ALMAConstruction, Operations

Status

Thijs de Graauw

ALMA Director

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

17 antennas in the array!

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array

(ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a

partnership among Europe, North America and East

Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile.

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

ALMA: Characteristics

• An array of 66 antennas using aperture synthesis

• A “zoom telescope” with ~16km diameter at zoom-in

• Operates at wavelengths between 10 and 0.3mm

(~30 GHz--950GHz)

• Operates at 5000 meter altitude

ALMA is now the largest astronomical ground-based

project coming into existence and will start scientific

observations in 2011.

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

ALMA is one Array consisting of two Components:

A) Bilateral antenna array: 50 12m antennas;

Bi-lateral Correlator for 64 antrennas

B) ALMA Compact Array (ACA): 2-12m +12-7m antennas

ACA correlator

ALMA Science Capabilities:

Google-Earth view of site with antennas in the

most extended configuration – baselines to 16km

Simulation most compact configuration

What will ALMA do (1)

Make images of new stars being formed, with planets emerging

from the disks around them.

What ALMA will do (2)

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains ~100 billion stars.

ALMA will image galaxies billions light-years away.

We expect to see entire galaxies being formed back then.

Hubble image of distant galaxies mm-wave images of near

galaxies

What ALMA will do (3)

The most distant galaxies that

we have seen so far lie at a red-

shift of about 6. They are more

than 12 billion light years away.

Between them and the Big Bang,

at 13.7 billion years ago, lie the

“Dark Ages”. The first stars,

galaxies and black holes must

have formed then.

We expect that ALMA will be

able to catch the faint glimmers

of the light from these objects

so we can take one more step in

understanding how our universe

came to be the way it is.

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

Collaboration discussions started in 1990s

Agreements between 2001 and 2005

First bilateral ESO and NA; later EA with ESO and NA

Observatory location

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

ALMA (3 partners) have a concession

OSFAOS

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

Why in Chile and why HERE?

Atmospheric Transmission for ALMA Receiver

bands

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

Main buildings

are completed

Astronomical Observing Site (AOS@5000m)Works on Roads, Fiber, Power distribution and switch gear, etc.

1 July 2011

Antenna foundations (192) under construction

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

Some recent challenges

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

Operations Support Facilities

*Tokyo

*Garching

*Cvlle

*Santiago*ALMA site

ALMA Construction: Executive Centers

responsible for the deliverables:

flow of components

66 Antennas of four “flavors”diameters: 54 of 12 m; 12 of 7 m

North American (25) European (25) East Asian( 4+ 12)

12m antenna 12m antenna 12m antenna on

a transporter in foreground;

7m in background

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

ALMA: Frequency bandsBlue=baseline (NA/EU bands; black= EA contribution

red = for enhancements

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

Front end integration

23

Warm Optics

Band 3 Cartridge

Band 6 Cartridge

Band 9 Cartridge

Band 7 Cartridge

Cryostat

Front end chassis

Front end IF

FE M&C unit

Warm Cartridge

Assembly Band 3

(1st LO, Bias, M&C)

Warm Cartridge

Assembly Band 6

(1st LO, Bias, M&C)

Warm Cartridge

Assembly Band 7

(1st LO, Bias, M&C)

Warm Cartridge

Assembly Band 9

(1st LO, Bias, M&C)

FE Assembly

ALMA: Front End test after arrival at the

OSF (PAS test)

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

ALMA: Local Oscillators Subsystem

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

At OSF: antenna loading, integrating equipment

and check out (dish surface, pointing, signal chain )

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

Assembly, Integration and Verification

Four-station process

Station 1: Surface setting and verification using beacon holography and pointing verification using optical pointing telescope

Station 2: FE and BE integration and system verification

Stations 3: Complete antenna system verification at OSF, including 2-antenna interferometer,

Station 4: transport to AOS and verification at 5000m

(Lopez, McMullin, Whyborn, Duvall in SPIE Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes III, 7733-196 (2010))

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

A full house at OSF Technical facility

1 July 2011

Antenna Transport from OSF to AOS

1 July 2011 29status summary

Project status August 2011

• Reaching maximum construction and integration activity

• 17 antennas delivered to AOS (at 5000m) site

• 9 antennas on JAO pads at the OSF

• 7 antennas in the AEM compound

• 6 antennas in the MELCO compound

• 6 antennas in the Vertex compound

• First Science Verification data released (2 June); now regular

• End-to-End Tests (proposal data delivery) on-going

• 919 proposals for Cycle 0 received: Selection in progress

• Operations part of Observatory end 2011 at 80-90% level

• (OSF Residencia by 2013)August 2011

LLAMA workshop

ALMA “Complexity”

1) Governance: Not a legal entity

- C&P via the Executives

- Personnel via the Executives

- very political environment (fear, rights, ..)

2) Development of the project

- Definition of (User) requirements done by “others”

- Now left

- Appear to have holes

3) Parallel: Construction and Build up of observatory, start of

Science Observations.

Priority for completion of the array!

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

ALMA Organization for Construction

ALMA Science Operations: Organization

Joint ALMA Observatory

NA

ARCEU ARC

ESO

EA

ARC

NAOJ

EU ARC

nodes

NAASC

Enhanced User Services

The ARCs are the interfaces

to the user community.

The ARCs provide (core

tasks):

• user support (via helpdesk

and f2f)

• delivery of data to the PIs

• software tools for proposal

preparation, observation

preparation, and data

reduction

• Mirror archive operations

DSO provides:

• Array operations

• Scheduling of projects

• Execution of observations

• Data quality assurance

and trend analysis

• Calibration plan maintenance

• Delivery of data to the archives

• Archive operations

• Pipeline operations

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

ALMA Challenges:

AIV>>CSV>>OPS

~2 antennas/month to AOS

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

Make a schedule backbone!

- Based upon

- Have AIV work as a clock work

- Have corrective maintenance/ diagnosis of problems in parallel

- staffing in engineering accordingly

(AIV-CSV-OPS scientists work as one team)

Additional Challenges

arising from Location

Atacama Desert and (5000m)

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

• Safety Security Health Environment (SSHE):

Aim for Safety: Zero harm policy

Do not underestimate security.

• Community relations important; also in security context

ALMA Proposal submission deadline: June 30

919 proposals received

Review process: technical and scientific in August

Start Early Science by 30 September

FIRST PRIORITY is COMPLETION OF THE ARRAY

R. Mauersberger1 July 2011

Towards Early Science: Cycle 0

Early Science: Cycle 0 capabilitiesSee www.almascience.org

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

• 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

• Compact: 18-25m

• Extended: 36-400m

• Single field imaging and Mosaics of up to 50 pointings

• A set of correlator modes: both continuum and spectral line

Not available in Cycle 0: Polarization and Total power

Some Science verification Data:

Orion Spectral Sweep

Red=SMA (Beuther et al.)

Black=ALMA

• 4 Tunings

• Total Bandwidth 14.7 GHz

• 14 min. on source per tuning

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

TW Hydra: a proto-planetary DiskMoment Maps of CO(3-2) and HCO+(4-3)

• Molecular emission is quite extended, Keplerian motion obvious;

HCO+(4-3) is more centrally concentrated than the CO(3-2)

CO(3-2)

HCO+(4-3)

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

NGC253: a “starburst” galaxy in 4 transitions

NGC 253 – B3 – CO J=1-0 NGC 253 – B6 – CO J=2-1

NGC 253 – B7 – CO=3-2

(Sakamoto et al, 2006)

NGC 253 – B9 – CO=6-5

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

Schedule issues: example

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

The ALMA Board has charged the Project to draw up a long-term ALMA

Development Plan in consultation with the international astronomy

community.

The plan should set out the scientific context for transformational science

with ALMA in the next two decades, in the era of for example JWST, ELTs

and SKA, and recommend developments necessary to achieve this vision.

The ALMA Board views this plan as having a high strategic priority, and is

coordinating its development across the entire ALMA partnership. The

process ……

Recently the document completed and approved:

“Principles of the ALMA Development Program”

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

ALMA Development (after baseline)

ALMA enhancement

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

First, specific near-term ideas. These are generally supported most strongly by a

single science area, although they can have general application, require other

contingent developments of the system, and be expensive (see Appendix A).

Second, major developments that enable new science. These typically have a

medium- to-long timescale, involve adding distinct new capabilities, and impose

significant requirements

on the underlying infrastructure of ALMA.

Third, incremental improvements of the system to speed up observations, to make

them more efficient or enhance the ability of users to analyze and interpret them.

Examples include more collecting area, enhanced performance of frontend and

backend performance, adding enhanced receivers for a wider field of view in the

spatial or spectral domain, enhancements to atmospheric phase monitoring and

correction, and enhanced software tools, for both science analysis and operations

planning……….

Development ideas break down into three broad categories.

August 2011

LLAMA Workshop

• The phasing up of the array for VLBI to allow imaging of the galactic center

down to the scale of the last stable orbit around the black hole, and

unprecedented sensitivity to non-thermal emission from high-energy regions,

including maser emission.

• The commissioning of re-imaging optics to under-illuminate the primary

mirrors, which will enable new wide-field solar imaging investigations.

• Restoring the full number of 6 subarrays, allowing 4 simultaneous tunings of

the 12m array. This will, for example, allow monitoring of comet and planetary

signals.

• Building in the capability to expand the baseline range of ALMA into an

extended configuration (20-50km), which would allow sub-AU angular

resolution in bright disks and masers.

• Increasing the number of 12m antennas………..

Some relatively short-term, straightforward developments:

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) proposal to the NSF

to phase up ALMA for VLBI has been recommended by

the Astronomy division for full funding.

PI Shep Doeleman

While the process is not yet final, we fully expect

that the award will be completed in about a month.

Latest News:

2 June, 2011

End 2011(24)

End 2012 (44)

End 2013 (66)

The

ALMA

Dream

becomes Reality

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.

August 2011

LLAMA workshop

M3

2ND

IF

Cal Unit

TelescopeBeam

August 2011

LLAMA workshop