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

Contact

Information for those calling in.
* Call date: 2009-11-20 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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Two Antennas at the  at AOS TB

DV01 and PM03 have successfully engaged in interferometry from the AOS at B3, B6 and B7, see Details.

Attendance

ANASAC Membership

(terms end in February of year in parenthesis):

  • Andrew Baker (Rutgers) (2009)
  • Andrew Blain (Caltech) (2009) [Chair]
  • Alberto Bolatto (U. Md.) (2012)
  • Mike Fall (Space Telescope Science Institute) (2010)
  • Alyssa Goodman (CfA) (2012)
  • Tim Heckman (Johns Hopkins) (2010)
  • Shardha Jogee (U. Texas) (2010)
  • Kelsey Johnson (U. Virginia) (2011) [ASAC Vice Chair NA]
  • Doug Johnstone (HIA/DAO, Victoria) (2009)
  • Leslie Looney (U. Ill.) (2012)
  • Deborah L. Padgett (IPAC) (2012)
  • J. Xavier Prochaska (Lick Observatory) (2010)
  • Hsien Shang (ASIAA) (2011)
  • Gordon Stacey (Cornell) (2012)
  • Alycia Weinberger (DTM) (2009)
  • Jonathan Williams (U. Hawaii) (2009) (on leave)
  • David J. Wilner (CfA) (2012)

Bold = Member of ASAC

NRAO:

Other Attendees

Agenda

  1. ALMA Status.
    1. See fringe acquisition at AOS, above. A third antenna will move to the AOS on 20 November. Elements of more than 20 antennas from all vendors are at the OSF--necessary for early science (but not sufficient). Antenna DV05, conditionally accepted, has been moved to the OSF. First ACA 7m antenna has arrived from Japan. The dummy Front and Back End equipment have been installed on the first of the AEM antennas.
    2. A detailed status report may be found in ALMA Monthly Reports.
  2. ANASAC Report and response.
  3. NAASC Proposal. We are looking for specific assistance with the science (attached as recently updated by Chris Carilli) and the development sections (being prepared by Al), and then critical review of the entire document when it reaches full draft form (early December).
    1. Update on the preparedness of the Observing Tool for Early Science
  4. Workshop 2010. Subsequent to the f2f, Fred Lo asked Chris Carilli to convene an NRAO-wide committee to recommend whether our next meetings should be telescope-specific or joint. At the first meeting of this committee there was general consensus that NRAO would like to promote a joint science meeting within the next 2 years, focusing on EVLA & ALMA but hopefully including also GBT, and possibly also Herschel and JWST. There was also consensus that such a meeting need not be held on site. Potential topics were solicited for discussion at the next meeting; those mentioned at the meeting included proptoplanetary disks, the magnetic universe, and galactic nuclei. The committee also agreed that focused workshops on specific facilities are desirable as well. The NAASC staff are in support of such an approach, and favor the idea that we use our limited personnel resources next year to hold a "preparing for ALMA" workshop in September, before the Operational Readiness Review (expected in October), accompanied by a tutorial on the OT.
    1. Several proposals were presented at the f2f meeting and are attached below. In internal discussions it emerged that the topic of circumstellar disks may be appropriate. Past meetings are listed for reference.
    2. It has been suggested to hold a meeting jointly with Herschel. There was a previous suggestion that a joint ALMA/ST/JWST high z workshop be held (internal to STScI) for the next STScI spring workshop. Note that there had been a workshop on 'Astrophysics in the Next Decade: JWST and Concurrent Facilities,' held September 24-27, 2007, Tucson Arizona
  5. ALMA Board meetings
    1. Please review the latest draft version of the statement on Director's Discretionary Time, arrived at in the latest ALMA Board meeting, that will go into the last draft of PRP document. It tries to incorporate the concerns of all the regions. While the JAO Director has "control", the JAO Director has the advice of a small standing committee and is accountable for the usage. Implicit is that it is possible for a region to submit to JAO Director use of DDT, probably best via the regional Director. and send me any comments by 23 November. The TAC Subcommittee of the ALMA Board has to finalize the PRP draft and submit to the Board in early December. As was discussed at the ALMA Board meeting, there will be a review of the entire PRP after a couple of years. Nothing is set in stone.
    2. The report of the ASAC was delivered to the Board (edm link).
  6. New NAASC hires and postdocs

*Supplemental Material

ANASAC Charges

* Standing Charge. The ANASAC has a standing charge to review the latest ASAC charges, and provide input to the ASAC members. We ask that the ANASAC pay particular to attention to the charge in which the JAO is asking the ASAC to take a prominent role in defining the scientific priorities for the ALMA development plan. Please discuss and recommend how the ANASAC can facilitate a mechanism to solicit the inputs and interests of the North American community and make sure the ASAC deliberations encompass the needs of the NA community.

-- AlWootten - 2009-11-18
Topic attachments
I Attachment Action Size Date Who Comment
ANASAC_Meeting_Topics.docdoc ANASAC_Meeting_Topics.doc manage 34 K 2009-11-18 - 13:20 AlWootten Meeting proposals on spectroscopic topics
ANASAC_Meeting_TopicsAW.docdoc ANASAC_Meeting_TopicsAW.doc manage 27 K 2009-11-18 - 13:19 AlWootten Meeting Proposal on fine structure line science
NAASCops_sci.Nov09.docdoc NAASCops_sci.Nov09.doc manage 1 MB 2009-11-18 - 13:18 AlWootten General science discussion for NAASC proposal.
Topic revision: r1 - 2009-11-18, AlWootten
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