BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO April 26 - May 10, 2004 ******************************** THIS BIWEEK *********************************** Rick Murowinski has accepted AUI/NRAO's offer to become JAO Project Engineer. He will begin his duties on May 18, 2004. Rick comes to ALMA from The Astronomy Technology Research Group (Victoria), where he has been Deputy Leader of the group and working on gound- and space-based instrumentation for large telescopes: Gemini and JWST among others. Research interests (to occupy those ever-diminishing free moments!) are in solid state detector physics. The move to ALMA brings his career in a full circle from its start at Algonquin Radio Telescope and then working on SIS mixers at Chalmer's Institute of Technology (Goteberg). Rick will take up duties for JAO while initially remaining based in Victoria. Once the new Chilean offices are ready this fall, he'll move to Santiago. Welcome to ALMA, Rick! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Draft G3 (2004-Feb-21) of the ALMA Operations Plan, created by the JAO Operations Working Group, is available for perusal at: http://www.eso.org/~dsilva/almaBoard/ALMAOperationsPlan-G3.pdf The second document (four (4) pages long) contains comments on Draft G3 provided by the North American Executive: http://www.eso.org/~dsilva/almaBoard/NA-Comments-G3.pdf The third document contains comments on Draft G3 from the European Executive: http://www.eso.org/~dsilva/almaBoard/ESO-Comments-G3.pdf --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Information on the ALMA Workshop at University of Maryland 14-15 May 2004 may be found at www.nrao.edu/almaworkshop/ ******************************************************************************* General Happenings Chile Tender documents for the AOS foundation package have been submitted. Road construction for the permanent OSF-AOS road is 60% complete to km 16. A construction crew of ~57 is working on the ALMA site. ATF A report is being written on the VertexRSI antenna tests, while the accepted AEC antenna undergoes intial radiometric tests. NTC Internal review of the final Tunable Filter Bank pre-prototype schematics successfully completed. AOC The ALMA Pipeline is undergoing its first external test. The ALMA Export Data Format document is ready for ALMA approval. TUC Bob Freund has transferred to System Engineering. Several people will transfer to Charlottesville in the coming months. DAILY CALENDAR Mon April 26 10:30 AM-12:00 PM: JAO/IPT Teleconference Tue April 27 12:00 PM ALMA Change Control Board Teleconference 1:30 PM NA ALMA Board Telecaucus 3:00 PM-4:00 PM: Front End Group Meeting 4:00 PM-5:00 PM: NAScienceIPT teleconference (open to all interested parties) (434)296-7082 Agenda: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ Go to meeting date (last of five years of agendas) Wed April 28 11:00 AM ALMA Board Teleconference Thu April 29 8:30 AM-10:00 AM: JAO Teleconference Fri April 30 ANASAC Meetings will now be every other month; no meeting today Sat May 01 Sun May 02 Mon May 03 1:00 PM-2:30 PM: NA DH Teleconference Tue May 04 3:00 PM-4:00 PM: Front End Group Meeting 4:00 PM-5:00 PM: NAScienceIPT teleconference (open to all interested parties) (434)296-7082 Agenda: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ Go to meeting date (last of five years of agendas) Wed May 05 10:30 AM-12:00 PM: ASAC Teleconference CANCELLED this month in lieu of face-to-face meeting next week in Cambridge UK Thu May 06 8:30 AM-10:00 AM: JAO Teleconference Fri May 07 ****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ****************************** #ALMA Calendar * 10-11 May -- ASAC Face-to-face meeting, Cambridge, England * 14-15 May -- ALMA/NA Workshop, U. of Maryland * 15 May -- ANASAC Face-to-face meeting, U. of Maryland * 25-26 May -- ALMA Backend Review, Arcachon, France * 22-23 June -- ALMA Board Meeting, Garching * 8-10 July -- Software IPT CDR II, Denver, Colorado. * 24 September -- ALMA/EU Meeting, Garching * 11-12 Oct -- AMAC Meeting, Florence, Italy ******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS ******************************* ALMA MEMO #491 Does the Atacama Compact Array (ACA) Need Phase Compensation? M.A. Holdaway 2004-04-06 We analyze the phase monitor data from Chajnantor over the period 1996 - 2001 and infer the level of phase fluctuations that would be seen on 10- 30 m, typical baseline lengths for the Atacama Compact Array (ACA). On baselines of 10-30 m, fast switching phase compensation will be useless, but water vapor radiometry (WVR) could improve the phase stability marginally. We consider the effects of phase errors on imaging and on the flux scale, and determine that (a) the ACA will require dynamic scheduling in order to meet the ALMA scientific objectives, (b) given dynamic scheduling, the ACA will likely not require any sort of active phase correction such as WVR, and (c) by permitting high frequency ACA observations during conditions with the lowest opacities and less than optimal phase stability, WVRs could increase the ACA's efficiency, especially for high frequency observations, and can probably be justified on a cost-benefit basis. There is another reason why we would want phase calibration on the ACA - the 12 7 m dishes cannot calibrate themselves to the required accuracy in a reasonable amount of time. In order to calibrate accurately, we need to correlate the 7 m dishes with the four 12 m dishes dedicated to the ACA, or even better, with the full ALMA array. If we are correlating with the four nearby 12 m dishes, we do not need phase compensation on the ACA antennas, but if we plan to correlate with the full ALMA, we absolutely need WVR and fast switching capability. View a pdf version of ALMA Memo #491 at URL: http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma491/memo491.pdf ******************************************************************************* Please send information for upcoming calendars by Friday evening of the preceding biweekly period to Janet Bauer or Al Wootten via e-mail (jbauer@nrao.edu or awootten@nrao.edu). The calendar will be issued between late Friday and sometime on Monday by e-mail to all NRAO scientific staff members and anyone else interested. A specific mailing list may be created for this.