Minutes for the ANASAC November 21, 2013 telecon

Participants: Phil Jewell Al Wootten Carol Lonsdale John Hibbard Ted Bergin Alberto Bolatto Daniela Calzetti John Carpenter Richard Crutcher Shep Doeleman Kelsey Johnson Leslie Looney Dan Marrone Michael Mumma Karin Oberg Rachel Osten Dick Plambeck Douglas Scott

ACTION ITEMS FROM THE TELECON:

1. Al Wootten will add an agenda item for the ANASAC telecon on December 19 to discuss how any unspent development funds will be used.

2. John Carpenter will write an email to the ASAC chair suggesting that committee discuss three points: a. Request that the ASAC review the change request policy. b. Request that the ASAC review the regional policy statements on access to raw data. c. The ASAC members review regional constraints that may influence the long term proposal deadline.

online agenda: https://safe.nrao.edu/wiki/bin/view/ALMA/21Nov13Agenda

1. NAASC update (Jewell)

Phil indicated that the written response to the ANASAC f2f report is nearly complete and will be sent to the ANASAC soon. He provided a verbal summary of the report contents:

-- The NAASC agrees that presentations at workshops and conferences need to maintain realistic expectations on receiving ALMA time.

-- The message that the project needs better communication on the status of commissioning and science observations has been delivered to the JAO. Some steps have been taken already (e.g., the project tracker has been released). Pierre Cox intends to have a monthly ALMA newsletter; the NAASC will remind Pierre as needed to make sure that is implemented.

-- The NAASC is working on a plan for developing metrics that quantify participation by non-experts.

-- A duplication list was formed and is now available online.

-- The NAASC will seek input from the ANASAC on how to make the archive more user friendly.

-- The NAASC visitor program will be expanded to include archival research, but PI support is given top priority.

-- The ALMA call for development studies and projects will be advertised more broadly next time.

-- The plans to merge the ANASAC with the users committee will go forward, and agree that the subcommittee should be able to report to the NRAO Director.

-- There is sentiment amongst the ARCS to simplify the change request process, but there is strong opposition to allow PI's to change the scientific intent by changing sources or correlator setup. John Carpenter will request that the ASAC reviews the change request policy.

-- The North American view on the long-term timing of the ALMA proposals call has been communicated to the other regions. John Carpenter will request that the ASAC give guidance on constraints in other regions.

-- The NRAO position paper on access to raw data has been discussed in the Director's council, and on the ALMA Board (albeit briefly). There are
  1. position papers (including the NA paper) on this topic that express different viewpoints. The NA representative on the Director's council is in favor of releasing the raw data, but this was opposed by other regions. The Board said it needs more informed discussion, but that someone will need to make a motion for the Board to consider this in the future. John Carpenter will send an email to the ASAC chair, suggesting that the ASAC request and review the position papers.

-- Discussion of the ALMA phasing project at the ALMA Board has led to an interim charge requesting that the ASAC prioritize future CSV and development activities. The JAO will produce a document that lists the various activities in the future and the time required to complete them. The ASAC will discuss the document on its Dec 9 telecon. Shep asked if the limiting factor in completing the tasks is personnel or time. John Hibbard said "both".

ALMA development (Wootten) The ALMA development studies have been reviewed. While funds are available to support 7-8 projects, the review panel recommended that 6 be funded. A telecon to discuss the referee reports for the development projects will be on Monday.

The ANASAC asked and discussed what happens with the unspent funds for the studies. The intent is to carry forward the funds, but there is concern if this will actually happen. This will be a topic for discussion on the Dec 19 telecon.

2. Science Status (Hibbard)

Due to lack of time on the telecon, there was not much discussion on the science status. The items from the online agenda are listed below. Of note is that the power has been stable the past couple of weeks due to actions that been taken to address the known issues. However, it would not be surprising if more power outages happen in the future. The JAO is taking steps to speed up the recovery time from the outages.

Observing Status Antennas at the AOS: 62 (50x12m, 12x7m). Antennas at the OSF: 4

Locations Array is similar to C32-3.

Last night: 38 antennas available for observation (29x12m, 9x7m)

Cycle 1 observations have completed two blocks since last telecon (Sessions 19 & 20).

~80 "QA0 PASS" SBs (both 12-m Array and 7-m Array) amounting to ~107hrs for just completed Block 20 (Nov13-19).

Still no timeline for TP Array software acceptance. NAASC participating heavily in small Tiger Team to concentrate on this.

CBrogan, THunter just returned from 2.5mo deployment to CSV. KSheth just went down for 1mo deployment. RSimon finished 2 AoD shifts.

Cycle 1 "Duplication Checklist" was published to Science Portal on Nov. 4

OT patch issued Nov 18. All PI's who already submitted proposals were contacted directly. All registered users got email notification & banner & news item posted to SP.

Project Tracking Both PI's and CoI's can now access PT!! Gives project status, #executions for each SB/OUS, date of observations. See KB article How do I track the observational progress of my project?. Have requested new requirement that users have option to select email notification for project status changes in the SP User Profile. No word yet on if this is accepted or for what release. Helps a lot that ASAC also made request for this.

You can query the ALMA Science Archive at over any range of dates to get list of projects observed. See KB article "Where can see a list of projects or targets that were observed by ALMA on a given date?"

3. NAASC during Early Science (Lonsdale)

This discussion was also cut short due to lack of time, and the agenda is indicated below.

-- The three main talks which were presented at the community days are now posted.

-- NAASC TV

-- Cycle 2 Support: -- 41 KB articles published or updated for Cycle2. List of most popular and most recently published articles appears at bottom of Knowledgebase list -- 130 Helpdesk tickets submitted since CfP (65 NA, 46 EU, 19 EA). -- Have arrange for around-the-clock/weekend support close to the deadline.

-- Cycle 1 Support: -- Data Reduction: 58 SBs processed or being processed. 21 QA2 PASS. 5 deliveries. 2 NA projects completed. Currently: 8 staff reducing 25 SBs. -- 2 Data Reduction visits since last telecon.

People -- Postdoc advertisement out, applications due 2 Dec.

4. Astronomer Outreach (Lonsdale)

The agenda is indicated below, but any discussion was cut short due to lack of time.

-- Google calendars for ALMA Science and Training events now linked to from Science Portal (under Helpdesk link) -- Next NAASC Workshop. Topic: Assembly of Galaxies. SOC, LOC active. Regional workshops are planned: ESO: "3D2014: Gas and Stars in Galaxies - A Multi-Wavelength 3D Perspective" March 10-14, 2014 ESO, Garching near Munich, Germany Herbig Ae/Be stars: The missing link in star formation, 7-11 April 2014, Santiago Also: Community Days. 19-20 November Garching. NA: 2014 AAS Meeting in Maryland outside Washington DC: ALMA Splinter session, NRAO Town Hall 2014 AAAS Annual Meeting (13-17 February 2014). Seeking newsworthy results for the Press events there. 180 Minute Symposium: Technological Innovations and Their Impact on Astronomical Discovery (includes A. Peck on ALMA) 180 Minute Symposium: From Dust and Molecules to Planets and Stars 90 Minute Symposium: The Evolution of Galaxies in the Early Universe 2014 Summer AAS Meeting: Boston TBD 2014 NAASC Workshop Sep 14-18 2014 Charlottesville Topic will be the Assembly of Galaxies (roughly z~1 to whatever) Other (SPIE Obsy Ops June 2014, Montreal) -- Community Days. NAASC CDE Calendar Fall 2013 Cycle 2

-- 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 telecon December 19, 2013

-- AlWootten - 2013-11-22
Topic revision: r1 - 2013-11-22, AlWootten
This site is powered by FoswikiCopyright © by the contributing authors. All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
Ideas, requests, problems regarding NRAO Public Wiki? Send feedback