Cycle 8 2021 was closed on 30 September 2022, and Cycle 9 observations successfully started later that same day. Cycle 8 12-m array data acquisition was the second highest in ALMA history, exceeding the total time of science observing of the pre-pandemic Cycle 6, despite having significantly more weather downtime than at that Cycle. For more information on the ALMA status and the Cycle 9 configuration schedule please visit the ALMA Science Portal.

The ALMA Science Archive (ASA) has reached a major milestone which we call version 1.0. The most recent addition is a Virtual Observatory Server-side Operations for Data Access (SODA) service at each ARC. This service allows astronomers to generate image or cube cutouts of smaller spatial or spectral regions of the data they are interested in on-the-fly. A detailed description of the current state of the ASA and this achievement can be found in the corresponding ESO Messenger article.

ORP (Opticon Radionet Pilot) funding is available for travel to one of the European ALMA Regional Centre nodes in Europe, for ALMA users who need face-to-face support for their ALMA projects. Users wishing to apply for ORP funding should fill out the form in addition to submitting a Helpdesk ticket that is required to arrange the ARC node visit. Face-to-face visits to ARC nodes can be arranged for assistance with data calibration and analysis, proposal preparation, and archive research projects.

The UK ARC Node is organising a workshop that will provide an introduction to ALMA and instructions on how to work with data from the observatory, including sessions on preparing proposals, downloading data from the ALMA archive, calibrating and imaging ALMA data, and using advanced ALMA-related tools. Any individuals interested in attending this workshop should fill in this expression of interest poll by 15 November.  After that, the dates and the schedule of the workshop will be finalized.

To commemorate its first decade of science operations, the ALMA partnership is organizing a conference that will take a look back at the observatory accomplishments, highlight its latest results and look forward to future technical developments. The conference will be held in Puerto Varas, Chile on 4-8 December 2023. More information will be posted on the conference web page as it becomes available. Registration for the conference will open in early 2023.

From the start of Cycle 9, PIs and Data Delegees will be able to request the release of raw data via a convenient new interface, rather than via the Helpdesk. Note that this has no effect on the policies applying to raw data release, especially regarding the start of the proprietary period with the release of the first QA0 PASS or SEMI-PASS observation. The new interface can be accessed via the Data tab on the ALMA Science Portal, or directly at asa.alma.cl/account-editor.

A detailed report on the results of the ACA Standalone Cycle 8 2021 Supplemental Call is now available. The report details the proposal statistics and regional distributions, as well as the proposal distribution across science categories and receiver bands.

The report can be downloaded as a pdf document.

The ALMA Science Portal now has a dedicated page for the Atacama Compact Array (ACA) Observatory Filler Programs conducted in Cycles 5 and 6 at https://almascience.org/alma-data/observatory-programs. Nine filler programs were executed to fill specific gaps in the ACA observing schedule. The data were released through the ALMA Science Archive with no proprietary period. The programs have resulted in publication of multiple papers. We hope that ALMA users will continue to utilize those data (and all data in the Archive!) for their scientific research.