By / par Brenda Matthews and Gerald Schieven (NRC)
(Cassiopeia – Summer / été 2023)
ALMA 10 Years Meeting
The conference ALMA at 10 years: Past, Present, and Future will be held in Puerto Varas, Chile from 4-8 December 2023. Abstract submissions for talks and on-site posters have closed, and interest for in-person registration has exceeded the 180-person capacity. The number of abstracts received was very high (279) so the SOC has their work cut out for them to select 45-50 talks from this number.
Virtual attendance, including posters, is still possible. Those interested can register via this site.
Cycle 10 Proposal Statistics
General stats:
- Number of proposals: 1680
- Number of proposals with Canadian PI or coPI: 54
- This is the highest number ever, eight more than the previous record in Cycle 8
- Total time requested on the 12m-Array: 29,525h
- This is also a record amount of requested time
- Time requested by Canadian PIs/coPIs: 1061.2h
- This is about 200h less than Cycle 8, but still second highest time requested
- Time requested by proposals with at least one Canadian: 4893.4h
- Global oversubscription rate: 6.9
- Canadian PI/coPI oversubscription rate: 10.3
- (as a fraction of North American time)
- 44 Large Programs were submitted, requesting nearly 5000h on the 12m-Array
Joint Proposals with other facilities, including the Space Telescope Science Institute’s James Webb Space Telescope, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, and the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope were available for Cycle 10. Uptake from the community was strong. Forty-two Joint Proposals were submitted, requesting over 1200h on the 12m-Array. In total, 26 Joint Proposals requested time on the JWST, 10 requested the VLA, and 10 requested the VLT.
ALMA Cycle 10 will start in October 2023. In the main 12-m Array, antenna configurations C-1 to C-8 (with maximum baselines between 0.16 and 8.5 km) will be scheduled.
The ALMA User-Defined Imaging (AUDI) Service
We would like to inform you that an updated ALMA User-Defined Imaging (AUDI) service, including automated self-calibration, was released this month and is available through the NRAO archive. Look for the ‘Reimaging’ button associated with an ALMA dataset. This new capability may be of interest to you and/or your students this summer. As a reminder, you may also download restored measurement sets for ALMA (Cycle 5 and later) and VLA data (2016 and later) through the NRAO archive as well. If you do not see a particular ALMA dataset of interest marked with the blue ‘Restore’ or ‘Reimaging’ button and should be, please send a message to John Tobin and he will investigate.
The imaging pipeline behind the AUDI service attempts phase-only self-calibration using the continuum data. AUDI requests now will attempt phase-only self-calibration by default, and if self-calibration is successful, both the non-self-calibrated and the self-calibrated images will be delivered to users. If self-calibration is unsuccessful, only the non-self-calibrated images are delivered.
The CASA+pipeline package used for AUDI and includes the self-calibration task is available for download and standalone use of the pipeline with self-calibration. Further documentation of the self-calibration task and example pipeline recipes for ALMA and VLA data are provided here.
Need Help with ALMA Data Reduction?
Members of the NAASC, including those at HAA in Victoria, are always available to offer assistance with data processing/reduction questions.
In addition, The North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC) via its ALMA Ambassadors will hold data processing workshops later this year. The schedule is not yet set, but those interested can keep an eye on the workshop schedule.
Canadians are encouraged to apply to be ALMA ambassadors. Cycle 10 had two ALMA Ambassadors at Canadian institutions (Adam Dong and Jiayi Sun), and we hope to see applications submitted for Cycle 11 as well. Those interested can consult the website for the ALMA Ambassadors program. The Cycle 11 information is not yet there, but be aware the deadline is typically around mid-October. Grant money is attached to this program.
ALMA Primer Instructional Videos: reminder!
Radio interferometry, including with ALMA, is a complex and often non-intuitive field. Like the ALMA introductory document, Observing with ALMA – A Primer, the ALMA Primer Instructional Video Series is designed to provide a basic introduction to radio interferometry, calibration, imaging, and other topics in brief (5-15 minutes), bite-size pieces. In addition, short (<1minute) extracts of some of these videos are available to use when teaching or in presentations. The series is a work in progress; new videos are added periodically.
The ALMA Primer Instructional Video Series is now available from the ALMA Science Portal. The videos are also available from the ALMA Primer YouTube Channel here. Subscribe to be alerted whenever new videos are added!