[mmaimcal] FYI: 22 Sep - 6 Oct BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
Al Wootten
awootten at nrao.edu
Wed Oct 29 15:10:21 EDT 2008
Folks,
Comments, corrections or contributions please!
Clear skies,
Al
BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
22 Sep 2008 - 6 October 2008
******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT*************************
Concrete has been received and poured for twenty-five antenna
foundations at the 16,500 foot altitude AOS. This number will nearly
double by the end of the year.
The first quadrant of the bilateral correlator, which can serve 32
antenna stations, is being wired for duty at the AOS Technical Building.
Thirteen hundred cables have been installed and tested in the
oxygenated correlator room of the building. Tests continue on schedule.
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Past issues of this Calendar may be viewed at
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html
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General Happenings
Photos of activity may be found at NRAO eNews:
http://www.nrao.edu/news/newsletters/
Sky: Jupiter is in the South, Venus low in the West.
SCO (Santiago Central Office): None
AOS (Array Ops Site, 16570ft altitude): Twenty five foundations have
received concrete now. Very low levels of precipitable water were
measured, with most nights below a half millimeter of precipitable
weather. A plan was developed to place the first antennas for
commissioning on pads to be used for ACA antennas for early
commissioning. The final stage of assembly of the first quadrant
of the correlator in Room 135 of the AOS building started. The
equipment racks were successfully installed on the seismic rated
supports. Installation of all the inter-rack cables in the first
quadrant was completed and the ~1300 interconnections were verified for
correctness and error rate.
OSF (Ops Support Facility, 9600ft altitude): The 7th Vertex antenna
pedestal arrived at the OSF this fortnight, bringing the number of
antennas on site to eleven. Front End No 1 is operational in the
OSF lab and is being prepared for installation into Melco Antenna
No 2. Integration and verification of Amplitude Calibration
Device prototype #1 began; the unit passed Provisional Acceptance Site
(PAS). Mockup Front End unit was installed in Melco No 2 awaiting the
ALMA Front End to be installed soon. Holography continues on Melco
No 1. Formal pointing tests occur on Vertex No 1; pointing tests also
occur on Vertex No 2. Reflector panel installation on Vertex No 5 is
complete. The reflector support structure was bolted to the pedestal
on Vertex No 6. A new foundation pad for the Vertex area and two more
pads for the Melco area are being bid for construction. These pads
will be used for parking of antennas only.
AOC: Construction of storage building is ongoing.
ATF: Antenna maintenance is scheduled for the ATF for this period. See
images of the Moon in the October NRAO eNews. Local fauna remain
undisturbed by the flurry of recent activity at the ATF.
NTC (NRAO Technology Center):
The Manufacturing Readiness Review (MRR) for the Band 6 (1.3mm) cold
cartridge assembly occurred 18-19 September, 2008. NA FE #2 was removed
from the tilt table. LO Photonic Receiver SN102 was removed
and given to the BE group, who will send it to the EA FEIC for use on
their FE #1. Assembly of the third quadrant of the correlator continued.
Taiwan: The Test Readiness Review for the testing of FE assemblies at
the EA FEIC occurred for 15 Sep 2008. Delivery of the FE support
electronics for EA FE#2 is scheduled for this week; the cabling
will be shipped in early November
Elsewhere: On 11-12 Sep. a demonstration of the WVR Engineering Model was
witnessed at Omnisys Instruments in Sweden. At this event robust operation
of the Engineering Model was shown. Fabrication and assembly of all
Tunable Filter Board (TFB) cards in the last Quadrant of the Correlator
has been completed in Bordeaux. a MRR for Band 9 (.45mm) will occur 24-25
September.
NAASC: NRAO and the University of Virginia Astronomy Department hosted
the third annual NAASC Workshop on Transformational Science with ALMA,
September 25-27 at the Omni Hotel in Charlottesville. The meeting,
entitled \u201cThe Birth and Feedback of Massive Stars Within and
Beyond the Galaxy,\u201d drew record interest from the international
scientific community and filled the 150-person venue to capacity.
Immediately following the ALMA Science Advisory Committee (ASAC) met
at the NAASC. Target date for CASA release is Oct 15.
A calendar of NAASC events may be found at:
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/calendar/calendar.php
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DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS *************************
Sep 25-27 NAASC Workshop Charlottesville
Sep 28-29 ASAC face-to-face Charlottesville
Oct 8-10 Safety Review Chile
Nov 12-14 ALMA Board Chile
Nov 17-19 Software Review Chile
Dec 9-11 ALMA Annual External Incremental Review OSF
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS *************************
ALMA Memo 579 The new 3-stage, low dissipation digital filter of the
ALMA Correlator
Authors: P.Camino, B. Quertier, A.Baudry, G.Comoretto, D.Dallet
Abstract:
The main goal of this study is to reduce the power dissipation of the
2-stage digital filter used in the ALMA Correlator system. This has
been achieved by optimizing the number of FPGA logic elements used
for the filter implementation. We have investigated the implementation
of various structures based on the Cascaded Integrator Comb (CIC)
filter in order to replace the present first filter stage, a 32-time
demultiplexed input decimation filter. We conclude that a CIC filter
cascaded with a quarter-band filter significantly improves the overall
power dissipation and thus the FPGA thermal behaviour and reliability.
This new design results in a significant improvement (nearly 25%)
in the dissipation of each one of the ALMA filter cards.
View a pdf version of ALMA Memo #579 at:
http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma533/memo579.pdf
*****************************ALSO OF INTEREST***************************
Several ALMA positions are available at NRAO. Example:
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory invites applications for an
ALMA Postdoctoral Fellow position with the Commissioning team in Chile.
When completed in 2012, ALMA will be the most powerful (sub)millimeter
interferometer ever constructed, and will transform our understanding of
topics ranging from the formation of nearby protoplanetary disks to the
earliest epochs of galaxy formation. This position is assigned to the ALMA
project with operational duties in Chile. The position is funded by a grant
from the National Science Foundation through the ALMA Construction Project
and as an international staff position will exist during the construction
period through 2011. There may be possibilities to transfer to the
observatory science operations team during or after construction.
Details for all positions may be viewed at:
http://members.aas.org/JobReg/JobDetailPage.cfm?JobID=25062
or
http://www.nrao.edu/administration/personnel_office/careers.shtml#CV4917_ALMA_POSTDOC
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Proposals for observing time on the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory
on Mauna Kea for the semester 1st Feb 2009 - 31 Aug 2009 should be sent
by 31st Oct 2008 to T. G. Phillips, Caltech 320-47, Pasadena, CA 91125.
For further information please refer to the CSO web site at
http://www.submm.caltech.edu/cso.
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The US National Radioscience Meeting (USNC/URSI) meets in Boulder
on 5-8 Jan 2009. Among the Commission J topics is a session on
ALMA Technology, Science and Status.
See: http://www.astro.caltech.edu/USNC-URSI-J/ for abstracts of this
and other sessions.
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