Contact Information Happy New Year

• 2008-January-8 15:00 UT
• Duration: 1 hr
• USA Toll Free Number: 877-874-1919
• Toll Number: +1-203-320-9891
• Passcode: 185064
• Leader: Al Wootten
• Atendees: L. Testi, R. Hills, J. Cernicharo, R. Laing, S. Aalto, Jose Afonso, F. Gueth, Nyman, Wootten, Kelsey Johnson, Jonathan Williams, John Bally, Andrew Blain, K-I Morita, K. Kohno, Emerson

Old Business

1. Agenda, Minutes: Agenda of November meeting. Minutes are unavailable. Agenda and Minutes of older telecons may be viewed at the ALMA EDM site Sitescape or more recently at the Board ASAC site.
2. ASAC Membership

New Business

The massive ALMA transporters left the Sheuerle factory and traveled to port at Heilbronn, Germany on 3 and 4 December. There, they were put on on top of a barge pushed by a tug. On 5 Dec they began their journey down the Neckar to the Rhine, then down the Rhine to Antwerp, Belgium. By Dec 11, they had arrived in Antwerp, where they are to be transferred to an overseas vessel for travel to Chile. Scheuerle image.

Early view of installation of the Japanese correlator in its room in the Technical Building at the Array Operations Site. See other images and animations. See other images.

1. Project news/updates
   • F2F Meeting Logistics Please Read
   • Board meeting news and construction progress. (Hills)
   • CSV Jobs. Commissioning Scientist Santiago Positions, ARC Positions NRAO ESO status.
   • ALMA Safety Requirements
2. Board Communications
   • ASAC Charges for March, 2008
     • Specific Charges for March, 2008: Supporting Documents
     • 1. Assess the preparation of the ALMA real time, observing, and off-line software for early science. In particular, review the impact of the recommendations of the May 2007 software review and the schedule for the next two years.
     • 2. Review the Calibration Plan and scientific aspects of the plans for Assembly, Integration, Verification testing and for Commissioning. Being mindful of the finite resources (human, financial) available, are changes necessary or desirable for scientific reasons to the plans being implemented?
     • 3. The ALMA Board has charged the project to develop a long term ALMA Development Plan in consultation with the international astronomy community. The plan should set out the scientific context for transformational science with ALMA in 2020, in the era of for example JWST, ELTs and SKA, and the developments necessary to achieve this vision. The ALMA Board views this plan as having the utmost strategic priority, and is coordinating its development across the entire ALMA partnership. The process of generating the ALMA Development Plan should be led by the JAO Project Scientist and the ASAC (with support from the Executives). The first stage (to be completed by the end of 2008) will involve an examination of the scientific drivers by a number of specialist sub-groups, representative of the wider astronomical community, covering the whole field. In time for the Board's April 2008 meeting, the ASAC should identify the scientific themes on which sub-groups will work (for example: star formation, galaxy formation etc) and appoint appropriate Chairs for each subgroup.
     • In order to allow time for the preparation of a response from the Project, it would be very much appreciated if the ASAC’s report could be made available by no later than March 13th.
   • Status of 1-2 February 2008 meeting at Santiago, with optional preceding visit to the ALMA Operations Support Facility, near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. (Hills)
   • Dates of Board Meetings 2008
     • Dates of ASAC Meetings 2008
     • FtfdatesFall
     • ALMA Chile Directory.
3. Science IPT Report (Wootten, Testi, Morita)
   • Project Scientist Report to ALMA Board (please see document attached at agenda end).
   • ALMA Test Facility:
     • On 2007 Nov 30 a milestone was reached at the ATF. Interferometry under control of ALMA software was improved to the point that interferometric determination of the baseline between the two antennas and pointing will become possible. Kudos to the correlator team J. Pisano, R. Amestica, J. Perez, and D. Guo and to J. Kern, R. Hills, A. Peck, D. Emerson, A. Hales, J. Meadows and R. Ridgeway for their efforts on the hardware, the software and the synthesis of the system despite heavy clouds and rain. (Please see report from Darrel Emerson, attached at agenda end.)
   • RF membrane. Work on a possible replacement for the Goretex material is underway. (See slides from a recent presentation by Ricardo Finger, also attached at agenda end.)
   • Change Control Board items (Hills):
     • Cross-polarization specifications (No 173): CRE reportedly accepted, though CCB notes are not yet available. See note from Hills at the edm discussion, which is linked. Also see Supporting Documents for Charges, above.
   • Current Science IPT Schedule. Current Operations Schedule. IPS Pictorial View(2007 November 30). optical pointing at OSF by Nov 2007; radiometric pointing in early 2008
   • ALMA Science IPT wiki page
4. Astronomer Outreach: ESO Newsletter New ESO Messenger with Antenna article, New ESO ALMA News New NRAO Newsletter appearing soon. NAOJ News. NRAO ALMA Calendar
   • ESAC Report (Afonso)
   • ANASAC Report (Blain)
   • EASAC Report (Kohno)
5. AOB
6. Next Meeting 2008-February-1-12:00 UT Face-to-face, in Santiago.

Science Corner:

• Recent ALMA Talk by A. BakerMapping Star and Galaxy Formation with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array
• Recent ALMA Talk by A. Wootten ALMA: Moving Beyond First Fringes to Transformational Science.

Calendar

Official JAO Calendar

Events of Interest

(see also Al's ALMA Biweekly Calendar)

2008
Day	Date	Time	Event	location	details
	Jan 10		NRAO Town Hall 12:45pm	Austin Tx AAS
	Jan 15		ESAC face-to-face meeting	Garching
	Jan 18		ANASAC telecon	---
	Jan 23-24		Nutator CDR	ASIAA
	Feb 1-2		ASAC face-to-face	Santiago
	Feb 7-8		WVR CDR

Upcoming Meetings

North American URSI meeting Jan 3-6 2008, Boulder

AAS meeting Jan 7-11 2008, Austin, Tx (NRAO/ALMA booth)

IAU Symposium 251 Organic Matter in Space Feb 18-22, Hong Kong

The Cosmic Agitator - Magnetic Fields in the Galaxy 2008 March 26-29 Lexington.

See also NAASC listing

-- AlWootten - 04 Jan 2008

* PSreport_to_Board_07NOV.pdf: Project Scientist Report to Board, November 2007

* ATF_Science_activities_DEC07.pdf: Science Activities at the ATF

* Submillimiter_radomes.pdf: RF Membrane at entrance to receiver cabin