From muehle at astro.uni-bonn.de Wed Dec 5 17:47:57 2012 From: muehle at astro.uni-bonn.de (Stefanie Muehle) Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2012 17:47:57 +0100 (CET) Subject: [DARC] ALMA news December 2012 Message-ID: Dear Colleagues, in this edition of the German ARC node newsletter, you will find news on the following topics: * Results of the Proposal Review Process released * Pierre Cox appointed as new ALMA director * ARTIST Radiative Transfer package released * New server hardware at the German ARC node * A new ALMA documentary on Servus TV * Second announcement: Solar ALMA workshop * Second Announcement: ALMA Workshop, 2013 Rocks! * Calendar of Events If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the German ARC node at arc[at]astro.uni-bonn.de. Wishing you a happy holiday season, Stefanie Muehle (for the German ARC node) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Results of the Proposal Review Process released =============================================== The scientific assessment of the 1133 science proposals submitted for ALMA Early Science Cycle 1 has been completed. Seventy-eight science assessors from all over the world have evaluated the expected scientific value of these proposals. As a result, the most promising proposals of each ALMA region have been selected as those most likely to be completed using the ALMA Cycle 1 capabilities, after their technical feasibility was confirmed by fifteen technical assessors from the Joint ALMA Observatory and the three ALMA Regional Centers. The 196 highest-priority projects cover a wide range of science and are distributed across the five broad ALMA science categories. Principal Investigators (PIs) have been notified of the outcome of the Proposal Review Process by email. For more details, including a list of the highest-priority proposals and a pie chart of their association with the different science categories, please go to http://almascience.eso.org/news/alma-early-science-cycle-1-outcome-of-the-proposal-review-process (source: ALMA Science Portal at ESO, almascience.eso.org) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pierre Cox appointed as new ALMA director ========================================= The ALMA Board announced on 14 November 2012 that Pierre Cox has been appointed as the next Director of ALMA. Cox will take up duty on 1 April 2013, for a period of five years, at the end of Thijs de Graauw?s term as ALMA Director. Thijs de Graauw, who has been the ALMA Director since 2008, has taken the observatory past many milestones in his five-year term, including the start of its science observations, in 2011. For more details, please go to http://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann12084/ (source: ESO) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ARTIST Radiative Transfer package released ========================================== In November 2012, the ARTIST team led by Jes Jorgensen (formerly University of Bonn, now University of Copenhagen) released ARTIST, a radiative transfer package that is meant to be used by observers both when preparing and interpreting ALMA observations. The ARTIST package comprises: - An innovative radiative transfer code using adaptive gridding that allows simulations of sources with arbitrary (3D) structures, ensuring rapid convergence even for molecules with a complex level structure, e.g., H2O. - Tools for modeling the polarization of line and dust emission, information that will come with full-science ALMA observations. - A library of pre-coded common models (e.g. collapse and disks models) for the user to use easily. Models may be modified and extended without coding. The addition of user-supplied models is possible and easy. - A Python-based comprehensive interface with a Graphical User Interface connecting these packages and providing links to external codes (RATRAN, RADMC, RADMC-3D). Further information can be found at ARTIST's webpage (http://youngstars.nbi.dk/artist), from which the ARTIST package can be downloaded. ARTIST was developed by scientists at the Universities of Bonn, Copenhagen, Leiden, Barcelona, and at the Onsala Space Observatory and the JPL. The project was supported by national funding agencies within the EU/ASTRONET framework. Reinhold Schaaf, German ARC node ------------------------------------------------------------------------- New server hardware for the German ARC node =========================================== The German ARC node has recently ordered dedicated computer hardware to serve ARC visitors and staff when reducing ALMA data. The new server will be equipped with 16 Intel S520 solid state disks (SSDs) with 480 GB capacity each, thus providing ~6 TB of very fast local storage. This special setup is owed to the fact that data reduction with CASA is mostly I/O-limited; it promises very fast data access due to both the high data transfer rates and low latencies of modern SSDs. The server will have 16 CPUs and 128 GB of memory and hence will supply ample computing power for reducing data from the full ALMA array. Additional RAID space of order 50 TB on traditional hard drives will be attached to this server via fast fibre link connection, thus providing relatively fast intermediate storage for reduced ALMA data. The server and accompanying RAID system will be delivered in December 2012. Thorough tests of the system will follow to optimize the setup, especially of the SSDs. After that, the server will be ready to serve the ARC node's guests and staff. Reinhold Schaaf, German ARC node ------------------------------------------------------------------------- A new ALMA documentary on Servus TV =================================== As part of its series "Terra Mater", Servus TV aired a new documentary on ALMA titled "Die Augen der Atacama" on 28 November 2012. Besides recent spectacular footage of ALMA, the documentary features ALMA staff and a number of astronomers who briefly describe their ALMA Early Science projects, among them Dr. Matthias Maercker of the German ARC node. The documentary is in German, aimed at the general public and can still be viewed at http://www.servustv.com/cs/Satellite/Article/Terra-Mater-011259461824540 Stefanie Muehle, German ARC node ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Second Announcement: Solar ALMA workshop ======================================== Please note that the registration deadline for the 1st Solar ALMA workshop is approaching fast! When: 14-17 Januar 2013 Where: University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK URL: http://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/~eduard/solarALMA/ Registration/abstract submission deadline: 7 December 2012 The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile, is the largest astronomical project in existence. The workshop aims to bring together the ALMA-minded solar community to discuss solar observational issues with ALMA, solar science and planned observations with ALMA, and the planning of solar ALMA observations. For further details, please see the draft timetable: http://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/~eduard/solarALMA/program.html (source: UK ARC node) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Second Announcement: ALMA Workshop, 2013 Rocks! =============================================== The NRAO North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC) and the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taiwan are organizing the first ASIAA-NAASC joint ALMA workshop entitled: ?Transformational Science with ALMA: From Dust to Rocks to Planets ? the Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems." This ASIAA-NAASC "2013 Rocks!" workshop will be held 8-12 April 2013 on the Big Island of Hawaii. This second announcement is to highlight that abstract submission is now OPEN and available at https://science.nrao.edu/php/alma/rocks_abs.php The deadline for abstract submissions is 31 December 2012. For those interested in submitting an abstract, please visit the workshop website http://www.cv.nrao.edu/rocks and complete the preregistration and abstract submission forms. Also, remember to "like" them on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/2013Rocks so that you will receive the latest updates and announcements posted by the meeting organizers and your colleagues. This workshop will prepare astronomers for the exciting adventures ahead in the ALMA era, focussing on new opportunities in astrophysics, and fostering collaborations with geologists, chemists, engineers and biologists investigating the origins of cosmic material in the Universe. 2013 Rocks! is committed to broadening participation by women and under-represented minorities. (source: NAASC, http://science.nrao.edu/facilities/alma) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Calendar of Events: =================== 12-15 Dec. 2012 conference "The First Year of ALMA Science", Chile http://www.almasc.org/2012/ 17-19 Dec. 2012 ALMA Single Dish and Array Combination workshop, Santiago, Chile 01 Jan. 2013 Start of ALMA Cycle 1 observing 14-17 Jan. 2013 Solar ALMA workshop, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, UK http://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/~eduard/solarALMA/ 28-31 Jan. 2013 Astrochemistry in the ALMA era, Univ. Copenhagen, Denmark http://youngstars.nbi.dk/alma2013 08-12 Apr. 2013 Transformational Science with ALMA: 2013 Rocks! http://www.cv.nrao.edu/rocks/index.html 22-26 Apr. 2013 The Modern Radio Universe, Bonn, Germany https://indico.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/indico/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=21 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information on the German ARC node, please visit http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/ARC/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information on this mailing list, please visit http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/mailman/listinfo/darc -------------------------------------------------------------------------