Overview
The purpose of this workshop is to provide an introduction to ALMA and to provide tutorials on working with data from the telescope. This workshop will be conducted by UK ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) Node staff as a series of half-day sessions, with staff available at the end of each day's session to help with additional questions. By request, we will focus on basic ALMA data calibration and imaging, but we will also provide tutorial sessions on proposal preparation, ALMA simulations, the ALMA archive, and advanced imaging techniques. We will also provide information about ALMA's capabilities in Cycle 9 when that information is available. Although the workshop is aimed at UK researchers, participants from other countries are welcome to join.
Schedule
(All times are given in GMT.)
Monday, 21 February
| 10:00 | Welcome and Introductions |
| 10:30 | Introduction to ALMA |
| 11:00 | Introduction to Interferometry |
| 11:30 | Introduction to the Observing Support Tool (the online ALMA simulation tool) |
| 12:00 | Break |
| 12:30 | Introduction to the Observing Tool (the GUI used for preparing observing proposals) |
| ScientificJustification.pdf (required for hands-on) | |
| 13:30 | After Proposal Submission |
| 14:00 | Optional Science Presentations |
| 15:00 | End |
Tuesday, 22 February
| 10:00 | Introduction to CASA |
| Material (required for hands-on) | |
| 10:45 | Introduction to the ALMA Archive |
| 12:00 | Break |
| 12:30 | Examining Downloaded Data |
| Notes about Downloaded Data | |
| Introduction to the viewers | |
| Files for hands-on activities with the image viewers | |
| 14:00 | End |
Wednesday, 23 February
| 10:00 | Examining Downloaded Data (continued) |
| Reviewing the WebLog | |
| 11:30 | Science Presentation |
| 12:00 | Break |
| 12:30 | Imaging Tutorial (strongly recommended to read it in advance) |
| scriptForImagingZCMa.py (required for the Tutorial) | |
| Imaging (slides to follow the Tutorial) | |
| 14:00 | End |
Thursday, 24 February
| 10:00 | Imaging Tutorial (continued) |
| Synthesis Imaging | |
| 11:30 | Science Presentation |
| 12:00 | Break |
| 12:30 | Imaging Tutorial (continued) |
| How parameter selection affects my image? | |
| scriptForImagingZCMa_extra.py (optional) | |
| 14:00 | End |
Friday, 25 February
| 10:00 | Optional Assistance with Imaging |
Pre-Workshop Downloads
UK ARC Node staff are available to help with the installation of CASA and any other software needed for the workshop. We will be contacting participants before the workshop to set up Zoom calls to help with the software installation.
CASA 6.2.1 (ALMA Pipeline Version)
To work on the data calibration, imaging, and analysis activities, participants will need access to a computer running CASA version 6.2.1 (ALMA Pipeline Version). This software is available for both Linux and Mac but unfortunately not for Windows.
ALMA Observing Tool (OT)
One of the workshop sessions is based on using the ALMA Observing Tool, which is used to submit proposals but which is also useful for understanding how ALMA observations are configured. This can be installed on either Windows, Mac, or Linux computers.
CARTA
CARTA is a new image viewer that will eventually replace the current image viewer in CASA. It operates very smoothly, but because it is still under development, it is missing some functions.
Example Datasets
While the workshop will be guiding people through downloading ALMA archive data, calibrating those data, and then imaging those data, participants may want to download data for the workshop early either because of concerns about slow download speeds or because of potential technical issues with creating some of the datasets. These data can be downloaded from the links below.
Note that the total amount of disk space needed to do all of the data processing is about 70 GB. The calibrated and science only visibility data are optional downloads and are only necessary for situations where it is not possible to calibrate the archival data or perform some of the steps in the imaging script.
Archival Data
Product Files (archival images)
Auxiliary Files (calibration information, logs, quality assessment reports, and scripts)