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The Italian ARC is hosted by the Istituto di Radioastronomia in Bologna and is one of the seven nodes that constitute the European network that will provide technical and scientific support to ALMA users. The nodes will be operating in close collaboration with each other and with the central node at ESO, Garching. Each node contributes its own specific expertise, in order to ensure that maximum advantage is taken of the European competences in the field of mm-astronomy and interferometry.
Our ARC node staff will support the ALMA users in all the steps of their projects, by helping in
- using the ALMA tools for proposal preparation and submission
- optimising the observing strategy
- tracking the project status
- reducing data with CASA
- analysing data in continuum, spectral lines, mosaic, polarization
- archive mining
- handling large data sets (also through GRID technology)
What's on
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A historic event
On 13 March 2013 the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) — the largest ground-based astronomical project in the world — was inaugurated, marking the transition from construction project to fully fledged observatory. To enable people around the world to witness first-hand this exciting milestone in humanity’s quest to understand the cosmos, a live video stream of the inauguration was webcast from the observatory’s Operations Support Facility, at an altitude of 2900 metres in the Chilean Andes.
The stream is available at http://www.almaobservatory.org/inauguration/. The President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, along with hundreds of guests including representatives from the global scientific community, current and former ALMA personnel and its executives, as well as the communities located near ALMA, celebrated the success of the project. The latest results from this state-of-the-art observatory were also presented. |
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ALMA status
All antennas have completed Assembly, Integration and Verification at the Operations Support Facility (OSF) at 2,900 meters altitude, and almost all have been transported to the 5,000 meter high Array Operations Site (AOS) on the Chajnantor plateau.
Early Science Cycle 1 Observations started in January 2013. The “highest priority” projects will be prepared in several batches (as was done for Cycle 0). PIs of these projects will be contacted by staff from one of the ALMA Regional Centers (ARCs) or their affiliated nodes when the “Phase 2” materials for their projects are ready for review and approval. The Phase 2 process will closely follow that from Cycle 0. About 800 hours will be available for science projects. The ALMA Early Science Cycle 1 capabilities will comprise:
- More than thirty two 12-m antennas in the main array, and nine 7-m antennas (for short baselines) and two 12-m antennas (for making single-dish maps) in the Atacama Compact Array (ACA)
- Receiver bands 3, 6, 7 & 9 (wavelengths of about 3, 1.3, 0.8 and 0.45 mm)
- Baselines up to 1km
- Both single field interferometry and mosaics
- Mixed correlator modes (both high and low frequency resolution in the same observation)
ALMA striking scientific results
AGENDA
| 01 Jan 2013 |
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Start of ALMA Cycle 1 Science Observations |
| 22-26 Apr 2013 |
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"The Modern Radio Universe 2013" - Bonn |
27-28 May 2013
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Science with ALMA Band 2 Workshop - Bologna
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29-31 May 2013
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Nordic Science with ALMA, Goteborg, Sweden
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24 Jun 2013
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II Solar ALMA Workshop, Prague, Czech Republic
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24-29 Jun 2013
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CESRA 2013 Meeting with ALMA session. Prague, Czech Republic
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26-27 Aug 2013
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ALMA Community days - Garching
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| Summer 2013 |
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ALMA Cycle 2 call for proposals |
13-20 Sep 2013
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IRAM 30m Summer School - Granada
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| 8-13 Sep 2013 |
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"ERIS" school - Dwingeloo
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| 31 Oct 2013 |
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End of ALMA Cycle 1 |
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