ALMA;

Contact Information

  • 2010-Feb-03 14:30 UT
  • Note: Line noise may be muted by pressing *6 which works thru the call center.
  • Duration: 1 hr
  • Toll Number: NEW number 1-203-480-8549
  • USA Toll Free Number: NEW number 866-600-8836
  • Passcode: NEW number 3283890
  • Leader: Richard Hills

Old Business

Three antennas at the AOS dawn at the AOS herald the start of ALMA Commissioning.

Three ALMA antennas working in unison at the AOS herald the start of ALMA Commissioning. © ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), W. Garnier (ALMA) The ALMA Commissioning phase began with the three antennas at the AOS on 2010 January 22.

  1. Agenda, Minutes: Agenda.

New Business

  1. Membership and Logistics (Hills)
  2. Project Report
    • Brief status report. Previous reports can be found in ALMA Monthly Reports
    • We continue to operate with three antennas (DV01,DV02 and PM03) at the high site in the "Phase 1" configuration. The complete system at the AOS was handed over from AIV to CSV (Commissioning and Science Verification) on 22nd January. We are hard at work exploring different aspects of this extremely complex system. We plan to move the three antennas at the AOS to a compact configuration on the ACA pads at the end of February.
    • The deployment by Computing IPT of the R7.0 version of the software was completed and we are now in the "User Test" phase.
    • Two further antennas at the OSF are fully outfitted with equipment and they are now being set up to form the OSF Test Interferometer, which will be used for Software Development and Systems and Equipment testing.
    • Operations are now being conduction from the Control Room (instead of the corridor) and the data is being stored in the Archive.
    • ALMA Control Room 2 Feb 23:30:
      P2030007.JPG
    • The computer room containing the archive:
      Archive.JPG
    • Several new scientists have joined the team in Chile and are being put right to work.
    • Our concern over slow delivery of equipment, especially the front-ends, continues to be at a critical level.
    • A series of important changes in the Project Management on the North American side have just been announced. Al Wootten will report.
  3. Face-to-Face meeting: Charges and preliminary discussion
    • Information on the next face-to-face meeting in Japan
    • Proposal Review Process - Draft just distributed. Charge 1. Review the draft document describing the ALMA Proposal Review Process and provide comments to the Board.
    • Charge 2. The Project is investigating how to make cost savings that would restore the contingency funding to a satisfactory level. Reductions in operating costs are also being considered. In the event that these savings turn out to have implications for either the scientific performance or the operational efficiency of ALMA, the ASAC will be asked to make recommendations on the relative priorities and cost-effectiveness of the proposals. A huge amount of effort has been going into these cost saving exercises. Work is still going on so only a broad outline will be possible. As far as the construction costs are concerned there are at present no proposals on the table that would have a direct effect on the scientific performance. A wide range of options for changes to the operations plan are being considered, some of which would inevitably have an impact on scientific "through-put". Costing these options is difficult and time consuming. This will be a substantial topic for discussion at the face to face meeting.
    • System Requirements. 3. Discuss the revisions to Scientific Requirements and Specifications and make a recommendation to the Board on approval. There has been little progress on this as a result of the pressing demands from other areas of the project.
    • Charge 4. Comment on the analysis that is being prepared on the Development Fund items and on which of these might be considered for a first Call for Proposals.
    • Other Board charges
      • Charge 5. Continue to monitor the readiness of the ALMA software system. In view of the ASAC’s most recent report it is clear that the observing tool and the archive continue to be important topics and that the ASAC will also have comments on the overall schedule for the release of the core software packages that the Project is going to deliver to them. The data analysis software deserves particular attention: ASAC should examine the capabilities of the latest release of CASA, and review what further enhancements are planned before the start of Early Science.
      • Charge 6. Continue to review the progress and schedule of the AIV/CSV process, with particular attention to the risks, risk-mitigation and prioritization. We will be able to report on the early stages of CSV at the f2f meeting.
      • Charge 7. Review the plans for carrying out the initial processing (e.g. calibration, map-making and quality checking) of the Early Science data and delivering it to the user community. Of particular interest are the questions of a) whether there will be sufficient resources (especially staffing) to cover this in the period before the pipeline is ready and b) what level of quality assurance is appropriate.
      • Other, not a formal charge 8. Community sounding on expectations for early science, and ALMA information resources for the general community.
  4. Reports from regional Project Scientists (Testi, Morita, Wootten)
  5. and from the advisory committees:
    • ESAC Report (Tacconi)
    • ANASAC Report (Johnson) Discussion ongoing concerning 2010 Workshop planning.
    • EASAC Report
  6. Astronomer Outreach: Main JAO website, ESO Newsletter, NAOJ News, NRAO Newsletter, NRAO ALMA Calendar.
  7. AOB
  8. Next Meeting

Science Corner:

Calendar

2010
 
 
 
 
 
Day Date Time Event location details
Su-Th
3-7 Jan
 
215th AAS Meeting
Washington
 
We-Fr
17-19 Feb Jan
 
ALMA FE CDR
Cville
 
Mon
1 Mar
 
EuSAC Telecon
...
 
Mon
1 Mar
 
EAASAC Telecon
...
 
Fri
5 Mar
 
ANASAC Telecon
...
 
Tu-We
9-10 Mar
 
ASAC f2f
Tokyo
 
We-Fr
7-9 Apr
 
ALMA Board
Santiago
 

Events of Interest

(see also Al's ALMA Biweekly Calendar)

Upcoming Meetings

See ALMA related meetings.

-- AlWootten - 2010-01-27

Topic attachments
I Attachment Action Size Date Who Comment
AEDM_2009-043-O_Calendar_of_ALMA_Board_Meetings_and_Telecons_for_2010-1.pdfpdf AEDM_2009-043-O_Calendar_of_ALMA_Board_Meetings_and_Telecons_for_2010-1.pdf manage 108 K 2010-02-02 - 22:16 AlWootten ALMA Board Meetings 2010
Archive.JPGJPG Archive.JPG manage 173 K 2010-02-03 - 09:09 RichardHills The computer room containing the archive
Direction_to_NAOJ.pdfpdf Direction_to_NAOJ.pdf manage 195 K 2010-01-27 - 17:59 AlWootten Directions to NAOJ
Logistics.txttxt Logistics.txt manage 1 K 2010-01-27 - 17:35 AlWootten Meeting Logistics
MTK_campus_map.pdfpdf MTK_campus_map.pdf manage 259 K 2010-01-27 - 18:01 AlWootten Mitaka Campus Map
NAASC_NSF_proposal_ALMADevpt.pdfpdf NAASC_NSF_proposal_ALMADevpt.pdf manage 165 K 2010-01-27 - 17:38 AlWootten STRAWMAN NA Development plan, from NAASC proposal to NSF 2012-2015
P2030007.JPGJPG P2030007.JPG manage 163 K 2010-02-02 - 21:16 RichardHills ALMA Control Room 2 Feb 23:30
SciRptJan10.pdfpdf SciRptJan10.pdf manage 325 K 2010-01-27 - 17:36 AlWootten Science section of Report, from R. Hills
Topic revision: r5 - 2010-02-03, RichardHills
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