ALMA North American Science Advisory Committee

• Long Baselines, lonely antennas:

Contact Information for those calling in.

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

• Attendees:

Topics

1. Old Business
2. New Business under Discussion.

Discussion Items

• NAASC (Jewell)
  • New ASAC vicechair/ANASAC chair (John). ASAC Chair: Nagayoshi Ohashi, Eu Vice Chair E. Schinnerer. Should ASAC and ANASAC NA leaders be the same person? Separate ANASAC Chair?
  • Observations
    • Long Baseline Campaign SV data released, four science papers being prepared on LBC data by ALMA / ARC staff:
    • Paper #1 - An Overview Of The 2014 ALMA Long Baseline Campaign (lead: Ed Fomalont)
    • Paper #2 - ALMA Long Baseline Campaign Observations Of The Proto-Planetary Disk HL Tau (lead: Crystal Brogan)
    • Paper #3 - ALMA Long Baseline Observations Of The Minor Planet Juno At 60 Km Resolution (lead: Todd Hunter)
    • Paper #4 - ALMA Long Baseline Campaign Observations Of The Strongly Lensed Submillimeter Galaxy SDP.81 at z=3.04 (lead: Catherine Vlahakis)
    • two of these submitted last week; last two this week
  • ES Observing to resume 31 March
  • With Dec-Jan observing efficiency, ALMA should observe most A+B projects in Cy2, except those for which configuration will no longer be available
    • Science Portal news item being readied with details.
• ALMA Board Meeting at JAO 11-13 March 2015
  • UC / ANASAC telecon held on 23 Feb 2015. Agenda topics (mostly concerning NRAO NA facility operations):
    • proposal submission glitches for 15A
    • rate at which CASA improvements/bug fixes is occurring, i.e., there is a perception that no CASA issues are being addresse
    • double jeopardy in joint NRAO-Swift proposals, in which a time allocation from NRAO still necessitates a funding proposal to Swift
    • update on ngVLA planning/technology development
    • update on GBT and VLBA status
  • Next face-to-face UC meeting 20-22 May Green Bank
    • 20 May is the ANASAC meeting day prior to the general meeting
• Positions Open
  • The JAO is seeking an Observatory Scientist.
  • NAASC science positions (1 tenure track, ~2 scientist) in search / down-selection phase

1. Program Scientist (Wootten)
   • NRAO eNews ALMA Update(proof)
     • Check out the new ALMA Status page (in Portal, listed under Observing for now).
   • Science review
     • 196 (185) refereed papers published so far, 145 (137) Cycle 0. 10 (9) from Cycle 1 [8 regular plus two DDT], 1 (1) from Cycle 2.. (parens are numbers last telecon)
     • Fourteen refereed papers published in Jan and Feb journals.
   • ASAC f2f
     • Closeout summary
     • Full version final ASAC report for February meeting
   • ALMA Development Studies
     • FY 2014 Studies are closing out.
     • Projects approved by ALMA Board are in progress: Fiber AOS-SCO has had data tests, some integration remains. APP tests done with VLBA. B5 receivers begin arriving OSF Apr 2015.
     • Approval for Call for FY2015/16 Studies received, See ALMA/NA Call for Development Studies Implementation Plan.
       • Cadence - ALMA Development Program Studies
       • Release Date for Call for Study Proposals: : Recommend March 16 2015
       • Informal Pre-proposal WebWorkshop: 25 March 2015
       • Study Proposals Intent due by date: : Recommend 15 May 2015
       • Submit all questions concerning Call for Studies: : Recommend by 1 June 2015
       • Complete Proposals due by date: : Recommend 12 June 2015
       • Comments
       • Suggestions for referees please?
   • ANASAC, NAASC Meetings and Workshop
     • Next NAASC Workshop. Need topic and time
     • ALMA Conference in Tokyo and Postdoc Symposium afterward were very successful. Next one in the US? Time? Last one was 1999. ASAC suggested May-Aug 2016?
     • 2015 AAAS Annual Meeting(February 2015).
       • 180 Minute Symposium: Galaxy Assembly held successfully
     • Ground and Space Observatories observing the Solar System (ESO/NAASC workshop 2-5 March 2015 in Santiago)
     • Star and Planet Formation in the Southwest Mar 23 – 27, 2015 Oracle, AZ
     • Others of note:
       • Intl Space TeraHertz Technology Meeting Cambridge MA week of March 16 2015
       • Dissecting Galaxies Near and Far: High Resolution Views of Star Formation and the ISM Santiago, Chile, March 23 - 27, 2015
       • "Icy Grain Chemistry for Formation of Complex Organic Molecules: From Molecular Clouds to Protoplanetary Disks, Comets and Meteorites" March 5 - 7, 2015 at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan Abstract Submission Deadline : January 30, 2015
       • ALMA/Herschel Archival Workshop ESO Garching, April 15-17, 2015
2. Science Operations (Lonsdale)
   • ES hiatus Feb/Mar for annual software/hardware upgrades.
   • ALMA Status Report was posted to SP on Nov 12, and broadcast to NA community
     • Includes configuration schedule, observing statistics, remaining observing pressure as function of LST, config & Band, EOC summary
   • Cycle 3 planning:
     • pre-announcement posted to SP on Dec 8 and broadcast to registered NA users.
     • Call/Deadline in Mar/Apr next year; panel meetings June in Japan; observing starts Oct1. 12mo cycle, so will be close to yearly cadence
     • Cycle 3 proto-capabilities (TBC): 36 antennas, longer baselines (frequency dependent). SG limitations will persist (5 tunings, 150ptg, 10deg limits per SG)
   • Cycle 1&2 Data Reduction update (Mar 2):
     • All Projects
       • Cycle 1: 198 HP projects in total. 145 (73%) with some SBs finished, 137 (69%) with some data delivered; 69 (35%) completely delivered.
       • Cycle 2: 354 HP projects in total. 161 (45%) with some SBs finished, 108 (31%) with some data delivered; 27 (8%) completely delivered.
     • NA Projects
       • Cycle 1: 97 HP projects in total. 51 (53%) with some SBs finished, 51 (53%) with some data delivered; 30 (31%) completely delivered.
       • Cycle 2: 118 HP projects in total. 57 (48%) with some SBs finished, 39 (33%) with some data delivered; 14 (12%) completely delivered.
       • Our goal is to get all non-problematic completed NA OUS to PIs prior to Cycle 3 deadline. Currently: 22 being reduced; 41 in queue.
   • Support to JAO: E. Fomalont & A. Remijan (long term EOC support)
3. Astronomer Outreach
   • Next NAASC Workshop.
   • ALMA Cycle 2 SOS Awards New opportunity for applications circulated
   • 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.
4. Date of next meeting
   • 7 May 2015 (TBC)
   • Proposed dates for 2015 telecons: 2 Mar, 7 May, 2 Jul, 3 Sep, 5 Nov. Comments please.
5. 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

• Closeout Summary to Director: FeedbackDirector _Feb2015_final.pdf

• Full version final ASAC report for February meeting: f2fFeb2015_report.pdf

• ALMA/NA Call for Development Studies Implementation Plan: Cycle3_NAStudies_NAASC.pdf