ALMA TACand the proposal process

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ALMA TAC and the proposal process

• Lister Staveley-Smith
• Member, ALMA Review Panel

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ALMA Board Documents which describe the TAC
process

• NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION

• Principles of ALMA Proposal Review Process
• K.Y. Lo, T. de Graauw, S. Miyama, M. Rubio, T. de
  Zeeuw (2011)
• Proposal Review Process Cycle 0
• L. Nyman (2011)

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ALMA shares

• Europe 33.75
• North America 33.75
• East Asia 22.50
• Chile 10.00
• TOTAL 100.0

Rest of the world shared between these regions
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Open Skies principles

• Open Skies proposals PI or co-PI not from the
  four regions.
• Treated in identical manner to other proposals
  until rankings reach JAO Director, when they will
  be adjusted.
• Up to 5 of total ALMA time available (charged
  to four regions in ratio 33.7533.7522.510).
  
• Time in excess of 5 charged to North America
  (following US government policy).
• PI chooses most convenient ALMA Regional Centre
  (ARC) for support.

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Cycle 0 Capabilities

• The ALMA Cycle 0 capabilities are
• Sixteen 12-m antennas
• Receiver bands 3, 6, 7 9 (wavelengths of about
  3, 1.3, 0.8 and 0.45 mm)
• Two array configurations with baselines out to
  125m and 400 m 1-6 0.25-1.5
• Single field imaging
• Pointed mosaics with a maximum of 50 pointings
• Restricted set of spectral modes chosen to meet a
  reasonable range of scientific goals

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Timelines for Cycle 0

• 30 March 2011 Call for Proposals for the ALMA
  Early Science Cycle 0 was released, including
  access to the offline Observing Tool
• 1 June 2011 Opening of archive for proposal
  submission
• 30 June 2011 Proposal Deadline
• 30 September 2011 Start of ALMA Cycle 0
  observing
• February 2012 One month engineering shutdown
• April-May 2012 Deadline for Cycle 1 proposal
  submission
• 30 June 2012 End of ALMA Cycle 0

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Principles of assigning ALMA observing time

• GENERAL
• Scientific merit
• Technical feasibility
• Regional balance
• Proprietary time 12 months
• Single ALMA TAC (Chile TBD)
• CYCLE 0
• Need for prompt data reduction, including
  possible ARC visit
• Experience in radio/millimetre data reduction
• Best-efforts basis no guarantees
• No claim-staking no carry-over
• Short, simple high-impact proposals (a few hours
  integration time)

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ALMA Review Panels science areas

1. Cosmology and the high redshift Universe
2. Galaxies and galactic nuclei
3. ISM, star formation/protoplanetary disks and
   their astrochemistry, exoplanets
4. Stellar evolution, the Sun and Solar System

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Proposal grading system

• Grade A (upper lt20)
• highest priority remain in queue until complete
  (except cycle 0)
• Grade B
• high priority remain in queue for current cycle
  only
• Grade C
• filler projects
• Grade D
• will not be observed

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Proposal Review Process (draft)
Neal Evans
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Proposal Review Process (cycle 0)
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Cycle 0 Proposals

• Only Standard proposals will be accepted (lt100h
  of observing time, as given by the OT time
  estimator).
• ToOs will be possible, but can only be executed
  (triggered) during the Cycle 0 blocks of
  observing time.
• Triggering will be done through a webform.
• Instructions are given in the Proposers Guide
  what information needs to be included in ToO
  proposals.
• Time critical observations may be possible, but
  will be restricted to the Cycle 0 blocks of
  observing time. Therefore execution time must be
  specified with a fuzziness of not less than 3
  weeks.

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Cycle 0 proposals

• Any astronomer may submit a proposal
• Proposals should exploit the advertised ALMA
  Early Science Cycle 0 capabilities, producing
  scientifically worthwhile results from relatively
  short observations (averaging a few hours)
• Proposals will be assessed by peer review, and
  ranked strictly on the basis of scientific
  quality and feasibility with respect to the
  offered capabilities

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PI Experience and Feedback

• PIs and observing teams should anticipate the
  need to invest their own time and expertise in
  the analysis of ALMA Early Science data products
• includes the possible need to visit the relevant
  ARC to assist with quality assurance and data
  reduction (ALMA is interested in determining the
  science value of the data as soon as possible)
• Proposers should anticipate that significant
  experience in radio (in particular, millimeter)
  interferometry will be an advantage in working
  with the data products during ALMA Early Science.
• PIs will need to interact with their ARC in the
  creation of scheduling blocks

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Concluding remarks

• Only 500-700 hrs likely to be available for Cycle
  0 proposals (priority is construction,
  commissioning and science verification).
• Limited Cycle 0 sensitivity (quarter of full
  ALMA, but still 6 better than ATCA at 100 GHz)
  and capability.
• Severe Cycle 0 over-subscription (101) expected.
• If you have a simple, short, high-impact
  observation, give it a go!
• Experience in mm/radio reductions give ATCA/Mopra
  users an advantage.
• If you have a complicated (multi-field,
  multi-source, multi-frequency) proposal requiring
  a lot of time, might be better to wait for Cycle
  1 or later (NB no proprietary science allowed in
  Cycle 0).

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• www.almaobservatory.org
• The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array
  (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a
  partnership of Europe, North America and East
  Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile.
  ALMA is funded in Europe by the European
  Organization for Astronomical Research in the
  Southern Hemisphere (ESO), in North America by
  the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in
  cooperation with the National Research Council of
  Canada (NRC) and the National Science Council of
  Taiwan (NSC) and in East Asia by the National
  Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in
  cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in
  Taiwan.  ALMA construction and operations are led
  on behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of North
  America by the National Radio Astronomy
  Observatory (NRAO), which is managed by
  Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) and on behalf
  of East Asia by the National Astronomical
  Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA
  Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership
  and management of the construction, commissioning
  and operation of ALMA.