[mmaimcal] ALMA Board Charges to ASAC

[Al Wootten]

Folks,

For your information, the following set of charges has been delivered by 
the ALMA Board to its Scientific Advisory Committee, ASAC.  It is my 
understanding that a response to Charge 1 is not expected until the 
Board's 1-2 April 2008 meeting.  A response to the remaining two is 
expected at the Board's 30-31 October meeting this year.  The Science 
IPT will be providing materials to support the response.

Clear skies,
Al

*ASAC Charges for September, 2007 *

*General Charge:* The ALMA Scientific Advisory Committee (ASAC) will
provide advice on those major issues presented to the ASAC by the
Project Scientist or the ALMA Board that affect the science capabilities
of ALMA and require decisions to be made or priorities to be set
regarding project tasks and resources. ASAC members represent an
important communications link with the scientific community and should
be actively and accurately communicating the progress of the Project
back to their communities. Accordingly, the ASAC will be kept informed
of progress and developments in ALMA through periodic reports and
briefings provided by the Joint ALMA Office and shall meet in person at
least twice a year, complemented by bimonthly telecons. ASAC members
also have a responsibility to monitor scientific developments in the
field and report back on those that have implications for ALMA. Reports
of the ASACís deliberations will be made in writing to the Board by the
Chairperson of the ASAC following each face-to-face Committee meeting,
on a schedule specified in advance by the Board, and may include
comments on urgent scientific matters other than those specifically
charged by the Board. The Project Scientist serves on the Committee /ex
officio./

*Specific Charges for September, 2007:*

1. Assess the preparation of the ALMA real time, observing, and off-line
software for early science. In particular, review the impact of the
recommendations of the recent software review and the schedule for the
next two years.

2. Revisit the question from April, 2007 of important correlator
requirements for early science operations. In particular prioritizing
the order of development of software modes. Compare broad early science
requirements to correlator modes. Which modes enable the majority of the
science? What other capabilities are important?

3. Review the calibration plan and scientific aspects of Assembly,
Integration, Verification testing and for Commissioning. Being mindful
of the finite resources (human, financial) available, are changes
necessary or desirable for scientific reasons to the plans being
implemented?

Looking to the future, the Board anticipates that ASAC will be asked
when appropriate to consider, e.g., a) the progress of the ARCs and
their plans for early science support. Is the planned level of readiness
and support appropriate for non-expert users?; b) the Operations Plan as
accepted by the Board following input of the external reviews and of the
JAO; and c) when further work by the Science IPT is available, the
imaging capability of ALMA in its three modes: 12-m array, ACA and full
ALMA. SIPT will need to provide images with a full range of spatial
scales to explore the scientific basis for choosing which of the three
modes to use for a given project.