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Contact Information

* 2009-5-20 14:30 UT
* Note: C. Wilson points out line noise may be muted by pressing *6 which works thru the call center.
* Duration: 1 hr
* USA Toll Free Number: 877-874-1919
* Toll Number: +1-203-320-9891
* Passcode: 185064
* Leader: Hills, Wootten, Testi, Morita
* Attendees: Chris Wilson, John Richer, Klassen, R. Hills, Wootten, Reid, Hunter, Liszt, Laing, Testi, Wright, Mangum, Brogan, Andreani

Topics

1 Old Business The enhanced Agenda from last meeting is available. Science IPT notes from last month's telecon are attached to the bottom of the agenda.

Antennas Crowd the OSF Antennas proliferate at the OSF. On the left is the Melco antenna, on the right three Vertex antennas; two of which have been accepted. In this photo by Lewis Knee, two antennas are observing Mars, obtaining static fringes.

CO J=2-1 IRAS16293-2422 A zoomed spectrum of IRAS16293-2422 in the CO J=2-1 line. See other images and animations. See other images.

  1. New Business--Project news/updates.(Hills, Peck)
    1. Revised Standard ALMA Description (approved)
      Standard ALMA Description
      “The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded in Europe by the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and in East Asia by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan. ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which is managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.”
      Approved May 7th, 2009, Effective May 2009
    2. Project Plan ver. III (approved)
    3. ALMA_Status_May09.pdf: R. Hills ALMA Status Report May 2009
      • System: Technical validation of an OSF ALMA interferometer was achieved with 'static' fringes on Mars..dynamic fringes are expected with June's software upgrade.
      • Site: There has been good progress on completion of the foundations for the ACA. We remain concerned about whether sufficient antenna stations with power and fibres can be made available in time for Early Science.
      • Antennas: Vertex No 2 completed conditional acceptance. ALMA's fourth antenna to be accepted in June. Elements of more than 15 antennas are at the OSF.
      • ASAC Matters. Next f2f meeting in Garching in October.
    4. Review (mostly internal) of Commissioning Plans Early Sept OSF; R. Wilson Chair
    5. Commissioning Scientists. Search status
    6. ALMA Science IPT wiki page
    7. Astronomer Outreach: New JAO ALMA Webpages. ESO Newsletter No 16 NRAO eNews ALMA News. NAOJ News. NRAO ALMA Calendar
    8. Current ALMA System Block Diagram Vers P.
  2. Directories

Science IPT Group Activity Reports

Please include your Group Activity Report here (How to Enter Your Report), or email it to AlWootten

Project Scientists

  1. Science IPT
  2. Next meeting is on Jun 17th (14:30 UT). Jul 15th for the following month.

Richard Hills, Alison Peck, Robert Laing -- Commissioning and Science Verification

  • Commissioning and Science Verification Review, OSF, Early September

Jeff Mangum -- Calibration

  • Early operation of the weather station on holography tower No 2. Continue to verify measurements by comparison with NAOJ weather station.
  • ACD5 and ACD6 passed PAI and are cleared for shipment.

Bojan Nikolic/John Richer -- WVRs

  • Two (?) are at the OSF and the other is in Onsala for laboratory tests.

Lars-Äke Nyman -- eSSR

  • Meetings continue toward the Jun 1-2 SciOps review.

Testi, Leurini-- Design Reference Science Plan

Wootten -- Site Characterization

Remijan, Markwick-Kemper -- ALMA Working Group on Spectral Line Frequencies

Over the next several months, we are preparing for Splatalogue v.2.0. In preparation for this release, we are investigating the following:

  • Our first step is to do a feasibility study to see how difficult it will be to provide the advanced search interface and query language. This is the cornerstone for personalization, publishing, and data integration.

  • Next, is to explore the options for data versioning. We need to make sure that results can be retrieved at a given point in time, without causing performance or scalability problems. This will allow researchers the ability to recall older versions of the database that can be compared with new fits and laboratory data contained in newer versions of the database.

  • Finally, is to start developing a proof of concept integrating the advanced search and data versioning.

Science Corner:

Often, the official US budget request presents a useful summary. In any event, it is an official government summary of its project, and may be all most representatives know. That document recently became public. ALMA pages FYI

The remainder of the NSF budget may be found here.

Calendar

Events of Interest

(see also Al's ALMA Biweekly Calendar)

2009
 
 
 
 
 
Day Date Time Event location details
 
Jun 1-2
 
Sci Ops Obs Prep meeting
SCO
 
 
Jun 22-25
 
CIPT Review 7
SCO
 
 
Jun 17
 
Sci IPT
telecon
 
 
 
 
Sci Requirements meeting?
SCO
 
 
Jul 15
 
Sci IPT
telecon
 
 
Sep 2-3
 
CSV Review
OSF
 
 
Oct 13-14
 
ASAC f2f
ESO Garching
 
 
Nov 16
 
ALMA AAER
 

Upcoming Meetings

Advancing Chemical Understanding through Astronomical Observations 26-29 May, Green Bank, WV

THE EVLA VISION: STARS ON AND OFF THE MAIN SEQUENCE 26-28 May, Socorro, NM

Millimeter and Submillimeter Astronomy at High Angular Resolution June 8-12, Taipei, Taiwan.

Mass Assembly and Star Formation History of Galaxies Sep 21-24, Charlottesville, Virginia

From circumstellar disks to planetary systems Nov 3-6 Garching

-- AlWootten - 2009-05-18
Topic attachments
I Attachment Action Size Date Who Comment
ALMA_Status_May09.pdfpdf ALMA_Status_May09.pdf manage 758 K 2009-05-19 - 21:33 AlWootten R. Hills ALMA Status Report May 2009
Control_of_Antenna_Focus_and_Related_Topics.pdfpdf Control_of_Antenna_Focus_and_Related_Topics.pdf manage 70 K 2009-05-19 - 23:49 RichardHills Focussing strategy
Topic revision: r11 - 2010-08-02, ToddHunter
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