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ALMA TAC and the proposal process

ALMA TAC and the proposal process. Lister Staveley-Smith Member, ALMA Review Panel. ALMA Board Documents which describe the TAC process. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION. Principles of ALMA Proposal Review Process K.Y. Lo, T. de Graauw, S. Miyama, M. Rubio, T. de Zeeuw (2011)

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ALMA TAC and the proposal process

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  1. ALMA TAC and the proposal process Lister Staveley-Smith Member, ALMA Review Panel

  2. ALMA Board Documents which describe the TAC process • NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION • Principles of ALMA Proposal Review Process • K.Y. Lo, T. de Graauw, S. Miyama, M. Rubio, T. de Zeeuw (2011) • Proposal Review Process – Cycle 0 • L. Nyman (2011)

  3. ALMA shares • Europe: 33.75% • North America: 33.75% • East Asia: 22.50% • Chile: 10.00% TOTAL: 100.0% ‘Rest of the world’ shared between these regions Master Title

  4. Open Skies principles • Open Skies proposals: PI or co-PI not from the four regions. • Treated in identical manner to other proposals until rankings reach JAO Director, when they will be ‘adjusted’. • ‘Up’ to 5% of total ALMA time available (charged to four regions in ratio 33.75%:33.75%:22.5%:10%). • Time in excess of 5% ‘charged’ to North America (following US government policy). • PI chooses most convenient ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) for support. Master Title

  5. Cycle 0 Capabilities The ALMACycle 0 capabilities are: • 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 with baselines out to 125m and 400 m [1”-6”; 0.25”-1.5”] • Single field imaging • Pointed mosaics with a maximum of 50 pointings • Restricted set of spectral modes chosen to meet a reasonable range of scientific goals Australian ALMA Community Workshop, CSIRO

  6. Timelines for Cycle 0 • 30 March 2011: Call for Proposals for the ALMA Early Science Cycle 0 was released, including access to the offline Observing Tool • 1 June 2011: Opening of archive for proposal submission • 30 June 2011: Proposal Deadline • 30 September 2011: Start of ALMA Cycle 0 observing • February 2012: One month engineering shutdown • April-May 2012: Deadline for Cycle 1 proposal submission • 30 June 2012: End of ALMA Cycle 0 Australian ALMA Community Workshop, CSIRO

  7. Principles of assigning ALMA observing time GENERAL • Scientific merit • Technical feasibility • Regional balance • Proprietary time 12 months • Single ALMA TAC (Chile TBD) CYCLE 0 • Need for prompt data reduction, including possible ARC visit • Experience in radio/millimetre data reduction • Best-efforts basis; no guarantees • No claim-staking; no carry-over • Short, simple high-impact proposals (a few hours integration time) Master Title

  8. ALMA Review Panels: science areas • Cosmology and the high redshift Universe • Galaxies and galactic nuclei • ISM, star formation/protoplanetary disks and their astrochemistry, exoplanets • Stellar evolution, the Sun and Solar System Master Title

  9. Proposal grading system • Grade A (upper <20%): • highest priority; remain in queue until complete (except cycle 0) • Grade B: • high priority; remain in queue for current cycle only • Grade C: • filler projects • Grade D: • will not be observed Master Title

  10. Proposal Review Process (draft) Neal Evans Master Title

  11. Proposal Review Process (cycle 0) 8 4 Master Title

  12. Cycle 0 Proposals • Only Standard proposals will be accepted (<100h of observing time, as given by the OT time estimator). • ToOs will be possible, but can only be executed (triggered) during the Cycle 0 blocks of observing time. • Triggering will be done through a webform. • Instructions are given in the Proposers Guide what information needs to be included in ToO proposals. • Time critical observations may be possible, but will be restricted to the Cycle 0 blocks of observing time. Therefore execution time must be specified with a “fuzziness” of not less than 3 weeks. Australian ALMA Community Workshop, CSIRO

  13. Cycle 0 proposals • Any astronomer may submit a proposal • Proposals should exploit the advertised ALMAEarly Science Cycle 0 capabilities, producing scientifically worthwhile results from relatively short observations (averaging a few hours) • Proposals will be assessed by peer review, and ranked strictly on the basis of scientific quality and feasibility with respect to the offered capabilities Australian ALMA Community Workshop, CSIRO

  14. PI Experience and Feedback • PIs and observing teams should anticipate the need to invest their own time and expertise in the analysis of ALMA Early Science data products • includes the possible need to visit the relevant ARC to assist with quality assurance and data reduction (ALMA is interested in determining the science value of the data as soon as possible) • Proposers should anticipate that significant experience in radio (in particular, millimeter) interferometry will be an advantage in working with the data products during ALMA Early Science. • PIs will need to interact with their ARC in the creation of scheduling blocks Australian ALMA Community Workshop, CSIRO

  15. Concluding remarks • Only 500-700 hrs likely to be available for Cycle 0 proposals (priority is construction, commissioning and science verification). • Limited Cycle 0 sensitivity (quarter of full ALMA, but still ~6× better than ATCA at 100 GHz) and capability. • Severe Cycle 0 over-subscription (10:1) expected. • If you have a simple, short, high-impact observation, give it a go! • Experience in mm/radio reductions give ATCA/Mopra users an advantage. • If you have a complicated (multi-field, multi-source, multi-frequency) proposal requiring a lot of time, might be better to wait for Cycle 1 or later (NB no proprietary science allowed in Cycle 0). Master Title

  16. www.almaobservatory.org 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. Australian ALMA Community Workshop, CSIRO

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