MMA Imaging and Calibration Group

Agenda/Minutes for meeting Tuesday, 17 Dec 2002 at 4:00pm EDT.

Date: 17 Dec 2002

Time: 4:00 pm EST (2:00 pm Socorro, 2:00 pm Tucson)

Phone: (434)296-7082 (CV SoundStation Premier Conference phone 3rd floor).

Past minutes, etc on MMA Imaging and Calibration Division Page

Agenda

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Science IPT News - Wootten

News from my point of view.
The Agenda from today's meeting is available.
- updated organizational diagram and time commitments:
see updated figure below; postscript
here.
Also see time commitments.

The "almasci at nrao.edu" e-mail exploder is now active.

- updated Level 3 milestones
are still being enhanced and revised.

The VertexRSI antenna is up! Photogrammetry is scheduled.

Project News -

ASAC

Telecon 4 Dec

ALMA Project Office moves to Old Ivy Road 18 December. jbauer is the new 'Carolyn' Janet Bauer.

Carla Beaudet and Galen Watts of NRAO/GB conduct RFI tests at Chajnantor 3 - 20 December 2002

Software IPT Internal Design Review

was held in Garching 9-12 Dec 2002. Report?

Al was at Caltech 9-12 Dec; Report.

The European ALMA workshop in Leiden 18-20 December. One purpose is to stimulate interaction between the ALMA and Herschel-HIFI communities on issues of common interest, in particular calibration.

AMAC Meering 22-23 Jan Socorro

ALMA Week 28 April Victoria (TBC)

May 26/27 ALMA Board face-to-face (Europe)

The NRAO Director is forming a Science Advisory Group, which will formulate an ALMA Science Workshop in conjunction with the Spring NRAO Users Committee Meeting. I have suggested an agenda but the details will be entirely up to the SAG.
November 3/4 ALMA Board face-to-face (N.A.?)

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Proposed correlator upgrade -- Wootten

Please review memo 441 by Escoffier and Webber. The ASAC made a statement:
The ASAC has read with interest the proposal in ALMA Memo 441 by Escoffier and Webber to enhance the performance of the baseline ALMA correlator. The proposed enhancement will increase the number of channels in the wide band mode from 256 to 8192 points in each 2 GHz of the 16 GHz available, and therefore allow for better resolution. The relatively small number of spectral channels currently available in the wide bandwidth modes is a major scientific limitation of the baseline correlator that would be remedied if this enhancement could be carried out. Therefore, the ASAC encourages the ALMA project to see if this enhancement to the correlator can be implemented within the baseline ALMA project.
My understanding is, from the JAO/IPT meeting Monday, that this will be treated as a possible enhancement.
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Calibration - All

See a summary of the meeting held Monday 16 December.

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List of the status of the reviews/reviewers. The key is: "C" - already submitted a review; "U" = submitted an unsolicited review; "Y" = agreed to review the memo; "N" - declined to review the memo; "NR" - no response. Links are provided to reviews; please consult the archive for subsequent discussions.
1 - Memo 423 - Steve Myers (Y), Matt Carter (N), Geoff Blake (Y)
2 - Memo 422 - Douglas Bock (Y), Lee Mundy (NR), Jeff Mangum (C) , Dave Woody (U) (Memo withdrawn)
3 - Memo 427 - Robert Lucas (C) , Ed Fomalont (NR), Craig Walker (C)
4 - Memo 372 - Jeff Mangum (C) , Larry D'Addario (C) , Mark Gurwell (N), Bryan Butler (U)
5 - Memo 415 - Jose Cernicharo (NR), Mark Holdaway (C) , John Richer (Y)
6 - Memo 404 & 403 - Mel Wright (N), Dave Woody (Y&C) , John Richer (Y)
8 - Memo 402 - Richard Hills (Y), Peter Napier (NR)
9 - Memo 352 - Dave Woody (C) , Chris Wilson (C) , Dick Plambeck (N)
10 - Memo 434 - Stephane Guilloteau (C)
so, as yet no response from:
Lee Mundy - 422
Ed Fomalont - 427
Jose Cernicharo - 415
Peter Napier - 402

and awaiting agreed upon reviews from:
Steve Myers - 423
Geoff Blake - 423
Douglas Bock - 422
John Richer - 415, 404, 403
Richard Hills - 402

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AIPS++ - Myers

Apparently this was a major discussion topic in Garching.

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Configuration - Holdaway

Conway has
developed the antenna pad specifications.

The Configuration Group has delivered the configuration plan to the Site Group, and surveyors are at work at Chajnantor. For photos, please see this Configuration realization page. There was some discussion of shortcomings of this plan at the Science IPT telecon today.
Mark has material on the reconfiguration cycles here. There was much discussion of reconfiguration last week, collected in the link.
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Site Characterization

The Site Characterization Group has been working with a team from NRAO Green Bank to characterize the RFI environment at Chajnantor; a photo is shown on the above page.
Proposal from Holdaway and Otarola regarding prediction of Atmospheric conditions as a way to support the flexible scheduling foreseen for ALMA.
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Other

The JAO has decided to compile reports on a quarterly basis, rather than monthly.
A NA monthly report for November was submitted, amplified by EU items and forwarded to the JAO as this text. This will be combined with the October report to submit to the NA Project Office for the NSF bimonthly report. Please send materials to HAW for NA.
The next one will be for Dec-Jan.

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SMA News...

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Upcoming Meetings - Wootten

JAN 5/9, 2003 201st Meeting of the American Astronomical Society

JUL 13-26, 2003 Twenty-Fifth General Assembly of the IAU

JUL 22/25, 2003 IAU Symposium (221): Star Formation at High Angular Resolution, Sydney, Australia. Tyler Bourke is a co-chair of the scientific organizing committee. Good opportunity to show ALMA capabilities.

SEP 22-26, 2003 4th Cologne-Bonn-Zermatt-Symposium on The Dense Interstellar Medium in Galaxies

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Travel

Oh, always

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