This agenda is available at https://safe.nrao.edu/wiki/bin/view/ALMA/NaascMinutes2008Oct01

NAASC Organizational Meeting: Wednesday Oct 01, 1-2:30pm ET (1700-1830UT), CV-ER209/TUC-N525/Soc280(SO-conf2)

Meeting Information

  • Call date: 2008-10-01 (Wednesday)
  • Call time 13:00 ET or 17:00 UT
  • Duration: 1.5 hr
  • Non toll-free number: 434-244-6834
  • USA toll-free Number: 866-675-5385
  • Outside USA Number: +1 517-444-6916
  • Passcode: 8445333#
  • Leader: Hibbard

Attendees

  • CV: JM, AW, HL, JS, CL, CB, AP, BK, RI, JH
  • Soc: SM
  • GB:
  • ATF:
  • Canada: JdF
  • Tuc:

Action Items from past meetings (RED=OPEN)

  • ACTION: provide revised ALMA EPO plan/staff ramp-up for NAASC EPO effort consistent with planned funding level
    • WHO: M.Adams/J. Stoke
    • DUE: Dec 15 -> Sep 15
    • DONE:
    • NOTES: reassigned to J. Stoke
  • ACTION: Write revised NAASC proposal: budget methodology; changes from Washington review
    • WHO: Hibbard
    • DUE: Jan-30
    • DONE: New budget done 11/13. Need text.
  • ACTION: Have Splatalogue "Users focus group" to decide priorities for splatalogue between now and March
    • WHO: Remijan, Wootten, Brogan, Hunter, Hibbard
    • DUE: 9/6/2008
    • DONE: 9/6/2008
    • NOTES: (1) Make info in splatalogue 100% reliable; (2) make Splatalogue bullet-proof; (3) get "fact sheets" into database (this drives many other things); (4) make splatalogue one-stop-shopping for all your line list needs; (5) ability to predict line strengths in the low-tau, LTE case.
  • ACTION: meet with James diF during Massive08 meeting to discuss CA contribution to NA ARC activities in FY09
    • WHO: Lonsdale, Hibbard
    • DUE: Sept 27
    • DONE: Sept 27
    • NOTES: Gerald Schieven also met with us.
  • ACTION: get ANASAC written material on NA ARC prior to f2f meeting
    • WHO: Hibbard
    • DUE: 9/5/2008
    • DONE: Sept 5
    • NOTES: FY08 program report, FY09 program plan, FY09-FY13 LRS compiled into one document posted to ANASAC wiki
  • ACTION: make sure Jennifer has all arrangements made for ANASAC f2f
    • WHO: Crystal
    • DUE: 9/3/2008
    • DONE: Sept 03
    • NOTES:
  • ACTION: Review NAASC webpage you are responsible for (see assignments) prior to monthly NAASC Org. Meeting
    • WHO: Everyone
    • DUE: prior to meeting
    • DONE:

Action Items from this meeting:

Agenda

  • NAASC News (Hibbard)
    • Carol, Harvey, & Todd all "officially" start at the NAASC today! Welcome!
    • For new-commers (and those of us with poor memories), lets list the proper list servers we should join in order to stay informed of meetings & events:
    • We are advertising 2 Scientist positions (CSV2, CASA developer) and two postdoc positions (CASA and splatalogue). NRAO is also hiring a TT astronomer, who could well end up in the NAASC. Announcements hit AAS Job Bulletin today. Available on NRAO Careers page and NAASC webpage. Be pro-active. Email to almanews? (AI?)
    • Planning: 2008Q3 quarterly report done, FY08 Progress Report, FY09 Program Plan done. Bundled with FY09-FY13 Long Range Plan from last Dec. Pdf available at ANASAC wiki. 2008Q4 quarterly report is due Oct 20. Give me your feedback by Oct 13. AI on JH & everyone
    • Tony reports from the NSF Chemistry grant: "the chemistry grant was funded at the full amount of $500K/year from the NSF and another $500K/year from UVa. We are looking to have an organizational meeting soon to discuss the work the center will do this fall and Brooks Pate will be giving a TUNA talk on Oct 28th to discuss UVa astronomy's possible role in the center.".
    • No word on high-performance Computing effort with UMd, except PSU dropped out. There is an interesting collaboration going on between PSU, RIT, Columbia for source detection and line-cube visualization that NRAO is very loosely connected with. Might want to tie more strongly in with this.
    • September was the Month of Meetings. These include the following:
      • ANASAC f2f meeting (see below) on Sept 12. See below.
      • Grenoble ALMA Simulator meeting in Grenoble Sept 8-11 (Remy, Al, Antonio & Rob attended - see Main Event)
      • Planning meeting for NAASC at Jan AAS on Sept 9 (John S., Carol, Crystal, Remy, Al, John H. attended - see Main Event)
      • SciOpsIPT meeting in Mitaka. Trying to get JAO to deploy science webpages. Working on communication. Discussed helpdesk issues, how to assign sb to ARCs, user portal, reformulation of SSR to eSSR, functional assignments.
      • NAASC Science Workshop Sept 25-27, including discussion on ALMA development. Went very well. Big thanks to Gene, Josh, Dale, Laurie, Mary.
      • Meeting between NAASC (Carol, John & Crystal) & MAG (James & Gerald) on Sept 27 to discuss Canadian contribution to ALMA core deliverables. Likely to get help (1) supporting CSV, (2) testing CASA, and maybe (3) writing documentation.
      • ASAC f2f meeting on Sept 28-29, including presentation by Crystal on CASA, John H. on NA ARC and SciOps, and John S. on IYA2009. Will have big presentation by ARC managers at Jan f2f meeting at OSF, but not clear on what. Also indicated that if we need stuff defined in order to set requirements, we should just go ahead and do it. e.g., proposal system; sb verification.

  • ANASAC
    • F2f meeting: 12 Sept 2008 Agenda
    • Charges on "Community Support" & ALMA preparatory work, use of NA ALMA prototype antenna (see also email from Mirabel), next NAASC workshop, plus ASAC charges

  • Main Event:
    • NRAO eNews: Should have something on larger NAASC when we are all here. AI: Remy should write an eNews article on Workshop. AI: JH should post talks to program before article appears
    • NAASC at January AAS in Long Beach: discussion held. Talked about developing stand-alone demo of alma simulator - Remy will work on that. Tony will do one for Splatalogue too. May use Joe's Casa Viewer demo too. AI on Remy & Tony to do demos.
      • NRAO Town Hall on Wed before the banquet. John S. wants NAASC scientist at booth ~2hr periods each day to answer questions. Who is going? CL, CB, AR, AP, JdF, AE. Maybe TH, Brenda Matthews, Doug Johnstone. Sounds like enough people.
      • Good place to do interviews for jobs - Carol will take charge of that (AI).
    • NAASC scientific visitors:
      • Evans is doing Colloq; should we get NAASC-specific selections?
      • NAASC visitors program. Priorities: using casa scientifically; ALMAsimulator? using spatalogue; molecular astrophysics? visualization?
    • Summary of ALMA Simulator workshop in Grenoble: lets hear from Remy, Al (Antonio & Rob are unavailable today).

  • Reports from Working Groups
    • Pipeline
    • CASA
      • Preparations for patch 3 on Oct 15. Need everyone to spent SOME time testing Oct 1-Oct 15. People can start testing now. Need ~3days of effort from everyone.
    • ObsTool
      • Had very nice demo at ASAC by Testi
    • Casapy simulator
      • Workshop Sept8+ in Grenoble. Remy, Rob, Antonio & Al went. See main event.
      • Remy is working on canned demo for Jan AAS.
    • ALMA Archive
    • Calibration Group (JeffMangum): Calibration
    • Imaging Group (AlWootten):
    • Splatalogue. Priorities identified from "focus group:
      1. Make info in splatalogue 100% reliable
      2. Make Splatalogue bullet-proof
      3. Get "fact sheets" into database (this drives many other things)
      4. Make Splatalogue "one-stop-shopping" for molecular spectral line database needs
      5. Develop ability to predict line strengths in the LTE low-tau case
      • Developing a strategy for analyzing 3D molecular line datacubes is high on the NRAO Directors priorities; what can we do to move in this direction? Already targeting postdoc & visitors, plus renewed effort on splatalogue. What else?
    • Webpages (Aaron Evans):
      • Fred wants NAASC to pioneer science user outreach.
    • EPO (Adams)
      • We still need revised ALMA EPO plan/staff ramp-up
      • Newsletter is now electric, goes out 1/mo. Either contribute NAASC article quarterly (when we do quarterly report), or each month have a different functional assignment area generate an article.
    • NAASC Workshops (Aaron Evans)
      • Thinking about N~150 in the June09 timeframe. AI: JH Post "lessons learned" from last workshop
    • Upcoming Science Meetings: (Wootten)
      • Band1 workshop in Victoria Oct 8-10 - technology & science behind band1
      • One of the special sessions for the 5-7 Jan 2009 URSI commission J meeting in Boulder, Colorado will be on "ALMA Technology, Science and Status".
      • Other Meetings of interest listed at http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/alma_meetings.php

-- JohnHibbard - 24 Oct 2008
Topic revision: r2 - 2009-02-11, JohnHibbard
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