By Brenda Matthews & Gerald Schieven (NRC-HAA)
Cycle 12 Call for Proposals Open (March 20)
The ALMA Director, on behalf of the Joint ALMA Observatory and the partner organizations in East Asia, Europe, and North America, is pleased to announce that the ALMA Cycle 12 Call for Proposals (https://almascience.org/proposing/call-for-proposals) for scientific observations is now OPEN!
ALMA Cycle 12 is currently scheduled for observations from October 2025 to September 2026. Users of any nationality or affiliation are invited to submit proposals before the deadline of 15:00 UT on Thursday 24 April 2025.
Full details about capabilities, applying, and other information can be found at https://almascience.nrao.edu/documents-and-tools.
Proposal Preparation Webinar and Workshops
Webinar – Join the ALMA Ambassadors for a webinar on 02 April at 2pm Eastern, in preparation for the Cycle 12 proposal deadline (24 April 2025). This webinar will provide an overview of the basics of ALMA, new capabilities in Cycle 12, and proposal preparation (including dual-anonymous and distributed peer review). The webinar will be followed by a brief Q&A session. Please register at: https://nrao-edu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_M5as44qrR7qUoB851XrWAw
Workshops – The North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC) and the Cycle 12 ALMA Ambassadors have also organized a series of ALMA proposal preparation workshops, to take place between 21 March and 05 April 2025. The goal of these events is to provide users with the knowledge they need to carry out cutting-edge scientific research using ALMA. We are particularly interested in reaching new users, so no experience with radio astronomy is required to participate!
Registration for these workshops is free. The workshops are designed to assist you in proposal preparation and observation planning for ALMA Cycle 12, and may include talks on the following topics:
- ALMA Basics and Cycle 12 Capabilities
- Radio Interferometry Basics
- Cycle 12 Proposal Preparation and the Proposal Review Process
- Introduction to the ALMA Observing Tool
- ALMA Data Products, Archive Use, and Notes on the Pipeline Weblog
- Common Astronomy Software Applications (CASA) Simulations
- Science-ready Data Products
Workshops are being held in person as well as virtually in two locations in Canada:
- University of British Columbia (21 March; hosted by Anan Lu)
- Information and registration at: https://science.nrao.edu/facilities/alma/naasc-workshops/nrao-cd-ubc25
- McGill University (26 March; hosted by Anan Lu)
- Information and registration at: https://science.nrao.edu/facilities/alma/naasc-workshops/nrao-cd-mcgill25
In-person and virtual workshops are also being held in locations across the United States, Puerto Rico, and Chile. For information and registration for all workshops, please go to https://science.nrao.edu/facilities/alma/community
These ALMA workshops and webinar are hosted by experienced postdocs and graduate students as part of the ALMA Ambassadors program, which is open to graduate students and postdocs at any institution in Canada or the United States. Check out https://science.nrao.edu/facilities/alma/ambassadors-program/ for more information and to learn about applying.
ALMA Primer Video Series – New Releases
The ALMA Primer Instructional Video series, which can be found on the Science Portal at https://almascience.nrao.edu/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. Recent videos include a brief introduction to how ALMA’s heterodyne receivers work (https://youtu.be/rpbaPNwntb0?si=JHsWTQ1OIYDTxali), and a series explaining sidebands, basebands and spectral windows (https://youtu.be/bm6vrEWAlYM?si=R2NIYvcZ1vnXBRd-), with practical examples on tuning setups (https://youtu.be/1zWwLrsBwA4?si=elgmOu8SGFtpKQaJ; https://youtu.be/18qE2-u0rMY?si=We49svch4_AfKctC). A new video on Primary Beams and Field-of-View is under production and is expected to be released by April 2025.
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.
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 want to join the Primer Video Working Group (at any level of effort), please contact gerald.schieven[at]nrc-cnrc.gc.ca.