ALMA North American Science Advisory Committee

• Sunset over construction of the ALMA Residencia at the OSF. Photo by Pablo Carillo (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO):
  

Contact Information for those calling in.

• Duration: 1 hr
  * USA Number: 1-866-692-4538
• Outside USA +1-517-466-2084
• Passcode: 9480444#
• Leaders: R. Osten, P. Jewell, A. Wootten
• CV Room: 331

• Attendees:

Topics

1. Old Business
   • ANASAC Report from May 2015 f2f Meeting
2. New Business under Discussion.

Discussion Items

1. NAASC (Jewell)

• Transitions
  • It is a pleasure to welcome John Carpenter, who has accepted the Key International position of Observatory Scientist at the JAO, effective on or about 2015 September 21.
  • It is also a pleasure to congratulate Karin Oberg to the ASAC, where she will follow Dick Plambeck. We thank Dick for his service on the ASAC. Most recently he has served as liaison to the ADSC.
  • This will leave vacancies on the ANASAC; we welcome your suggestions for new members.
• ANASAC f2f Meeting Report
• The committee made recommendations & comments on the following areas. We will provide our preliminary response at this telecon and a formal response when the full Users’ Committee report (incorporating the ANASAC report) is received.
• Prioritization
  • Data Reduction
  • Archive capabilities
  • EOC completion
• Transparency
  • Decision process for observing capabilities
• Integration of the ANASAC into the Users Committee
• Charge 1 – Outcomes from Cycles 0, 1, 2 & Archive
  • Archive publication statistics
• Charge 2 – Status of Cycles 1 & 2 and progress toward Cycle 3
  • Imaging Pipeline status [Update from Todd Hunter]
  • Stale Data Plan
• Charge 3 – Comment of Development Studies and Project Processes
  • Recommendation to integrate the ANASAC into the selection process
• Standing Charges 1 & 2 – Assisting ASAC in presenting a NA perspective; leadership in workshops
  • Request for an update on making NAASC computing resources available to the community
• Standing Charge 3 – regarding broadening ALMA’s base within the community
  • User survey results
• Standing Charge #4 – Evaluation of the Proposal Process (Cycle 3)
  • [Question for committee regarding strategy for proposing for prior projects that have not been observed by the time of the deadline]
• ALMA Construction
  • Vertex Antenna Plan

1. Program Scientist (Wootten)
   • July eNews copy for ALMA
     • Science portal for announcement of additional SV data on M100 (combining 12m array, ACA and TP data) and 3C238 (polarization) to be published at end of July.
     • The IRAS 16293 Band 4 dataset is currently being reduced in CASA 4.4 and the data reduction on 3c138 from the LBC is nearly complete. These two sets of data will be released after M100 and 3c286.
   • Right now on the array: It is EOC week. Software testing involving simultaneous subarrays is one focus, first tests of the Band 5 receiver is another.
     • Weather conditions last night: Wind speed: 5 - 15.0 [m/s], PWV: 0.6 - 1.1 [mm], Temperature: -8.0 - 13.0 [°C]
     • Average antennas used during the shift, by band and array family: Antennas at the AOS: (52x12m, 12x7m). Antennas available at the AOS: (46x12m, 12x7m). Approximate Array configuration: C34-6/7
   • ALMA Proposal Review process redux
     • User Survey for Cycle 3 proposal submission in hand. Very good response. Above 80% of PIs responded...going through results to summarize.
     • Status of ANASAC Proposal for (non-)rollover at end of Cycle – ANASAC expressed concern that for our yearly cycles there will always be 5mo of uncompleted observations at the time of the call. They suggested that we allow both A and B proposals to roll over 1 cycle. They argue that if we are observing correctly, then less than 10% should remain at the end of an observing season, so there should not be much queue-clogging from this. High frequency could be particularly impacted by yearly weather variations, so we could reserve the “B” grade for the not-as-highly-ranked high frequency observations (less than 15% of all submitted proposals) so these don’t clog the queue.
     • AEDM 2010-0780O (Rev3): AEDM_2010-078-O_(Rev3)_Principles_of_ALMA_Proposal_Review_Process (to be updated?)
   • DDT proposal response time (Osten)
   • Development: The deadline for submissions in response to the ALMA/NA Call for Development Studies issued in March was 12 June. 15 valid proposals were received from 56 proposers representing 20 institutions requesting a total of $2.528M; $1M is available. The proposals are now being distributed to referees as nominated by ANASAC. The funded studies are expected to begin on 1 October 2015.
   • AOS Artificial Source. - Status June 2015.
     • In Fall 2010 Richard Hills wrote a specifications document describing ideas for an Artificial Source to be placed on a tower on the AOS at a suitable location, with a number of possible uses for characterization of ALMA Components. That document is Requirements for an Artificial Source R. E. Hills. I provide the most recent copy I have, which is from Fall 2010.
     • Shortly thereafter Hitoshi Kiuchi, of NAOJ, began working on construction of an Artificial Source within the auspices of the NAOJ ALMA Development Program.
     • Hills had proposed a location on Chajnantor in his document. However, in Kiuchi’s investigation it was found that better lines of sight to antennas could be achieved from a site on Cerro Honar, located to the South of the Center of the Array. Over the development period (which continues) the device was constructed. A Presentation was made by Kiuchi at the 2013 February Development Workshop held in conjunction with the ASAC meeting held at that time in Mitaka. The presentation from that meeting is provided. In the meantime, Kiuchi-san has maintained an upgrade program for the device.
     • Some interest was expressed in the status and specifications of the transmitter at the May 20, 2015 ANASAC meeting. It was noted that the device would be very useful for characterizing some aspects of antenna performance at the AOS, potentially including surface holography and polarization beam mapping. It was also noted that the source would be extremely useful for tests associated with the ALMA Phasing Project now nearing completion. Wootten was given an Action Item to provide details. Daisuke Iono provided the Specs for As-built Artificial Source from Kiuchi-san. A tower at the site at Honar will host the source and an application for its operation has been filed with the Chilean radio frequency authorities.
     • Additional update from Stuartt Corder4 June 2015: To date, there were 3 activities required before the source could be installed, engaged and utilised at the defined location on Cerro Honar:
       1. Installation: The JAO has long had the action to install the physical connections for the artificial source. Recently it was discovered that the rework of the digital radio installation would provide ample opportunity to include, for small cost, additional installation to allow for function of the artificial source.
       2. Engagement: Due to changes in legislation over the development period, a permit will be required to turn on the device. Among other steps this requires official signatures from other facilities on the plateau as well as the Chilean Government. This process has been made more difficult by the transition in government and the current state of the relevant government body required for the permitting.
       3. Utilisation: ALMA software development is required to allow the ALMA delay server to send delays for a horizon source in a way that makes reasonable results.
     • All of these have been blocking until recently (1+3 have been simply because of conflicting priorities). SC has been treating item 2 as the main blocker because JAO has had other things to for those groups to work on and other projects to prepare as nothing can be done without the permit.
     • In May, the signatures from the other projects on the plateau were obtained and the permit now sits on the desk at the Chilean authorities. The timeline for approval is a bit unclear but for now it is simply a formality. In addition, it has been determined that adding some small scope to the radio upgrade work on Honar (to provide us with digital radio) will allow us to add the artificial source to the installation.
     • This is scheduled for execution during Q3/4CY2015. If this all goes according the plan, the online software team will be tasked at the Computing Planning Meeting # 5 (2015 December 1-3) to complete the relevant work. This would imply that the software implementation would be available in Q2CY2016 for initial testing and potential use in the Q2/3CY2016 timescale. There is also some potential use of the source available prior to full implementation of the online software improvements.
   • ANASAC, NAASC Meetings and Workshop
     • Next NAASC Workshop. Molecular Probes of Galaxies, March, Charlottesville proposed.
     • ALMA Conference
       • Tokyo: Proceeding to be submitted this month. NAOJ approved color printing of the 350 page volume.
       • Next one in the US at a place and Time to be determined (Sept timeframe) Last one was 1999.
     • Others of note:
       • NRAO NAIC Summer school on radio techniques
       • 2015 IEEE AP-S Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and URSI CNC/USNC Joint Meeting - 19-24 July, Vancouver 2015
       • IAU, Honolulu 3-14 August. Various submeetings. Radio astronomy golden years, afternoon of 5 August. ALMA observatory report 8:30am 10 August
       • ALMA Summer School 17-21 August, Penticton BC
       • High Frequency Science Workshop 21-23 September, Green Bank. Combining GBT ALMA data...
       • Observational Evidence of Gas Accretion onto Galaxies Charlottesville, 9-10 October 2015.
       • TBA: the future of U.S. radio-millimeter-submillimeter science. Chicago, Ill 15-17 December 2015.
       • AAS Kissimmee, Florida 4-8 January 2015
     • 2016 AAAS Annual Meeting(12-15 February 2016, Washington).
       • 180 Minute Symposium: Planet Formation Seen With Radio Eyes speakers Meredith Hughes, Andrea Isella, & David Wilner.

• 241 ALMA publications in refereed journals so far. Refereed ALMA papers published in May and June:
  • Twelve refereed ALMA articles were published so far in June
    • Fathi, Kambiz, Izumi, Takuma, Romeo, Alessandro B., Martín, Sergio, Imanishi, Masatoshi, Hatziminaoglou, Evanthia, Aalto, Susanne, Espada, Daniel, Kohno, Kotaro, Krips, Melanie, Matsushita, Satoki, Meier, David S., Nakai, Naomasa, Terashima, Yuichi Local Instability Signatures in ALMA Observations of Dense Gas in NGC 7469 ApJ 806 L34-
    • Ferkinhoff, Carl, Brisbin, Drew, Nikola, Thomas, Stacey, Gordon J., Sheth, Kartik, Hailey-Dunsheath, Steve, Falgarone, Edith Band-9 ALMA Observations of the [N II] 122 μm Line and FIR Continuum in Two High-z Galaxies. ApJ 806 260-
    • Silva, Andrea, Sajina, Anna, Lonsdale, Carol, Lacy, Mark ALMA Detected Overdensity of Sub-millimeter Sources Around WISE/NVSS-selected z ~ 2 Dusty Quasars ApJ 806 L25- 2015
    • Caceres, Claudio, Hardy, Adam, Schreiber, Matthias R., Cánovas, Héctor, Cieza, Lucas A., Williams, Jonathan P., Hales, Antonio, Pinte, Christophe, Ménard, Francois, Wahhaj, Zahed On the Nature of the Tertiary Companion to FW Tau: ALMA CO Observations and SED Modeling ApJ 806 L22- 2015 *Czekala, I., Andrews, S. M., Jensen, E. L. N., Stassun, K. G., Torres, G., Wilner, D. J. A Disk-based Dynamical Mass Estimate for the Young Binary AK Sco ApJ 806 154-
    • Swinbank, A. M., Dye, S., Nightingale, J. W., Furlanetto, C., Smail, Ian, Cooray, A., Dannerbauer, H., Dunne, L., Eales, S., Gavazzi, R., Hunter, T., Ivison, R. J., Negrello, M., Oteo-Gomez, I., Smit, R., van der Werf, P., Vlahakis, C. ALMA Resolves the Properties of Star-forming Regions in a Dense Gas Disk at z ~ 3 ApJ 806 L17-
    • Kanagawa, Kazuhiro D., Muto, Takayuki, Tanaka, Hidekazu, Tanigawa, Takayuki, Takeuchi, Taku, Tsukagoshi, Takashi, Momose, Munetake Mass Estimates of a Giant Planet in a Protoplanetary Disk from the Gap Structures ApJ 806 L15-
    • Rangwala, Naseem, Maloney, Philip R., Wilson, Christine D., Glenn, Jason, Kamenetzky, Julia, Spinoglio, Luigi Morphology and Kinematics of Warm Molecular Gas in the Nuclear Region of Arp 220 as Revealed by ALMA ApJ 806 17-
    • Zhang, Ke, Blake, Geoffrey A., Bergin, Edwin A. Evidence of Fast Pebble Growth Near Condensation Fronts in the HL Tau Protoplanetary Disk ApJ 806 L7-
    • Onishi, K., Iguchi, S., Sheth, K., Kohno, K. A Measurement of the Black Hole Mass in NGC 1097 Using ALMA ApJ 806 39-
    • Velilla Prieto, L., Cernicharo, J., Quintana-Lacaci, G., Agúndez, M., Castro-Carrizo, A., Fonfría, J. P., Marcelino, N., Zúñiga, J., Requena, A., Bastida, A., Lique, F., Guélin, M. Si-bearing Molecules Toward IRC+10216: ALMA Unveils the Molecular Envelope of CWLeo ApJ 805 L13-
    • Bowler, Brendan P., Andrews, Sean M., Kraus, Adam L., Ireland, Michael J., Herczeg, Gregory, Ricci, Luca, Carpenter, John, Brown, Michael E. An ALMA Constraint on the GSC 6214-210 B Circum-substellar Accretion Disk Mass ApJ 805 L17-
  • Seven refereed ALMA articles were published in May
    • Baryshev, A. M., Hesper, R., Mena, F. P., Klapwijk, T. M., van Kempen, T. A., Hogerheijde, M. R., Jackson, B. D., Adema, J., Gerlofsma, G. J., Bekema, M. E., Barkhof, J., de Haan-Stijkel, L. H. R., van den Bemt, M., Koops, A., Keizer, K., Pieters, C., Koops van het Jagt, J., Schaeffer, H. H. A., Zijlstra, T., Kroug, M., Lodewijk, C. F. J., Wielinga, K., Boland, W., de Graauw, M. W. M., van Dishoeck, E. F., Jager, H., Wild, W. The ALMA Band 9 receiver. Design, construction, characterization, and first light A&A 577 A129-
    • Zhang, Qizhou, Wang, Ke, Lu, Xing, Jiménez-Serra, Izaskun Fragmentation of Molecular Clumps and Formation of a Protocluster ApJ 804 141-
    • Vlemmings, W. H. T., Ramstedt, S., O'Gorman, E., Humphreys, E. M. L., Wittkowski, M., Baudry, A., Karovska, M. Resolving the stellar activity of the Mira AB binary with ALMA A&A 577 L4-
    • Avison, A., Peretto, N., Fuller, G. A., Duarte-Cabral, A., Traficante, A., Pineda, J. E. Tightening the belt: Constraining the mass and evolution in SDC335 A&A 577 A30-
    • Liu, Hauyu Baobab, Galván-Madrid, Roberto, Jiménez-Serra, Izaskun, Román-Zúñiga, Carlos, Zhang, Qizhou, Li, Zhiyun, Chen, Huei-Ru ALMA Resolves the Spiraling Accretion Flow in the Luminous OB Cluster-forming Region G33.92+0.11 ApJ 804 37-
    • Gullberg, B., De Breuck, C., Vieira, J. D., Weiß, A., Aguirre, J. E., Aravena, M., Béthermin, M., Bradford, C. M., Bothwell, M. S., Carlstrom, J. E., Chapman, S. C., Fassnacht, C. D., Gonzalez, A. H., Greve, T. R., Hezaveh, Y., Holzapfel, W. L., Husband, K., Ma, J., Malkan, M., Marrone, D. P., Menten, K., Murphy, E. J., Reichardt, C. L., Spilker, J. S., Stark, A. A., Strandet, M., Welikala, N. The nature of the [C II] emission in dusty star-forming galaxies from the SPT survey MNRAS 449 2883-2900
    • Walker, D. L., Longmore, S. N., Bastian, N., Kruijssen, J. M. D., Rathborne, J. M., Jackson, J. M., Foster, J. B., Contreras, Y. Tracing the conversion of gas into stars in Young Massive Cluster Progenitors MNRAS 449 715-725
• ALMA Archive Data Flow Trend as of 29 June 2015.:
  

1. Science Operations (Lonsdale)
2. Astronomer Outreach
   • Next NAASC Workshop.
   • Future Planning:
     • ALMA Cycle 3 - Documentation review and update
     • CDEs for ALMA Cycle 3 - Under way.
     • Radio Astronomy Summer School 2015: dates confirmed for summer school on single-dish and interferometry at the GBT -- July 5-14, with interferometry sessions running July 12,13,14. 50 participants.
   • Other Astronomer Outreach: NAASC TV, JAO ALMA Webpages; ALMA Newsletters; ALMA Science Meetings; ALMA Training Events; NRAO eNews; NAOJ News.
3. Date of next meeting
   • Sep 2015 (TBC)
   • Proposed dates for 2015 telecons: 2 Mar, 7 May, 2 Jul, 3 Sep, 5 Nov. Comments please.
4. Other Business

Science Corner

1. Memos and papers of note
2. Press Releases
3. ALMA Papers (choose ALMA)

Events of Interest

1. ALMA Science Meetings
2. ALMA Training Events

• Requirements for an Artificial Source R. E. Hills: Requirements_for_an_Artificial_Source.pdf

• Kiushi Presentation at Development Workshop Feb 2013: Artificial_source.pdf

• Specs for As-built Artificial Source: artificial_source_specs.pdf