[mmaimcal] FYI: Feb 2010 MONTHLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO

Sat Feb 20 15:21:55 EST 2010

Folks,

Comments, contributions or clarifications please?

Clear skies,
Al

                 MONTHLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
                           February 2010

******************************** THIS MONTH*************************
ALMA Commissioning Begins

ALMA’s 2010 began auspiciously with the commencement of the 
commissioning and science verification tasks, using the three antennas 
operating at the Array Operations Site (AOS) at 5050m (16500 ft) 
altitude.  A small ceremony was held 2010 January 22 to mark the 
occasion, exactly one year since first light on an ALMA antenna. The 
‘altiplanic winter’ conditions found during many austral summers have 
been much less severe in recent years.  The commissioning team has made 
good use of the time to work on commissioning correlator modes, 
calibration devices, line length correctors, water vapor radiometers and 
other equipment to ready the instrument for the call for Early Science 
proposals expected in about a year.  Much of the testing is sequenced 
through ‘Schedule Blocks’, sets of instructions generated by the ALMA 
Observing Tool (OT).  This is the software which users will use to 
submit observing proposals and, after acceptance, generate instruction 
blocks to execute observations.  Several realistic test observations 
have occurred through the use of this software, including data 
collection from amplitude, pointing and phase calibrators as well as 
from target sources.

New ALMA antennas and front ends have been accepted, with two of these 
now operating as a test interferometer undergoing a battery of tests by 
the AIV (Assembly, Integration and Verification) and science teams at 
the Operations Support Facility (OSF) at the 2900m level.  This process 
will lead to their joining the growing array on the Chajnantor plain 
soon.  Two other antennas have just been accepted (DV04 from Vertex and 
PM02 from Mitsubishi) and will soon be transported to the OSF for 
optical pointing tests, holography and then radiometric tests.  This 
makes the total number of antennas accepted by ALMA now seven.  An 
additional seventeen antennas are under various stages of construction 
in the antenna camps.  New Front Ends also continue to arrive to keep up 
with the antenna flow.  Receiver cartridges for ALMA Band 4 (2mm) and 
Band 8 (.6mm) have been received from NAOJ and are expected to be 
incorporated into dewars soon to be shipped to Chile.

At the end of February, two of the antennas at the AOS will be moved
  from their current location on pads with baselines of about 200m to
  pads that will eventually hold the 7m antennas of the Atacama Compact
  Array (ACA).  One antenna will remain about one kilometer away in
  order that tests of long baselines may proceed.  In about a month,
  all three antennas will be stationed on ACA pads and all will be
  supplied with power from a central source.
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Special Session ‘Preparing for ALMA’ at the 216th AAS Meeting.

A special session, ‘Preparing for ALMA’ will be held at the May meeting
  of the American Astronomical Society on Monday, 24 May from 6-8pm.
  The first call for ALMA observing proposals is expected in a little
  less than a year, while construction continues. This Special Session
  will describe this Early Science opportunity and the ALMA tools and
  support available through the North American ALMA Science Center
  (NAASC). Located at the NRAO headquarters in Charlottesville, Virginia,
  the NAASC staff will provide accurate and timely information on ALMA
  observing modes and capabilities to the community, support users
  creating proposals with the ALMA Observing Tool, staff an electronic
  Help Desk, validate observers’ scheduling blocks, and provide
  post-observation user support.

The special session will include an introduction to the major tools
  that users will to prepare their observations and analyze their
  data, including the ALMA Observing Tool (OT) for proposal preparation
  and submission, the Common Astronomy Software Applications (CASA)
  package that will be used to reduce ALMA science data and includes
  an “observing simulator” task, and Splatalogue, an on-line
  VO-queriable spectral line database.

During Early Science, ALMA is expected to include at least 16 antennas,
  4 receiver bands, baselines to .25 km, and single field interferometry.
  A goal is to offer baselines to 1km and single dish mapping of
  extended objects in continuum and spectral line modes. While Early
  Science will coexist with array commissioning, a portion of the
  available time will be allocated for science observations.
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Adrian Russell will be leaving the NRAO to take up a new position as
  Director of Programmes for the European Southern Observatory (ESO)
  in Garching, Germany on 1 July, 2010.   While we will miss Adrian,
  we are sure in his new role he will continue to benefit ALMA, and will
  help to strengthen the relationship between NRAO and ESO. -Fred K. Y. Lo
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Mark McKinnon, the current Project Manager for the EVLA, has agreed
  to take over from Adrian Russell as the North American ALMA Project
  Manager. Mark will be assuming his ALMA duties as soon as practical
  so that he can overlap with Adrian over the next several months and
  ensure a smooth transition. The Joint ALMA Observatory Director and
  Project Manager have endorsed this new appointment, as well as the
  National Science Foundation and Associated Universities, Inc.
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At the beginning of the month President Obama presented the 
administration'sFY2011 budget.  The FY 2011 Budget Request for the 
Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is $13.91 million, 
which represents the tenth year of an eleven-year project totaling an 
estimated $499.26 million. Funding for ALMA operations increases by 
$5.93 million to a total operations budget of $23.50 million consistent 
with the planned ramp-up of operations.
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Please see the current issue of the Joint ALMA Observatory Newsletter,
January 2010
http://www.almaobservatory.org/en/newsroom/newsletter/179-newsletter-4
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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/

NTC: From an announcement from Fred K. Y. Lo:  "...the organization of
  the North American (NA) ALMA Front End Integrated
  Product Team (FE IPT) will transition after the Front End Critical 
Design Review on 19 February.

At that time, primary responsibility for the FE IPT will transfer from 
John Webber to Skip Thacker and Bill Randolph.  Kamaljeet Saini will 
become the Deputy FE IPT Leader, concentrating on intra and inter-IPT 
systems integration. John will continue in his NRAO roles as Director of 
the Central Development Laboratory and ALMA NA Correlator IPT Leader,
   Eric Bryerton will assume responsibility for the FE Local Oscillator
  (LO) production group formerly headed by Skip.

SCO: Several new astronomers have joined the Commissioning and Science
Verification (CSV) and Division of Science Operations (DSO) teams in 
Santiago.Eric Villard, Lance Simms, Daniel Fulla and Diah Gunawam have 
joined the CSV team and Stephane Leon and Tommy Wikling have joined the 
DSO team.
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DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT/EST ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
      Feb 17-19    ALMA Front End CDR                             NRAO
      Mar 9-10     ALMA Science Advisory Committee f2f meeting    NAOJ
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS *************************
*****************************ALSO OF INTEREST***************************
A new CALL FOR PROPOSALS for IRAM telescopes is available at the web page :
http://www.iram.fr/GENERAL/calls/s10/s10.pdf
The deadline for proposal submission is : 18 March 2010 at 17:00 CEST
(UT+1 hour), and the opening of proposal the submission facility will be
25 February 2010
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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-mail to all NRAO scientific staff members and anyone else interested.
A specific mailing list, alma-info, has been created for anyone wishing
to receive it.
Past issues are available at
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html