ALMA North American Science Advisory Committee

• Long Baselines, lonely antennas:

Contact Information for those calling in.

• Call date: 2015-1-15 2:00 pm EST or 19:00 UT (Thursday (Friday in Taipei))
• Duration: 1 hr
  * USA Number: 1-866-692-4538
• Outside USA +1-517-466-2084
• Passcode: 9480444#
• Leaders: A. Bolatto, P. Jewell, A. Wootten
• CV Room: 331

• Attendees:

Topics

1. Old Business
2. New Business under Discussion.

Discussion Items

1. NAASC (Jewell)

• Observations
  • Highly successful Long Baseline Campaign concluded end of November
  • ES Observing resumed early December
  • Observing efficiency
    • Much improved of late.
    • Began improving with Block 9 just before LBC with improvements in system stability (efficiency >50%)
    • Further improvement in Blocks 10-13 (after LBC) attributed to higher array element availability
    • By most recent Block 13, now up to ~69% observing efficiency
    • If this efficiency is maintained, should observe most A+B projects in Cy2, except those for which configuration will no longer be available
• Long Baseline Campaign
  • Campaign highly successful in all respects – tests, verification, demonstration of ALMA capability
  • Plan exists for publication of results, release of data
    • Summary LBC results will be published in a short series of papers by ALMA team beginning in early Feb.
    • At approximately the same time (first 1-2 weeks of Feb), SV data will be released to public.
• NA ALMA Antenna
  • Parallel path approach
    • Vertex developing a work plan to determine and address root cause of rms increase (seen as astigmatism) vs bulk temperature change
    • NRAO / JAO working on plan to address thermal bias issue
      • Will require holography and surface resetting at AOS.
      • This step should bring NA antennas into rms surface spec under most conditions.
• ALMA Board Telecon – 14 Jan 2014
• Status of ASAC recommendations from November 2014 ALMA Board meeting as reported by JAO:
  • Proposal duplication check:
    • Tool under development; will not be ready for Cycle 3 call, but will be ready for Cycle 4. For now, Cycle 1 transfer projects are listed in the Science Portal and the same list will be done for the Cycle 2 (Grade A) projects.
  • Release of partial data:
    • For Cycle 3, each array configuration will only be available once through the yearly Cycle. At end of an array configuration, data will be delivered (even if the projects are incomplete but cannot use another configuration). The completeness of projects will be tracked. A more detailed plan will be available in June 2015.
  • Stand-alone ACA proposals for Cy3:
    • Not possible for Cy3 but will be implemented for Cy4
  • Implementation of Large Programs as described in the revised PRP document should begin with Cycle 4, assuming that the execution efficiency of ALMA has improved and stabilized.
    • Planned for Cy4
• UC / ANASAC Report received, response due out shortly.
  • ANASAC f2f Report: ANASACf2f2014-v2.pdf
  • Next meeting 20-22 May Green Bank
• Positions Open
  • The NAASC has two positions advertised – an astronomer (tenure track) and a scientist track (one or more positions available).
  • The JAO is seeking an Observatory Scientist.

1. Program Scientist (Wootten)
   • Science
     • 185 (161) refereed papers published so far, 137 (119) Cycle 0. Nine (5) from Cycle 1 (7 regular plus two DDT), 1 (0) from Cycle 2.. (parens are numbers last telecon)
     • Eight refereed papers published in December journals.
   • ASAC f2f
     • ASAC Charges for 2015 Santiago Meeting.: Draft-ASAC-charges-1-2015
     • ASAC f2f Protoagenda: f2f_protoagenda
   • ANASAC, NAASC Meetings and Workshop
     • Should ASAC and NAASC NA leaders be the same person? Separate ANASAC Chair?
     • Next NAASC Workshop. Need topic and time
     • ALMA Conference in Tokyo and Postdoc Symposium afterward were very successful. Next one in the US? Time? Last one was 1999 (with cover image guess as to what HL Tau would look like)
     • AAS Seattle.
       • AAS - Splinter Session "New Capabilities at the NRAO" - Tuesday, Jan 6, 1:30-3:30pm, (before NRAO Town Hall on Tues evening) talks on NRAO instruments, discussion, hands-on help.
       • NRAO Town Hall Jan 6 evening
       • Plenary session on Recent Results from ALMA Jan 8 late morning
     • Ground and Space Observatories observing the Solar System (ESO/NAASC workshop 2-5 March 2015 in Santiago)
     • Star and Planet Formation in the Southwest Mar 23 – 27, 2015 Oracle, AZ
     • Others of note:
       • "Workshop on mm-VLBI with ALMA" to be held in Bologna on the 22nd and 23rd of January 2015
       • Ground and space observatories: a joint venture to planetary science Santiago, Chile, March 2 - 5, 2015 Deadline for abstract submission: November 24, 2014
       • Dissecting Galaxies Near and Far: High Resolution Views of Star Formation and the ISM Santiago, Chile, March 23 - 27, 2015
       • "Icy Grain Chemistry for Formation of Complex Organic Molecules: From Molecular Clouds to Protoplanetary Disks, Comets and Meteorites" March 5 - 7, 2015 at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan Abstract Submission Deadline : January 30, 2015
       • ALMA/Herschel Archival Workshop ESO Garching, April 15-17, 2015
   • Early Science status.
   • ALMA Development (Wootten)
     • NA Calls
       • Studies are closing out.
       • Projects approved by ALMA Board are in progress: Fiber AOS-SCO has had data tests, some integration remains. APP tests done with VLBA. B5 receivers begin arriving OSF Apr 2015.
       • Upcoming Calls being readied.
2. Science Operations (Lonsdale)
   • ES began again Dec2 in most compact configuration (C34-1/2). Another ES hiatus Feb/Mar for annual software/hardware upgrades.
   • ALMA Status Report was posted to SP on Nov 12, and broadcast to NA community
     • Includes configuration schedule, observing statistics, remaining observing pressure as function of LST, config & Band, EOC summary
   • Cycle 3 planning:
     • pre-announcement posted to SP on Dec 8 and broadcast to registered NA users.
     • Call/Deadline in Mar/Apr next year; panel meetings June in Japan; observing starts Oct1. 12mo cycle, so will be close to yearly cadence
     • Cycle 3 proto-capabilities (TBC): 36 antennas, longer baselines (frequency dependent), FDM polarization. Go/no-go decision on these will be made on Dec1. SG limitations will persist (5 tunings, 150ptg, 10deg limits per SG)
   • NA Cycle 1&2 Data Reduction update (Jan 12):
     • Cycle 1: 198 HP projects in total. 143 (72%) with some SBs finished, 135 (68%) with some data delivered; 67 (34%) completely delivered.
     • Cycle 2: Cycle 2 HP Projects: 354 projects in total. 152 (43%) with some SBs finished, 78 (22%) with some data delivered; 17 (5%) completely delivered.
     • Our goal is to get all non-problematic completed OUS to PIs prior to Cycle 3 call.
   • Support to JAO: E. Fomalont & A. Remijan (long term EOC support), DiFrancesco /K. Sheth/D. Brisben (AoDEOC support Dec/Jan). CB/TH continuing support of LBC (papers & guides)
3. Astronomer Outreach
   • Next NAASC Workshop.
   • ALMA Cycle 2 SOS Awards
   • A NA Regional workshop has occurred:
     • Filamentary Structure in Molecular Clouds 10-11 Oct, Charlottesville
   • Future Planning:
     • ALMA Cycle 3 - Documentation review and update
     • CDEs for ALMA Cycle 3 - Hosts being confirmed
     • Radio Astronomy Summer School 2015: dates confirmed for summer school on single-dish and interferometry at the GBT -- July 5-14, with interferometry sessions running July 12,13,14. 50 participants.
     • 2015 AAAS Annual Meeting(February 2015).
       • 180 Minute Symposium: Galaxy Assembly
   • International workshops:
     • ALMA Conference 2014. "Revolution in Astronomy with ALMA -- The Third Year" 2014 December 8 to 11 at Tokyo International Forum near Tokyo Station
   • Other Astronomer Outreach: NAASC TV, JAO ALMA Webpages; ALMA Newsletters; ALMA Science Meetings; ALMA Training Events; NRAO eNews; NAOJ News.
4. Date of next meeting
   • 15 Jan 2015
   • Proposed dates for 2015 telecons: 15 Jan, 5 Mar, 7 May, 2 Jul, 3 Sep, 5 Nov. Comments please.
5. Other Business

Science Corner

1. Memos and papers of note
2. Press Releases
3. ALMA Papers (choose ALMA)

Events of Interest

1. ALMA Science Meetings
2. ALMA Training Events

• ASAC Charges for 2015 Santiago Meeting.: Draft-ASAC-charges-1-2015-ver2-2.pdf

• ASAC f2f Protoagenda: f2f_protoagenda.txt

• ASAC Agenda for 2015 Santiago Meeting.: f2f_agenda.pdf