ALMA and The North America ALMA Science Center (NAASC)

1
ALMA and The North America ALMA
Science Center (NAASC)

• Crystal Brogan
• (NRAO/NAASC)

(Sub)Millimeter Observing Techniques, Victoria,
Canada Aug. 17, 2006
2
Outline

• What is ALMA?
• ALMA Construction
• ALMA Science Drivers
• Pathways for Community Input
• The North America ALMA Science Center
• Projected Timeline

3
What is ALMA?

• ALMA is a global partnership to deliver a truly
  transformational millimeter/submillimeter
  instrument
• North America (US, Canada Taiwan?)
• Europe (via ESO with Spain)
• Japan (Taiwan)
• Up to 64 12m antennas (current forecast is 50)
• Plus 4 x 12m (total power) and a Compact Array
  of 12 x 7m antennas from Japan
• All together there will be 4 antenna designs
• 5000m (16,500 Ft) site in Chilean Atacama desert
• In the end ALMA construction will cost 1
  billion

10-100 times more sensitive and 10-100 times
better angular resolution compared to current
mm/submm telescopes
4
What is ALMA?

• Baselines from 0 (total power) to 15km (30 to
  0.015 at 300 GHz)
• zoom lens configurations
• Receivers low-noise, wide-band (8GHz), SSB
• Full polarization capabilities
• Digital correlator, gt4096 spectral channels
• Sensitive, precision imaging between 30 to 950
  GHz

5
Summary of existing and future mm/sub-mm arrays

• Telescope altitude diam. No. A
  nmax
  (feet) (m) dishes (m2) (GHz)
• NMA 2,000 10 6 470 250
• CARMA 7,300 3.5/6/10 23 800 250
• IRAM PdB 8,000 15 6 1060 250
• SMA 13,600 6 8 230 690
• eSMA 13,600 6/10/15 10 490 690
• ALMA 16,400 12 50 5700 950
• ACA 16,400 7 12 460 950

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Transparent Site Allows Complete Spectral Coverage

• 10 Frequency bands
• Bands 3 (3mm, 100 GHz), 6 (1mm, 230 GHz), 7
  (.85mm 345 GHz) and 9 (.45mm, 650 GHz) will be
  available from the start
• Bands 4 (2mm, 150 GHz), 8 (.65mm, 450 GHz) and,
  later, some 10 (.35mm, 850 GHz), built by Japan,
  also available
• Some Band 5 (1.5mm, 183 GHz) receivers built
  with EU funding
• All process 16 GHz of data
• 2polzns x 8 GHz (B6)
• 2 polzns x 2SBs x 4 GHz (B3, B4, B7, B5)
• 2 polzns x DSB x 8 GHz (B8, B9, B10)

7
ALMA Sensitivity
RMS noise levels after an integration time of
only 1 min
Flux Densities Brightness Temperatures
8
Summary of current status
Frequency 30 to 950 GHz B3, B6, B7, B9 receivers passed CDR, preproduction units available, all meet Trx spec, most exceed specs. B6 tested on SMT.
Bandwidth 8 GHz both polarizations, fully tunable
Spectral resolution 31.5 kHz (0.01 km/s) at 100 GHz 1st quadrant built
Angular resolution 30 to 0.016 at 300 GHz Configurations defined
Dynamic range 100001 (spectral) 500001 (imaging)
Flux sensitivity 0.2 mJy in 1 min at 345 GHz continuum 13 mJy in 1 km/s spectral line (median conditions)
Antenna complement Up to 64 antennas of 12m diameter, plus compact array of 4 x 12m and 12 x 7m antennas (Japan) Contracts let for 53, three prototype antennas in hand meet all specifications

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El llano de Chajnantor
Where is ALMA?
N
10
ALMA 5000m Chajnantor site
Chajnantor
Toco
APEX
ALMA
CBI
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Array Operations Site (AOS) Technical
Building(16,570 Ft 5,050m) Shell Complete April
2006
View from center of ACA
Array Operations Site
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43km Road to Array Operations Center (AOS)
Complete
Operations Support Facility (OSF)
Road
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Layout of Operations Support Facilities (OSF)
Contract signed and 18 month build to begin soon
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Operations Support Facility (OSF) 9,600 Ft
(2,900m)
OSF Contractors Camp There are currently 90
people working at the site
Around 500 workers expected in the near future
Lascar volcano erupts view from contractors
camp
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First Antenna Pad Constructed
First ALMA antenna pad at the Vertex Site
Erection Facility adjacent to future OSF building
Installation of antenna foundation support
structure tolerance to tenths of mm
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ALMA Test Facility (ATF) at the VLA
Japan North America ESO
(MElCo) (Vertex) (AEC)
Antenna Specs 25 µm rms surface accuracy
0.6 reference
pointing 2 absolute over whole sky 1.5 degree
fast switching in 1.5 seconds
Photogrammetry, January 2005

• Upcoming Milestones at the ATF
• Move from AOC lab to ATF of interferometry
  equipment
• 1st Fringes
• Sky tests of band 3 and 6 production receivers
• Holography

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ALMA Band 6 (230 GHz) - NRAO
ALMA Requirement
SgrB2(N) spectrum (Ziurys et al.) taken with Band
6 mixer at the SMT
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1st Quadrant (of four) of the Correlator - NRAO

• Maximum Spectral Resolution 31.5 kHz (0.01 km/s
  at 100 GHz)
• Maximum Baselines 2016
• Maximum Bandwidth 16 GHz per baseline
• Maximum Spectral Channels 4096
• Typical data rates will be 6 MB/s average peak
  60-150 MB/s we expect to generate 100 TB of
  data each year

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Highest Level-1 Science Drivers

• Bilateral Agreement Annex B
• The ability to image the gas kinematics in a
  solar-mass protostellar/ protoplanetary disk at a
  distance of 150 pc (roughly, the distance of the
  star-forming clouds in Ophiuchus), enabling one
  to study the physical, chemical, and magnetic
  field structure of the disk and to detect the
  tidal gaps created by planets undergoing
  formation.
• The ability to detect spectral line emission from
  CO or CII in a normal galaxy like the Milky Way
  at a redshift of z 3, in less than 24 hours of
  observation.
• The ability to provide precise images at an
  angular resolution of 0.1". Here the term precise
  image means accurately representing the sky
  brightness at all points where the brightness is
  greater than 0.1 of the peak image brightness.
• These goals drive the technical specifications of
  ALMA.

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Why do we care about mm/submm?

• mm/submm photons are the most abundant photons
  in the spectrum of most spiral galaxies 40 of
  the Milky Way Galaxy
• After the 3K cosmic background radiation,
  mm/submm photons carry most of the energy in the
  Universe
• Unique science can be done at
  
  mm/sub-mm wavelengths
  
  because of the sensitivity to
  
  thermal emission from dust and
  
  molecular lines Sn ? n4 TB ? n2
• Probe of cool gas and dust in
• Proto-planetary disks
• Star formation in our Galaxy
• Star formation at high-redshift

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From the Solar System
Fountains of Enceladus

• From the atmospheres of planets
• Weather on Venus, Mars, Jovian planets
• 5km baseline provides 0.05 at 300 GHz
• Generally, planets are large with respect to an
  ALMA beam
• Advantage of ALMAs ability to collect complete
  spatial frequency data
• To that of satellites and smaller bodies
• Comets
• Volcanism on Io, Search for Molecules from the
  Fountains of Enceladus
• Even UB313 Eris with its moon Dysnomia easily
  resolved, Eris could be imaged.
• See Wednesday session

ALMA Beam
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ALMA 950 GHz simulations (Wolf DAngelo 2005)
of dust emission from a face-on disk with a planet
Simulation of 1 Jupiter Mass planet around a 0.5
Solar mass star (orbital radius 5 AU) The disk
mass was set to that of the Butterfly star in
Taurus Integration time 8 hours 10 km baselines
30 degrees phase noise
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Science at mm/sub-mm wavelengths molecular line
emission

• Most of the dense ISM is H2, but H2 has no
  permanent dipole moment Þ use trace molecules

• Plus many more complex molecules (e.g. N2H,
  CH3OH, CH3CN, etc)
• Probe kinematics, density, temperature
• Abundances, interstellar chemistry, etc
• For an optically-thin line Sn ? n4 TB ? n2
  (cf. dust)

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SMA 850 mm of Massive Star Formation in Cepheus
A-East
SMA 850 mm dust continuum VLA 3.6 cm free-free
Brogan et al., in prep.
1 725 AU
0.6
2 GHz

• Massive stars forming regions are at large
  distances ? need high resolution
• Clusters of forming protostars and copious hot
  core line emission
• Chemical differentiation gives insight to
  physical processes

ALMA will routinely achieve resolutions of better
than 0.1 and 25x better sensitivity
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Orion at 650 GHz (band 9) A Spectral Line
Forest
LSB
USB
Schilke et al. (2000)
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List of Currently Known Interstellar Molecules
(DEMIRM)
H2 HD H3 H2D CH CH C2 CH2 C2H
C3 CH3 C2H2 C3H(lin) c-C3H CH4 C4 c-C3H2
H2CCC(lin) C4H C5 C2H4 C5H H2C4(lin)
HC4H CH3C2H C6H HC6H H2C6 C7H CH3C4H
C8H C6H6 OH CO CO H2O HCO HCO HOC
C2O CO2 H3O HOCO H2CO C3O CH2CO HCOOH
H2COH CH3OH CH2CHO CH2CHOH CH2CHCHO HC2CHO
C5O CH3CHO c-C2H4O CH3OCHO CH2OHCHO
CH3COOH CH3OCH3 CH3CH2OH CH3CH2CHO (CH3)2CO
HOCH2CH2OH C2H5OCH3 (CH2OH)2CO NH CN N2 NH2
HCN HNC N2H NH3 HCNH H2CN HCCN
C3N CH2CN CH2NH HC2CN HC2NC NH2CN
C3NH CH3CN CH3NC HC3NH HC4N C5N
CH3NH2 CH2CHCN HC5N CH3C3N CH3CH2CN HC7N
CH3C5N? HC9N HC11N NO HNO N2O HNCO NH2CHO
SH CS SO SO NS SiH SiC SiN SiO SiS
HCl NaCl AlCl KCl HF AlF CP PN H2S
C2S SO2 OCS HCS c-SiC2 SiCN SiNC NaCN
MgCN MgNC AlNC H2CS HNCS C3S c-SiC3
SiH4 SiC4 CH3SH C5S FeO
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Galaxy Structure and Evolution
CO(1-0) BIMA-SONG
ALMA science goal Ability to trace chemical
composition of galaxies to z3 in less than 24
hours
N. Sharp, NOAO
Helfer et al. (2003)
M82 starburst Red optical emission Blue x-ray
emission Green OVRO 12CO(J1-0) (Walter, Weiss,
Scoville 2003)
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Unique mm/submm access to highest z
Redshifting the steep submm dust SED counteracts
inverse square law dimming
Increasing z
Andrew Blain
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ALMA A Unique probe of Distant Galaxies
Galaxies z lt 1.5
Galaxies z gt 1.5
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ALMA into the Epoch of Reionization
Band 3 at z6.4

• Spectral simulation of J11485251 at z6.4
• Detect dust emission in 1sec (5s) at 250 GHz
• Detect multiple lines, molecules per band gt
  detailed astrochemistry
• Image dust and gas at sub-kpc resolution gas
  dynamics! CO map at 0.15 resolution in 1.5 hours

CO
HCO
HCN
CCH
93.2
96.1
4 GHz BW
Atomic line diagnostics
C II emission in 60sec (10s)
at 256 GHz O I 63 µm at 641 GHz O I 145 µm
at 277 GHz O III 88 µm at 457 GHz N II 122 µm
at 332 GHz N II 205 µm at 197 GHz HD 112 µm at
361 GHz
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The Design Reference Science Plan

• Goal Collect a prototype suite of scientifically
  interesting ALMA projects from the astronomical
  community that could be carried out in 3-4 years
  of full ALMA operations.
• The DRSP serves as a quantitative reference for
• Developing the science operations plan
• Basis for imaging simulations
• Software design
• Cross-check of ALMA specifications against
  real experiments
• Get a feeling for demand on configurations,
  frequency bands, and observing difficulty
• Develop observing and calibration strategies
• Derive expected data rates and use cases for
  Computing IPT
• Quantify science losses in the case of descoping

http//www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/alma/drsp.shtml
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DRSP (1.1) Science Themes

• Solar System
• Planetary Atmospheres
• Planetary Surfaces
• Comets
• Extra-solar Planets

• Stars and Their Evolution
• The Sun
• MM Continuum from Stars
• Circumstellar Envelopes
• Post-AGB Sources
• Supernovae

• Galaxies and Cosmology
• The High Redshift Universe
• Gravitational Lenses
• Quasar Absorption Lines
• S-Z effect
• Gas in Galactic Nuclei
• The AGN Engine
• Galaxies in the Local Universe
• The Magellanic Clouds
• Gamma Ray Bursts

• Star and Planet Formation
• Initial Conditions of Star Formation
• Young Stellar Objects
• Chemistry of Star-Forming Regions
• Protoplanetary Disks

• Results (130 projects)
• Bands 3 (100 GHz) 6 (230 GHz) 7 (345 GHz)
  9 (690 GHz)
• Demand 20 30
  37 13
• 25 (10) require short spacings (Total Power)
• Continuum/spectral line varies by band higher
  frequencies have more continuum
• More than 50 require baselines gt 1km (0.1
  resolution)

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The ALMA North American Science Advisory
Committee Direct NA Community Input into ALMA -
Get in Touch!
Chair Jonathan Williams, U. Hawaii (2008)
Andrew Baker, Rutgers U. (2008) John Bally, U.
Colorado (2008) Andrew Blain, Caltech (2007)
Todd Clancy, SSI (2009) Xiaohui Fan, U. Arizona
(2007) Terry Herter, Cornell (2009) Paul Ho,
CfA / ASIAA (2008) Kelsey Johnson, U. Virginia
(2009) Doug Johnstone, NRC/HIA Canada (2007)
Lee Mundy, U. Maryland (2007) Jean Turner, UCLA
(2007) Alycia Weinberger, OCIW-DTM (2009)
Christine Wilson, McMaster U. (2007) Mel
Wright, U.C.-Berkeley (2008)
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The Tri-Partner ALMA Project Service community
through ALMA Regional Centers (ARC)
NA Cost 30 M per year 15 M for Chilean
operations 11 M for Core functions, maintenance
development 4 M for beyond ARC (US 2006)

• One-stop shopping for NA astronomers
• Proposals
• Observing scripts
• Data archive and reduction

35
The NAASC Has Three Major Components The North
American ARC Core Support ALMA Technical and
Software Support Science Development Division
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NAASC Staffing Plan
12 Engineering 20 Computing/software 5
Archive support 15 Astronomers 5
Post-doc/Students 5 EPO 5 Chilean Affairs
3 Management/Administrative 70
Begin NAASC Ramp up 2008 completed
2012 Includes core and beyond core staff but
not development which will be competed

• Comparison (excluding spacecraft functions)
• Chandra 150
• HST 350
• Spitzer 120

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ALMA Operations Three ALMA Regional Centers -
ARCs
NAASC
Satellite EU ARCs
ARCs provide basic user interface, as well as
basic archive, software, and hardware maintenance
and development
NA ARC
EU ARC (ESO)
Joint ALMA Observatory
J ARC ?
Beyond ARC is essential for NA to realize the
full benefits of ALMA
NAOJ
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NAASC ARC Functions

• End to end proposal submission, review
  coordination, scheduling preparation, cookbooks,
  calibrator and spectral line databases, quality
  assurance, NA mirror archive
• User friendly web-based access
• Helpdesk based problem resolution
• North America pipeline and off-line data
  reduction software maintenance and development
• Pipeline will produce science-ready images for
  basic ALMA observing modes (off-line data
  reduction in early years)
• North America hardware maintenance and
  development
• NA deliverables like Band 3 6 Receivers

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NAASC Beyond ARC Functions

• Advanced data reduction user support
• Hands-on user support
• Make full power of ALMA user friendly at all
  levels of experience
• Education and Public Outreach
• Student Pre-doc and Post-doctoral Fellowship
  programs
• Summer schools and science workshops
• First NAASC workshop From Z-Machines to ALMA
  Jan. 13-14
• Next NAASC workshop ALMA Workshop on Disks in
  Star Formation June, 22-24 2007
• Advanced data reduction algorithm development
• Advocate for PI grants program (i.e. like
  Chandra, HST, Spitzer)
• Strong Decadal panel support

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Web http//www.cv.nrao.edu/naasc/disk07.html
Pre-registration is now available
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Getting the Time

• Phase I Proposals are submitted using ALMA
  Observing Tool
• NAASC issues calls, provides documentation,
  proposal preparation and submission help, as
  well as coordinating refereeing process
• Proposed to ALMA Board that a Single
  International Review Committee award ALMA time
• Process suggested to be similar to Spitzer
• Details are under study.
• Phase II Successful PIs submit observing
  program using the Observing Tool
• NAASC helps with observation planning and
  verifies observing schedule

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The Observing Tool
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The Observing Tool
CO(21)
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Getting the Data

• Queue based dynamic scheduling
• Programs are composed of 30-60 min scheduling
  blocks
• Raw data passed through multi-tiered quality
  assurance
• Combination of on-site duty astronomer, NAASC
  staff, and automated checks
• Data proceeds to pipeline and archiving
• Data available from NAASC within 2 weeks (TBD)
• Pipeline products (images and calibrated u-v
  data), raw data, and off-line data processing
  software made available to PIs by the NAASC
• Pipeline available after end of construction
• Helpdesk available
• Expert hands-on data reduction help from NAASC
  staff provided on request but is not a core
  function and thus requires extra funding

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Pipeline and Off-line Data Reduction Software

• CASA (Common Astronomy Software Applications)
• CASA has subsumed AIPS
• CASA is written in C, Java, and Python
• Conversion of AIPS Glish user interface to
  Python ongoing
• Internal External testing ongoing
• Completed tests (1) Basic imaging, (2)
  Mosaicing, (3) Single dish interferometric data
  combination using VLA, BIMA, and PdBI datasets,
  (4) optical pointing.

GBT VLA

• CASA release to general public 2008
• Many parts of project and NRAO using CASA before
  public release
• Pipeline heuristics, testing, and development
  underway

Mosaicing of NGC1331
?
?
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NAASC Milestones

• Develop calibrator spectral line databases
  2006
• Tests of major software systems (PST, pipeline,
  offline) 2006
• Inform community of science capabilities,
  observing modes, available resources, via
  meetings, workshops, webpages solicit feedback
  2007
• Improved user documentation Testing data
  reduction scripts/cookbooks 2007
• Proposal preparation/user support (proposal call
  2009) 2008
• Participate in Commissioning 2008
• Proposal review/scheduling 2009
• Post-observation user support help users with
  offline data reduction re-reduce data submit
  bugs starting 2010

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NOT YET BOARD APPROVED
Projected Science Summary Schedule
(Data as of 2006Aug06)
ATF Testing
Nov 06 ATF First Fringes

SEI Reference
OSF Integration Start dates
32nd
50th
1st
16th
3rd
2nd
8th
ATF Testing Support
ATF
Site Characterization
Science Support OSF
Commissioning Antenna Array Finish dates
SCIENCE SUMMARY

32nd
16th
50th
8th
3rd
March 09 Limited call for SV proposals 6
antennas
Science Verification
OSF/AOS
Sept 09 Early Science Decision Point

Evaluation of Early Science Array Complete
Call for Proposals / Early Science Preparation
July 10 Early Science (24)
Sept 12 Start of Full Science
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Current Projected Timeline

• Continue Prototype System Testing,
  Socorro
• 2006 NAASC testing of observing tool, offline
  reduction software, pipeline heuristics
• Early 2007 First antenna arrival and testing at
  ALMA site
• Early 2009 Commissioning Begins with 3-element
  array
• Mid 2009 Call for Science Verification projects
  
• - 6 antennas, 2 bands, continuum spectral
  line, 1km baselines
• - Off line data reduction
• Early 2010 Call for Early Science Proposals (24
  antennas)
• 2012 Pipeline images for standard modes
• 2012 Baseline ALMA Construction Complete

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European ALMA News (www.eso.org), ALMA/NA
Biweekly Calendar (www.cv.nrao.edu/awootten/mmaim
cal/ALMACalendars.html)
www.alma.info The Atacama Large Millimeter
Array (ALMA) is an international astronomy
facility. ALMA is a partnership between Europe,
North America and Japan, in cooperation with the
Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded in North
America by the U.S. National Science Foundation
(NSF) in cooperation with the National Research
Council of Canada (NRC), in Europe by the
European Southern Observatory (ESO) and Spain.
ALMA construction and operations are led on
behalf of North America by the National Radio
Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which is managed by
Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of
Europe by ESO, and on behalf of Japan by the
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.
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Whats in a Name?

• AIPS
• Glish interface unknown, unsupported outside of
  NRAO
• Tasking system based on Glish
• GUI system based on Glish/Tk limited widgets,
  not robust!
• Difficult for external developers to contribute
• Multi-CD binary distribution
• Large monolithic libraries with cross
  dependencies
• No namespace
• Freeze 2006.75

• CASA
• Python interface (community standard) IPython
  extensions
• Direct binding to Python ACS, other frameworks
  readily possible
• Hierarchical set of small libraries with clearly
  defined dependencies
• RPM distribution mechanism auto-updates possible
• Robust
• Namespace protection for integration with other
  code
• Inherits all application code improvements in
  robustness and performance.

53
Museum Opened between OSF and AOS
ALMA cultural protection initiative Purpose to
protect large native cacti and historic llama
herders encampment
A book about the archeology of the region and
ALMA called Huellas en el Desierto is now
available in Spanish from http//www.nrao.cl/
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ALMA Band 3 (100 GHz) - HIA
ALMA Requirement
Lens
Feed Horn
OMT
Pol0 2SB Mixer Assembly
Pol1 2SB Mixer Assembly
IF Amplifiers and Isolators
4 K Stage
15 K Stage
300 K Vacuum Flange
80 K Stage
ALMA Requirement
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ALMA Band 7 (345 GHz) - IRAM
ALMA Requirement
ALMA Requirement

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ALMA Band 9 (650 GHz) - SRON