General Activities Stuartt Corder April 9, 20141ASAC telecon

Operational Update Move to 2 weeks of ES vs 1 week of EOC(extension and optimization of capabilities)/CSV Program scientists for EOC in place in Chile: A. Remijan (Lead), C. Vlahakis (Deputy) 24 hour operations on the weekend of ES weeks currently best efforts* EOC weeks contain 2 days of dedicated “test version” validation for software capabilities >=44 Antennas available in at least some bands since March 12 April 9, 2014ASAC telecon2

Operational Update Special attention being paid to pad readiness: – Priority on Cycle 1+2 extended configuration pads – Next priority given to 12 extended array pads that are needed for long baseline testing (more later) – Then all pads will be accepted, probably on an on demand basis – Weekly meetings held with delivering party to provide updates on progress and schedule April 9, 2014ASAC telecon3

Operational Update Relocation/Configuraitons: – April: 32-4; May: 32-5; June: 34-6; July: 34-7* – Have demonstrated 2 relocations in a day regularly with the same crew – Have demonstrated (recently) 2 relocations and return to science in the same day – Configuration change planning has improved dramatically since last year but we are now using new pads again, so it may become more dynamic again April 9, 2014ASAC telecon4

Operational Update Problem reporting/tracking – Weekly meetings now between hardware savy astronomers and engineering to prioritize and interact regarding tough problems – Plan to have astronomer involvement in twice daily meetings at the site to confirm priority weighting of problems that occur over night Morning to give initial priority after the night Afternoon to update new problems and merge them into the queue – Weekly updates with software to prioritize persistent problems. April 9, 2014ASAC telecon5

Status of Cycle 1 Masao Saito April 9, 20146ASAC telecon

Progress since last ASAC telecon Post the ALMA Status Update document. ES Blocks 27 and 28 (C32-2/3) conducted Cycle 1 ES Data reduction keeps going. New observing block started from Apr 2 – 2 week ES blocks and 1 week EOC block – Saturday and Sunday 24hr run with best efforts – Prior to 24 hr run, performance check (pointing and focus conducted) April 9, 2014ASAC telecon7

Cycle 1 Observation Status Observing blocks 27, 28 (Mar ) successful (3 blocks about one week each in the period). Array Elements reached nominal numbers in the last two blocks (~32 or more for 12-m Array Elements (AEs), ~9 for 7-m Aes), TP mode has not yet passed software acceptance) ACA observations suffered from various issues in the blocks 27 and 28 because of invalid optical signals from antennas or mis-operation of resetting ACA correlator. April 9, 20148ASAC telecon 12-m Array Block Allocated time (h) (nominal values, will be updated) Successful executions (h) # of successful executions Calibrations (h) Downtime (h) Execution efficiency (%) Average number of antennas m Array

Cycle 1 Data Processing Status April 8, 2014 Manual reduction by staff at JAO and the ARCs Project View (in total 197 High Priority Projects in Cycle 1): Number of projects completed: 25 Number of projects partially delivered: 38 Number of projects started: 125 (at least one QA0 pass) Dataset (OUSs or SBs, one or more each per project) view: Datasets started to be observed:64 Datasets finished (fully observed): 258 (passed QA2+being processed+waiting) Datasets passed QA2:153 Datasets delivered:143 Being processed: 74 Waiting for staff data reduction assignment: 31 April 9, 2014ASAC telecon9

Preparation for 24 hr run 24 hr run on Saturday and Sunday. From 9 am to 5 pm, it is the best effort so engineering work on individual antennas and front ends are happening. Prior to Apr 2, performance test run was performed. Band 3 is ok and Band 6 is ok with caution. April 9, 2014ASAC telecon10

Expected completion of Cycle 1 projects on May h to transfer to Cycle 2 including all SBs requiring C32-6. Expected completion rates of each band are ~70 % (B3), ~60 % (B6), ~40 % (B7), ~25 % (B9) Probable better completion rates With antennas, reasonable coverage of two array configurations. Daytime observations covering the whole LST range. April 9, 2014ASAC telecon11

Cycle 2 Readiness Stuartt Corder April 9, ASAC telecon

Software ~3 online problems remain that are critical for acceptance (1 likely solved) Other major items are resolved Acceptance testing scheduled for week of April 22 nd provided progress is made on remaining issues. Acceptance planned for end of May in preparation for June 2 start to Cycle 2 (June 1 is a EOC/CSV day) April 9, 2014ASAC telecon13

Antennas/Receivers Goal of 45 antennas in use each night more or less regularly achieved in some bands Focus now on making the 45 antennas robust and having 45 at all bands Band 4/8 installations are at ~30, i.e. half the array. Schedule to complete all with 4/8/10 by Dec/Jan (4 are added each month on average) April 9, 2014ASAC telecon14

Antenna Stations/Power/Weather Readiness of remaining extended configuration Cycle1/2 stations underway (about 16 remain for Cycle 1, 10 more for Cycle 2) Remote power recovery installed and functional on all stations in inner 3 of 6 configurations for Cycle 1 Project defined and initiated for remote start on all stations Snow plow on site and installed April 9, 2014ASAC telecon15

Cycle 3 Activities Stuartt Corder April 9, ASAC telecon

Recent Activities Focus has continued to be on readiness for software acceptance of the online system Session (recycled calibration) work in final testing phase Calibration stability (amplitude/bandpass) analysis nearly complete Speeding up the calibration of the correlator for the ACA Single dish validation still on going April 9, 2014ASAC telecon17

Current Activities: April/May (start 1 week in 3 available) Close out of single dish validation Pre-tests for high frequency focus: – 90 deg switching (when unblocked) – Differential Gain Calibration (band to band transfer, etc) – Fast focus full validation High precision ephemeris checks Single dish rework planning Observing modes meeting for Cycle 3 next week April 9, 2014ASAC telecon18

Focused Campaigns High Frequency: June-August – Local lead: Takahashi – Detailed plan being prepared, folding in ACR support and missions – Configuration changes in June-August optimized to provide band 10 equipped antennas near the ACA – Goal: Improved approach to observing and calibration at bands 9 and 10 as well as potentially low transparency parts of bands 7 and 8 April 9, 2014ASAC telecon19

Focused Campaigns Single dish rework: – Plan being defined to improve the overall performance of single dish – Fast scanning delivered in November should allow better calibration and single dish continuum observations. – Will include schedule for single dish sideband separation (this will likely compete with the high frequency campaign and may be in conflict, preference is given to interferometric improvements) – Goal: A better single dish approach that utilizes more valid techniques and lessons learned in the previous approach. This will include more optimized observing efficiency. April 9, 2014ASAC telecon20

Focused Campaigns Long Baselines: September-November – Local lead: Fomalont – Experts from the executives are being invited to participate for specific areas (based on expertise or previous contributions) – Plan for configuration and timing done – Plan for detailed breakdown of tasks to be discussed in late May. – SV proposed sources not yet available (coming soon0 – Station readiness is being tracked in weekly meetings – Goal: Statements about the long baseline performance, weather requirements, and calibration needs. Should conclude with a set of requirements of restrictions for the Cycle 3 call for proposals (bands, lengths, etc) and a general calibration approach (fast switching, etc) April 9, 2014ASAC telecon21

Focused Campaigns ALMA Phasing Project: – Local Lead: Not yet identified – Test time being discussed for software side tests. – Time agreement made with APP pending hardware acceptance and software readiness Solar: December – Initial tests for improved approach being conducted now. – May not be included in Cycle 3 call but would do a broad science verification campaign for April 9, 2014ASAC telecon22