BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO Nov 7, 2005 -- Nov 21, 2005 ******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT***************************** In a surprise move, NSF received an increased budget over both the Senate and House funding levels. The Conference committee provided $5.653B to NSF, of which $4.387B goes to Research and Related Activities, the portion of the NSF budget that funds the various research directorates. This represents at 3% increase over FY2005. This increase is well below the amount authorized by the President two years ago in the so-called NSF doubling bill. If the authorized levels had been followed, NSF's budget would now be over $8.5B. In the Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction Account, ALMA will receive $49.24M. There will probably be a recision applied to these amounts of a few per cent. This is an across-the-board cut. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The ALMA Board met in Santiago 1 November through 2 November. The Board approved a resolution stating: "The ALMA Board concurs with the ALMA Director's recommendation that the European Exec proceed with the issuance of a contract to procure its share of the ALMA antennas." The Board also accepted a number of Baseline Change Proposals, amounting to a savings to the Project of about $17M (Y2K). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ... Peter Napier has agreed to take on the job as Team Leader for the ALMA Prototype System Integration group in Socorro, beginning in late January 2006. ... The ALMA Project looks forward to a continuation of Peter's excellent contributions to NRAO, and will be delighted to welcome him to his ALMA Systems Integration role in January. -- Jim Ulvestad -- Adrian Russell -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Two portions of enhanced ALMA were reviewed at CDRs held in Osaka and Tokyo last week. The reviews for the 12m antennas and for the Atacama Compact Array (ACA) System went quite well, in the opinion of one review committee member. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A face-to-face meeting of Computing Subsystem Leads will occur in Charlottesville16-19 Nov, followed by a face-to-face meeting of the Science Software Requirements group 20-21 Nov. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Past issues of this Calendar may be viewed at http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html See also the JAO ALMA Calendar overview at: http://www.alma.cl/alma_project ******************************************************************************* General Happenings Santiago: The ALMA Board met in Santiago 1 November through 2 November. OSF: Bidding documents for cleaning and catering services were released to bidders 2 Nov with closing expected 18 Nov. Currently there are 111 persons under ALMA supervision working at the site. AOS: Bidding documents for mechanical and electrical installations and architectural finishes were released to bidders 27 Oct; closing 21 Nov. Rough work on the road has reached km 40. ATF: Preparations for Optical Pointing using the Vertex antenna under realtime Linux continue. The Alcatel antenna continues motionless as a result of a component failure. A crew from Japan is visiting to begin the process of refitting the Mitsubishi antenna for Chile service. NTC: Cryostat No. 2 will be shipped to the NTC shortly. Cryostat No. 3 will be ready for shipping shortly; Cryostat No. 4 is undergoing testing. B6 (1.3mm) image rejection is better than previously thought owing to correction of a software bug which had caused underestimation of performance. HIA: B3 (3mm) cartridge No. 2 and meets specification. NAASC: NAASC: Pre-registration for the z-Machines workshop has closed. 70 participants are expected: 27 speakers and ~30 xvm posters. The program will be published on November 1 on the meeting website http://www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/zmachines. The ANASAC met via telcom on October 18, to be briefed by the NRAO director on the ALMA Cost Review. They also discussed the planning of the ALMA Town Meeting at the January meeting of the AAS in Washington D.C. on January 9th. ******************************************************************************* DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT ) see https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar Mon 7 November Tue 8 November All Day: ALMA-J 12m ACA Antenna CDR/MRR 1, Osaka 10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon Wed 9 November All Day: ALMA-J 12m ACA Antenna CDR/MRR 1, Osaka Thu 10 All Day: ALMA-J ACA System CDR, Mitaka 11:00 AM: Calibration Group telecon Fri 11 Veterans Day Holiday, US Sat Nov 12 Sun Nov 13 Mon Nov 14 Tue Nov 15 10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon 4:00 PM-5:00 PM: NAScienceIPT teleconference (open to all interested parties) (434)296-7082 Wed Nov 16 All Day: Computing Subsystem Leads CV 8:00 AM: System Requirements Group telecon 10:30 AM-11:30 AM: Science IPT Telecon 4:00 PM: ASAC Telecon Thu Nov 17 11:30 AM: CCB Telecon Fri Nov 18 Sat Nov 19 Sun Nov 20 All Day: SSR Committee meeting ****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS **************************** ALMA Calendar--https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar * Nov 8-9 -- ESO Finance Committee * Nov 8-9 -- ALMA-J Antenna SRR, Osaka * Nov 10-11 -- ACA System Review, Tokyo * Nov 21-22 -- SSR Meeting, Charlottesville * Nov 30-Dec 1 -- National Science Board meets * Dec 7-8 -- ESO Council Regular Meeting * Jan 4-7 -- URSI/NA, Boulder * Jan 12-14 -- ALMA Zmachines workshop ******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS ***************************** ALMA Memo 542: Height and Velocity of the Turbulence Layer at Chajnantor Estimated From Radiometric Measurements Author: Juan Pablo Pérez Beaupuits (CTH), Roberto C. Rivera (ESO), Lars-Ĺke Nyman (ESO) Abstract: The height of the turbulence layer above Chajnantor was determined using two Water Vapour Radiometers (WVR) located along a 300m East-West baseline. The radiometers measure the fluctuations in the precipitable water vapour (PWV). The fluctuations are similar in both WVR and thus a cross-correlation of the signal of both radiometers make possible to determine the transit time from the correlation time lag. With a known transit time, and with both beams parallel along the East-West baseline, it is possible to obtain the velocity of the turbulence layer, projected along the baseline. Using the projected turbulence velocity together with a second transit time found with the beams crossed at a given height, we obtained the height of the turbulence layer. Data were taken during a two-month period in December 2003 and January 2004. The most reliable estimates of the velocity and height of the turbulence layer occurred between 14 and 22 UT, which corresponds to about 38% of a whole day. During this period the median height of the turbulence layer is about 600 m. About 70% of the analyzed time the turbulence layer was below 1000 m. During night-time, the estimate of the height becomes less accurate because the wind speeds are lower, the wind direction changes from East-West towards North-South, and the amount of PWV seems to be very low, which all together is reflected in weaker signals in the radiometers and less amount of strong cross-correlations. A pdf copy of this memo is on edm.alma.cl and will eventually appear at: http://www.alma.nrao.edu/memos/html-memos/alma542/memo542.pdf ******************************ALSO OF INTEREST****************************** The SMA reportedly achieved fringes on a baseline including the JCMT. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------TENURE TRACK ASTRONOMER POSITIONS------------------------ The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) invites outstanding applicants for tenure track astronomer positions. In the next few years, the NRAO expects to make one or two appointments per year. Appointments are not restricted to radio astronomers. See http://www.nrao.edu/administration/personnel_office/careers.shtml#tenure ---------------------------ALMA Postdocs----------------------------------- 2006 Postdoc Position at the North American ALMA Science Center/ALMA Construction The National Radio Astronomy Observatory expects to invite applications for a NRAO Postdoctoral appointment at the North American ALMA Science Center in Charlottesville, Va. These positions provide 50% time for independent research, with the remaining 50% assigned to project and operational duties at the sites. The position is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation through the ALMA Construction Project. See http://www.nrao.edu/administration/personnel_office/careers.shtml#alma --------------------------------------------- ****************************************************************************** Please send information for upcoming calendars by Friday evening of the preceding biweekly period to Jennifer Neighbours or Al Wootten via e-mail (jneighbo@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, alma-info, has been created for anyone wishing to receive it. Past issues are available at http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html