Roles and activities in the East Asia
ALMA Regional Centerー focusing on the science operations from Japanー

東アジアALMA地域センターの役割と活動～ 三鷹における科学運用を中心に ～Misato Fukagawa
ALMA Project, NAOJ
TMT科学運用に関するミニワークショップ, June 23, 2021

2021/6/24

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• Total 66 antennas (12-m x 54, 7-m x 12) are located at the altitude of 5,000 m• The maximum baseline of 16.2 km (size scale of the Yamanote Line) provides
the angular resolution of 0.01”• Science observations started in 2011

Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), A. Marinkovic/X-Cam2

Global collaboration

In December 2015, the trilateralagreement on the operation of
ALMA was signed in Tokyo. The
framework for international
cooperation was established.
https://alma-telescope.jp/news/mtpost_628

2021/6/24

https://alma-telescope.jp/en/globalcollaboration

Observing time allocated toeach region is in proportion toits contribution, excluding
Chile and open sky.
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Global collaboration
Japan, US, and Europe collaborate to realize
the world's most powerful radio telescope
Europe2021/6/24•••

Proposals
Data
Software etc.

•••

Users’ demands
Array operations status
Operational policy making etc.

East Asia

North America

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

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Role of the ALMA Regional Centers (ARCs)
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 in EA, 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 thatthey can concentrate on observing proposals and data analysis.
2021/6/245East Asia ARC
Central office is at NAOJ Mitaka:••Core functions: Agreed on internationally
Enhanced functions: Flexibly planned andexecuted in each ARC✓ Native language suppose✓ Realization of users’ demands

Two nodes in Taiwan and Korea:

User support optimized to the individual regions inaddition to the core functions of the ARC•EU has several nodes in
addition to the central officeat ESO, Garching.

https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/alma/arc.html
2021/6/24•“Executive”: Region at the proposal submission,
related to the observing time allocation“Preferred ARC”: Region to support the user(can change depending on the change of user’saffiliation)
6Open-use cycle•••••••

1 “Cycle” for one year
Single proposal ranking
Service (queue)
2 months
observations only
Grade A, B, and filler 4 months
Regular, ToO, Large,VLBI, DDT
Quality assurance of 6 months
obtained data
Data become publicly
available after one year(or 6 months for DDT)
in the ArchiveResearchers（archive users）

2021/6/24

Data analysis
Writing papers

Researchers(proposers)

Proposal writing

JAOARCCall for Proposals
Support for proposal
submission

APR, APRC(review committee)
Science review

Preparation ofobserving procedure

Support for generationsof procedures

Notification onreview outcome
Execution ofobservations

Data quality assurance

Archiving
Data analysis

Data analysis
supportWriting papers
Release of data after one year
(after 6 months for DDT)
Data analysis
support7Cycle and user support

Data request

Data acquisition

Call for Proposal preparation
Proposal preparation meeting
Support for tools
Phase 2 generation

Data Processing

Data Delivery

Quality Assurance
Support for related tools
Pipeline, CASA

Science archive

Support for tools
Scheduling
Astronomers on Duty

New capabilities
2021/6/24

End-to-end user support fromproposing to data reduction(Helpdesk, tutorials)
Collect users’ experience

Collecting users’ scientific demands
Support for EOC
Pipeline development
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Science Portal
Science Portal – almost everything is here!

Registration is necessary to propose
observations, getting data under the proprietary
periodhttps://almascience.nao.ac.jp/
ALMA Science Archive

Helpdesk, knowledgebase
2021/6/24

9Observing Tool

Project status tracking toolReceiving inputs/feedback from users
Two paths

https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/about-alma/thepeople/the-alma-committees/asac-members-list/• Regional/ALMA Science
Advisory Committees✓ Working on the charges
by the Board.
Recommendations andadvice to the Board on
various issues including
future science capabilities,
improvements inoperations• Various tools/opportunities✓ (see next page)

Note: ALMA also deeply involves thecommunity in the developments.

2021/6/24

ALMA Science Advisory Committee
https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/aboutalma/the-people/the-alma-board/

Alvaro Gonzalez

Project Manager

Teams:EngineeringDevelopmentComputingOperations (ARC)

ScienceEPO

EA science community, Japanese SAC/EA SAC
https://alma-telescope.jp/en/structure

10Receiving inputs/feedback from users
Towards the telescope also for non-radio astronomers
Interaction with ALMA users••••

ALMA Helpdesk (daily)
Surveys, interviews (irregular)
Users Meetings (annual)
Data reduction tutorials, workshops (irregular)
Checking statistics, making prioritization
within the limited resource

User support for the Japanese community•••
2021/6/24

Calibrated data delivery service etc.
Budgetary support for publication, workshops,
ALMA Grant Fellows etc.
Material in Japanese
https://www2.nao.ac.jp/~eaarc/DATARED/index.html

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Working as “one ALMA” on daily basis• Each management
team consists ofrepresentatives fromall the regions.

EA ALMA Support Center
Project Manager

Teams:Engineering

Development

ComputingOperations (ARC)

ScienceEPO• Subsystems and working groups basicallyconsist of representatives from all the regions.

✓ Quality assurance, Pipeline, CASA, Phase 2 generation,
Observing Tool, Archive, Science Portal, AQUA, Source
catalog, Scheduling, SnooPI, project tracker, etc.
✓ Each subsystem/WG has their own workflow andtimeline✓ Communication is always challenging although it isexciting to work with the colleagues globally!

• Science side is closely working with theComputing team members such as about thepipeline/CASA development, quality assurance,
Archive, and Science Portal.
2021/6/24

10 ARC staff, supported from a few additional
staff and postdocs in the NAOJ ARC
https://researchers.alma-telescope.jp/j/ea-arc/

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One of the important tasks in the ARC:

Quality assurance, data archive
Observatory confirms that there are no issues
with the data, and that the data meet therequested angular resolution and sensitivity
by performing data calibration and imaging
before delivering them to the PI→ Researchers do not have to work on
calibration, leading to the speed-up ofpublication• Development and maintenance of thepipeline and CASA
• Establishment and operations of dataprocessing environments (hardware)

Collaboration is on-going with the Japanese Virtual
Observatory in Astronomy Data Center in NAOJ
2021/6/24(taken from NAOJ News, Jan 2013)

ALMA building 1F
server room13