ALMA

Contact Information

  • 2006-December=6 14:30 UT
  • Duration: 1 hr
  • USA Toll Free Number: 877-874-1919
  • Toll Number: +1-203-320-9891
  • Passcode: 185064
  • Leader: Al Wootten

Old Business

  1. Agenda, Minutes: Agenda of October meeting. Notes
Agenda of f2f meetingThere was no November telecon of the ASAC. Agenda and Minutes of older telecons may be viewed at the ALMA EDM site Sitescape or more recently at the Board ASAC site.

New Business

ALMA Observes New ESO renditions of the array. See other images and animations.

  1. Project news/updates
  2. Board Communications
    • Report from John Richer on November Board meeting
    • New charges? Possible future charges:
        • TAC details and implimentation options
        • Review of DRSP v2
        • Computing? Now or later?
        • Operations Plan
        • Other suggestions?
    • Dates of Board Meetings 2007
  3. Science IPT Report (Wilson, Wootten, Kawabe)
  4. Outreach
  5. AOB
  6. Next Meeting 2007-January-10-14:30 UT suggested.

Science Corner:

Executive Summary of Report from Workshop on Submillimeter and Far-Infrared Laboratory Spectroscopy in Support of Herschel, SOFIA, and ALMA October 19-20, 2006 Pasadena, CA

Astronomers must develop a plan to deal with harmful effect of spectral line confusion on the scientific return from the Herschel Space Observatory, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). These major new facilities will open up the submillimeter region of the electromagnetic spectrum by making investigations of unprecedented high sensitivity and angular resolution possible. Much of the scientific interest will be in observations of spectral lines. For observations of the dense regions in which star formation occurs, the youngest stars and the proto- planetary disk material surrounding them possess spectra containing a few molecular species with extremely numerous, relatively strong transitions throughout the submillimeter. These species are likely to present a serious challenge, in as much as their emission will occupy a substantial part of the spectral range available, thus impeding the study of other important species. Thus, the discovery of new species of astrophysical and astrobiological interest will be severely hampered unless the spectral lines from these “weeds” can be removed from the data.

We have identified the most offensive weeds, which include six species plus their isotopically substituted variants. We propose that one (or ideally several) spectroscopic laboratories in the US be equipped with sources and detectors to cover the frequency range up to 2 THz, and that they each be funded to hire personnel to actively engage in a program of measuring the spectra of these weed species over a 2 to 3 year period from the present until the first Herschel data are available. Using a combination of traditional quantum state assignment and novel techniques involving measurement and classification of spectral lines measured at different temperatures, the data necessary to remove the weeds from astronomical spectra can be made available. Ongoing measurement and analysis efforts will be required to complete the process for ALMA, SOFIA and other submillimeter facilities.

Calendar

Official JAO Calendar

Events of Interest

(see also Al's ALMA Biweekly Calendar)

2005
 
 
 
 
 
Day Date Time (EST) Event location details
Wed
Dec 6
1430UT
ASAC Telecon
Telecon
 
 
Dec 6-7
all day
ACA correlator CDR
Japan
 
Thu
Dec 7
 
ALMA Board Telecon
Telecon
 
 
Dec 14
all day
LLC and LO Photonic Rx DR
Cville
 
We
Dec 20
1430UT
ALMA Sci IPT Telecon
Telecon
 
Fri
Dec 29
1800UT
ANASAC Telecon
Telecon
 
 
Jan 16-17 '07
all day
Transporter FDR
 
 
Thu
Jan 18
 
ALMA Board Telecon
Telecon
 
 
Jan 30
all day
AEM antenna PPDR
 
 
 
Feb 6-7
all day
B9 Cartridge CDR
 
 
Thu
Feb 15
 
ALMA Board Telecon
Telecon
 

Upcoming Meetings

Science with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) II November 13-17; Madrid, Spain

Molecular databases for Herschel, ALMA and SOFIA 6 Dec 2006 through 8 Dec 2006 Leiden, Netherlands

Fourth Chilean School of Astrophysics--Interferometry in the Epoch of ALMA and VLTI 4-8 December 2006, Santiago, Chile

AAS Meeting 5-10 Jan, 2007, Seattle, Washington

Asian Radio Astronomy Winter School January 22-26, 2007 National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan

Astrophysical Masers and their Environments 2007 March 12-16, Alice Springs, Australia

Frontiers of Astrophysics, a Celebration of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's 50th Anniversary", June 18-21, 2007, Charlottesville.

Transformational Science with ALMA: Through Disks to Stars and Planets June 22-24, 2007, Cville

USNC URSI 9-14 July, Albuquerque, NM

Astrophysics in the Next Decade: JWST and Concurrent Facilities. September 24-27, 2007, Tucson Arizona

See also NAASC listing

-- AlWootten - 05 Dec 2006
Topic revision: r3 - 2006-12-06, AlWootten
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