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
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.
Project News (Wootten)
Status Report
WANTED! Discussion on science enabled by additional antennas. Contracts expire next June.
Postdoctoral position with Commissioning in Santiago available.
Team: R. Lucas, R. Mauersberger, A. Hales, S. Corder now in Santiago with Hills and Peck.
URSI/NA Meeting ALMA Technology, Science and Status - suggestions or volunteers? Jan 5-8 2009, Boulder.
Construction progress Status Report from ASAC meeting.
Commissioning and Science Verification (new versions not received for September).
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).
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.
Splatalogue. Priorities identified from "focus group:
Make info in splatalogue 100% reliable
Make Splatalogue bullet-proof
Get "fact sheets" into database (this drives many other things)
Make Splatalogue "one-stop-shopping" for molecular spectral line database needs
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".