ALMA North American Science Advisory Committee

ALMA; ALMA North American Science Advisory Committee Telecon Telecon meeting April 17, 2009

Contact

Information for those calling in.
* Call date: 2010-01-15 02:00 pm EST or 19:00 UT (Friday)
* Duration: 1 hr
* USA Number: 1-866-675-5385
* Outside USA Number: +1 517 444 6916
* Passcode: 8445333#
* Leaders: A. Blain, C. Lonsdale



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Three antennas at the AOS.

Three antennas at the AOS in December. Phase Closure press release. Image courtesy J. Stoke, J. Hellerman.

NSF proposal

  1. Comments on the Proposal. Note this version will undergo significant reordering.
  2. Updates to the ALMA Operations Plan
    • It has been proposed that the array might be shut down during the Jan-Feb 'Bolivian Winter' in order to save costs. Transparency for median, 25% and 75% conditions may be seen here. The most recent writeup is ALMA Memo 512, which shows a comparison of data from 1973 to 2005. Site characterization studies were discontinued in 2005, but Radford has continued his studies. Note that opacity during this period may be as high as 0.3 at 225 GHz, which translates to about 6mm of PWV but that in some years it is better; the El Nino pattern may have similar substantial effects on opacity during other parts of the year. The phase statistics show less variation. Although submm operation may be difficult for much of the period, operation at mm wavelengths is still quite practical.
    • It has been suggested that only moving the array through a subset of configurations may save personnel costs, by eliminating one transporter crew. An investigation by Rob Reid suggests a configuration could emulate its immediate neighbors without sacrificing much sensitivity, but stretching it two configurations away would be more serious. If the moves were cut to 12-15, or skipping one configuration (and perhaps alternating on the inward cycle) the investigation suggests little loss. Larger savings could be realized by, for example, moving through fewer configurations--perhaps say eight in one direction, with moves in the other direction chosen to move through complementary arrays.

Next Science Meeting.

  1. We must decide on the topic, select the SOC and set the planning going. NAASC can ONLY manage a meeting this Fall if the ANASAC takes a major role in planning the meeting, because we have our plates full with preparing for Early Science.

ASAC Charges

  1. ASAC_Charges_March_2010.pdf: Charges from ALMA Board. The ASAC meets 9-10 March 2010 in Tokyo. By the time of the next ANASAC telecon which is scheduled, the ASAC will have met, so input is needed at this telecon.
  2. The ALMA Proposal Review Process DRAFT . The frequency of calls for proposal may be made unspecific.

-- AlWootten - 2010-01-13
Topic attachments
I Attachment Action Size Date Who Comment
ASAC_Charges_March_2010.pdfpdf ASAC_Charges_March_2010.pdf manage 14 K 2009-12-20 - 18:00 AlWootten Charges to the ASAC from the ALMA Board, to be addressed at its April 2010 meeting.
Topic revision: r5 - 2010-01-15, AlWootten
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