ALMA North American Science Advisory Committee

• Correlations between 40 antennas:
  

Contact Information for those calling in.

• Call date: 2012-11-29 02:00 pm EST or 18:00 UT (Thursday (Friday in Taipei))
• Duration: 1 hr
  * USA Number: 1-866-600-8836
• Outside USA Number: +1 203 480 8549
• Passcode: 3283890#
• Leaders: J. Carpenter (D. Scott), A. Wootten, C. Lonsdale

• Attendees:

Topics

1. Old Business The enhanced Agenda from last meeting is available. Minutes from that meeting are not available.
2. New Business under Discussion.

Discussion Items

1. Pierre Cox will become Director of ALMA on 2013 April 1. Really.
2. NAASC is advertising for a postdoctoral Fellow by the deadline tomorrow.. NRAO is seeking applicants for Jansky Fellow.
3. Construction Status (Wootten)
   • See NRAO eNews
   • DV25, the last North American antenna, was delivered to ALMA (see NAASC TV).
   • 48 antennas at the AOS with the delivery of DA53, 51 antennas accepted by AIV have tasted the thin AOS air.
   • AOS Roads: All 67km completed
   • Band 6 cartridge production finished.
   • Correlator upgraded to four-quadrant operation (64 inputs, 40 correlated so far)
   • Band10 observation was achieved (total power)
   • The AOS TB is reportedly on turbine power from the PPS. The UPS failed at one point instead of keeping power to computers going during the handover and so causing a computer shutdown but Denis thinks the PPS is working to supply the TB power now. Next the ACA will be connected and Central Cluster as well.
   • ALMA Residence. The full final design documentation has been submitted, the review plan was distributed and the review is ongoing. Final meeting scheduled for the second week of December. The location has been finally decided: the residence will be erected west of the current casino/reception area.
   • CSV:
     • Band 4 closure obtained. Now working towards first images in bands 4 and 8, scheduled for early December.
     • Data with 40 antennas taken in cross correlation with valid antenna based solutions achieved. Work on >40 antennas is ongoing and complicated.
     • 150pnt mosaic data taken and reduced.
     • Mixed mode and recombination line Science Verification data released.
     • R9.1.1 software delivered which should enable a few new observing modes to be tested.
4. Operations (Hibbard)
   • September 2012 ALMA Report See Science and Operations sections.
   • Monthly Reports for previous months.
   • Cycle 1 Status:
     • November 27 News item on Science Portal about the Cycle1 proposal review results. More complete article being prepared by Proposal Handling Team (for December?)
     • Feedback on Cycle 1 notifications?
     • Abstract publication: ALMA Board has asked Directors Council to take up again (recall: published ALMA policy is to NOT make abstracts public until projects have been observed)
     • The following new cycle1 observing modes are believe ready for testing: multi-target (separate targets that share common phase calibrator); dynamic calibrator selection; mixed correlator mode; on-line WVR. Should reduce required phase2 work at ARCs.
     • Project has proposed to use ~dozen quasars as flux calibrators; monitor them every few weeks against SS objects.
   • Cycle 0 Status:
     • An update on ALMA Cycle 0 observing status was recently posted. Available from ALMA Science Portal via the following left menu navigation: ALMA Data => Cycle 0 Projects". This is a temporary measure until the Project Tracker is fully deployed.
     • Session 27 started yesterday. Looks like weather is not great. Only 15 NA "Highest Priority" Scheduling Blocks remain in observing queue, but 12 of these are for Band9. Means only 3 lower frequency HP SBs remain (2 in band7, 1 in band6). 5 NA "highest priority" PI's at risk of getting absolutely no Cycle0 data delivered (mostly Band9 compact projects).
     • ALMA Science Archive is being testing this week, for deployment the week of December 6 (expiration of proprietary period for first delivered ALMA data)
5. ASAC Items (Report, response, ALMA Board conclusions)
   • ASAC Report to ALMA Board November 2012
   • Response (and we are preparing a response to the ANASAC also!)
   • Development
   • ASAC proto Charges
6. NAASC during Early Science (Lonsdale)
   • People * ALMA postdoc applictions (at NAASC) accepted until 30 Nov.
   • What is happening at the NAASC?
   • Meetings upcoming with ALMA or NAASC-related components (see below)
     • Special Session 'ALMA Early Science Commences' approved for AAS Jan 2013 (Long Beach, CA). Contributed abstracts have been accepted; see below.
     • There will also be a special session, an NRAO Town Hall, and hands-on activities at the NRAO booth.
7. ALMA Development (Wootten)
   • Studies proceeding.
8. Astronomer Outreach (Lonsdale, Wootten)
   • ALMA Data Workshop
     • We are planning a Data Reduction Workshop for Feb 28 - Mar 1 in Charlottesville.
   • NAASC ALMA-related workshop(s) in 2012-3 (see below)
   • Other Astronomer Outreach: JAO ALMA Webpages; ALMA Newsletters; ARC-maintained wiki of ALMA science meetings and training events; NRAO eNews; NAOJ News.
9. Date of next telecon
   • 17 Jan 2013
10. Other Business

Science Corner

1. Outflow Structure and Velocity Field of Orion Source I: ALMA Imaging of SiO Isotopologue Maser and Thermal Emission Florian Niederhofer, Elizabeth Humphreys, Ciriaco Goddi
2. ALMA and VLA Observations of Recombination Lines and Continuum toward the Becklin-Neugebauer object in Orion Roberto Galvan-Madrid (1), Ciriaco Goddi (1), Luis F. Rodriguez (2,3) ((1) ESO-Garching, (2) CRyA-UNAM, (3) KAU)

Events of Interest

Upcoming, very recent, or ongoing Meetings

1. ALMA Science Meetings
2. ALMA Training Events
3. Upcoming NA Meetings
   • "Molecular Spectroscopy in the Era of Far-IR Astronomy Workshop" Oct 28-31 2012, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
   • New Trends in Radio Astronomy in the ALMA Era - The 30th Anniversary of Nobeyama Radio Observatory 3 December - 8 December 2012; The Prince Hotel, Hakone, Japan
   • Pan-Executive ALMA "First results" workshop in Chile: 12-15 Dec 2012.
   • 221st AAS Meeting Jan 6-10 2013, Long Beach, CA AAS 221 ALMA Special Session Abstracts
   • USNC URSI Meeting Jan 9-12, Boulder, Colorado
   • Joint workshop with ASIAA. Short Title: "2013 Rocks!" Long Title: "Transformational Science with ALMA: the Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems" in Hawaii, April 2013; SOC formed.
   • Exploring the Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems: Victoria, B. C., 2 June 2013 - Friday, 7 June 2013
   • Protostars and Planets VI: Heidelberg; 15 July 2013 - Saturday, 20 July 2013

• September 2012 ALMA Report: ALMA_Report_-_September_2012.pdf

• Correlations between 40 antennas:
  

• ASAC Report to ALMA Board November 2012: AEDM_2012-104-O_ASAC_Report.pdf

• Cycle 2 Use Cases: Cycle2_UseCases.xlsx