug
Sun 27 Aug
Mon 28 Aug
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ****************************
Aug 14-25 IAU Meeting Prague
Aug 14-17 (Sub)Mm Observing Techniques Victoria
Sept 5 ASAC Telecon
Sept 6 ESAC face-to-face Garching
Sept 18 Move of PSI to ATF
Sept 16-17 all day ASAC face-to-face Arcetri
Sept 22-23 evening Dave Matthews Band CV JPJ Arena opening
Sept 27-29 Vertex RSI PPDReview Essen
Sept 29-30 all day ANASAC face-to-face CV
Oct 2 - 6 all day 5th IRAM Mm Interferometry School
Oct 8 - 11 all day WVR Workshop Wettzell, Bavarian Congo
November 9-10 all day ALMA Board Meeting Madrid
Nov 13-16 all day Science with ALMA: a new era for Astrophysics Madrid
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS ****************************
ALMA Memo # 550: Mode conversion and Resonant Absorption in Bent Overmoded
Waveguide
Authors: A.-L. Fontana and B. Lazareff
Mode conversion losses are a concern when an oversize waveguide is used
to minimize ohmic losses. We present computations of mode conversion in
oversize rectangular waveguide bends.
The numerical results are based on a published analytical formulation of
the problem. They are presented in a dimensionless form applicable to a
range of parameters believed to cover practical cases of interest for
engineers that need to design a signal transport involving oversized
waveguide and bends.
A few cases have been cross validated using a 3D EM simulation software;
the numerical and analytical results are in good agreement.
Oversized waveguide bends are sometimes used to minize ohmic losses when
a signal must be transported over a significant distance. The waveguide
devices at both ends are usually in a smaller, single-mode waveguide size,
and are connected to the overmode waveguide by suitable transitions. The
combination forms a resonant cavity for higher order modes. We examine
how the transmission of the fundamental mode is affected by resonances
in the higher order modes.
View a pdf version of ALMA Memo #550 at:
http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma550/memo550.pdf
******************************ALSO OF INTEREST*****************************
There will be a current Call for Proposals for the
Submillimeter Array (SMA), the radio interferometer on Mauna Kea built
by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Academia Sinica
Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics. The SMA is currently
accepting proposals from principle investigators from within the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics as well as from the
worldwide astronomical community.
The proposal deadline is 7 September 2006 for the observing semester
6 November 2006 through 30 April 2007. More information, technical
details, and instructions and tools for proposal preparation and
submission can be found at http://sma1.sma.hawaii.edu/, the SMA
Observer Center web site.
Questions or comments regarding the Call for Proposals can also be
addressed to proposals at sma.hawaii.edu
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The Large Bolometer Camera for APEX (LABOCA), a 295-element bolometer
array operating at 870 microns, has successfully passed its pre-shipment
review, and will be installed on the APEX 12m telescope on Chajnantor in
September 2006.
ESO now invites proposals for science verification from the ESO community.
Pending successful on-sky commissioning, ESO also proposes to schedule its
share of LABOCA observing time on the telescope in October and December
2006 as further Science Verification. All observations will be performed
in service mode by the local APEX staff. All proposals should be sent to
cdebreuc at eso.org by noon CEST on Monday 4 September 2006.
For further information, including exposure time estimates, see
http://www.eso.org/science/apexsv/labocasv/SV_LABOCA.pdf
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ESO has an opening for European ALMA Project Scientist. Please see:
http://www.eso.org/gen-fac/adm/pers/vacant/alma_project_scientist_2006.html
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Please send information for upcoming calendars by Friday evening of the
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(jneighbo at nrao.edu or awootten at nrao.edu).
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