Doc 11.7, ver. 1.2 | Feb 2024

Guide to the East Asian ALMA
Regional Center (EA ARC)
Japan (EA ARC), Taiwan (EA ARC node),
and Korea (EA ARC node).

ALMA is a partnership of ESO (representing its member states), NSF (USA) and NINS (Japan), together
with NRC (Canada), NTSC and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of Korea), in cooperation 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.

Doc/Ver.

Date

Editors

1.1-Cycle0

04/22/2011

Daniel Espada, Sachiko Okumura, Kazuya Saigo, Erik Muller

1.2

12/16/2011

Daniel Espada

1.7.1.004/05/2012

Erik Muller

1.7.1.1

06/28/2012

Erik Muller

1.7.1.2

10/22/2012

Erik Muller

1.8

08/29/2014

Erik Muller

1.9

02/08/2015

Erik Muller

4.0

03/02/2016

Erik Muller

5.0

03/03/2016

Erik Muller

6.0

12/12/2017

Hiroshi Nagai, Yu-Nung Su, A-ran Lyo, Fumi Egusa,
Kouichiro Nakanishi, Daniel Espada, Eiji Akiyama

7.7/1.003/01/2019

Misato Fukagawa, Yu-Nung Su, A-ran Lyo

8.7/1.003/02/2020

Misato Fukagawa, Yu-Nung Su, Woojin Kwon

9.7/1.003/07/2022

Misato Fukagawa, Yu-Nung Su, Jihyun Kang, Koichiro
Nakanishi, Patricio Sanhueza, Yu-Ting Wu

10.7/1.0

03/07/2023

Misato Fukagawa, Yu-Nung Su, Jihyun Kang

11.7/1.2

02/26/2024

Akiko Kawamura, Yu-Nung Su, Jihyun Kang, Yu-Ting Wu,
Misato Fukagawa

East Asian ALMA Regional CenterIn publications, please refer to this document as:
User’s Guide to the East Asian ALMA Regional Center (EA ARC)

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Contents
Scope .................................................................................................................................................... 3
Web Resources .................................................................................................................................... 3
1.

ALMA and EA ARC mission goals ................................................................................................. 42.

The East Asian ALMA Regional Center (EA ARC) ........................................................................ 4

3.

4.

5.

2.1

The EA ARC services ............................................................................................................. 4

2.2

EA ARC user support roles .................................................................................................... 5

2.3

EA ARC Observatory support roles ........................................................................................ 6

2.4

EA users ................................................................................................................................. 6

User communication, information, news and help ......................................................................... 6
3.1.

The ALMA Science Portal ...................................................................................................... 6

3.2.

East Asian ARC and node information ................................................................................... 7

3.3.

The ALMA Helpdesk ............................................................................................................... 7

3.4.

Support for travel to Mitaka and the nodes............................................................................. 7

EA ARC roles in proposal preparation, observations & data processing ...................................... 8
4.1.

Call for Proposals ................................................................................................................... 8

4.2.

Phase 1: Proposal preparation ............................................................................................... 8

4.3.

Proposal assessment ............................................................................................................. 8

4.4.

Phase 2: Preparation for observations ................................................................................... 8

4.5.

Data reduction & data software and archive support.............................................................. 9

ARC nodes .................................................................................................................................... 9
5.1.

The Taiwanese ARC node at ASIAA in Taipei ....................................................................... 9

5.2.

The Korean ARC node at KASI in Daejeon ............................................................................ 9

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Scope
This document explains the role, structure, duties and function of the East Asian ALMA Regional
Center based at the National Astronomy Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), ALMA Project at the Mitaka
Campus in Tokyo, Japan; the Taiwanese node at the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy andAstrophysics (ASIAA), in Taipei; and the Korean node at the Korea Astronomy and Space Science
Institute (KASI), in Daejeon.

Web Resources•

ALMA Science Portal
https://almascience.nao.ac.jp•

ALMA Helpdesk
https://help.almascience.org•

EA ARC Webpage
https://researchers.alma-telescope.jp/j/ea-arc/
https://researchers.alma-telescope.jp/e/ea-arc/
https://alma.asiaa.sinica.edu.twhttps://alma.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/index_c.php
https://alma.kasi.re.kr•

EA ARC workshops & events information
https://researchers.alma-telescope.jp/e/event/•Observing Tool (proposal preparation tool)https://almascience.nao.ac.jp/tools/observing-tool•

CASA (Data reduction)
https://casa.nrao.edu/(NAOJ, Japanese)(NAOJ, English)(Taiwanese node, English)(Taiwanese node, Chinese)(Korean node)

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1. ALMA and EA ARC mission goals
The ALMA telescope is a global collaboration involving East Asia, Europe, North America and thehost country, Chile. ALMA comprises 66 high-precision antennas equipped with receiver and digitalelectronics system with a capability to observe the 35 GHz to 950 GHz frequency range (from 0.32
mm to 8.5 mm in wavelength), with angular resolutions as high as 5 milli-arcseconds. Using a fully
dynamic scheduling system and innovative calibration strategies, the ALMA system will allow us
to make the best use of the atmospheric conditions on the Chajnantor plateau, at 5000 m altitudein the Atacama desert.
The highest quality science produced with ALMA in the mm/submm bands is enabled throughcompetitive proposal application, incorporating the widest possible user community,
comprehensively supported by the ALMA Regional Centers (ARCs) at each stage from proposal
submission to data-delivery and data analysis. The ARCs also manage local data distribution anddata archiving.
The East Asian ARC (EA ARC) is based at NAOJ with Taiwanese and Korean nodes in Taipei and
Deajeon, to help users fully exploit the capabilities of ALMA and maximize ALMA's scientific return.
ALMA will appeal to a much broader range of astronomers than the conventional mm/submm
community, and ALMA users of all levels and backgrounds are invited to take advantage of theassistance and expertise available at the EA ARC.

2. The East Asian ALMA Regional Center (EA ARC)
The EA ARC comprises a core oﬃce located at the NAOJ Mitaka campus in Japan, the Taiwanese
node at ASIAA and the Korean node at KASI. The offices in Japan, Taiwan and Korean are
coordinated by close collaboration of their respective managers and local staﬀ. While the threesites have strong focus towards their respective local user-base, the services and facilities arelargely consistent throughout.

2.1 The EA ARC services
1. EA ARC user and observatory support
EA ARC is composed of people engaged in scientific support, computer hardware andsoftware support, archive maintenance, education, and public outreach. The roles of user
support and observatory support are detailed in section 2.2 and 2.3. Information of the EA
ARC staﬀ is maintained at:https://researchers.alma-telescope.jp/e/ea-arc/ (NAOJ)
https://alma.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw (Taiwanese node)
https://alma.kasi.re.kr (Korean node)
2. Tutorials, Workshops and training
The EA ARC holds ALMA user’s meetings, regional town meetings, and provides up to date
information in conferences, workshops and astronomical society meetings. At theseworkshops, information on current and proposed capabilities is shared. Tutorials and handson sessions using the Observing Tool and CASA for proposal preparation and data reduction
are also provided for the community. Feedback is specifically solicited from the usercommunity to improve ALMA operations during these meetings, although feedback is
welcome at any time. A list of tutorial and workshop events is maintained at:https://researchers.alma-telescope.jp/e/event/ (NAOJ)
https://alma.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/twarc_tutorials.php (ASIAA)
https://alma.kasi.re.kr/Korea_ARC_Node_Events.php (KASI)

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3. Face-to-face meeting
A small number of visitors can be accommodated at NAOJ, ASIAA or KASI, for face-to-face
support, typically this is data processing assistance provided by EA ARC support staﬀ. Somefunding is available for travel and accommodation (See also section 3.4). Requests for faceto-face support should be submitted via the Helpdesk system described in section 3.3.

2.2 EA ARC user support roles
The EA ARC offices in Japan, Taiwan and Korea are staffed by a number of active scientists andpostdoctoral fellows, who together provide support for research scientists, at all stages of proposal
preparation, as well as data processing. The EA-ARC staff have wide experience in mm/submm
astronomy with particular expertise in interferometer mosaicking, single-dish data processing,combination of interferometric data and single dish data, polarimetry, solar observations and dataprocessing, and advanced data analysis. The EA ARC scientific staff, their research interests andsupport roles are introduced at:https://researchers.alma-telescope.jp/e/ea-arc/staff.html (NAOJ)
https://alma.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/people_arc.php (ASIAA)
https://alma.kasi.re.kr/people_staff.php (KASI)
Each ARC staﬀ member has a unique set of task allocations, as primary leads in various ALMA
subsystems, and cognizant roles (i.e. a regional expert and contact person) in some systems - e.g.
the ‘Archive Cognizant lead’ will represent the EA ARC within the ALMA-wide Archive working
group, and contributes when cross-ALMA discussions and decisions are taking place.
The core tasks of the EA ARC scientific staﬀ include;
Contribute to the preparation and distribution of user documentation.
As the ARC staff have a diverse expertise, it is beneficial for all staff to contribute to thedevelopment of user-documentation and user support.
Organize training material, tutorials, workshops, user’s meetings, and visitor support.
As the ARCs have wide representation in many ALMA subsystems, the expertise isdiverse and knowledge transfer from the cognizant leads to the user community, andwithin the ARC nodes themselves is an important function (please see sections 3.4 formore details).
Respond to ALMA Helpdesk queries.
EA ARC Helpdesk Cognizant leads will determine the first-response to incoming
Helpdesk tickets. Helpdesk lead may choose to defer the response to a different ARC
staff member, or even to a different ARC that might be in a better position to respondquickly, and usefully. A meaningful response to any Helpdesk submission is guaranteed
within 48 working hours, and for this reason, users should ensure that they use theHelpdesk for queries to the ARCs, and not private email to the staff, which cannot be
managed by the Helpdesk team.
Perform support duties to PIs on a personal level, as their ‘contact scientist’.
Each successful ALMA observing project will be assigned to an ARC Contact Scientist
from amongst the EA ARC staﬀ, relevant to their node. Communication between theContact Scientist and the PI should be made via the Helpdesk. Contact Scientists willcontact users after notification of the proposal submission outcome, primarily to discussand finalize the observing process (called “phase 2”, see section 4.4 for more details),
and will remain through the observations until the end of the quality assurance process
and final delivery of the data products to the user.
Generate, verify, correct and describe to PIs, observing scheduling blocks (‘Phase 2’).
Phase 2 refers to the process where the project proposal is converted into observing

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instructions. The PIs will not be exposed to the Phase 2 aspect. What was previously
the “phase 2 checking” stage will involve only the confirmation of the Phase 1 content,
and adjustment where necessary, prior to committing the project to the observations
queue (see section 4.4 for more detail).
Archive Research Support.
A mirror site of ALMA science data archive is kept at NAOJ. Raw data, synthesizedimages, calibration and imaging scripts, and some additional files will be available
through this archive mirror after the quality assurance. After the specific proprietary
period (12 months for regular projects and 6 months for DDT projects), all the data will
be public for users. Any users are welcome to exploit the public data for their science.
EA ARC can assist users in using the archive, including face-to-face consultation.

2.3 EA ARC Observatory support roles
Serve as Astronomers-on-Duty (AoD) for on-site observations monitoring.
ARC staﬀ serve as astronomers-on-duty at the Operations Support Facility or at theSantiago Central Office of Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) in Chile. This is a core
responsibility for all Executives. The ARC staﬀ are therefore up to date in the operationsof ALMA, develop and maintain continuing face-to-face communication between the
ARCs, and JAO.
Undertake data reduction, data quality assurance (QA) and enable distribution of data to PIs.
ALMA is responsible for reducing the PIs’ data to assure the data quality. Pipeline
calibration and imaging have been fully commissioned for most observing modes
employed in previous cycles but some fraction of observing projects will still be calibrated
and imaged manually using standard scripts (e.g., full polarization, solar data). The dataprocessing will be done using a combination of the pipeline and manual analysis using
CASA. The pipeline calibration and imaging can be run both at the ARC and JAO. Almost
all manual data processing will be done at the ARC.

2.4

EA users

EA users supported principally by EA ARC staﬀ are all those carrying out research based in any
Japanese, Taiwanese or Korean research institutions or universities. PIs who belong to institutions
or universities outside any Executives and choose the preferred ARC as EA are also supported by
the EA ARC. However, Taiwan-based researchers can select, via the ALMA Science Portal that
their principal support be based in either the East Asian, or North American ARCs. Further
information about the oﬃce in Taiwan can be found at: https://alma.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw.

3. User communication, information, news and help
3.1.

The ALMA Science Portal

The Science Portal serves as a nexus for all ALMA-related matters;• Proposal information - building and submitting your proposals.
• Archive access - a data repository and portal for delivered and archived data.
• ALMA proposal-development and data-reduction tools.
• Documentation on policy and operation, as well as operation of ALMA software and tools.
• Access to SnooPI to monitor the progress of observations.
• Helpdesk for users’ FAQs and questions/help requests.

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The East Asia ALMA Science Portal website can be found at: https://almascience.nao.ac.jp/

3.2.

East Asian ARC and node information

Regional East Asian ARC information page contains similar information to the Science Portal
site, but has a strong emphasis towards regional information such as about tutorials, meetings,
local staﬀ.
https://researchers.alma-telescope.jp/j/ea-arc/ (Japanese)
https://researchers.alma-telescope.jp/e/ea-arc/ (English)
https://alma.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw hosts information for the Taiwanese node.
https://alma.kasi.re.kr/ hosts information for the Korean node.

3.3.

The ALMA Helpdesk

The ALMA Helpdesk is the primary means for communication between users and ALMA.
Interaction is via a ticketing system, which automatically tracks user-submissions (called “tickets”)
and related communications across the entire global community. User can access the Helpdesk
either via ALMA Science Portal or directly to the Helpdesk system: https://help.almascience.org.
The ALMA Helpdesk hosts a library of Knowledgebase articles including a number of common
issues and questions. The Knowledgebase query also leads the users to the documentation in the
Science Portal that may be relevant to the questions. If the user does not find any answers in the
Knowledgebase articles or documentation, the user can submit a ticket to Helpdesk. It is necessary
to login before submitting a ticket, but users can access the Knowledgebase articles and Science
Portal documentation without logging in.
Helpdesk tickets will be automatically redirected to the user’s respective ARC in the first instance,i.e., queries from East Asian users will be addressed by the EA ARC staﬀ. Such tickets are triaged;
assessed for the most rapid and timely response path; either by local ARC staﬀ (user support
specialists - USS), or redistributed back to the global helpdesk for the attention of other international
experts.
The EA ARC will support East Asian users in both English and Japanese and users can generally
expect a response within two business days. The Helpdesk opens "Emergency Proposal
Submission department" 72 hours prior to the proposal deadline, which handles the problems thatblock the submission of proposals. The three ARCs share responsibility for the tickets submitted tothis department to provide answers as quickly as possible. To receive a prompt response from theEmergency Proposal Submission department, we encourage users to use English enabling any
available ARC staff from anywhere in the world to contribute a rapid reply.
Once the ticket has been satisfactorily answered, the ARC staﬀ will mark the ticket as ‘Resolved’,
and if the user is satisfied with the response, they should mark the ticket as ‘Closed’.
In general, users are not expected to contact the Operations staff directly e.g., via private email;
Helpdesk-submitted tickets are triaged to on-hand staff; staff are not able to personally allocate
time resources to communicate with the users directly, and using the Helpdesk system enables
ALMA to build its information store and to share Helpdesk information, ultimately helping ALMA
staff provide a more efficient service for the user.

3.4.

Support for travel to Mitaka and the nodes

For users needing or wishing to attend the ARC or nodes to discuss or re-attempt the processingof their observations, travel and accommodation support provided by the nearby ARC and nodes
are available. In general, support to the ARC and nodes is at a domestic level only.
The NAOJ campus hosts a dedicated networked visitor’s work room with rapid access to ALMA

8archives and to ALMA data reduction software support (Astronomy Data Center at NAOJ, see
https://www.adc.nao.ac.jp/E/index-e.htm). Working disk space is also provided for raw andprocessed data, as laptop use may be impractical, considering the ~1 TB sizes of ALMA data files.
Users are able to request face-to-face support via a Helpdesk inquiry (see section 3.3).

4. EA ARC roles in proposal preparation, observations & dataprocessing
4.1.

Call for Proposals

A Call for Proposal (CfP) will be issued for each scheduling period. The EA ARC is responsible for
distributing the CfP among the East Asian user community, along with any supporting material andsoftware tools. The CfP will inform the community about the available capabilities and provide
necessary information for the submission of proposals. The EA ARC staﬀ identify areas of work
prior to the call, update webpages, and issue announcements. The EA ARC contributes to thevarious stages in the entire process, “Phase 1” and “Phase 2”, data processing and delivery in thefollowing ways.

4.2.

Phase 1: Proposal preparation

Phase 1 comprises simply proposal preparation and submission. ALMA proposals must be
prepared with the Observing Tool (OT) (requiring registration in the Science Portal), and must
include scientific and technical justifications, targets and spectral settings, sensitivity andintegration time estimation, atmospheric conditions requirements (e.g. transparency andatmospheric conditions).

4.3.

Proposal assessment

ARC involvement of the proposal assessment is minimal and restricted to assisting of proposal
handling duties. Although ARC staff will be allowed to become the scientific reviewer, such an
involvement is made by individual effort basis, not by an ARC duty. Users can refer to ALMA
Proposal Review Process document for the detailed and latest information on the review process(https://almascience.nao.ac.jp/documents-and-tools/).

4.4.

Phase 2: Preparation for observations

The Phase 2 stage is the conversion of the project requirements into observational parameters(e.g. frequency tunings, calibration schemes, etc.) In Cycles 0-4, this was performed by ARC staﬀ
or the PI. From Cycle 5 to Cycle 7, however, the process was simplified and the PIs did not needto examine the (typically information-rich) Phase 2 process. Instead, successful PIs simply accesstheir project after approval, and confirm the observations information within is correct and re-submit
it back to the observatory. From Cycle 8 2021 onwards, the Phase 2 process is further simplified.
PIs are not required to re-submit their project back to the observatory anymore. Each approved
project is assigned an ARC Contact Scientist (CS) and a project Helpdesk ticket is opened onbehalf of the PI for communication with the CS and others. Necessary minor changes may berequested through this Helpdesk ticket and will be implemented by the P2G group in the ARC aslong as they do not impact the science scope or increase the total execution time. Any significant
changes require first the approval of the Change Request Standing Committee, and a Helpdesk
ticket should be submitted outlining the changes and including a complete justification. Requests
for significant changes may cause long delays in completion of the Phase 2 information and delaysin the Scheduling Block’s being committed to the observing queue. The up-to-date Phase 2
information can be found at https://almascience.nao.ac.jp/observing/phase-2.

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4.5.

Data reduction & data software and archive support

During and after observations are complete, JAO and the ARCs execute a series of quality
assurance (QA) checks. As ALMA matures, we expect an ever-greater quantity of data will beprocessed using the automated pipeline processing. Remaining data will continue to beprocessed manually, using processing scripts. The complete data product package containing
raw data, calibration tables, scripts, QA reports, logs, and data products will be made available
to the PI from the ALMA Science Archive through password-protected, web-based data
distribution. PIs can continue to request assistance in how to make use of the data productpackage or further information such as about any issues with the data download, data quality,
running calibration and imaging scripts from their contact scientist via the Helpdesk system after
data delivery, or a direct or virtual face-to-face meeting request can be made, again via the
Helpdesk (see section 3.3).

5. ARC nodes
Taiwanese and Korean ARC nodes make efforts for the user support in each country and contributeto the EA ARC core functions. Each node has its own areas of expertise. Users are encouraged
to visit the individual ARC node web pages to obtain the most up-to-date information.

5.1.

The Taiwanese ARC node at ASIAA in Taipei

Located in ASIAA, the Taiwanese ARC node (http://alma.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/twarc_intro.php) wasestablished in November 2009, as a branch of the NA ARC and EA ARC. The role of the ARCs isclassified into two categories, "core functions" and "enhanced functions", and the Taiwanese ARC
node collaborates with the EA ARC for the core functions and with the NA ARC for the enhanced
functions. The Taiwanese ARC node serves all the ALMA user community at universities andresearch institutes in Taiwan, and offers support for the ALMA proposal and observational
preparation, data reduction and data analysis. It also offers the opportunity to provide the best
possible training for the staff from Universities. The Taiwanese node provides face-to-face support
and accepts inquiries through email and telephone. This support is in particular reaching out to the
Universities in Taiwan.
The Taiwanese ARC node provides several powerful data reduction workstations with memory up
to 1.5 TB and a Lustre file system with total capacity more than 1.7 PB mounted on ALMA servers
via 100Gb/s Infiniband for our users to reduce and analyze their ALMA data.

5.2.

The Korean ARC node at KASI in Daejeon

The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) established the ALMA group in 2015 toserve as the Korean node (https://alma.kasi.re.kr) of the East Asian ALMA Regional Center. The
Korean ARC node supports the Korean astronomical community in all activities related to ALMA,
including observation preparation, data reduction, and analysis. We support universities andinstitutions in Korea by providing lectures upon request and organizing meetings, such as proposal
preparation meetings and summer schools, to promote the submission of proposals and toencourage graduate students and postdocs to engage with ALMA archive data. The Korean ARC
node is equipped with several CASA servers and 600 TB of storage, which are utilized for Quality
Assurance Phase 2 by Korean ARC members and for ALMA data reduction by users in Korea.

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