ALMA Cycle 8 2021 Proposer's Guide
Proposal format, what’s new
See Nagai-san’s talk on the observing capabilities
East Asia ALMA Regional Center
ALMA Cycle 8 2021 Proposal Preparation Meeting, March 22-23, 2021

ALMA

• Interferometer consisting of 66 antennas• Fifty 12-m antennas  12-m Array• Atacama Compact Array (ACA; Morita Array）• Twelve 7-m (7-m Arary), Four 12-m (Total Power, TP)• From 0.32 mm to 3.6 mm (Band 3 to 10) for Cycle 8 2021

©Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), A. Marinkovic/X-Cam

ALMA Regional Centers – interface for users
Joint ALMA Observatory

Effective array operations: Execution of programs under suitable conditions
High availability of the array for science : Repairs, Preventive maintenance

Science operations in regional centers with functions agreed inEA, EU, and NA, in close coordination with JAO

EA ARCEU ARCNA ARCEA ALMA users

EU ALMA users

NA ALMA users• ARC provide support for users in the respective regions so that users canconcentrate on proposing observations, data analysis, and science discussion.
• Support can be optimized to the regional situation (e.g., native language,
specific demands from users).

Current Status
ALMA is…
• In the process of recovering the Arrays and resuming science operations• Trying to do the limited science operations in March 2021
• Limited science operations  https://almascience.nao.ac.jp/news/almaanticipates-resuming-science-observations• Accepting Director’s Discretionary Time (DDT) proposals• Announcement  https://almascience.nao.ac.jp/news/alma-is-now-acceptingcycle-7-ddt-proposals

ALMA has released the Call for Proposals for Cycle 8 2021 on March 17
as planned.
This is different from the previous Cycle 8 call last year. “Cycle 8 2021” isindicated in every document for the new call.

Proposing observations in ALMA

• “Cycle” in ALMA: One year period, starting from October every year
• Cycle 8 2021: From October 2021 to September 2022
• Calls every year
Grade A, B, C both for the 12-m Array• Main Calland the ACA stand-alone (different from• 12-m Array, ACA
Cycle 7 when ACA stand-alone proposals• Call for Proposals in March
could not get Grade C)• October 2021 to September 2022
• 4300 hours for 12-m Array, at least 3000 for ACA each for 7-m and TParrays• Supplemental Call
• ACA stand-alone• Call for Proposals in September• January 2022 to September 2022
• Observing time will be announced later• DDT: Users can propose anytime in the on-going cycle

Proposing observations in ALMA
• Science observations will be scheduled taking into account many factors
including, for example, weather, proposal grade and executive balance• Priorities• Grade A“Users Policies”• Highest grade, carried over to the next Cycle
https://almascienc• Grade B
e.nao.ac.jp/docum• No carry overents-andtools/cycle8/alma• Grade Cuser-policies• Filler• After observations…
• Quality assurance (meet the PI’s request?)  delivered to the PI• Data become public after 12 months (6 months for DDT)

Information is in the Science Portal
https://almascience.nao.ac.jp/

… and please ask us via the Helpdesk
https://help.almascience.org/• We can accept Japanese questions although you may need to wait until theJapanese staff are available (be careful, in particular just before the deadline)
You will be asked to login when you try to submit a ticket.
Please register in the Science Portal first if you do nothave an account.
Please use your registered email address for the loginname in the Helpdesk (please use the same password asthe Science Portal)

… and please ask us via the Helpdesk
https://help.almascience.org/• Any changes,clarifications, or bugs
that are discovered after
the publication of theProposer’s Guide will be
documented in theKnowledgebase article.

https://help.almascience.org/kb/articles/
what-cycle-8-2021-proposal-issues-andclarifications-should-i-be-aware-of-beforesubmitting-my-2

Schedule: Main Call
DateMilestone

17 March 2021

Release of Cycle 8 2021 Call for Proposals, Observing Tool, andsupporting documents, and opening of the Archive for proposal
submission

21 April 2021 (15:00 UT)

Proposal submission deadline for Cycle 8 2021 Call for Proposals

3 June 2021 (15:00 UT)

Deadline to submit reviews for the distributed peer review system

August 2021

Announcement of the outcome of the proposal review process

8 September 2021

Release of ACA Supplemental Call for Proposals

1 October 2021

Start of ALMA Cycle 8 2021 Science Observations

6 October 2021

Proposal submission deadline for Cycle 8 2021 Supplemental Call

30 September 2022

End of ALMA Cycle 8 2021

Schedule: Supplemental Call
DateMilestone

8 September 2021

Release of the Cycle 8 2021 stand-alone ACA Supplemental CfP,
Observing Tool, and supporting documents, and opening of theArchive for proposal submission

6 October 2021

Supplemental Call proposal submission deadline

December 2021

Announcement of the outcome of the proposal review processJanuary 2022

Start of Science Observations

30 September 2022

End of ALMA Cycle 8 2021

What’s new: Capabilities Nagai-san’s talkWhat’s new: Review process(tomorrow’s session)• Dual-anonymous review• Distributed peer review• Proposals requesting less than 25 hours on the 12-m Array and for ACA standalone proposals requesting less than 150 hours on the 7-m Array will be
reviewed in the distributed peer review. The PI for such proposals or a designee
from the list of investigators will review and rank 10 submitted proposals fromthis Call, for each proposal submitted.
• Proposals requesting more will go to the panel review• Large Programs proposal format and management plan
• Scientific Justification will be reviewed in the dual-anonymous• A one-page PDF statement is required for the management planImportant!

Please register/update your “Expertise” in your user profile. This isextremely important for the proposal assignments in the distributed
peer review system.
Please select at least 3 category/keyword pairs that best
match your scientific expertise.
Login or newly register

Updating the profile

Click “Next” button to move to the“Expertise” tab.
After updating the keywords, go to
the final “Confirm” tab, then submit.

What’s new: Prioritizing larger projects
Following recommendations from ASAC and ALMA
IVC, ALMA is taking further steps to encouragelarge, more ambitious proposal submissions.
• No cap on the total amount of time that can beallotted to Large Programs as of Cycle 8 2021.

Poor statistics: Hope that
healthy competition here
will improve the scientificproductivity of ALMA

However, Large Programs will still be limited to fillingno more than 50% of the time in a given LST andconfiguration so that smaller programs will be able tocompete at each configuration and LST.

• Proposals that request more than 25 hours on the 12m Array (including Large Programs) will have priority
when filling at least 10% of the available time for
Grade A and B proposals. If the total amount of time forthe Large Programs recommended by the APRC sum to lessthan 430 hours on the 12-m Array, then the highest ranked
proposals requesting between 25 and 50 hours will be given
next priority in building the queue.

Drop at the threshold for LP

What’s new: OT• No separate Java installation• No web start anymore Ishii-san’s talkProposal types• Regular, Target of Opportunity, Large Program, VLBI and phased-array, DDT• Regular• Estimated execution time does not exceed 50 hours on the 12-m Array or150 hours on the 7-m Array in stand-alone mode.
• Large Program• Estimated execution time >50 hours on the 12-m Array (with or withoutaccompanying ACA time) or 150 hours on the 7-m Array in stand-alonemode.
• Large Programs should not involve time-critical or ToO observations, andmay not include full polarization measurements, Solar observations, VLBI,Phased Array mode, or Astrometric observations.
Please ask any support to the ARC for the
proposal planning including for Large Programs.
Please do not hesitate to submit Helpdesk tickets.

Scheduling consideration• Weather  Proposer’s Guide• Please ask us a help for theplanning, in particular forLarge Programs• Helpdesk• https://help.almascience.org/• Article on how to plan the Large
Program• https://help.almascience.org/kb/articles/are-there-policies-specificto-large-programs

Scheduling consideration• Angular resolution• PIs can request a range of resolutions if scientificallyacceptable.
• If the PI selects a single value or a range < 20%around its centre value, a range of 20% around thesingle or centre value specified will be enforced.
PIs are encouraged to think about the range ofacceptable angular resolutions, although with theconsideration of the declination of their targets (beamelongation).
• Starting in Cycle 7, the time-estimate dialogue in theOT will show the expected 2-D beam shape andmaximum axial ratio based on observations neartransit.
• Note also that if the requested range includes both
long-baseline and more compact configurations,only the latter will be considered.

Other notes• Supplemental Call for ACA stand-alone• January 2022 to September 2022
• Available observing time will be announced later• While stand-alone ACA proposals accepted from the Main Call may
be assigned priority "A", "B", or "C", all accepted proposals from theSupplemental Call will be assigned priority "C". Proposals submitted
to the Supplemental Call will be peer reviewed through thedistributed system.
• ACA stand-alone polarization is not offered in the Supplemental Call.
• There will be no LST restriction on proposals at the time ofsubmission.
• Any stand-alone ACA proposal rejected in the Main Call may be
modified to address comments from the reviewers and submitted tothe Supplemental Call.

Scheduling consideration• No C-9/10 in Cycle 8 2021. The overall schedule may be modified
depending on such as the proposal pressure in the different configurations.
Pressure for LST  Proposer’s GuideDuplications• Duplicate observations of the same location on
the sky with similar observing parameters(frequency, angular resolution, coverage, andsensitivity) are not permitted unless scientificallyjustified. Detailed criteria of what constitutes aduplicated observation are specified in Appendix
A of the Users’ Policies.
• PIs are responsible for checking their proposed
observations against both the ALMA Archive andthe spreadsheet provided below to avoid
duplicate observations.
• The proposal cover sheet contains a section
where PIs can justify proposed duplicateobservations.

Resubmissions• Proposal teams that submit a Cycle 8 2021 proposal toobserve some or all the Science Goals (SGs) of a currently
active but unfinished project will have the relevant SGs
identified as a “resubmission” by ALMA.

• A SG is deemed a resubmission if it constitutes a duplication ofan active SG following the rules specified in Appendix A of theUsers’ Policies and the PI of the relevant Cycle 7 project is listed
as a PI, co-I or co-PI of the corresponding Cycle 8 proposal or
the Cycle 8 PI is listed as an investigator on the Cycle 7proposal.

• The relevant portion of the Cycle 8 2021 proposal will becancelled if the observations are successfully completed in
Cycle 7. Observations started in a previous cycle andaccepted as a resubmission in Cycle 8 2021 will continue tobe observed with the setup of the previous cycle.
• A Scientific Justification must be provided if the proposers
request one or more additional epochs of observations in
Cycle 8 2021 even if the Cycle 7 observations are completed.

Duplication criteria canbe found in the “UsersPolicies” document
https://almascience.nao.ac.jp/documents-and-tools/cycle8-documents

Proposal format• Page limits• Total length: 4 pages for Regular, ToO, mm-VLBI and DDT proposals, 6 pages
for Large Programmes (A4 or US Letter format)• Font size: no smaller than 12 points including figure captions, tables andreferences• Latex template is in the Science Portal and users can use it.

Other notes• No Phase 2 deadline for PIs• Please carefully check that your observing setting at Phase 1 (proposalsubmission) is correct.
• TP-alone can be proposed with the combination of the 7-m Array• The OT currently does not permit users to request only the TP Array. However, if a user
has existing 7-m Array data through their own program or through archival data, but
now realizes that TP Array data are needed to obtain short spacings, they can submit
a proposal requesting both the 7-m Array and TP Array. The proposal should indicatethat only the TP Array is needed and that the 7-m Array should be descoped if theproposal is accepted. This option is available only if the 7-m Array data have alreadybeen obtained.

• Polarization with ACA stand-alone• This mode will have a cap in the total hours, but please do not hesitate topropose. Users over-reacted about this kind of “cap” before. Please do nothesitate to propose just because of the cap.
• Source coordinates (update of the Users Policies)• Please do not intentionally hide the true coordinates.

ALMA Science Archivehttps://almascience.nao.ac.jp/asax/

If you want to use the previous search interface,mouse-over this column

Instantaneous as-you-type search, clickablefootprints, a background-slider, a viewer of thespectral coverage of the search results
including the most relevant lines for ALMA, asimultaneous search of observations, projects
and publications, bookmark capability... and much more. Enjoy!

Archive updates
More than 1PB of data has now accumulated in the Archive• Improved downloads with the new ALMA
Request Handler backend• All FITS files are now accessible
individually: For all data from Cycle 1
onwards, all FITS files and README files can
now be accessed file-by-file without
needing to download huge tar files.
• SV data can be searched for• Virtual Observatory services available• Improved astroquery• Updated README files and QA reports• ARI-L products available

You can check details in the news in
the Science Portal:
https://almascience.nao.ac.jp/

Archive updates: ARI-L

28

Additional Representative Images for Legacy (ARI-L)• EU (Italian)-led, development project, bringing the reduction level ofALMA data from Cycles 2-4 close to that of what is processed with
the ALMA Imaging Pipeline in more recent Cycles.
• More than 74000 ARI-L FITS files are available for download.
A uniform set of full data cubes andcontinuum images covering at least
70% of the data from Cycles 2-4.
⇔ More limited QA2-generated
products which cover only a small
fraction (< 10%) of the observed data
for those cycles.

https://sites.google.com/inaf.it/ari-lArchive updates: ARI-L
ALMA Science Archive

In the Request Handler page, you willsee “external” with the package name“ari_l”.
JVO (http://jvo.nao.ac.jp/portal/alma/archive.do)

In the search results page, it says “ARI-L”

https://sites.google.com/inaf.it/ari-lArchive updates: link to CARTAALMA Science Archive in the Request Handler page
Link to CARTA as a viewer

Open the file tree
https://sites.google.com/inaf.it/ari-l

You can check and analyze theimages/cubes without
downloading the data package.