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NORTH AMERICAN ALMA SCIENCE CENTER (NAASC)

Main Entrance to NAASC

The North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC) in Charlottesville is responsible for supporting the science use of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) by the North American astronomical community (the USA via the NRAO, and Canada via the National Research Council Canada). The NAASC is also responsible for the core functions in support of ALMA operation in Chile and the research and development activities in support of future upgrades of ALMA.

The ANASAC provides scientific advice to the NRAO director on the science operation of ALMA and the North American ALMA Science Center, as representatives of the wider North American astronomical community. The link above lists the ANASAC membership, meeting dates and links to ANASAC reports.

The NAASC is an operational division of within NRAO Headquarters, located in in Charlottesville, VA on the campus of the University of Virginia. Directions to the NAASC can be found here

The North American ALMA Regional Center (NA ARC) is a subset of the NAASC, concentrating on the internationally agreed upon ALMA core functions (e.g. helpdesk support, telescope support in Chile, etc.). Each of the international partners has similar ARCs:

NAASC Calendar - Click Here

or click on the name of the month in the calendar below to open in a new window.
NRAO Calendar for this week

Open NAASC Positions

Positions being filled in the North American ALMA Science Center: If you are qualified, please consider applying. There are a number of positions for astronomers in Chile; see below.

For other ALMA-related jobs, see:

3rd NAASC ALMA Science Workshop

Transformational Science with ALMA:
The Birth and Feedback of Massive Stars, Within and Beyond the Galaxy


Transformational Science with ALMA, poster The NAASC and the University of Virginia will sponsor a workshop from September 25–27, 2008 at the NAASC in Charlottesville, Virginia on the topic of massive star formation and feedback. The meeting's focus is on how ALMA will impact our understanding of massive star formation on scales from massive proto-stars up to galaxies. Pre-registration and abstract submission are now open from the meeting webpage.

ALMA Project Progress Report from the April 2008 NRAO Newsletter

Contents:
  • ALMA Project Progress
  • The North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC)

More ALMA News


ALMA Construction Photogallery

Digital images of the construction project and the OSF webcam are available via the above link.

 

ALMA Presentations

Includes links to ALMA powerpoint presentations, copies of the talks and poster presentations given at AAS meetings, and talks and publications from NAASC staff.

 

Approximate Timeline for NAASC:

  •  2005 January
  • Addition complete; begin staffing NAASC
  •  2005 July
  • Sign Antenna contract
  •  2009 January
  • 3-element interferomter available in Chile; Commissioning & Science Verification activity begins.
  •  2010 January
  • Call for Proposals for early science.
  •  2010 August
  • Early Operations.
                                       This will happen when there are 15 commissioned antennas and at least four standard bands: 86-116GHz (band 3), 211-275GHz (band 6), 275-370 GHz (band 7), and 602-720 GHz (band 9).
  •  2011 January
  • Data Archive available at NAASC
  •  2011 April   
  • Automated pipeline reduction available
  •  2012 December
  • Full Science Operations (64 commissioned antennas, 4 or more bands, all modes, ACA available)

    Modified on Thursday, 01-May-2008 14:09:20 EDT