This agenda is available at https://safe.nrao.edu/wiki/bin/view/ALMA/NaascMinutes2010Dec01

Meeting Logistics:

  • Call date: Wednesday, Dec 01, 2010
  • Call time 13:00 ET or 18:00 UT
  • Duration: 1.0 hr
  • Locations: CV-ER230/TUC-N525/Soc280(SO-conf2)/JAO-Alsacia/JAO-OSF(Science)/NRC
  • Connection for Video:
    • From NRAO select "CV-ER230"
    • hub ip=192.33.117.16
    • alternative ip for Chile only, if above drops: 192.33.117.17
  • USA toll-free Number: 866-675-5385
  • Outside USA Number: +1 517-444-6916
  • Passcode: 8445333#
  • Leader: Hibbard

Attendees:

  • CV: JH. DCK, HL, JM, RP, AR, AK, JB, BK, ML, MAdams, CB, AW, CL, RI, TH, NM, SS, LvS, visitor: Alison Peck. Phone: AE
  • TUC:
  • Socorro: BG
  • Canada: GS, JdF
  • Chile:
  • Other:

Action Items from past meetings (RED=OPEN)

  • ACTION: Send reply to ANASAC report
    • WHO: CLonsdale
    • DUE:
    • DONE: Dec01
    • NOTES:
  • ACTION: Post NAASC job ads to NAASC sciweb
    • WHO: AEvans/SciComm
    • DUE: ASAP
    • DONE: Nov5
    • NOTES:
  • ACTION: Define policy for selecting between multiple institutions that want to host ALMA Community Days, if we can't support them all.
    • WHO: KSheth
    • DUE: Dec1
    • DONE: Nov29
    • NOTES:

Action Items from this meeting:

  • ACTION:
    • WHO:
    • DUE:
    • DONE:
    • NOTES:

Agenda

  • Personnel
    • Job advertisments for NAASC postdoc (based at NAASC) & ALMA Commissioning Postdoc (based in Chile)
    • NAASC Science Visitors: Alison Peck, Eric Villiard, Duncan Farrah. Bohla Panta from NAOJ visited last week for helpdesk/user portal discussion. Tom Wilson returns for a visit on Friday Dec 3. See google calendar NAASC Visitors
  • Project News (APeck/RHills or CSV Liaisons)
  • Group Reports
  • Main Topics
    • Summary of results of the reviews and f2f meetings held in early October were circulated by email by JHibbard, and are now posted to the bottom of https://staff.nrao.edu/wiki/bin/view/ALMA/SciOpsPolicies (internal NRAO wiki; pdf will be distributed with meeting announcement). Any questions on any of these items?
    • IT3 planned for January/February.
      • Purpose and Timeline summarized on ALMALookingAhead wiki (expand to view)
      • DSO Wiki for IT3
      • Lots of discussion about what will/can be done as part of OT-phase2 test. JH will take up with JAO
  • Any Other Business

Additional Supporting Material

NAASC items submitted to JAO for November 2010 Monthly report

Hiring activities

Nuria Marcelino (CSIC/INTA, Madrid) started a postdoctoral position on November 1. She will be part of the imaging Tiger Team and help provide user support. Advertisement for the next NAASC Postdoctoral Fellow position were posted on the NRAO and AAS career sites.

JAO support

Stuartt Corder, Ed Fomalont, and Doug Johnstone provided support to the JAO Science team. NAASC staff participated in the JAO systems, calibration, and imaging teams. Crystal Brogan and Todd Hunter supported a CASA tutorial for JAO staff on Nov 4. The NAASC "Tiger Team" reduced ALMA test data and contributed analysis scripts.

Software Development & testing

The NAASC participated in testing of CASA for release 3.1, which occurred on Nov 29, 2010, and in setting priorities for release 3.2. The NAASC hosted the face-to-face meeting of the ALMA Pipeline developers in Charlottesville Nov 15-18, with a "meet the NAASC" session on Nov 18, including discussions on data processing and user support issues.

Continued development of the ALMA helpdesk, including incorporating support for Japanese language, developing reporting modules, and purchasing additional licenses for the production helpdesk. Supported a visit by NAOJ Helpdesk/User Portal developer, and established concepts for better inter-ARC communication for these systems.

Conferences and workshops

Several NAASC staff participated in the meeting "The Submillimeter Universe: the CCAT View" held in Ithaca, NY, Nov 12-13, giving talks and presenting posters highlighting CCAT as an ALMA pathfinder, and promoting ALMA to workshop attendees. An ALMA talk and OT and Simdata tutorials were given at UC. Berkeley. Participated in "VO and ALMA" session and subsequent discussions at ADASS XX in Boston. Represented NRAO/NAASC at the "SC10" international conference for High Performance Computing in New Orleans, LA.

Planning continues for NAASC participation in the January AAS in Seattle WA, including an ALMA Special Session: "Observing with ALMA" on Jan 12 and ALMA Observing Tool demonstrations, and on the NAASC/NRC workshop entitled "ALMA: Extending the Limits of Astrophysical Spectroscopy", to be held Jan 15-17 2011 in Victoria, BC (see http://www.almatelescope.ca/Spectroscopy2011/), which includes a day of tutorials on ALMA Early Science and the ALMA Observing Tool.

Other

The NAASC supported a two day "Train the Trainer" event in Charlottesville, with presentations on the anticipated ALMA Early Science capabilities, the proposal review process, a presentation on recent ALMA test data by members of the NAASC imaging "Tiger Team", and walk-throughs of the latest version of the ALMA Observing Tool, the CASA "simdata" task, the helpdesk, and Splatalog. Colleagues from NRC-HIA in Canada and ASIAA in Taiwan traveled to participate in this event.

Initial discussion on potential Taiwanese participation in NAASC activities and collaborative and exchange programs were held with our colleagues from ASIAA.

An eNews article and flyer advertising NAASC-supported community training and ALMA Early Science events leading up to the first proposal deadline was generated, to be distributed in early December. Two events per month are planned from January 2011 through the first proposal deadline.

The NAASC started a weekly mentoring and training activity for NAASC and all NRAO Charlottesville-based postdocs, with events this month focusing on basics of millimeter and interferometric observing.

-- JohnHibbard - 2010-12-06
Topic revision: r3 - 2011-01-05, JohnHibbard
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