ALMA North American Science Advisory Committee

composite image of the transitional disk SAO 206462:
sao206462.jpg
This composite image of the protoplanetary disk SAO 206462 shows the distribution of dust around the young star. The red area indicates where ALMA observed the lopsided dust concentration. This vortex feature may be a crucial step in the formation of planets. The diffuse blue region is the emission from the dust surrounding the star. The apparent spiral features as seen in the infrared (white/light blue) may trace the presence of an unseen object, possibly a planet, perturbing the system. Further observations with ALMA and the VLA are necessary to confirm the spiral nature of this feature. The results are published in Astrophysical Journal Letters. [http://arxiv.org/abs/1402.0832] 2014ApJ783L13

Credit: L. Perez (NRAO/AUI/NSF); B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); T. Muto (Kogakuin University); NAOJ/Subaru

Contact Information for those calling in.

  • Call date: 2014-4-17 2:00 pm EDT or 18:00 UT (Thursday (Friday in Taipei))
  • Duration: 1 hr
    * USA Number: 1-866-692-4538
  • Outside USA +1-517-466-2084
  • Passcode: 9480444#
  • Confirmation Number: 4365427
  • Leaders: A. Bolatto, P. Jewell, A. Wootten
  • CV Room: 331


  • Attendees:

Topics

  1. Old Business The enhanced Agenda from last meeting and minutes are available.
  2. New Business under Discussion.

Discussion Items

  1. NAASC (Jewell)
    • JAO update
      • A new group, called "Extension and Optimization of Capabilities (EOC)," has been formed to lead and increase ALMA's instrumental opportunities. Anthony Remijan will lead this group, holding the title of Program Scientist (Extension and Optimization). Catherine Vlahakis will become Deputy Program Scientist (Extension and Optimization), effective 24 March 2014 for 18 months.
      • Starting 01 April 2014 ALMA transitioned to a 2+1 weekly cadence, 2 weeks of ES and 1 week of focused EOC activity.
    • CURRENT PRIORITIES [Week of April 14, 2014]
      • Pipeline parallel data comparison
      • Data reduction
      • CASAguides
    • ANASAC F2F Meeting 28 May
    • People:
      • Postdoc offer made to Amanda Kepley, accepted.
  2. Program Scientist (Wootten)
    • Cycle 0 science status.
      • 23 papers have been published by NA authors from 41 projects with delivered data (5 were fillers).
      • 17 new entries in available archive data in March.
    • ASAC telecon meeting 9 April
      • ASAC Report
      • Board actions in March relating to ASAC
        • Concurred with the ASAC’s designation of Alberto Bolatto and Tomoharu Oka as the next Chair and EA Deputy Chair, and noted that the next EU Deputy Chair will be proposed by June 2014.
        • Noted that the ASAC contact for the ALMA Development Steering Committee is now Dick Plambeck.
        • Concurred in the NSF’s re-appointment of Douglas Scott of the University of British Columbia and appointment of Rachel Osten, of the Space Telescope Science Institute to 3-year terms on the ALMA Science Advisory Committee effective April 2014 and June 2014, respectively.
      • 9 Apr Presentation
    • ALMA Development (Wootten)
      • NA Calls
        • Studies have begun.
        • Projects approved by ALMA Board and they have begun or are in final stages of contract signoff.
  3. Science Status (Hibbard, Lonsdale)
    • New CASAguide available for processing Cyc0 data from archive. Please Test!!
    • Cycle 1 Status Report March 2014
    • ESO Messenger article on ALMA flux calibration Two further articles, for the Memo Series, will follow.
    • Observing Status
      • Locations Array is similar to C32-4.
      • Antennas at the AOS: 65 (53x12m, 12x7m). Antennas at the OSF: 1.
      • Currently in commissioning time (now called EOC). 38 antennas available for observation (35x12m, 10x7m), This week PWV ~ 0.3-1.mm
      • Cycle 1 observations have completed several additional blocks since last telecon (Session 30; Session 31 begins April 22).
        • HP Projects: 196 total. 107 (55%) with some observations. 58 (30%) with some data delivered. 28 (14%) completed.
      • A. Remijan (EOC support), R. Simon (AoD support) in Chile.
    • NA Data Reduction: 180 EBs processed or being processed in-house; 45 NA EBs by JAO. 11 SBs QA2 PASS in last week. Currently: 10 staff reducing 12 SBs. 12 SBs in queue.
      • NA Data Deliveries: 91 SBs for 34 projects. 15 NA projects completely delivered.
      • 1 Data Reduction visits since last telecon.
    • Cycle 2 Status
      • Notifications out to PIs. Awaiting posting of Cycle 2 projects to Science Portal by Proposal Handling Team.
      • 353 A+B graded projects (117 NA). Oversubscription = 3.9 by project, 4.3 by 12-m time (3.6, 4.1 for NA)
      • So far, 3 NA helpdesk tickets complaining about consensus reports, 2 from outside helpdesk (half of Cycle 1)
      • SBs for first batch projects are assigned to P2G and Contact Scientists.
      • Will also start transferring uncompleted Cycle 1 projects (awaiting list from JAO).
      • Software for Total Power Observing mode has not passed acceptance. Need software for start of Cycle 2. Contingency plans being investigated.
  4. Astronomer Outreach
    • Google calendars for ALMA Science and Training events now linked to from Science Portal (under Helpdesk link)
    • NAASC TV
    • ALMA Questionnaire distributed shortly after Cycle 2 results mailed to PI. Asks for feedback on all aspects of ALMA, from proposal process to data reduction/products.
    • Next NAASC Workshop. Topic: Assembly of Galaxies. Submissions being accepted. Please register!
    • NA Regional workshops are planned:
    • 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
      • Proposal for IAU GA Focus session on VLA-ALMA science submitted.
      • Other (SPIE Obsy Ops June 2014, Montreal)
    • Other Astronomer Outreach: JAO ALMA Webpages; ALMA Newsletters; ARC-maintained wiki of ALMA science meetings and training events; NRAO eNews; NAOJ News.
  5. Date of next meeting
    • 28 May 2014
    • Proposed dates for 2014 telecons: 28 May (f2f), 17 Jul,18 Sep,20 Nov
  6. Other Business

Science Corner

  1. Memos and papers of note
    • 110 published refereed ALMA papers, 74 from Cycle 0 (24 NA 1st authors) and 1 from Cycle 1. There are 145 papers of all flavors with 906 citations.
  2. Recent releases
  3. ALMA Papers (choose ALMA) 110 and counting (more on arxiv not yet listed here)

Events of Interest

2014
 
 
 
 
 
28 May 2014
 
ANASAC f2f
 
 
01 June 2014
 
Start Cy2 science observing
 
 
13 Dec 2014
 
ALMA Postdoc Symposium
Mitaka
 

(see also google calendars)

Upcoming, very recent, or ongoing Meetings

  1. ALMA Science Meetings
  2. ALMA Training Events

-- AlWootten - 2014-04-14
Topic attachments
I Attachment Action Size Date Who Comment
AEDM_2014-022-O_ASAC_Report.pdfpdf AEDM_2014-022-O_ASAC_Report.pdf manage 141 K 2014-04-16 - 10:02 AlWootten ASAC Report to ALMA Board, March 2014
ASAC2014April09.pptxpptx ASAC2014April09.pptx manage 106 K 2014-04-16 - 11:05 AlWootten Corder ASAC presentation 9 April
sao206462.jpgjpg sao206462.jpg manage 23 K 2014-04-17 - 13:50 AlWootten composite image of the transitional disk SAO 206462
Topic revision: r10 - 2014-04-17, JohnHibbard
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