ALMAConstruction, Operations
Status
Thijs de Graauw
ALMA Director
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
17 antennas in the array!
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array
(ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a
partnership among Europe, North America and East
Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile.
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
ALMA: Characteristics
• An array of 66 antennas using aperture synthesis
• A “zoom telescope” with ~16km diameter at zoom-in
• Operates at wavelengths between 10 and 0.3mm
(~30 GHz--950GHz)
• Operates at 5000 meter altitude
ALMA is now the largest astronomical ground-based
project coming into existence and will start scientific
observations in 2011.
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
ALMA is one Array consisting of two Components:
A) Bilateral antenna array: 50 12m antennas;
Bi-lateral Correlator for 64 antrennas
B) ALMA Compact Array (ACA): 2-12m +12-7m antennas
ACA correlator
ALMA Science Capabilities:
Google-Earth view of site with antennas in the
most extended configuration – baselines to 16km
Simulation most compact configuration
What will ALMA do (1)
Make images of new stars being formed, with planets emerging
from the disks around them.
What ALMA will do (2)
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains ~100 billion stars.
ALMA will image galaxies billions light-years away.
We expect to see entire galaxies being formed back then.
Hubble image of distant galaxies mm-wave images of near
galaxies
What ALMA will do (3)
The most distant galaxies that
we have seen so far lie at a red-
shift of about 6. They are more
than 12 billion light years away.
Between them and the Big Bang,
at 13.7 billion years ago, lie the
“Dark Ages”. The first stars,
galaxies and black holes must
have formed then.
We expect that ALMA will be
able to catch the faint glimmers
of the light from these objects
so we can take one more step in
understanding how our universe
came to be the way it is.
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
Collaboration discussions started in 1990s
Agreements between 2001 and 2005
First bilateral ESO and NA; later EA with ESO and NA
Why in Chile and why HERE?
Atmospheric Transmission for ALMA Receiver
bands
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
Astronomical Observing Site (AOS@5000m)Works on Roads, Fiber, Power distribution and switch gear, etc.
1 July 2011
*Tokyo
*Garching
*Cvlle
*Santiago*ALMA site
ALMA Construction: Executive Centers
responsible for the deliverables:
flow of components
66 Antennas of four “flavors”diameters: 54 of 12 m; 12 of 7 m
North American (25) European (25) East Asian( 4+ 12)
12m antenna 12m antenna 12m antenna on
a transporter in foreground;
7m in background
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
ALMA: Frequency bandsBlue=baseline (NA/EU bands; black= EA contribution
red = for enhancements
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
Front end integration
23
Warm Optics
Band 3 Cartridge
Band 6 Cartridge
Band 9 Cartridge
Band 7 Cartridge
Cryostat
Front end chassis
Front end IF
FE M&C unit
Warm Cartridge
Assembly Band 3
(1st LO, Bias, M&C)
Warm Cartridge
Assembly Band 6
(1st LO, Bias, M&C)
Warm Cartridge
Assembly Band 7
(1st LO, Bias, M&C)
Warm Cartridge
Assembly Band 9
(1st LO, Bias, M&C)
FE Assembly
At OSF: antenna loading, integrating equipment
and check out (dish surface, pointing, signal chain )
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
Assembly, Integration and Verification
Four-station process
Station 1: Surface setting and verification using beacon holography and pointing verification using optical pointing telescope
Station 2: FE and BE integration and system verification
Stations 3: Complete antenna system verification at OSF, including 2-antenna interferometer,
Station 4: transport to AOS and verification at 5000m
(Lopez, McMullin, Whyborn, Duvall in SPIE Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes III, 7733-196 (2010))
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
Project status August 2011
• Reaching maximum construction and integration activity
• 17 antennas delivered to AOS (at 5000m) site
• 9 antennas on JAO pads at the OSF
• 7 antennas in the AEM compound
• 6 antennas in the MELCO compound
• 6 antennas in the Vertex compound
• First Science Verification data released (2 June); now regular
• End-to-End Tests (proposal data delivery) on-going
• 919 proposals for Cycle 0 received: Selection in progress
• Operations part of Observatory end 2011 at 80-90% level
• (OSF Residencia by 2013)August 2011
LLAMA workshop
ALMA “Complexity”
1) Governance: Not a legal entity
- C&P via the Executives
- Personnel via the Executives
- very political environment (fear, rights, ..)
2) Development of the project
- Definition of (User) requirements done by “others”
- Now left
- Appear to have holes
3) Parallel: Construction and Build up of observatory, start of
Science Observations.
Priority for completion of the array!
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
ALMA Science Operations: Organization
Joint ALMA Observatory
NA
ARCEU ARC
ESO
EA
ARC
NAOJ
EU ARC
nodes
NAASC
Enhanced User Services
The ARCs are the interfaces
to the user community.
The ARCs provide (core
tasks):
• user support (via helpdesk
and f2f)
• delivery of data to the PIs
• software tools for proposal
preparation, observation
preparation, and data
reduction
• Mirror archive operations
DSO provides:
• Array operations
• Scheduling of projects
• Execution of observations
• Data quality assurance
and trend analysis
• Calibration plan maintenance
• Delivery of data to the archives
• Archive operations
• Pipeline operations
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
ALMA Challenges:
AIV>>CSV>>OPS
~2 antennas/month to AOS
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
Make a schedule backbone!
- Based upon
- Have AIV work as a clock work
- Have corrective maintenance/ diagnosis of problems in parallel
- staffing in engineering accordingly
(AIV-CSV-OPS scientists work as one team)
Additional Challenges
arising from Location
Atacama Desert and (5000m)
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
• Safety Security Health Environment (SSHE):
Aim for Safety: Zero harm policy
Do not underestimate security.
• Community relations important; also in security context
ALMA Proposal submission deadline: June 30
919 proposals received
Review process: technical and scientific in August
Start Early Science by 30 September
FIRST PRIORITY is COMPLETION OF THE ARRAY
R. Mauersberger1 July 2011
Towards Early Science: Cycle 0
Early Science: Cycle 0 capabilitiesSee www.almascience.org
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
• Sixteen 12-m antennas
• Receiver bands 3, 6, 7 & 9
(wavelengths of about 3, 1.3, 0.8 and 0.45 mm),
• Two array configurations
• Compact: 18-25m
• Extended: 36-400m
• Single field imaging and Mosaics of up to 50 pointings
• A set of correlator modes: both continuum and spectral line
Not available in Cycle 0: Polarization and Total power
Some Science verification Data:
Orion Spectral Sweep
Red=SMA (Beuther et al.)
Black=ALMA
• 4 Tunings
• Total Bandwidth 14.7 GHz
• 14 min. on source per tuning
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
TW Hydra: a proto-planetary DiskMoment Maps of CO(3-2) and HCO+(4-3)
• Molecular emission is quite extended, Keplerian motion obvious;
HCO+(4-3) is more centrally concentrated than the CO(3-2)
CO(3-2)
HCO+(4-3)
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
NGC253: a “starburst” galaxy in 4 transitions
NGC 253 – B3 – CO J=1-0 NGC 253 – B6 – CO J=2-1
NGC 253 – B7 – CO=3-2
(Sakamoto et al, 2006)
NGC 253 – B9 – CO=6-5
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
The ALMA Board has charged the Project to draw up a long-term ALMA
Development Plan in consultation with the international astronomy
community.
The plan should set out the scientific context for transformational science
with ALMA in the next two decades, in the era of for example JWST, ELTs
and SKA, and recommend developments necessary to achieve this vision.
The ALMA Board views this plan as having a high strategic priority, and is
coordinating its development across the entire ALMA partnership. The
process ……
Recently the document completed and approved:
“Principles of the ALMA Development Program”
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
ALMA Development (after baseline)
ALMA enhancement
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
First, specific near-term ideas. These are generally supported most strongly by a
single science area, although they can have general application, require other
contingent developments of the system, and be expensive (see Appendix A).
Second, major developments that enable new science. These typically have a
medium- to-long timescale, involve adding distinct new capabilities, and impose
significant requirements
on the underlying infrastructure of ALMA.
Third, incremental improvements of the system to speed up observations, to make
them more efficient or enhance the ability of users to analyze and interpret them.
Examples include more collecting area, enhanced performance of frontend and
backend performance, adding enhanced receivers for a wider field of view in the
spatial or spectral domain, enhancements to atmospheric phase monitoring and
correction, and enhanced software tools, for both science analysis and operations
planning……….
Development ideas break down into three broad categories.
August 2011
LLAMA Workshop
• The phasing up of the array for VLBI to allow imaging of the galactic center
down to the scale of the last stable orbit around the black hole, and
unprecedented sensitivity to non-thermal emission from high-energy regions,
including maser emission.
• The commissioning of re-imaging optics to under-illuminate the primary
mirrors, which will enable new wide-field solar imaging investigations.
• Restoring the full number of 6 subarrays, allowing 4 simultaneous tunings of
the 12m array. This will, for example, allow monitoring of comet and planetary
signals.
• Building in the capability to expand the baseline range of ALMA into an
extended configuration (20-50km), which would allow sub-AU angular
resolution in bright disks and masers.
• Increasing the number of 12m antennas………..
Some relatively short-term, straightforward developments:
August 2011
LLAMA workshop
Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) proposal to the NSF
to phase up ALMA for VLBI has been recommended by
the Astronomy division for full funding.
PI Shep Doeleman
While the process is not yet final, we fully expect
that the award will be completed in about a month.
Latest News:
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of
Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded in Europe by
the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), in North America by
the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada
(NRC) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and in East Asia by the National Institutes of Natural
Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan. ALMA construction and
operations are led on behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy
Observatory (NRAO), which is managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) and on behalf of East Asia by the
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified
leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.