ALMA Update

1  Recent news

1.1  Construction Progress

The ALMA Board has approved an ALMA construction budget for 2009 of US$(Y2000)140M, of which $16M is contingency. In current year dollars, the construction budget is, in round numbers, 84M Euros and $98M US, with contingency included. NRAO has announced a formal agreement enabling Taiwanese astronomers to participate in the North American component of the international ALMA partnership, alongside American and Canadian astronomers. Taiwan's efforts will be led by the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA).
At the Array Operations Site (AOS, 5000 m altitude), twenty eight antenna foundations have now received concrete. Rock anchor drilling has begun on the 29 foundations within the Atacama Compact Array (ACA) area. A plan has been developed to place the first antennas for commissioning on pads to be used for ACA antennas for early commissioning. The AOS Technical Building is finished and waiting for ALMA acceptance. Inside, the first quadrant of the bilateral correlator, which can serve 16 antenna stations, is being wired for duty. Thirteen hundred cables have been installed and tested in the oxygenated correlator room.Tests continue on schedule.
At the Operations Support Facility (OSF, 3000 m altitude), the first ALMA Front End in Chilewas installed on a Melco ACA 12m antenna in October. The holography measurement of Melco ACA 12-m Antenna No 1 is continuing, and data are being taken under a variety of weather conditions. Melco ACA 12-m Antenna No 3 is now ready for Optical Pointing Telescope measurements. The 7th Vertex antenna pedestal has arrived at the OSF, bringing the number of antennas on site to eleven. Elements of the eighth Vertex antenna began to arrive at the site in late November. Pointing tests are occurring on Vertex antennas No 1 and 2. Reflector panel installation on Vertex No 5 is complete.
At the various receiver labs, significant progress has been made toward system validation for the North American Front End Integration Center beam scanner. The Provisional Acceptance In-house review meeting for the East Asian Front End #1 assembly was in Oct 20. With the delivery of their first Band 6 Cartridge, the European Front End Integration Center will shortly have one complete set of base line receivers. The Manufacturing Readiness Review (MRR) for the Band 6 (1.3mm) cold cartridge assembly and the MRR for Band 9 (0.4 mm) occurred in September. Also in September, the engineering model for the water vapour radiometers was demonstrated at Omnisys Instruments in Sweden.
Finally, the ALMA observatory has a new web site 
http://www.almaobservatory.org/

This web site is available in both English and Spanish and contains a wide range of information about the observatory, including details about science and technology, infrastructure, geographical location, etc. The Newsroom section contains all the ALMA-related press releases and information on scientific events in which ALMA will participate.
Figure 1: A view of the Operations Support Facility from the newly completed second holography tower. Six of the eleven antennas now on the site are visible in this image; the remaining five antennas are inside the Vertex site erection facility. Image from ALMA Science IPT web site (Nov 2008).
Figure 2: Calibrated raster maps of the moon using data taken on 6 August using the two antennas at the ALMA Test Facility at the VLA site in New Mexico. Left is the image from the Alcatel antenna and right is the image from the Vertex antenna. Image from ALMA Science IPT web site (Oct 2008).

 

1.2  Progress in ALMA Assembly, Integration, and Verification

Following a suggestion from the Canadian ALMA Science Advisory Committee, occasional progress reports on ALMA AIV will appear in this newsletter. AIV (Assembly-Integration-Verification) is the branch of ALMA Project Engineering responsible for assembling and integrating the major ALMA hardware and software sub-systems into a working system satisfying the technical performance specifications. AIV delivers the technically verified system to the Commissioning and Science Verification group and supports the latter's activities. The AIV group presently consists of about 40 engineers, technicians, software specialists, astronomers, and support staff, and continues to grow. AIV activities are centred at the Operations Support Facility (OSF) near San Pedro de Atacama. The former head of the millimeter astronomy group at HIA, Lewis Knee, is currently working in Chile as an AIV scientist.
AIV is still in a planning and ramp-up mode in anticipation of the formal start of its primary activities which will occur when the first antennas are accepted by the project from the antenna vendors. AIV has also been supporting the activities of other groups at the OSF. Among these activities, AIV has been supporting antenna foundation design analysis, installation, and performance measurement.
A major focus of the AIV engineering teams in the past quarter has been in the integration of ALMA equipment into one of the 12-metre antennas of the Japanese-contributed Atacama Compact Array. This antenna is expected to be provisionally accepted by the ALMA project in the very near future, and in anticipation of this, AIV has been refining procedures and installing equipment. Following the removal of the NAOJ first light receiver and back-end mockup equipment, AIV successfully installed the front-end support structure, the first engineering grade front-end with Band 3, 6, 7, and 9 cartridges, the back-end, a prototype amplitude calibration device, equipment enclosures, compressor, and cryogenic system. AIV also assisted in the installation of the first quadrant of the 64-station correlator at the high site. Other notable achievements were the first remote control of an ACA antenna from the AIV Temporary Building and the first successful test of post-Antenna Verification release software.
The small AIV Science team has been busy participating in the commissioning of the antenna pointing metrology system on one of the 12-metre antennas from Vertex and of its new motors.In parallel with this, the science team have been performing the pointing acceptance tests for this antenna.

2  ALMA Meetings

2.1  Upcoming Science Meetings

A workshop "Preparing for ALMA: From Science to Observations" will be held at McMaster University June 1-3, 2009 (after the CASCA meeting in Toronto). This workshop had been rescheduled from last summer to allow the software to mature and to be closer to the start of Early Science (now likely to begin in 2011). The workshop will focus on the process of taking a science idea through to successful observations and will include becoming familiar with the software tools that ALMA PIs will need to use. Priority will be given to participants from Canadian institutions and the first 20 students (Canadians or those from Canadian institutions) to register will receive substantial travel support towards room and board. Postdocs and faculty are also welcome to attend this workshop.
People interested in participating in this workshop are encouraged to pre-register by sending an email to Chris Wilson (wilson AT physics.mcmaster.ca). Registration will open February 2, 2009 and an announcement will be sent out on the CASCA email exploder. More information will be available shortly at 
http://www.physics.mcmaster.ca/ALMAmeeting09
The North American ALMA Science Center hosted its third annual science workshop in Charlottesville, Virginia September 25-27, 2008. The subject of this year's workshop was "The Birth and Feedback of Massive Stars, Within and Beyond the Galaxy". The workshop was very successful and lively, with about 150 participants including a good number from outside the traditional radio astronomy field. Many of the presentations are available on the conference web site at 
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/massive08/
The next NRAO workshop is still in the planning stages, but now seems likely to be held in September 2009. The topic is still being discussed, but will likely focus on the area of star formation and feedback in galaxies from low to high redshift. I should have more details on this workshop in my next report.
Outside North America, ESO is hosting a workshop on "ALMA and ELTs: A Deeper, Finer View of the Universe" from March 24-27, 2009. This workshop aims to explore the scientific synergies between ALMA and the planned very large optical/infrared telescopes. In Taiwan, ASIAA is hosting a conference on "Millimeter and Submilimeter Astronomy at High Angular Resolution" from June 8-12, 2009.

2.2  Canadian ALMA Science Advisory Committee (CASAC)

The Canadian ALMA Science Advisory Committee met November 5-6, 2008 at HIA in Victoria, B.C. The committee heard reports on various aspects of the ALMA project, both within Canada and internationally, and held an extended discussion of outreach activities and possibilities within Canada and the progress in laying out the ALMA development plan.
Within Canada, the main area of concern continues to be construction funding for the Band 3 receivers, as well as the extremely urgent need to obtain funding for Canada's share of ALMA operations. Since the end of the first five years of LRP funding in March 2007, the construction work on the Band 3 receivers has been funded on a year-by-year basis. Over the past year, Lewis Knee and James di Francesco have led very successful negotiations with NRAO to establish the Canadian role in ALMA Operations which secures an active and integral role for Canada in ALMA Operations, particularly in the areas of scientific user support and technical support of the Band 3 receivers. However, all these activities are dependent on the identification of funding for ALMA operations; as ALMA operations begins to ramp up rapidly starting in 2009, the need for this funding will only increase with time.
The committee had a lively discussion of various outreach efforts that are underway, including plans for a meeting focusing on how to use ALMA software to be held at McMaster University in 2009 (see previous section), work on developing a primer on how to use ALMA, the Canadian ALMA web page, and the need for postdoctoral fellows, both at HIA and in the universities, working on scientific areas related to ALMA. This outreach discussion also highlighted the importance and benefits to Canadians of having access to the JCMT, particularly with its new wide-field imaging instruments, HARP-B and SCUBA-2, as we prepare for Early Science with ALMA. Access to a good single dish telescope equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation will give our community an edge in using ALMA.

2.3  Band 1 workshop at HIA

On 8-10 October 2008, NRC-HIA hosted the Band 1 Workshop, a meeting of  30 scientists and engineers to discuss the scientific and technological case for building the Band 1 cartridges for ALMA. Band 1 is nominally 31-45 GHz (7-10 mm). It was one of the ten bands originally identified for ALMA but Band 1 cartridges were cut from the project several years ago to save costs during construction. The ALMA Project, however, has begun to consider plans for science- and community-driven new developments for ALMA when full operations commence, and these may include restoring some of the lost capabilities.
The main science drivers for Band 1 are varied and include observations of redshifted CO 2-1 at z 6, sub-structure of intracluster gas using the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect, magnetic field strengths in dark clouds using the Zeeman effect, grain growth in protostellar disks, spinning dust grains, masers and SNe (using VLBI), among others. Reviews were given on these topics by many individuals including Douglas Scott (UBC), Norbert Bartel (York), Martin Houde (UWO), Gerald Schieven (NRC-HIA) and Brenda Matthews (NRC-HIA). It was determined at the meeting that the sensitivities of ALMA at Band 1 frequencies would be on the same order as those expected of the EVLA, though a careful comparison of site characteristics is needed to determine how much Band 1 observing time would be available at each facility.
The meeting attendees included participants from the Universidad de Chile, ASIAA (Taiwan) and NRC-HIA, each of whom has begun R&D projects for Band 1 cartridges. An informal collaboration between these groups was formed at the meeting, to coordinate development of a Band 1 prototype. Such a prototype that would bolster any future proposal to build Band 1 cartridges should the community ask the Project to develop this capability. In parallel, a Band 1 Science Case is being developed for the community by James Di Francesco and Doug Johnstone at NRC-HIA. Please contact them if you have any interest in Band 1 or specific science drivers that Band 1 could address.

2.4  ALMA Science Advisory Committee (ASAC)

In late September, Doug Johnstone represented Canada at the ALMA Science Advisory Committee (ASAC) face to face meeting in Charlottesville, Virginia. The ALMA Development Plan continues to dominate the agenda of the ASAC, especially given the upcoming US Decadal Report. Chris Wilson is the main Canadian point of contact if you have ideas or concerns about the long term development of ALMA. Other topics discussed at the meeting were the imminent expiration on options to buy more 12 metre antennas at a fixed cost (the original contract was for 50 up to 64 antennas). While it is extremely unlikely that funding for these expensive components of the array will be found, there was a note of urgency to the discussion given that the present day cost of purchasing antennas is significantly higher than in the contract. 
One other item of general interest, arising from the meeting, is the project-wide effort to manage the construction schedule.  Soon there should be a new and improved schedule for ALMA completion, which will better take into account the slippage in deliverables. Nevertheless, the ASAC was pleased to hear that Early Science should be underway in 2011. The next ASAC meeting is currently planned for the end of January 2009.

3  ALMA Developments in Canada

3.1  Canadian contribution to ALMA operations

HIA and NRAO have reached an agreement on the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) specifying how Canada will be contributing to ALMA operations. This agreement will be signed once an agreement on the funding is in place between NRC and NSF. In addition to a cash contribution toward array operations in Chile, HIA will provide an ïn-kind" contribution toward the North American ALMA Science Center in Charlottesville, VA. The in-kind contribution will include, among other things, support scientists, maintenance of the Band 3 receivers, and support for CASA software and documentation.

3.2  Band 3 Receiver Development

The Band 3 receiver work is now in its 6th year of a 10 year program and continues to make very good progress. The first four Band 3 production cartridges have been completed, augmenting the 8 pre-production already assembled and tested. The Band 3 team is now well into double digits in completing receivers and the eventual goal of 70 receivers no longer seems quite so daunting. The delivery schedule, at peak, remains one cartridge every three weeks.
As the project moves into production phase, a contract has been let with Daniels Electronics of Victoria, B.C. for the procurement and quality insurance of production parts and production of the cartridge assembly. While final testing continues in-house, the out-sourcing of cartridge assembly is a major milestone. The ALMA project will hold a manufacturing readiness review for the Band 3 receivers early in 2009.

3.3  Software

At the University of Calgary, Arne Grimstrup continues to work on the ALMA Common Software and Shannon Jaeger to work on various tasks within CASA. The CASA package is now available to the general public through 
http://my.nrao.edu
The version currently available is beta release 2.3.
At HIA, the Request Handler for the ALMA Archive is nearing completion. It now has a fully functional operator interface, and the ability to prioritize requests. This final development delivery of Request Handler should be completed in December. After delivery, HIA will enter support phase for Request Handler, providing support and fixes to the ALMA archive group at a low level of effort, and on an as-needed basis.
Chris Wilson wilson@physics.mcmaster.ca
Canadian ALMA Project Scientist
(with input from James di Francesco, Severin Gaudet, Jim Hesser, Doug Johnstone, Lewis Knee, and Gerald Schieven, as well as material from Al Wootten)


File translated from TEX by TTH, version 3.40.
On 22 Dec 2008, 17:40.