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.
  • Positions Open
  1. Program Scientist (Wootten)
  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
  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

2015
 
 
 
 
 
4-8 Jan 2015
 
AAS 225
Seattle
 
March 2015
 
Cycle 3 Call for Proposals
 
23 April 2015
 
Cycle 3 Deadline
 
June 2015
 
Cycle 3 panel meetings
 
July 2015
 
Cycle 3 results to PIs
 
Oct 1 2015
 
Start of Cycle 3 observing seasons
 

See also google calendars:
  1. ALMA Science Meetings
  2. ALMA Training Events

-- AlWootten - 2015-01-11

Topic attachments
I Attachment Action Size Date Who Comment
Draft-ASAC-charges-1-2015-ver2-2.pdfpdf Draft-ASAC-charges-1-2015-ver2-2.pdf manage 58 K 2015-01-12 - 14:36 AlWootten ASAC Charges for 2015 Santiago Meeting.
f2f_agenda.pdfpdf f2f_agenda.pdf manage 88 K 2015-02-03 - 11:07 AlWootten ASAC Agenda for 2015 Santiago Meeting.
f2f_protoagenda.txttxt f2f_protoagenda.txt manage 2 K 2015-01-12 - 14:38 AlWootten ASAC f2f Protoagenda
Topic revision: r8 - 2015-02-03, AlWootten
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