Doc 9.20, v1.0| August 2022

Phase 2 Quickstart Guide

ALMA, an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of ESO (representing its member states), NSF (USA)and NINS (Japan), together with NRC (Canada), MOST and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of Korea), incooperation with the Republic of Chile. The Joint ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, AUI/NRAO and NAOJ.

For further information or to comment on this document, please contact your regional Helpdesk through the ALMA User
Portal at www.almascience.org. Helpdesk tickets will be directed to the appropriate ALMA Regional Center at ESO,NAOJ or NRAO.

VersionDateEditors

1 (Cycle 4)
1 (Cycle 5)
1 (Cycle 6)
1 (Cycle 7)
1 (Cycle 8 2021)
1 (Cycle 9)

August 2016
July 2017
July 2018
July 2019
July 2021
August 2022

Suzanna Randall
Suzanna Randall, Evanthia Hatziminaoglou
Evanthia Hatziminaoglou
Evanthia Hatziminaoglou
Anna Miotello
Anna Miotello

Hugo Messias, Harvey Liszt, Richard Simon, Gerald Schieven, Akiko Kawamura, Eelco Van Kampen, Loreto
BarcosIn publications, please refer to this document as:
Phase 2 Quickstart Guide, ALMA Doc. 9.20

1ScopeThis document is intended to describe to you - as the PI of an approved ALMA observing proposal - the processof Phase 2. From Cycle 8 2021 onwards, unlike in previous cycles, PIs are not required to submit Phase 2
Science Goals (see ALMA Users’ Policies for further details). Approved projects are assigned an ALMA Contact
Scientist (CS) at the associated ARC or ARC node and a project Helpdesk ticket is opened on behalf of the PIfor communication with the CS and others. Necessary minor changes may be requested through this Helpdesk
ticket and will be implemented as long as they do not impact the science scope or increase the total execution
time. Any significant change may only be made after the approval of a PI-initiated change request through theHelpdesk. The CS can assist the PI with any questions during Phase 2.
ALMA staff will generate the Scheduling Blocks (SBs) and, in case of problems, will contact the CS and thePI. If no problems are found, the project will be submitted to the ALMA observing queue to await execution atthe telescope. PIs may track the status of their SBs through the Snooping Project Interface (SnooPI), accessible
from the ALMA Science Portal.
Specific instruction on projects with observing modes that require special consideration are reported below.

2Observing modes that require special consideration• Projects containing Total Power (TP, single dish) observations: all Total Power single dish observations
require an OFF position that should correspond to a region in the sky where no emission is expected at
the frequency of observation down to the sensitivity requested. In Cycle 9, ALMA staff will select TP
OFF positions, and take into account any OFF positions possibly suggested by the PIs in Phase 1 (in thesubmitted proposal). PIs may be contacted and asked for suggestions, if the OFF position selected by
ALMA staff is found to be contaminated.
• Projects containing time constraints: please check the time constraints specified at Phase 1 very carefully, and if applicable contact your Contact Scientist to add further possible time slots or supplementary
information. Only time constraints specified in the relevant fields in the OT will be considered by default;
any additional scheduling information (including anything mentioned in the scientific or technical justification of your proposal) needs to be brought to the attention of your Contact Scientist during the Phase
2 process.
• Science Goals that use the narrowest spectral windows offered, and/or have expected lines very close
to the spectral window edge. Due to technical restrictions on the exact placement of the spectral
windows, the desired (i.e. that specified in the Science Goal) and the actual spectral window frequency
observed may differ by up to ∼ 20 MHz. If you are hoping to observe spectral lines within a few tens ofMHz of the spectral window edge, please contact your Contact Scientist for help.
• VLBI projects: these projects follow the normal workflow. They will be assigned to a VLBI expert,
and you will be contacted if any further action is required from your side after SB submission. For anyscheduling constraint or request, please contact first the GMVA or EHT schedulers.
• Projects that contain Solar observations: these projects follow the normal workflow, however the SBs are
submitted with the understanding that the ephemeris provided is preliminary and will be updated shortly
before the Solar campaign. If you are the PI of an accepted project containing Solar observations you will
be contacted at least 24 hours in advance of the proposed observation with instructions on how to provide
the final ephemeris files. PIs of observations with ephemeris targets other than the Sun are responsible forproviding a valid target ephemeris file during the Phase 2 process contacting their Contact Scientists andany updates during the Cycle if necessary.
• ToO (target of opportunity) projects: ToO projects follow the normal workflow. The triggering of observations will be done via the Helpdesk by the PI or a selected delegee (feel free to ask your Contact Scientistfor help).

• Re-submissions: ALMA will check all approved Cycle 9 projects against approved (ABC rank) Cycle 82021 projects (as well as carry-overs from previous cycles) and identify any SBs that are re-submissions.
If the Cycle 8 2021 SB has already been started (if at least one Execution Block has passed QA0), theobservations from the previous cycle will normally be carried over to Cycle 9 and the corresponding resubmitted Cycle 9 SB will be cancelled. If the Cycle 8 2021 SB observations have not yet been started theCycle 9 observations will proceed as normal. As a PI you should normally not need to worry about this inPhase 2. Your CS will contact you after the Phase 2 deadline if any clarifications are needed.
• Projects with astrometric requirements beyond those advertised in the Call for Proposals: make sure
to contact your CS to discuss the possibility of implementing calibration strategies beyond the standard
calibration offered by ALMA.

3

Change requests

PIs of proposals assigned a grade of A, B, or C may request changes to their projects subject to the ALMA
Change Request policies described in the Users Policies. Minor changes can usually be made during the Phase 2process. Major changes are allowed only if additional information that may seriously affect the scientific case ofthe project has become available since the time of submission, when there is a demonstrable mistake, or when
there is the potential for interesting scientific optimisation. If you require any edits to the Science Goals, youshould first get in touch with your Contact Scientist via the project Helpdesk ticket. Your Contact Scientist
will advise you on whether or not to submit an official CR ticket to the Helpdesk. If a CR is submitted and,subsequently, approved by the ALMA Director, an ALMA staff member will make the necessary edits and update
the Phase 2 Science Goals for you. You will be informed by your Contact Scientist once the new Science Goals
are ready to be reviewed. You will need to approve such projects via the Helpdesk before they can be added tothe observing queue.