Category Archives: News and Announcements

By Gerald Schieven and Brenda Matthews

ALMA Data Processing/Analysis Workshops for Cycle 11

The North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC) and the Cycle 11 ALMA Ambassadors have organized a series of workshops on the processing and analysis of ALMA data. These workshops will take place in September-November 2024. The goal of these events is to train users on basic data processing and analysis techniques that they may need to use ALMA for scientific discovery. Topics may include:

• Imaging/cleaning of continuum and spectral line observations
• Self-calibration
• Imaging of data from multiple array configurations
• Using the Pipeline Weblog and Re-running the Imaging Pipeline
• Using CARTA for Image Visualization and Analysis
• Science-ready Data Products
• What’s New in CASA (Common Astronomy Software Applications)
• The ALMA Press Release Process 

Information on the locations and dates for these workshops is available on the NAASC Community Events webpage (https://science.nrao.edu/facilities/alma/community/) and in the table below. Early registration is encouraged, to facilitate tailoring the workshops to the interests of the attendees.  Two of the events are being hosted in Canada, by Jess Speedie at University of Victoria (22 October 2024), and by Hamid Hassani at University of Alberta (24 October), though many of the events will be hybrid in-person/virtual and all are welcome to register for any event.  Check the Community Events page for registration information.

Ambassador                                                        Workshop Location            Date
Erica Behrens and Mélisse Bonfand-Caldeira    University of Virginia               19-20 September 2024
Jeff Jennings                                                              CCA/Flatiron Institute             30 September 2024
Jess Speedie                                                                University of Victoria               22 October 2024
Olivia Cooper                                                              Univ. of Texas, Austin              22 October 2024
Patrick Kamineski                                                      Arizona State Univ.                  24-25 October 2024
Hamid Hassani                                                           University of Alberta                24 October 2024
Joshua Lovell                                                              CfA, Harvard & Smithsonian  29 October 2024
Yu-Hsuan (Eltha) Teng                                             University of Maryland            29 October 2024

ALMA Achieves New Milestone:  Record-breaking Observing Hours during a Single Cycle at ALMA

As of 6 September, ALMA reached 3,810 hours of successful scientific observations (QA0 pass hours) in Cycle 10, exceeding the previous record of 3,787 hours achieved in Cycle 5.  While there are many ways to measure the success of the ALMA observatory, observing as many of the outstanding proposals selected as possible is vital to fulfilling its mission.  This remarkable milestone is a testament to the dedication, collaboration, and contributions from all departments and regions across ALMA.  With Cycle 10 continuing until 30 September, ALMA’s goal of exceeding 4000 hours of QA0 Pass time is well within reach.  Hearty congratulations to JAO and the ARCs and to all who contributed to this milestone.

ALMA Primer Instructional Video Series

The ALMA Primer Instructional Video series, which can be found on the Science Portal (https://almascience.org/tools/alma-primer-videos), is designed to provide a basic introduction to radio interferometry, calibration, imaging, and other topics in short (5-10 minute), easy-to-digest segments. As a work in progress, new videos are released periodically. This summer the Herzberg Millimetre Astronomy Group hired two co-op students, Lauren Harrison (University of Victoria) and Natalie Perelygin (Camosun College) to create four new videos:

• Sidebands, Basebands and Spectral Windows:
  • Part 1 – Principles and Components (https://youtu.be/bm6vrEWAlYM?si=Txctro-IbScnvDei
  • Part 2 – Practical Examples for Continuum Observing (https://youtu.be/1zWwLrsBwA4?si=Y3vShzG4Mq4LdeKv)
  • Part 3 – Practical Examples for Spectral Line Observing (https://youtu.be/18qE2-u0rMY?si=ipSgv_AP0a4cYO7p)
• Band 7 Single Continuum Tuning Options (https://youtu.be/iTjpWwht_2k?si=QQ_DQszKdA7uwSZC)

Other videos in the series include an Introduction to Radio Interferometry, Calibration, CLEAN, and much more. Subscribe to the ALMA Primer Video Series YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@almaprimer920) to be alerted to new videos as they are released.  The full, categorized list of videos with descriptions can be found on the ALMA Science Portal at https://almascience.org/tools/alma-primer-videos.

We are always looking for ideas for new videos, and especially looking for people who would like to help with script generation, animation, and narration. If you have an idea or would like to join the Primer Video Working Group (at any level of effort), please contact gerald.schieven@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca.

By Eric Steinbring (Canadian Gemini Office, National Research Council Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics)

Gemini North Celebrates 25 Years

The Gemini North telescope began operations back in 1999, showing off its shiny first-light photos at a dedication ceremony on Maunakea, Hawai`i later that year. It was the newest of the world-class 8-m telescopes at the time, especially well infrared optimized – including, for example, the use of protected-silver instead of usual aluminum-coated optics – and capable of among the best-possible imaging obtainable from the ground. Together with Altair, the Canadian-built facility adaptive optics (AO) system, it went on to famously capture the first direct image of a multi-planet system using NIRI (the Near-Infrared Imager) led by Christian Marois. Its superb image quality also helped test Einstein’s general theory of relativity by observing stars in the Galactic centre with NIFS (Near-infrared Integral Field Spectrograph), which contributed to the awarding of a Nobel Prize in 2020. Although both NIRI and NIFS are decommissioned, two new IFUs since added within GNIRS (Gemini Near-Infrared Spectrograph) cover similar low- and high-spatial resolution modes, and replace that utility. And still to come are GPI 2.0 (Gemini Planet Imager 2.0) for high-contrast AO imaging, as well as an updated, next-generation facility AO system to feed GIRMOS (Gemini InfraRed Multi-Object Spectrograph), another pan-Canadian-built addition to the North.

And You Get the Presents: IGRINS-2 is Now Available!

The Immersion GRating INfrared Spectrograph 2 (IGRINS-2) has been commissioned on Gemini North. This is a high-resolution (R~45,000) near-infrared spectrograph which can cover essentially the whole wavelength range from about 1.5 to 2.5 microns in a single exposure. That amazing feat is made possible due to its efficiently designed silicon immersion grating optical system. Now a facility instrument, it underwent a successful System Verification phase in July, demonstrating end-to-end software and operational procedures, and allowing it be offered for the first time in semester 2025A on a shared-risk basis. The processed data from this observing program, including e.g. high-resolution spectroscopy of possible exoplanet atmospheres and searches for metal poor stars, are being made publicly available in order to show IGRINS-2 capabilities to potential users (see: https://www.gemini.edu/instrumentation/igrins-2). Those should be familiar to some: it is a near-clone of IGRINS, which was a Visiting Instrument on Gemini South for several years and proved very popular, sometimes comparably so to GMOS-N and -S (Gemini Multi-Object Spectrographs), which are perennially the favourite, workhorse Gemini instruments – both North and South.

Reminder: The Regular-Semester 2025A Call for Proposals (https://nrc.canada.ca/en/research-development/products-services/technical-advisory-services/gemini-canadian-specific-information-phase-i) deadline is Tuesday 1 October at 4 PM PDT (7 PM EDT). Note that some other partners differ, e.g. the United States 2025A deadline is the day before. That is also true for the usual monthly Fast Turnaround Call for smaller proposals, at noon Hawai`i time on Monday 30 September, which is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation here in Canada.

Erik Rosolowsky (U Alberta), Joan Wrobel (NRAO)

Graphics credit: Image by Sophia Dagnello (NRAO/AUI/NSF)

ngVLA NSF Conceptual Design Review

After a four day review in early September in Washington, DC, the ngVLA (https://ngvla.nrao.edu) project successfully passed its Conceptual Design review. The project sends it thanks to its numerous colleagues worldwide, including in Canada, who contributed their time and talent to help propel the ngVLA past this important milestone. The ngVLA project will now be considered by the US National Science Foundation for entry to the next phase – Preliminary Design – to further advance the project’s definition and execution plan. A press release is forthcoming.

Key Science Goals for the Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA): Update from the ngVLA Science Advisory Council (2024)

In 2017, the next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) Science Advisory Council (https://ngvla.nrao.edu/page/sciencecouncil), together with the international astronomy community, developed a set of five Key Science Goals (KSGs) to inform, prioritize and refine the technical capabilities of a future radio telescope array for high angular resolution operation from 1.2 – 116 GHz with 10 times the sensitivity of the Jansky VLA and ALMA. The resulting KSGs, which require observations at centimeter and millimeter wavelengths that cannot be achieved by any other facility, represent a small subset of the broad range of astrophysical problems that the ngVLA will be able to address.

This document (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024arXiv240814497W/abstract) presents an update to the original ngVLA KSGs, taking account of new results and progress in the 7+ years since their initial presentation, again drawing on the expertise of the ngVLA Science Advisory Council (https://ngvla.nrao.edu/page/sciencecouncil) and the broader community in the ngVLA Science Working Groups (https://ngvla.nrao.edu/page/workinggroups). As the design of the ngVLA has also matured substantially in this period, this document also briefly addresses initial expectations for ngVLA data products and processing that will be needed to achieve the KSGs.

The original ngVLA KSGs endure as outstanding problems of high priority. In brief, they are: (1) Unveiling the Formation of Solar System Analogues; (2) Probing the Initial Conditions for Planetary Systems and Life with Astrochemistry; (3) Charting the Assembly, Structure, and Evolution of Galaxies from the First Billion Years to the Present; (4) Science at the Extremes: Pulsars as Laboratories for Fundamental Physics; (5) Understanding the Formation and Evolution of Stellar and Supermassive Black Holes in the Era of Multi-Messenger Astronomy. Importantly, the ngVLA KSGs are part of the wider science applications that are discussed in the ngVLA Science Working Groups (https://ngvla.nrao.edu/page/workinggroups).

Follow the Monarchs to Old Mexico

The conference on “Follow the Monarchs: A Journey to Explore the Cosmos at (Sub)milliarcsecond Scales with the ngVLA” will be held November 11-14 in person in Morelia, Mexico. The conference coincides with the Monarch butterflies completing their migration journey from Canada and the US to the historic Morelia area. A program of 67 talks has been announced (http://go.nrao.edu/ngvla24). The deadline for cost-saving registration and poster abstract submission is October 1. To take action, see the conference website (http://go.nrao.edu/ngvla24).

IAU Focus Meeting in South Africa

The focus meeting on “A Coherent View of Atomic and Molecular Gas from Infrared to Radio Wavelengths” was held August 6-7 in person in Cape Town, South Africa. The program (https://iaugas2024.astro.umd.edu/index.html) of 36 talks and 81 posters explored how work informed by existing facilities is shaping our understanding of the interstellar medium in the Milky Way and external galaxies, and how this work is re-framing the science to be addressed by the remarkable capabilities of future radio observatories. To broaden information sharing, presentations may be viewed for days 1 (https://astronomy2024.org/day-1-august-6/) and 2 (https://astronomy2024.org/day-2-august-7/), and proceedings will be published soon (https://astronomy2024.org/conference-proceedings/).

By Nadine Manset (Director of Science Operations, on behalf of the CFHT ‘ohana)

Last month

August 11th, was the 45th anniversary of CFHT’s first light. CFHT’s first exposure
was a two-minute image of Messier 13 taken with a 35mm film camera installed at the prime
focus, just in time for the 1979 General Assembly of the IAU in Montreal. The second
photograph below shows then Director Roger Cayrel inspecting the film. The following month,
on September 28th, 1979, the telescope was dedicated.

This month

CFHT issued a Call for Ideas for CFHT community surveys available here (https://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/en/news/SciSurvey/) We are initiating the process to design, implement, and carry out an ambitious scientific community-led survey that could be started as early as 2027 and last up to 5 years. This legacy survey will follow the next round of CFHT Large Programs that will be executed in 2025 and 2026. We are calling for letters of ideas for broad scientific themes or more specific proposals
for this community-led survey.

The intent is to design a survey (or surveys) that will be carried out with MegaCam and/or Wenaokeao (co-mount of ESPaDOnS and SPIRou), serve the widest possible community of CFHT users, and have a significant scientific impact and/or legacy value. The final survey will be designed by members of the CFHT community and may combine 2 or more proposals or scientific themes.

Interested individuals and teams may submit their letters by November 15, 2024, by e-mail to
director@cfht.hawaii.edu. Questions can be directed to manset@cfht.hawaii.edu.

Soon

The official selection of the next Large Programs (https://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/en/news/CallLP25A/) will be announced in October or November. The LPTAC met in early September to discuss and rank all submissions. The final decision will rest in the hands of the CFHT Board of Directors.

The virtual MSE Collaboration Workshop “Re-envisioning the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer within the Future of Large-scale Survey Spectroscopic Facilities” will be held in October and November. The meeting will have 4 sessions each week, on the days of October 29–31 and November 6–8, 2024. Additional details and a link to the registration are available here (https://mse.cfht.hawaii.edu/?page_id=3879) . The registration deadline is September 27.

Next year

Mark your calendar! The 2025 CFHT Users’ Meeting will be held May 26-27-28 at the beautiful
Auberge du Lac-à-l’Eau-Claire resort, in Québec. Stay tuned for additional information.

By / par Brenda Matthews and Gerald Schieven (NRC)
(Cassiopeia – Summer / été 2024)

WSU News

NRC Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics, along with colleagues from NRAO, are designing the new correlator for ALMA (the ATAC, or Advanced Technology ALMA Correlator), as part of a larger ALMA-wide effort to upgrade ALMA capabilities for the 2030s and beyond (the ALMA Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade, WSU). Last week, ATAC became the first of the subsystems to pass PDR (Preliminary Design Review), and so now enters Critical Design, and this excellent result will no doubt mark an important precedent for the whole WSU effort. At HAA, the ATAC team consists of Brent Carlson, Marty Cluff, Thushara Gunaratne, Stephen Harrison, Nitin Mehta, Michael Pleasance, Fan Zhang, with contributions from many others.

The PDR committee recognised the “Herculean effort” put in by the team, and described them as “phenomenally competent”, having created a “very elegant solution” for the design of the Correlator. Wow!

Cycle 10 Update

ALMA is currently in configuration C-5 (max baseline 1.4 km), moving outward to C-6 at the end of June, then moving inward to end the cycle in September in config C-3.

Cycle 11 Proposal Submission News

On April 24th at around 13 UTC, the day prior to the ALMA Cycle 11 CfP deadline, proposals requiring Bands 7 and higher started experiencing inconsistent observing time estimates. This was due to a temporary and intermittent connectivity issue between the online calibrator catalogue and the Observing Tool (OT), required to search for high frequency calibrators. When the calibrator catalogue could not be accessed, band-to-band calibration was assigned, resulting in an increase in the observing time estimates. In some cases, this prevented validation and submission if the observing time increased above the Large Program threshold. As announced on the Science Portal, initially the problem occurred intermittently and appeared resolved after a short time. Unfortunately, the issue recurred during the hours before the scheduled proposal submission deadline (April 25 at 15 UTC). A second issue related to user authentication also occurred close to the deadline, sometimes preventing users from logging in to submit their proposals. Both issues persisted until the deadline despite steps taken by ALMA to restart specific services. The issues were later identified as resulting from a performance degradation of the servers at the JAO, for which mitigating steps are being taken to prevent this occurring in the future.

To assist users who were impacted by these technical issues, ALMA took the following steps.

A second announcement was placed on the ALMA Science Portal instructing users to submit Helpdesk tickets prior to the ALMA deadline if they continued to be impacted by the issues. ALMA assisted all users who submitted Helpdesk tickets by the deadline and were unable to submit or resubmit their proposals due to these issues. Exceptionally, due to the issues occurring so close to the deadline, ALMA also helped users who submitted Helpdesk tickets immediately after the deadline. Observatory staff assisted users by submitting proposals (.aot files) to the ALMA Archive on behalf of these users. Only proposals affected by these specific issues were submitted in this manner.

All cases in which the proposal was submitted by the PI but with incorrect observing time estimates due to the calibrator catalogue issue will be fixed by the Observatory before proposals are sent to review. Reviewers will also be instructed to ignore any discrepancies in observing time estimates for Bands 7 and above.

It was decided to assist users in this way instead of extending the proposal submission deadline since the technical issues were ongoing and there was no estimate for when normal service could be restored.

Despite the problems affecting the final few hours of the Cycle 11 proposal deadline, ALMA has continued to have a strong demand for time on the telescope, with 1712 proposals submitted for Cycle 11, requesting 53533 hours of time on the 12m-, the 7m-, and the TP arrays. The number of proposals has remained steady over the last few cycles, while time requested for the 12m-array at 31,610 hours was the highest yet, with an oversubscription rate of 7.4. Canadian-led proposals are also continuing to be submitted in strong numbers with 51 proposals submitted requesting 2101 hours, an oversubscription rate of just over 10 of the Canada’s nominal share of North American time.

ALMA Primer Video Series

The ALMA Primer Instructional Video series, which can be found on the Science Portal here, is designed to provide a basic introduction to radio interferometry, calibration, imaging, and other topics in short (5-10 minute), easy-to-digest segments. As a work in progress, new videos are released periodically. A new video, an Introduction to Sidebands, Basebands and Spectral Windows, is expected to be released in early July, and several more will be released later this summer.

Other videos in the series include an Introduction to Radio Interferometry, Calibration, CLEAN, and much more. Subscribe to the ALMA Primer Video Series YouTube channel to be alerted to new videos as they are released.

We are always looking for ideas for new videos, and especially looking for people who would like to help with script generation, animation, and narration. If you have an idea or would like to join the Primer Video Working Group (at any level of effort), please contact gerald.schieven@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca.

By / par John Hutchings, Patrick Côté (NRC Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics Research Centre)
(Cassiopeia – Summer / été 2024)

The UKSA and CSA have signed a bilateral agreement that includes CASTOR. Funds have been already approved and are being used for UK science definition, detector testing, and development work on data flows and optics. On May 13-14, a UKSA delegation visited CSA, Montreal universities and Honeywell Aerospace, and then hosted a reception in Ottawa. UK-led science definition work focuses on TDAMM, galaxies, near-field cosmology and solar system science; an initial coordination meeting between the Canadian and UK science teams was held on June 13.

The final review meeting of the three-year Space Technology Development Program contract, led by ABB, was held on May 16. This contract elevated the TRLs for several technically challenging mission components, with significant work done on the opto-mechanical design, the Focal Plane Arrays, the Fast Steering mirror prototyping, the precision photometer, grism, and UVMOS. After many months, formal export licences to share these details with the UK and LAM partners have been approved.

The NRC internal “Small Teams” proposal to develop the UVMOS has been approved. This will provide some $2M over three years to perform technical work at HAA, in collaboration with partners at LAM (Marseille), LASP (Colorado), and the University of Calgary, as well as contracted work at the University of Manitoba. A kick-off meeting was held recently to initiate these exciting activities.

The CASCA AGM featured half of a shared ACURA town hall meeting on June 4. This event featured short presentations by the CASTOR team, industry, the Coalition and CSA, plus time for questions and discussions.

The Coalition lobbying activities are continuing, including quasi-regular meetings with government and opposition personnel. Coalition members also plan to meet with the CSA and NRC presidents. Although CASTOR was not listed in the federal budget, neither were TMT and SKA in previous years.

An ISSF (Inuvik Satellite Station Facility) optical ground station proposal is in early development by U Manitoba and Natural Resources Canada. This could potentially add an important high-latitude, high-speed downlink capability for CASTOR’s polar orbit.

Work is progressing towards the testing and characterization of the JPL-Te2v processed CIS120 detectors at UV wavelengths. The readout and control electronics for these devices are being developed at HAA, while vacuum facilities are being readied and staffed at HAA and the University of Calgary. This is an important step towards the development of flight detectors. Regular meetings are held with JPL, Te2v, and the UK Open University to discuss and coordinate these activities.

The development of various science planning tools continues, with several FORECASTOR papers published, submitted or in preparation. Co-op student Michelle Kao (Waterloo) recently completed a work term (hosted by U Manitoba and Magellan Aerospace) to develop a multi-mission task scheduler: this tool will be used to investigate and optimize survey scheduling. Wasi Naqvi(UBC Okanagan) recently started at co-op term at HAA to simulate the in-orbit performance of CASTOR’s expected flight detectors with ESA’s advanced Pyxel software. These simulations will support the detector testing programs underway at HAA, Calgary, Teledyne-e2v and Open University.

Plans are being developed with CSA to define Phase A statement-of-work items (or a dedicated subset for an earlier contract, depending on CASTOR funding). CSA-NRC joint agreements on funding and planning shared activities is also in detailed negotiation. The final negotiation of all international partnerships still awaits government approval of the mission.

For more information on the mission, see the CASTOR mission website.

By / par Erik Rosolowsky (U Alberta)
(Cassiopeia – Summer / été 2024)

Still from a live view of the site at the VLA where the ngVLA prototype 18m antenna will be constructed, starting this summer.

Technology Development at Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics

Engineers at HAA are working on the preliminary designs for the ngVLA Band 5 receiver system. Band 5 is one of the high-frequency receiver band systems planned for the ngVLA, spanning the 30-50 GHz range. This development leverages HAA’s previous experience with building the ALMA Band 3 receivers. Receiver development and manufacture could form the basis of an in-kind contribution to ngVLA participation.

Progress in the US

In 2023 July the US National Science Foundation (NSF) entered the ngVLA project into the design process for Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction. The ngVLA project is continuing its preparations for the NSF-run Conceptual Design Review, scheduled for 2024 September. In recent congressional hearings, the Director of the NSF cited the ngVLA as the clear next steps for ground based radio astronomy in the US.

Follow the Monarchs: A Journey to Explore the Cosmos at (Sub)milliarcsecond Scales with the ngVLA

This ngVLA international science conference will be held 2024 November 11-14 in person in the UNESCO World Heritage site of Morelia, Mexico. The conference will highlight and explore the novel scientific opportunities that will unfold with the unprecedented angular resolution and sensitivity capabilities offered by this new flagship facility. The conference will coincide with the Monarch butterflies completing their migration journey from Canada and the US to the mountains surrounding Morelia. Abstract submission for oral presentations closes July 8, and early registration is available until September 1. To take these actions, see here.