The ALMA Observing Tool

1. The ALMA Observing Tool • Kartik Sheth • NAASC CSV Liaison • ALMA/NRAO

2. Getting the OT Go to this website to download the OT: http://www.eso.org/~mschilli/auto-ot-head/out/ Two options for downloads: Web Start Tar ball Web start gives you a .jnlp file which when you run it will download and install the application for you.

3. Launch the Application A couple of dialog boxes will pop up

4. Hover over these icons to get help • New Proposal (Phase I) • Open project from ALMA archive • … • New Phase I Science Goal… • Sensitivity Calculator … • Help! Contextual help on proposal workflow

5. A walk through of a simple example • Observe molecular gas in NGC 1097 • Use CO (1-0) emission line • Rest frequency: 115.2712 GHz • Band 3 (2.6 mm) • Size of NGC 1097 is 9’ x 6’ • The field of view for a single pointing at 115 GHz is ~ 45” • Single pointing of the nucleus • During ES, limited mosaicking capability expected Synthesized beam w/250m baseline NGC 1097 from S4G, Sheth et al. 2010

6. Proposal Preparation Workflow – Using the Contextual help Click through the tabs and follow the instructions on the left.

7. Fill out these relevant fields

8. Fill out these relevant fields Proposal Title Abstract

9. Fill out these relevant fields { Click here to set PI and co-Is

10. Type in the name An error may pop up

11. Finding Help • If you get stuck on any step, look for the ? Icon • Click on it to get help.

13. Registering with User Portal • The User Portal will be deployed with the Call for Proposals in March • Check back for details

14. Adding the Sci / Tech Justification Attach your scientific justification, etc. here as PDF files

16. Click on this turnkey to continue

17. Press on the Planned Observing tab The OT pane will change and give you this menu

18. A new line is created here that you can fill out Click on Add Science Goal, & add your target Then press Resolve Targets You can also tab through these parts of a science goal

19. Red text indicates mandatory input Click on Spatial Tab to visualize obs

20. Enter freq Click here to get an image

22. Press here

23. A Splatalogue window will open up. Type in CO

24. Double click on the transition Transition moves into this window

26. LO CO Band 3 LO Range Sidebands Press here to change resolution Press here to visualize

27. Tradeoff between bandwidth & resolution

28. Can add up to 4 spectral windows – must have same resolution/bandwidth for early science Location of windows is constrained

29. A very versatile tool with lots of options

30. Request the resolution and sensitivity you need for your science goal

31. Typical CO Emission in Nearby Galaxies Start thinking in terms of data cubes We can measure not only the mass and distribution of the molecular gas but also its kinematics NGC 4303

32. Back to our example of NGC 1097 To get a 10s detection on the faintest emission in the map requires ~10 mJy/bm in a 10 km/s channel. The ALMA correlator gives 0.64 km/s channels – we will bin 15 channels to get to 10 km/s. So required sensitivity in 1 ALMA correlator channel ~ 10 mJy/bm * sqrt (15) ~ 38 mJy/bm Nobeyama maps of NGC 1097 (Kohno et al. 2003)

33. Back to our example of NGC 1097

34. ALMA with 16 x 12m antennas is very fast! • BUT be aware that your UV-coverage may not be ideal – we recommend that you use simdata to check

35. And now on to simdata