ALMA Data Processing Workshop: Cardiff

16 - 18 January 2017

Queen's Building, Cardiff University

Cardiff, United Kingdom

Website

For five years, ALMA has been producing science images of astronomical objects ranging from nearby stellar dust discs to high-redshift gravitational lenses. Many observers have acquired their own ALMA data, and other astronomers can access data from the ALMA archive. The goal of this workshop is to help people make the most of their ALMA data. The workshop will primarily focus on hands-on data processing activities, but the agenda will also include a brief review of ALMA's current capabilities; descriptions of setting up, tracking, and downloading ALMA observations; and a discussion of ways to test the reliability of ALMA data.

Attendees may choose to either bring their own ALMA data, use ALMA data from the archive, or use one of the examples that we will prepare in advance.  Please download your data in advance or arrange to have your data downloaded before coming to the workshop; the organizers can help you with this if necessary.

For further information please see the workshop website.

 

ALMA Band 1 Science Workshop

16-18 January 2017

ASIAA

Taipei, Taiwan

Website

Important deadlines:

  • Deadline for abstract submission: 1 December 2016
  • Deadline for hotel reservations: 14 December 2016
  • Deadline for registration: 1 January 2017

The new ALMA Band 1 receiver is an ALMA development project lead by East Asia as a collaboration of ASIAA, NAOJ, NRAO, and the Universidad de Chile that will provide access to the 35-51 GHz frequency window at high angular resolution and sensitivity from the southern hemisphere. Several key science cases have been proposed for study with the Band 1 Science Case. The two main scientific goals of the ALMA Band 1 project are the study of the evolution of grains in protoplanetary disks, from mm to cm sizes, and the detection of molecular line emission from high-redshift galaxies, tracing molecular emission from redshifts z~1-10.

The ALMA Band 1 Development Project was approved by the ALMA Board in April 2016. The first three prototype receivers are being finished and the production phase of the ALMA Band 1 receivers will start in early 2017 with full delivery planned for December 2019. The ALMA Band 1 Science workshop will provide the first opportunity to show the exciting new science ALMA Band 1 can deliver and to start preparing for the first observing proposals in ALMA's lowest frequency band.

The ALMA Band 1 Science Workshop will take place at the ASIAA (Academia Sinica, Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics) in Taipei (Taiwan) from January 16 to 18 2017. It will consist of invited talks on the main scientific goals, plus contributed talks.

To obtain more information about the workshop and to access the registration forms, please go to the conference website.

 

Getting Ready for ALMA Band 5 - Synergy with APEX/SEPIA

01-03 February 2017

European Southern Observatory

Garching, Germany

Website

The Swedish ESO PI Instrument for APEX (SEPIA) Band 5 receiver (157-212 GHz) was installed on APEX in early 2015, and is being heavily used by European astronomers to explore new science that can be done in this relatively unexplored frequency band in view of the expected availability in ALMA Cycle 5. This band include the 183 GHz H<sub2O line, a wide range of dense molecular gas tracers (e.g. HCN(2-1), HNC(2-1), HCO+(2-1)), CO(2-1) at 0.077<z<0.414, [C I] and high-J CO lines in high redshift objects, and the [C II] line at z>8. The ALMA Band 5 deployment is on track for delivering this new capability to the users in Cycle 5. Science Verification observations are ongoing and the first datasets are expected to be released in November 2016.

The goal of the meeting will be to discuss and highlight the role of APEX as an ALMA complement and to stimulate the European ALMA users to focus on the science that will be enabled by the new Band 5 receivers.

For more information see the workshop webpage.