Welcome to the European ALMA Regional Centre Newsletter!
This monthly newsletter is a compilation of recent European ALMA Regional Centre news and announcements and showcases an exciting ALMA science result by European colleagues. In the "Meet the ARC" section, the work of ARC personnel and the services and expertise areas of an ARC node are highlighted. Every month, you can learn an incredible ALMA fact in "Did you know" and give your opinion about a particular ALMA matter in the "Poll of the month". Upcoming ALMA and ALMA-related meetings as well as an entertaining social media post of the past month are highlighted at the end of the newsletter.
An issue has been discovered in the Cycle 10 ALMA Observing Tool (OT) that affects the estimated Atacama Compact Array (ACA) integration times for some 4x4-bit ACA observations (7-m and TP). We have fixed this problem and a patched version of the Cycle 10 OT is now available on the Science Portal. All PIs of projects that include ACA observations should download the updated OT version and submit or resubmit their proposals using this version. The correct version can be identified by checking for the words "Patch 1" in the title bar at the top of the OT window.
As described in the ALMA Cycle 10 Proposer's Guide, both spectral-line and continuum observations in Band 1 will be available only with the 12-m Array at Cycle 10, from March 2024 onwards. The Observing Tool will not prevent the submission of projects containing Band 1 ACA observations, but Band 1 ACA (7m and Total Power) observations are not technically feasible at this Cycle. Proposals requiring Band 1 ACA observations should therefore not be submitted.
On behalf of the Joint ALMA Observatory and the partner organizations led by NAOJ in East Asia, ESO in Europe, and NRAO in North America, the ALMA Director, Sean Dougherty, is pleased to announce the ALMA Cycle 10 Call for Proposals for scientific observations to be scheduled from October 2023 to September 2024.
As announced in the October 2022 EU ARC Newsletter, the ALMA partnership is organizing a conference to commemorate its first decade of science operations. The conference will take a look back at the observatory accomplishments, highlight its latest results and look forward to future technical developments. It will take place from 4 to 8 December 2023 in Puerto Varas, Chile. Abstract submission and registration for the conference is now open at the conference webpagewith a deadline for abstract submission on the 31st of May 2023.
The newly published ALMA memo 624 (https://library.nrao.edu/public/memos/alma/main/memo624.pdf) is a re-visit to ALMA site properties and the successor to the Evans 2003 site stringency work (ALMA memo 471 that used only a 300m baseline phase monitor). Importantly, the phase RMS is the main focus of the new memo, and is measured using ALMA data since Cycle 3 (over 17000 Executions blocks). Using the bright bandpass sources, the phase RMS can be measured over various timescales (30s to 240s) and at all baseline lengths observed. Scaling trends are also used to extrapolate short baseline phase RMS (from short baseline configurations) to longer baseline values as to provide a comparable sample for 'summary' baseline lengths of 500, 1000, 5000 and 10000m in all EBs.
The Allegro ARC Node, in collaboration with colleagues from ESO, JAO, and Groningen, is organising a Lorentz workshop for the ALMA community to discuss the "high frequency ALMA Universe", i.e. the unique science that can be achieved at the highest frequencies. ALMA is the only ground-based interferometer that can easily observe at frequencies >450 GHz, making it a truly unique instrument. At the workshop, the main scientific areas will be explored, together with new questions which have arisen in the field that can only be answered at the high frequency observational regime (bands 8, 9 and 10). The objective is to foster ideas, collaborations and synergies within the European community that will enhance the discovery space of ALMA.
The workshop will take place in Leiden on Sept 4-8, 2023, and due to space restrictions will be limited to a small number of participants. However, if you have obtained or would like to obtain high frequency ALMA observations - and are interested to participate in the workshop - please send an email to alma@strw.leidenuniv.nl.
Credit: S. Lipinski/NASA & ESA, NAOJ, NRAO/AUI/NSF, B. McGuire et al.
ALMA science highlight
ALMA reveals for the first time the distribution of the cosmic-ray ionisation rate in two massive star-forming regions
Map of the log10(ζionH2/s-1) derived for AGAL351.571+00.762 (a) and AGAL354.944-00.537 (b). The black contours show the ALMA continuum at 1.33 mm (levels: [3, 6, 9, 15, 30] σ). Cores' IDs ('c#'; in red) follow the classification defined by Redaelli et al. (2021). The figure is adapted from Sabatini et al. (2023).
Unique ALMA interferometric observations of o-H2D+ were simultaneously used in combination with additional ALMA observations of C18O, DCO+ and H13CO+, to produce the "First ALMA maps of cosmic-ray ionisation rate in high-mass star-forming regions" (Sabatini et al 2023). This is the result of a long journey of more than five years that started with the first observations of o-H2D+ in high-mass star-forming regions by ALMA in 2018 (PI. S. Bovino). The results of this study, published a few days ago by Sabatini et al. 2023, employ the analytical method described by Bovino et al. 2020 to estimate the cosmic-ray ionisation rate relative to H2 (ζionH2), using the ortho-form of H2D+ as the main observational constraint to derive the amount of H3+ (whose formation is closely related to ζionH2).
The results of the work conduced by Dr Giovanni Sabatini (INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri in Florence; Istituto di Radioastronomia/It-ARC in Bologna), Dr Elena Redaelli (Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik in Garching) and Prof Stefano Bovino (Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Concepción, Chile) show that the cores belonging to the same parental clump have comparable ζionH2, and suggest that the ionisation properties of prestellar regions are determined by global rather than local effects.
These results provide crucial information for the chemical and physical modelling of star-forming regions.
Meet the ARC
Dr. George Bendo
George has worked at the UK ARC Node since 2011 and has primarily been involved with user support, quality assurance, and training. He has been the lead organizer for the annual UK ALMA workshops held since 2020, and along with Kazi Rygl, he is the co-editor of Using ALMA Archival Data - a Primer (https://almascience.eso.org/documents-and-tools/cycle10/archive-primer).
George's main research interests has been focused on dust and star formation in nearby galaxies. Using ALMA archival data, George has identified millimetre recombination line emission in a few nearby starburst galaxies and has compared the star formation rates from these measurements to other star formation metrics. However, his most recent work has involved the analysis of the spectral energy distributions of gravitational lens candidates identified in Herschel data.
that from Cycle 10 the default for the Bandwidth used for Sensitivity (BufS) in the "Control and Performance" section of the Observing Tool (OT) has changed for Spectral Line modes? You can find more information about this topic in a recent helpdesk knowledgebase article.
Upcoming ALMA or ALMA-related Meetings
ALMA at 10 years: Past, Present and Future
The conference will take a look back at the observatory accomplishments, highlight its latest results and look forward to future technical developments. It will take place from 4 to 8 December 2023 in Puerto Varas, Chile. Abstract submission and registration for the conference is now open at the conference webpagewith a deadline for abstract submission on the 31st of May 2023.
High Frequency ALMA Universe
This is a Lorentz workshop that will take place in Leiden from 4 to 8 September 2023. At the workshop, scientific areas that can be addressed with high frequency observations will be explored, together with new questions which have arisen in the field that can only be answered at the high frequency observational regime (bands 8, 9 and 10). If you have obtained or would like to obtain high frequency ALMA observations - and are interested to participate in the workshop - please send an email to alma@strw.leidenuniv.nl.
Social media highlight
Want to witness the birth of a cluster of galaxies with @almaobs? Then check out this video! 🤩 More infos on @ESO and in the press release at https://t.co/NSGnZamPQw
