ALMA North American Science Advisory Committee

ALMA; ALMA North American Science Advisory Committee Telecon Telecon meeting Aug 27, 2010

Contact

Information for those calling in.
* Call date: 2010-08-27 04:00 pm EDT or 20:00 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


  • Attendees:

Topics

  1. Old Business The enhanced Agenda from last meeting is available. minutes from the July telecon are available.

Seven at the AOS

Seven ALMA antennas in operation at the AOS, seen in this photo of unknown provenance 2010 August 10.

Discussion Items

  1. Status of ALMA Construction
    • The JAO has moved to its new quarters on the ESO grounds at Vitacura.
    • For a recent summary see Science_-_June_2010.pdf: June 2010 Science report and Science_-_July_2010.txt: Science portion of July JAO Report. See also ALMA Science Operations and User Support (Software) SPIE Paper by Rawlings, Nyman and Vila-Vilaro.
    • Previous reports for the project as a whole are at ALMA Monthly Reports.
    • See Science_Milestones_02Aug2010.pdf: 2 Aug 2010 Science Milestone Projection for 'the big picture'. Infrastructure stability continues but seems to be improving.
    • As seen above, seven antennas were available after a move of DV07 to the AOS at pad T701. The array consists of DV01 in pad N601; DV02 in pad J504; PM02 in pad T701; DV03 in pad N605; DV05 in pad J505; DV04 in pad T702; DV07 in pad J510. DV01 will travel to the OSF for some retrofittingshortly. We are calling this the "Initial Commissioning Array" configuration. This allows good tests of e.g. antenna performance at different elevations. We expect to have 8 antennas in September.
  2. ALMA-Related Funding from NSF
  3. Face-to-Face meeting: Charges and preliminary discussion
    • Information on the next face-to-face meeting in Charlottesville 2010 Sep 13-14
      • The meeting will take place at the NAASC and will begin the morning of 13 Sep with a meeting with the NRAO Director, Fred Lo.
      • Arrangements have been made and information on them circulated by Holly Foster (hfoster, 434 296 0211 x0308) at NRAO. Please contact her if you have not. Logistics
      • Charges and a strawman agenda are available.
      • The CSV status review (7/8 Oct at the OSF) and the readiness review for Science Operations (11/12 Oct in Santiago respectively) will take place immediately before the ASAC meeting (13/14 Oct, also in Santiago). The plan is that three members of the ASAC will attend each of these meetings. Johnstone will attend the CSV review; Baker the SciOps review for NA.
    • Informative weekly meetings.
  4. The AS2010 Survey was released 13 August, with prominent emphasis upon ALMA as a key element of astronomy and astrophysics research in the United States during the next decade. I think that we can all be very proud of ALMA's role not only in US astronomy but at the vanguard of world astronomy, and of the work all are doing to ensure that its potential is realized.
  5. NSF Review of NRAO/AUI Proposal for ALMA Operations
  6. ALMA: Extending the Limits of Astrophysical Spectroscopy in Victoria, British Columbia, 15-17 January 2011
    • Pre-registration is open!
    • Occurring just after the 217th AAS meeting, which includes several sessions of interest.
      • Observing with ALMA - Special Session- 217th AAS Meeting Jan 12, 2011 | 2:00 PM Seattle, WA
      • NRAO Town Hall - 217th AAS Meeting Jan 11, 2011 | 6:30 PM Seattle, WA
      • Early Science with the EVLA - Special Session - 217th AAS Meeting Jan 12, 2011 | 10:00 AM Seattle, WA
  7. Personnel changes
      • Dr Lewis Ball will be joining ALMA on 20 September 2010, via NRAO, as Deputy Director of the Joint ALMA Observatory. He joins us from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
      • Baltasar Vila-Vilaro is new DSO data management group head 1 Aug.
  8. Astronomer Outreach: Main JAO website, ESO Newsletter, NAOJ News, NRAO Newsletter, NRAO ALMA Calendar.
  9. AOB

Science Corner

  1. New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics (prepublication version)

Events of Interest

2010
 
 
 
 
 
 
Day
Date
Time
Event
location
details
 
 
Sep 3
 
Santiago Central Office Ceremony
SCO, 10:30am
 
 
Sep 13-14
 
ANASAC f2f
 
 
Oct 7-8
 
CSV Status Update
Chile
 
 
Oct 11-12
 
SciOps Readiness Review
Chile
 
 
Oct 13-14
 
ASAC f2f
 
Santiago
 
 
Oct 25-28
 
Annual ALMA External Review
Chile
 
 
Nov 10
 
Observatory Readiness Review
Chile
 
 
Nov 16-18
 
ALMA Board Meeting
Chile
 
 
Nov 22
 
Date for decision on ES
Chile
 
 
Jan 9-13
 
217th AAS Meeting
Seattle
 
 
Jan 15-17
 
ALMA Workshop
Victoria
 

Upcoming Meetings

Molecules in Galaxies 26-30 July 2010, Oxford UK

The 5th Zermatt ISM Symposium: Conditions and impact of star formation: New results with Herschel and beyond 19-24 September 2010, Zermatt, Switzerland

Stormy Cosmos: The Evolving Interstellar Medium: Recent Progress from Space IR/Submm 1 - 4 November 2010 Pasadena, CA Hosted by the NASA Herschel Science Center, Spitzer Science Center

The Impact of Herschel Surveys on ALMA Early Science Garching, November 17-19, 2010

Observing with ALMA--Early Science IRAM, 29 Nov - 1 Dec 2010

217th AAS Seattle, WA Observing with ALMA - Special Session- January 12, 2011 2:00 PM

15-17 Jan 2011 Workshop ALMA: Extending the Limits of Astrophysical Spectroscopy in Victoria

The Molecular Universe May 30 - June 3, 2011 Toledo, Spain

-- AlWootten - 2010-08-20

Topic attachments
I Attachment Action Size Date Who Comment
ANASAC_MEMBERS.Fall.2010.pdfpdf ANASAC_MEMBERS.Fall.2010.pdf manage 61 K 2010-08-20 - 11:43 AlWootten ANASAC Fall 2010 Membership
ANASAC_Terms_of_Reference.2010.pdfpdf ANASAC_Terms_of_Reference.2010.pdf manage 40 K 2010-08-20 - 11:42 AlWootten Terms of Reference Aug 2010
ANASAC_agenda_SEP2010.pdfpdf ANASAC_agenda_SEP2010.pdf manage 28 K 2010-08-20 - 11:36 AlWootten ANASAC Strawman Agenda Sept 2010
ANASAC_charges_SEP2010.pdfpdf ANASAC_charges_SEP2010.pdf manage 32 K 2010-08-20 - 11:36 AlWootten ANASAC Charges September 2010
NSF_AAS_Funding_Opportunity.txttxt NSF_AAS_Funding_Opportunity.txt manage 2 K 2010-08-26 - 14:59 AlWootten NSF-AST ANNOUNCES OPPORTUNITY FOR ALMA-RELATED FUNDING PROPOSALS
Science_-_July_2010.txttxt Science_-_July_2010.txt manage 5 K 2010-08-26 - 14:55 AlWootten Science portion of July JAO Report
Science_-_June_2010.pdfpdf Science_-_June_2010.pdf manage 3 MB 2010-08-20 - 11:19 AlWootten June 2010 CSV Report
Science_Milestones_02Aug2010.pdfpdf Science_Milestones_02Aug2010.pdf manage 24 K 2010-08-20 - 11:18 AlWootten Science Milestones: Status for 2010 Aug 2
rawlings_2010.pdfpdf rawlings_2010.pdf manage 1 MB 2010-08-20 - 11:37 AlWootten SPIE Paper: Rawlings, Nyman, Vila-Vilaro
Topic revision: r4 - 2010-08-26, AlWootten
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