Science IPT Monthly Summary =========================== September 2002 ASAC Meeting: ------------- All members of the NA Science IPT, as well as several EU Science IPT members, attended the ASAC Face-to-face meeting in Socorro Sept. 6-8. Several presentations on calibration, configuration and site issues were prepared and presented by Science IPT members to the ASAC (see SiteScape for presentations). The recommendations made by the ASAC on these topics can be found in the ASAC report (to be submitted to the ACC October 15), which will feed back into future Science IPT work. The logistical and organizational details of the meeting were handled by Butler and Wootten. Configuration: ------------- During September, configuration leader Conway delivered a plan for configurations covering less than 4 km in extent to the JAO. For the compact array configurations, special attention was paid to minimizing shadowing losses as well as improved image quality of far Southern (e.g., Magellanic Clouds) and far Northern sources. For the intermediate configurations, the zoom spiral array design has been adopted, which is continuously reconfigurable. This plan has been reviewed critically by the JAO, in particular Guilloteau, and has been accepted as final. Upon receipt of Conway's plan, Holdaway began designing the interface from the largest Conway spiral array to the more extended Y+ configurations. The choice of the Y+ configuration rather than the large 14 km ring array was made earlier this summer, with arguments including operational simplicity, the natural intermediate resolution configurations, the sometimes superior imaging quality, and the potential to expand to longer baselines in the future. The maximum baseline in the Y+ array is 18 km, leading to images of 13-16 mas at 300 GHz. In response to questions at the ASAC meeting, further optimization of the Y+ array to image sources on the smallest angular scales is currently in progress. These simulations use a new topographical mask reflecting the ALMA concession boundaries, as well as the prescription used by Conway for the inner configurations. Calibration: ----------- Butler, as leader of the Calibration Group, initiated a review process of all recent ALMA memos on calibration this summer. At least 3 independent reviewers were identified for each memo, with reports starting to appear in late August/early September. Discussion on the responses was started. Efforts at absolute calibration at BIMA, led by Welch in collaboration with Butler, were also pursued. Using a comparison between a calibrated horn and an antenna, the BIMA group has been using Jupiter and MWC349 to improve the standards for absolute calibration, currently at 30 GHz. These will be compared with future VLA measurements of MWC349. Site Characterization: --------------------- Radford, together with summer student Selby Cull, provided analysis of the site data to the ASAC to work on their ACC charge. The results are summarized in the ASAC report. Science Software Requirements: ----------------------------- Kemball and Lucas finished a draft report on the testing of AIPS++ for the reduction of Plateau de Bure Interferometry data and presented the results at the ASAC meeting. Myers and other Science IPT members continued to work with the Science Software Requirements group on audit requirements for AIPS++. Details can be found in the Software IPT and ASAC reports. Organization: ------------- The organization and planning for the Science IPT during the construction phase of ALMA was reviewed by Wootten and van Dishoeck, together with project scientist Guilloteau, in a number of face-to-face meetings in Socorro and Garching in September. Draft Level 2 milestones were made and discussed with Science IPT members. Weekly telecons between the three project scientists have been initiated, and monthly Science IPT telecons will start soon. Meetings, Outreach and Public Education: ---------------------------------------- Wootten finished his ALMA paper for the SPIE Hawaii meeting. Shaver attended the JENAM 2002 meeting in Portugal and presented a lecture on ALMA at a special ALMA session of the Spanish National Astronomy meeting in Toledo. Van Dishoeck gave several seminars on ALMA to Dutch astronomy and chemistry audiences. Van Dishoeck and Shaver started planning for a European ALMA Science Day at ESO on November 8, with initial invitations sent to the community. Together with Cox, Richer and Booth, they also continued to investigate opportunities for financial support for ALMA activities within the European Union Framework 6 program (2004-2007). Discussions with the European radio and optical communities were held at workshops in Manchester and Paris.