Data

Long-Baseline campaign Science Verification data

The Science Verification data resulting from the 2014 ALMA Long-Baseline (~10km) campaign has just been released in the science verification webpage. This new capability to be available in Cycle-3 suits ALMA with spatial resolving powers as fine as a few tens milli-arcsecond.

This release includes:
– Juno (asteroid): observations of continuum in Band 6 (233 GHz);
– Mira (AGB star): observations of several SiO transitions (isotopologues and vibrational states) and continuum in Bands 3 and 6;
– HL Tau (proto-planetary disc): observations of continuum and spectral line in Band 3, and
continuum only in Bands 6 & 7;
– SDP.81 (lensed galaxy): observations of continuum and spectral lines in Bands 4, 6 & 7.

More details can be found in the corresponding CASA guide page.

MeetingsWorkshops

Portuguese ALMA National Community Day

We are glad to announce the Portuguese ALMA National Community Day to be held on 24th February 2015 at the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Science in Lisbon.

WORKSHOP PROGRAMME:
11h00—11h30 – “The observatory ALMA“, José M. Afonso (IA-Lisboa, PACE Coordinator);
11h30—12h30 – “From our solar system to the Galactic centre“, Nanda Kumar (IA-Porto);
12h30—14h00 – [Lunch]
14h00—15h00 – “The Extra-galactic Universe and its Cosmology“, Hugo Messias (IA-Lisboa, PACE Lead-Scientist);
15h00—15h30 – “Proposing for time and the ALMA Observing Tool” (TBD);
15h30—16h00 – “Observation simulations“, Hugo Messias(IA-Lisboa, PACE Lead-Scientist);
16h00—16h20 – [coffee break]
Optional from 16h20 – Face-to-face hands-on (PACE team).

TRAVEL SUPPORT: a limited number of participants may apply for this. We expect to support about 20 round-trip train tickets. It will be awarded in a first-comes-first-gets way.

FEE: No fee is required.

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: 23h59 13th February.

Calls

ALMA Cycle 3 Pre-announcement

ALMA Cycle 3 call for proposals has just been pre-announced here. The anticipated array capabilities have improved significantly, including baselines as long as 10km for Bands 3, 4, and 6, meaning resolutions of tens of milli-arcseconds.

Important dates are the Call for Proposals on 24th March and the Proposal Submission deadline on 23rd April.

Further details on the pre-announcement webpage.

MeetingsWorkshops

ALMA/Herschel Archival Workshop

ALMA/Herschel Archival Workshop
ESO-Garching
April 15-17, 2015
To date, all Herschel science data in addition to a variety of user-provided data products, are publicly available through the Herschel Science Archive. Meanwhile, the ALMA Science Archive is being populated with observations carried out in the first three ALMA observing Cycles, with more data becoming publicly available by the day. The higher frequency ALMA bands overlap with the lower frequency Herschel bands, and despite the huge difference in spacial resolution, Herschel sources provide ideal targets for ALMA follow up. Furthermore, with more and more ALMA data becoming publicly available every day, the possibilities to further explore these two complementary datasets that cover the fields of planetary, Galactic and extragalactic astrophysics, increase manifold. However, Herschel and ALMA data differ greatly and in order to explore their full potential, the archival users need to be aware not only of the contents of the two archives but of the differences of the datasets, as well.The workshop will focus on the ALMA/Herschel scientific synergies and archival research, with the following goals:

* Provide examples of science cases based on the combined use of Herschel & ALMA data, covering a broad range of astrophysical topics, from star formation to evolved stars to galaxies and cosmology

* Promote mutual awareness of Herschel & ALMA data archive contents

* Show users how to explore, access and visualize Herschel & ALMA data products, including existing quick look data analysis tools

* Enable Herschel & ALMA archival science

* Assist users in the preparation of Cycle 3 ALMA proposals based on existing Herschel data The target audience are all astronomers that have already used data from either of the two facilities and would now want to expand their knowledge to the neighbouring wavelength regime.

The registration in now open. Abstract submission deadline for oral presentations is March 15, 2015. For other participants it is March 31, 2015.

Detailed information is available on our website:
http://www.eso.org/sci/meetings/2015/AlmaHerschel2015.html

The ALMA/Herschel Archival Workshop Organising Committee
almaherschel2015@eso.org

MeetingsWorkshops

Workshop on mm-VLBI with ALMA

22nd January 2015 – Istituto di Radioastronomia Bologna, Italy
organized by the Italian node of the European ALMA Regional Centre (Bologna,Italy).

Very long baseline interferometry at millimetre/submillimetre wavelengths offers the highest achievable spatial resolution at any wavelength in astronomy and the inclusion of ALMA into a global network will bring unprecedented sensitivity.

This workshop reviews a broad range of science topics allowed by mm-VLBI with ALMA and also discusses the status of the existing and future mm-VLBI networks. This should involve not only current VLBI users but also those who are just becoming interested in this rapidly evolving field.

For further information on logistics and registration, please visit the website: http://www.alma.inaf.it/index.php/Workshop_on_mm-VLBI_with_ALMA

Participants are invited to contribute an oral presentation or a poster.  At the workshop there is room for ~ 10 contributed talks (ca. 15 min).

The registration deadline is 1 December 2014.

PACE news

PACE member leads article making use of ALMA data

On 25th of August, the article “Herschel-ATLAS and ALMA HATLAS J142935.3-002836, a lensed major merger at redshift 1.027” was published on Astronomy & Astrophysics journal. The research, lead by PACE member Hugo Messias, deals with the nature of a merger of galaxies at z=1.027 as seen by ALMA and other major observational facilities.

A coordinated world-wide press-release was issued by the media departments of institutes involved in this work (including ESO), resulting in a substantial media coverage (see, for example, the articles by El Mundo, CBS news, Forbes, … a compilation of media coverage is presented here).

 

Portuguese ALMA Centre of Expertise