ALMA North American Science Advisory Committee

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, J. Carpenter, P. Jewell, A. Wootten
• CV Room: 331

• Attendees:

Topics

1. Old Business
2. New Business under Discussion.

Discussion Items

• NAASC (Jewell)
  • New ANASAC chair (Rachel)
  • Observing Status
    • ES Observing resumed 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 published with details.
• ALMA Operations Review at JAO 28-30 April 2015
  • Review held 28-30 April 2015
  • Charges were (summarized):
    • Assess JAO and Regional Center performance wrt current operations plan (AOPvD)
    • Assess proposed operations & transition (to steady-state/full ops) plans
    • Assess detailed management & implementation plans as presented
  • Review committee chaired was by Jean-René Roy
  • 35 Documents prepared for the committee, it categories of
    • Upper Level Agreements and Principles
    • Transition Plan and Budget Overview
    • Management & Maintenance Plans
    • JAO (Departmental) Implementation Plans
    • Offsite Implementation Plans
    • ALMA Integrated Teams
    • Advisory Groups
  • The review was positive and constructive. Preliminary review recommendations will be summarized at the meeting.
• Next face-to-face UC meeting 20-22 May Green Bank
  • 20 May is the AnasacF2f2015 meeting day prior to the general meeting
  • Note: Need confirmation of draft agenda & suggested presentations.
• Positions Open
  • The JAO is seeking a NA Postdoc

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
     • 215 (196) refereed papers published so far, 145 (145) Cycle 0. 10 (10) from Cycle 1 [8 regular plus two DDT], 1 (1) from Cycle 2.. (parens are numbers last telecon)
     • Fourteen refereed papers published in Mar and Apr journals.
   • ASAC
   • 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.
     • Call for FY2015/16 Studies issued, See
       • 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
     • 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
       • 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:
     • Five CDEs held; well received
     • About 1590 unique proposals submitted
     • 354 helpdesk tickets were handled
   • Cycle 1&2 Data Reduction update (April 30):
     • 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: 113 HP projects in total. 61 (54%) with some SBs finished, 54 (48%) with some data delivered; 20 (18%) completely delivered.
   • Support to JAO: A. Remijan (long term EOC support)
3. Astronomer Outreach
   • Data Party this week. Another in September.
   • 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
   • 20 May 2015
   • Proposed dates for 2015 telecons: 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