Doc 4.10, V1| March 2016

ALMA Observing Tool 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), NSC 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.

Version

Date

Editors

1 (IT3)1 (OT release Cycle 0)
1 (OT release Cycle 1)
1 (OT release Cycle 2)
1 (OT release Cycle 3)
1 (OT release Cycle 4)15.03.2011
30.03.2011
31.05.2012
07.10.2013
12.03.2015
17.03.2016

S. Randall, D. Espada
S. Randall, D. Espada, E. Humphreys
E. Hatziminaoglou, S. Randall
S. Randall
S. Randall
S. Randall

The ALMA OT Team, and the many Testers.

In publications, please refer to this document as:S. Randall 2016: ALMA Observing Tool Quickstart Guide, ALMA Doc. 4.10 v1.0

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1

Scope

This document is intended as a Quickstart guide to Phase 1 proposal preparation in Cycle 4 for novice and experienced ALMA users alike. While novice users should carefully follow the step-by-step instructions, experienced
users may want to concentrate on the boxed texts. These highlight new features, useful tips and tricks, andissues to be aware of, and can be identified by the corresponding icons.
A more comprehensive description of the OT and the different aspects of proposal preparation can be foundin the ALMA OT User Manual. The ALMA OT Reference Manual provides a more concise explanation for all
the fields and menu items in the OT, and can be accessed interactively from within the OT by clicking on the? icons. The User Manual and Reference Manual can also be accessed and interactively searched
via the Help menu in the OT. The OT also contains helpful tooltips that appear when you mouse-over text
boxes or radio buttons. For a visual demonstration of different aspects of the OT you are invited to consult thesuite of ALMA OT video tutorials.

2

Getting Started

In order to access the ALMA Archive and submit an observing proposal, you must have previously registeredwith the ALMA Science Portal. You can then download the OT from the OT page in the ALMA Science
Portal. Please follow the detailed installation instructions there; in case of any problems you can consult the
Troubleshooting page. You start the OT either by clicking on the ALMA OT icon (Web Start) or from thecommand line by typing ./ALMA-OT.sh in the installation directory (tarball). A splash screen with different
options will appear. To follow the step-by-step guide for creating a new Cycle 4 proposal submission, please
select the first option ’Create a new proposal’ 1 .
If you would like to re-submit a proposal from a previous cycle as a Cycle 4 proposal, you can
use the new File > Open Project as New Proposal feature. Regardless of its Phase 2 status,
the old proposal will be retrieved from the ALMA archive and open in the OT as a new Phase
1 proposal without a project code. You can edit the proposal as desired and then follow thenormal procedure for submission, whereupon the proposal will be assigned a Cycle 4 projectcode. Note that time estimates, allowed configurations etc. will have changed from previous
cycles, therefore you should check the technical setup carefully. Some edits may be required forthe proposal to validate.
Alternatively, once the OT has opened you can select the green New Proposal (Phase 1) button from the toolbar
in the OT. You will be presented with the window shown in Fig. 1, which illustrates the main Graphical User
Interface (GUI) components:
Menu: Allows access to all functions available in the OT via pop-up submenus.
Toolbar: A selection of icons for some of the most frequently used functions in the Menu.
Project Structure Pane: Visualisation and navigation of the Project tree. You can expand andcollapse parts of the tree by clicking the node icon to the left of each component
Editor Pane: The technical specifications of the project are filled and edited in this pane. The content of
the editor pane changes depending on the branch of the Project tree selected. For the spatial and spectral
setup the editor panes are composed of several tabs.
Feedback Pane: Provides feedback on the validation process and allows you to identify problems withyour proposal.
1 Choosing ’Create a new DDT proposal’ will present you with the Cycle 3 version of the OT until the end of Cycle 3. This option
must not be used to submit Cycle 4 proposals.

Figure 1: OT Graphical User Interface.
Overview Pane: Informative summary of the proposal creation process and contextual help.

You can customize the GUI according to your needs. The size of the different panes can be
modified by clicking and dragging their borders, or maximised/minimised by clicking on thetriangular arrow symbols. You can toggle the Overview and Feedback panes by clicking on View
>Feedback/Overview in the Menu, e.g. in order to maximise the Editor pane. The Feedback
pane will normally not be visible upon starting the OT, but it will pop up when the project isvalidated (see Section 11). You can customise the OT further by selecting File > Preferences.
In particular, you may want to change the font size or colour scheme, or preferentially show
certain editors.

3

General Proposal Information

Start by filling the fields in the Proposal editor pane labelled Proposal Title and Abstract, select the
Proposal Type and Scientific Category using the radio buttons and choose up to two Keywords from a list (toselect multiple keywords hold the Ctrl button, or the Cmd button on Macs). If your project is a partial
or complete resubmission of a Cycle 3 project with A,B or C rank, please provide the Cycle 3
project code. You can optionally provide additional information on Related proposals (submitted in Cycle 4)
or Previous proposals (related ALMA proposals from previous cycles) in the format specified by the tooltip.

Large Programs, offered for the first time in Cycle 4, are proposals that require more than
50 hours of 12-m Array time, or more than 50 hours of stand-alone Atacama Compact Array(ACA, also known as the Morita Array) time. For these programs, co-PIs may be specified andthe observing time required will be split between the PI and co-PIs’ Executives (Europe, North
America or East Asia).

VLBI proposals are another new type of proposals first offered in Cycle 4. Selecting this
proposal type will bring up a special VLBI proposal interface at the Science Goal level. VLBI
Science Goals may contain only one source with a correlated flux density > 0.5 Jy in intraALMA array baselines out to 1 km (weaker sources cannot currently be handled by the phasingsystem). The spectral setup is limited to pre-defined Band 3 and Band 6 continuum setups.
Users should normally select the system-defined calibration option as all necessary calibrations
will be carried out by the observatory. Unlike standard proposals, VLBI observations requirea time estimate (including overheads, which make up ∼ 50% of the expected time on source)
rather than a sensitivity to be entered. A minimum of three observing hours is required in orderto make a clean linear-to-circular transformation of the data. Note that ALMA VLBI programsmust also have been submitted to the appropriate VLBI network by their independent deadline.
For more details, please see the Proposer’s Guide
In order for you to be able to submit the proposal, you will have to select yourself as PI by scrolling down,pressing the Select PI button and searching by name, e-mail or ALMA ID in the pop-up window (see Fig. 2).
The ALMA ID is your Science Portal login.
You can select an unlimited number of Co-Is in a similar way, provided that they have previously
registered with the ALMA Science Portal. Please make sure they do so at least 24 hours prior to thesubmission deadline. If you have a long list of Co-Is you may prefer to add them from a proposal previously
saved on disk using the Add from proposal button.

The Science Case used for the the scientific assessment of your proposal needs to be attached as a pdf
file not exceeding 4 pages in total (6 pages for Large Programs), including any figures and tables. The
science case should put the proposed observations in a broad scientific context, highlight their impact on the fieldof research and present the immediate goal you expect to achieve. While the text of the technical justification isentered directly into the OT (see Section 10), any associated figures must still be included in this .pdf file. For
more details please see the General Guidelines for writing a proposal section of the Proposer’s Guide.

4

Science Goals
The OT contains an in-built template library featuring examples for different Science Goals.
It can be accessed via File -> Show Template Library. You can copy-paste (see below) any ofthese example Science Goals into your proposal and use them as a template for your observations.

Figure 2: Select the PI and Co-Is in the Proposal editor pane.
Right-clicking on the Science Goal node in the Project Tree will allow you to select a numberof actions to be performed, such as renaming, copying or deleting the Science Goal.
Some of the actions (e.g. copying) are also available for nodes within a Science Goal, e.g. theSpectral Setup. It is important to understand that Science Goals can only be pasted at the
Proposal or Planned Observing node level, and parts of a Science Goal can only be pasted at
the Science Goal node level (i.e. a higher-level node must be selected and right-clicked after
copying in order to bring up the Paste action). You cannot e.g. paste a Science Goal intoanother Science Goal. Copy-paste of a Science Goal or parts of a Science Goal can also be
achieved with the usual Ctrl-C / Ctrl-V keyboard shortcuts, or by dragging and dropping.
All the technical specifications for your project are contained in one or more Science Goals. Each Science
Goal may contain up to a total of 150 pointings attributed to one or more sources of the same target type (offset
pointings or rectangular mosaic) and is limited to one correlator setup with up to five frequency tunings, one
calibration strategy, and one set of Control and Performance parameters (see Section 9). You create a new
Science Goal by clicking on the New Phase 1 Science Goal icon in the toolbar or selecting Edit > New Phase 1
Science Goal from the Menu. A template library containing a range of pre-defined science goals can be brought
up with the Show ALMA Template Library option available either from the File or the View menu items.
The restriction that all sources and pointings of a Science Goal must lie within 10◦ of each otheron-sky has been lifted for Cycle 4. The OT now uses a clustering algorithm to group sources
within 10◦ into separate SBs rather than requiring the user to split them into separate Science
Goals. Information on the different source clusters can be found in the Time Estimate pop-up
available from the Control and Performance node.

Figure 3: Adding the source information in the Field Setup pane.

5

Source Information

A source can contain either one or more individual pointings (offset pointings or custom mosaic) or 1 rectangularmosaic. All pointings defined in a given source share the velocity information and Expected Source Properties.
Setting up the actual pointings within a source is covered in Section 7. For the moment, it is sufficient to enter
the source information, especially the velocity, as this will be used for the spectral setup.

By default, the Field Setup editor pane contains one source tab. The first thing to select is the Target
Type: Individual Pointings or 1 Rectangular field. The target type must be the same for all sources in a Science
Goal, and it is not possible to switch to 1 Rectangular field once additional sources have been added. You canthen use the Add source button at the very bottom of the pane to open additional source tabs. You will needto specify the source information for each source individually. If your source has an entry in SIMBAD
or NED, you can simply type in its name in the Source Name field and hit Resolve to import the field centre
coordinate and velocity information from there (see Fig. 3). Otherwise, this information must be entered byhand. Solar System targets, including the Sun, can be selected from a pull-down list if the Choose a Solar System
Object box is checked.

Figure 4: Selecting Solar observations in the Field Setup pane.
In Cycle 4, Solar observations are offered for the first time. Simply select the Sun
as a source from the Solar System Object drop-down list to invoke the special Solar observing Science Goal interface (see Fig. 4). This will allow you to fill in all the specific details necessary for a Solar observing proposal. You must specify the Solar Activity
Level and provide a dummy ephemeris file such as the one available from the OT Template Library or created using the ALMA Solar Ephemeris Generator Tool available at
http://celestialscenes.com/alma/coords/CoordTool.html. The ephemeris will be updated incoordination with the observatory before any observations take place. You will be restricted to
the Band 3 and 6 continuum setups offered for Solar observations, and asked to specify the total
requested 12-m Array time (including overheads, which amount to ∼25 minutes per maximum
2 hour execution) rather than a sensitivity. Note that the accompanying ACA 7-m and Total
Power observations will always be added automatically, and that the Total Power observations
will provide a map of the entire Solar disk. More details on Solar observing capabilities can befound in the Proposer’s Guide.
For each source, you are required to provide an estimate of the expected source properties. The peak flux
density entered should be an estimate of the weakest component driving the sensitivity requirement of your
Science Goal. For continuum observations only the Peak Continuum Flux Density per Beam is required, while
for spectral line and spectral scan observations the Peak Line Flux Density per Beam and the (FWHM) Line
Width must be specified. In the latter case it may also be appropriate to enter the Peak Continuum Flux Density
per Beam if you want to observe both lines and continuum. The Line/Continuum Polarisation Percentage isrequired only if full polarization observations are requested. The expected source parameters entered are used to
calculate a number of quantities in the Technical Justification editor (see Section 10) and the proposal/science
goal summary sheets. They should be used for guidance when choosing the correlator setup and sensitivity
requirements for your Science Goal.

If you have a large number of sources, you may prefer to read in the complete source information from an
ASCII file using the Load from File... button at the bottom of the Field Setup editor. As with adding sources
manually you should make sure that the correct Target Type is set before you load the source list. For therequired file format, please see the Field Setup section of the ALMA OT Reference Manual.
It is your responsibility to ensure that the source information is correct. The source
coordinates and the velocity are used by the OT to calculate the pointing(s) and the sky
frequencies respectively, and can normally not be changed after a proposal has been accepted.
The expected source properties are used for the technical feasibility assessment of your proposal,
and incorrect or incomplete information may lead to the rejection of your proposal on technicalgrounds. For more information on how to convert existing flux measurements for your source
to the peak flux density per synthesised beam required by the OT please see this and thisKnowledgebase article, or consult video number 2 available here.

6

The Spectral Setup

The spectral viewer
The spectral viewer is available under the Spectral tab of the Spectral Setup editor. It shows the ALMA Bands
offered for Cycle 4 (Bands 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10), as well as the atmospheric transmission curve of the Chajnantor site.
The OT automatically chooses the water vapour column density appropriate for the observing frequency, andbases the sensitivity calculation on this Automatic Choice. The Manual Choice is for visualisation purposes
only. Once you specify at least one spectral window, the Local Oscillator (LO1) frequency is calculated, and(yellow) sidebands appear in the spectral viewer. The sidebands straddle the LO1 frequency and show thefrequency ranges where basebands may be placed. They do not indicate the frequency range that will besampled by the observations. ALMA uses 4 basebands (not displayed in the spectral viewer) with a bandwidthof 2 GHz, within each of which one or more spectral windows may be placed. Spectral windows are defined
directly by the user from within the spectral line table and are represented in the spectral viewer by dark
blue lines. The vertical dark blue line corresponds to the central frequency of a given spectral window, while
the horizontal line represents the frequency range covered. The LO1 frequency, sidebands and basebands areautomatically calculated by the OT based on the spectral windows defined and cannot be controlled by the user
directly. If the OT cannot compute a valid spectral setup for your spectral windows, the sidebands will turngrey and a red error message will appear. In that case, you will have to modify your spectral setup, if necessary
by placing "offending" spectral windows into separate Science Goals.

You can zoom in/out of the spectral viewer by left/right-clicking on the magnifying glass symbol
cursor, or by using the Zoom to Band and Reset buttons. You can move along the frequency
axis by moving the cursor near the axis and dragging the green sliding bars, or using Pan toLine. For a practical demonstration of the spectral editor please watch the spectral setup video
tutorial.
In the Spectral Setup editor, start by selecting the Spectral Type and the Polarisation Products Desired, as
these will influence the choices you have for defining your spectral setup. In particular, selecting Full polarisation
will limit you to measurements in Bands 3, 6 and 7, and single pointings of well-centred targets filling no morethan 1/3 of the 12-m Array primary beam. If you are not interested in polarisation information, you should
generally leave the radio button set to the default Dual. XX polarisation is appropriate only if you need extremely
fine spectral resolution (< 30 kHz).

Figure 5: The spectral editor pane. Here, continuum observations have been defined.

6.1

Spectral Line

Selecting Spectral Line will present you with a spectral window table for each of four available basebands. Unless
your Science Goal requires more than 4 spectral windows (see "Multi-region mode" boxed text below), you will
normally define one spectral window per baseband. It is good practice to fill any basebands not needed
for spectral line observations with continuum spectral windows, as this facilitates calibration, especially in thecase of narrow spectral windows.

For ALMA Bands 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 it is not possible to place three basebands in one sideband,and one in the other for technical reasons. This restriction does not apply to Bands 9 and 10.

If you cannot find the transition you want in the Spectral Line Selector tool, try the Find
More... button: you will then be able to search online from a more extensive database. Bydefault, the Spectral Line Selector shows only transitions that are simultaneously observablewith any other transitions already defined in the spectral setup; un-tick the Hide unobservablelines option to display all transitions corresponding to the search criteria.
You define spectral windows individually for each baseband using either the Select Lines to Observe or the Add
buttons. The first option brings up the Spectral Line Selector tool (see Fig. 6), which allows you to search an
extensive database2 for popular transitions based on species, ALMA Band, Sky frequency, maximum upper-state
2 The Splatalogue, for detailed information see http://www.splatalogue.net

Figure 6: The spectral line selector tool.
energy or molecules detected in a variety of astronomical sources. Simply select the transition you want, press
Add to Selected Transitions, and a spectral window with a central frequency corresponding to the transition willbe created. The second option Add allows you to manually enter a spectral window central frequency. Conversion
between rest and sky frequencies is automatically performed based on the source velocities defined in Section 5.

Spectral windows must be associated with a correlator mode, which can be selected independently for eachbaseband. Double-click on the red text in the Bandwidth, Resolution column to bring up the list of available
options. The bottom entry in bold text corresponds to the lowest spectral resolution (continuum) mode. Please
make sure that the bandwidth and resolution selected for each spectral window are appropriate for the expected
spectral properties of your source(s) as entered in Section 5.
ALMA Bands 9 and 10 are different from the other receivers in that the information comingfrom the two sidebands cannot be separated. Therefore, the quality of the data in a spectral
window defined (solid blue lines in the spectral viewer) in one sideband is influenced by whateversignal is present in the "mirror" spectral window (dashed blue lines, see Fig. 5) in the othersideband. It is therefore advisable to ensure that the "mirror" spectral window does not fall
into a region of bad atmospheric transition, or contain e.g. a strong line. The OT will take
into account the atmospheric transmission in the "mirror" spectral window when calculating atime estimate.

Figure 7: Visualisation of spectral line observations in the spectral editor pane.
The data rate estimated for a Science Goal (see Section 11) is directly related to the spectral
setup. You should aim to lower the data rate by using spectral averaging wherever possible.
Double-click on the default ’1’ entry in the Spec Avg. column of the spectral window table tobring up a list of possible spectral averaging factors. Selecting one of the values will immediatelychange the spectral resolution in the table. Note that an averaging factor of 2 degrades the
spectral resolution only marginally, but halves the data rate for that spectral window. Anotherway to lower the data rate is to select the lowest resolution (continuum) correlator mode, which
has an intrinsically lower data rate.
Based on the spectral windows defined, the OT will try to configure a spectral setup and display it in the
spectral viewer (see boxed text above). In order for your proposal to pass validation, all spectral windows
for all source velocities must fit within a valid sideband configuration and the same ALMA Band.
If several sources with different velocities were specified in Section 5, the OT will generate up to 5 separate
frequency tunings based on the velocities, the width of the spectral windows, and spectral line width entered in
the Expected Source Properties. The number of tunings may affect the time estimate for a Science Goal andcan be checked in the Time Estimate dialogue (see Section 9).

Multi-region mode
Multi-region mode allows more than one spectral window to be set up per baseband. In Cycle 4, you can specify
up to 4 spectral windows per baseband, yielding a maximum total of 16 spectral windows in a single spectral
setup containing 4 basebands. Simply Select Lines to Observe or Add extra spectral windows in the baseband
tables. Because only a fixed number of channels are available for each baseband they must be divided between
the spectral windows defined, implying that at a given resolution the bandwidth available for each of two spectral
windows will be half that available for a single spectral window. Therefore, the fraction of the baseband assigned
to each spectral window must be changed in such a way that the sum of all fractions does not exceed 1. The
available choices for the correlator modes in the Bandwidth, Resolution field will then be automatically updated
to reflect the lower number of channels available. Note that within a baseband all spectral windows must havethe same spectral resolution.

6.2

Single Continuum

Selecting the Single continuum option is basically a shortcut to defining 4 continuum spectral windows maximising
the available bandwidth (see Fig. 5). You are presented with a drop-down list of standard continuum
frequency setups for each of the available ALMA Bands, chosen so as to optimise atmospheric transparency.
The sky frequency of the setup can be changed to anything that still yields a valid spectral setup, but any
deviation from the standard frequencies must be fully justified in Section 10.
Single Continuum and Spectral Scan observations are specified in the sky reference frame. Unlike
for Spectral Line mode, the velocity information entered in Section 5 is ignored, and all sources
are observed with the same frequency tuning.
The spectral windows set up by the OT based on the input continuum frequency for each baseband arelisted in the spectral window tables and visualised in the spectral viewer. Note that the sky frequency specified
corresponds to the LO frequency and is not itself observed for Bands 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8. For Bands 9 and 10, thesky frequency corresponds to the frequency at the centre of the 8 GHz wide upper sideband.

6.3

Spectral Scans

The Spectral Scan interface is a convenient way of setting up several correlator tunings to cover a wide, uninterrupted frequency range within a single ALMA Band. You need to specify the start and end frequency as well as
the desired Bandwidth, Resolution of each spectral window making up the scan. A maximum of 5 tunings can beobserved within one Science Goal, which means there is a trade-off between achieving a high spectral resolution
and covering a wide frequency range (if you want to cover a wider frequency range than possible with 5 tunings
you will have to split the spectral scan across multiple Science Goals). Spectral averaging is possible in the same
way as it is for Spectral Line observations.

The spectral scan interface may in certain cases yield a very inefficient observing strategy,
causing the time estimate to skyrocket. This will happen mostly for observations with relatively
long on-source times and many frequency tunings. It may be more efficient to set up such
spectral scans using separate Science Goals for each frequency tuning.
If the requested spectral scan can be set up successfully, the frequency tunings calculated by the OT aredisplayed in the spectral visualiser (see Fig. 8) and also listed in the spectral scan table. If not, a red error
message will appear, indicating the origin of the problem. In Cycle 4, spectral scan observations are offered onlyfor Individual Pointing(s) field setups with one pointing per source and a maximum limit of 150 pointings over
all tunings (i.e. for 5 tunings the maximum number of pointings is 30).

Figure 8: Visualisation of spectral scan observations in the spectral editor pane.

6.4

The Representative Frequency

Every spectral setup is characterised by a representative frequency, which is used to compute the spatial parameters of the Science Goal (primary beam, synthesised beamsize, maximum recoverable scale) and controls
the atmospheric transmission used in the time estimate (see Section 9). It defaults to the centre of the lastspectral window defined, but can be changed by the user to lie anywhere within the spectral windows of the
setup using the representative window radio button and/or typing in the relevant field below the baseband tables.
For spectral line observations, the representative frequency is a rest frequency that will be transformed to a sky
frequency using the velocity information for each source. Please check it carefully for each source, andmodify it if necessary.
The exact choice of representative frequency can severely impact the time estimate, especially inthe higher frequency bands 7, 8, 9 and 10. If it falls in a region of poor atmospheric transmission
the time estimate will skyrocket compared to a setup with a representative frequency in an areaof good atmospheric transmission. It is important that the representative frequency is set tothe line of interest that falls into the region of the poorest atmospheric transmission, otherwise
the requested sensitivity will not be reached for this line.

7

Finalising the Spatial Setup

Having specified the spectral setup and in particular the representative frequency, you are now ready to finalise
the spatial setup based on the sources you defined in Section 5. The maximum total number of 12-m pointings is
150, regardless of whether these are treated as mosaics, offset pointings, or separate sources. 7-m ACA pointings
are counted separately.

Figure 9: Visualisation of individual pointings in the spatial tab of the Field Setup pane.
The spatial editor
The spatial editor (see Fig. 9) is found under the Spatial tab of the Field Setup editor. It can be used to viewand edit pointings on a per source basis and will work properly only if you load an image. Either Query oneof the image servers selected from the drop-down menu to display a catalogue image of the area surrounding
your source, or load and display your own FITS image by clicking the folder icon in the spatial editor toolbar(only J2000 equatorial coordinates are supported). The primary beams of the pointings defined are represented
by red circles, and can be moved, added and deleted interactively. They can be displayed for either the 12-m
or the 7-m antennas if ACA observations have been requested. If Total Power observations are requested, thearea scanned is shown by a turquoise box. For individual pointings, this box dynamically adapts to cover the
pointings defined. You can use the buttons in the toolbar above and below the spatial viewer to perform simple
visualisation operations such as adjusting the cut levels, zooming, and saving the image. Please see the spatial
setup video tutorial for a practical demonstration of all functionalities.

The response of the receivers is not uniform across the antenna primary beam, but falls off
towards the beam edges. The primary beam (represented by the red circles) is defined as the
FWHM of the PSF. For rectangular mosaics, the falloff in sensitivity towards the beam edges
is automatically taken into account by the fact that the individual pointings are set up so as tooverlap. For single pointings, the source should fit within the central 1/3 of the primary beam
for a more or less uniform sensitivity coverage; else a small mosaic should be set up. The inner
third of the primary beam is shown by the smaller green circle in the spatial editor.

Figure 10: Visualisation of a rectangular mosaic.

7.1

Individual Pointing(s)You can visualise and configure the spatial setup for each source individually by selecting the relevant sourcetab. By default, there will be just one pointing at the source coordinates specified earlier. Offset pointings canbe added, edited and deleted directly in the ’Field Center Coordinates’ pane, or interactively in the spatial editor(see boxed text). The Import button will read offset pointings for a given source from an ASCII file in simple
RA, DEC format. You can also Export pointings, e.g. to be used for simulations, in different coordinate formats.
You can choose to process the pointings as a single image by ticking the Custom Mosaic box. In this case, thepointings must overlap. If the box is not ticked, each pointing will be processed separately. If ACA observations
are requested (Section 9) these will have the same pointing centres as the 12-m pointings; any custom-definedmosaic will not be adjusted for the larger primary beam size of the 7-m antennas. Also, the sensitivity specified
in Section 9 is assumed to be per pointing and the estimate entered should take into account any overlap.

7.2

1 Rectangular Field (Mosaic)

By default, the spatial editor shows only the rectangular area defined for the mosaic. To see theindividual pointings set up by the OT, you need to press the Show pointing positions button in
the toolbar above the spatial editor.
The Rectangular Field option is a convenient way to easily set up evenly sampled rectangular mosaics on a
per-source basis. You simply specify the size of the field as p length times q length, the Position Angle and theSpacing of individual pointings. By default, the spacing is set to Nyquist sampling (Spacing = 0.48113 times
fraction of main beam). If you change this, you must carefully justify your choice in the Technical Justification(Section 10). For rectangular fields, the 7-m Array pointings are automatically set up to optimally sample theFigure 11: Control and Performance editor pane and the Time Estimate box.
area specified, therefore the number of pointings will be smaller than for the 12-m Array. You may wish to export
the coordinates of the individual pointings; this is easily done using the Export button next to the displayed
number of pointings.

8

Calibration Strategy

You should normally use the default System-defined calibration option in the Calibration Setup editor. The
system-defined calibration is designed to fully calibrate your science observations using the most appropriate
sources available at execution time, and will at least include pointing, bandpass, gain and flux calibration.
Science Goals requiring full polarisation will receive an appropriate calibration strategy. Only experts whose
projects have special calibration requirements should specify User-defined calibration.

9

Control and Performance

The final technical specifications of your Science Goal are entered in the Control and Performance panel (seeFig. 11). The Configuration Information section at the top of the panel displays information on the array
configurations planned for Cycle 4, and uses the representative frequency defined in the spectral setup to calculate
the Synthesized beamsize and the Maximum recoverable scale of the observations.

The Desired Angular Resolution (AR) and the Largest Angular Structure (LAS) are used
together to determine the array configuration(s) the observations can be executed in. PIs
cannot explicitly request certain configurations, but should instead make sure that theAR and LAS entered are correct. The array configuration selected for your observations will
have baselines long enough to achieve an AR better than that requested, and be compact
enough to resolve the LAS. Often this will mean that a number of configurations are acceptable
for a given Science Goal. The most compact of the acceptable configurations is listed
in the Time Estimate pop-up. If it is not possible to achieve both the AR and LAS desiredwith just one 12-m Array configuration, the OT will, if possible, automatically add a second
12-m configuration and/or the ACA 7-m and Total Power observations. For details on which
configurations can be used together, please consult the Technical Handbook.

Unlike in previous Cycles, users do not directly select whether ACA 7-m and/or Total Powerobservations should be scheduled or not. Instead, the ACA is imposed by the OT if required toachieve the LAS requested. Whether or not ACA observations will be scheduled can be easily
seen in the Time Estimate pop-up, or from the cover sheet of the pdf file created by the Tools> Generate PDF of Whole Proposal action.

In Cycle 4, it is possible to request ACA stand-alone observations, i.e. to apply for observing
time only on the ACA 7-m and (if needed) Total Power Array without asking for 12-m Array
time. This is achieved by entering the Synthesized Beamsize reported in the Configuration
Information for the ACA 7-m configuration. If necessary to achieve the LAS requested, Total
Power observations will be added only for spectral line observations in Bands 3,4,6,7 and 8.
Note that for stand-alone observations the ACA 7-m time estimate is specifically computedfor the sensitivity requested, rather than being a multiple of the 12-m Array time. Given thegreatly reduced total collecting area of the 10 7-m antennas compared to the 40 12-m antennas
offered in Cycle 4, a stand-alone ACA proposal will by design require significantly more ACA
time than a proposal including the 12-m Array for the same sensitivity request.
You can define and check technical details of the observations using the following fields (fields displayed in red
must be filled):
Desired Angular Resolution: your choice is guided by the synthesized beamsizes corresponding to themost compact and most extended configurations available in Cycle 4 as displayed in the Configuration
Information. The value entered cannot be smaller than the synthesized beam size of the most extended
configuration, and cannot be larger than twice the synthesized beam size of the most compact configuration.
You can input the angular resolution in arc-seconds or a fraction of the main beam size.

Observations requesting very small angular resolutions (i.e. those making use of long baselines)
are very inefficient because they need to be heavily calibrated to correct for atmospheric phasefluctuations. Since the array configuration is determined based on the AR defined in the OT,
it is possible to inadvertently trigger long baseline observations by entering an AR just slightly
smaller than that actually required (e.g. B3 observations requiring a 0.3400 AR may trigger
long baselines, while 0.3500 AR observations may not). You can see if the observations defined
make use of long baselines in the time estimate pop-up; the first 12-m configuration will belabelled C40-8 or C40-9 and the number of phase calibrator observations per SB execution will
be unusually large (above 25 or so for a ∼ 1 hour long SB). Long baselines should be avoided
if they are not necessary to achieve a Science Goal.

Largest Angular Structure in source: here you should enter the largest angular structure that you
wish to resolve in your source(s), which may be different from the actual size of the source. The value
entered determines whether you need multiple 12-m configurations and/or the ACA, and therefore has adirect influence on the time estimate (see the Maximum recoverable scale for the 12-m configurations in the
Configuration Information table for guidance.). The input units are the same as for the angular resolution.
Desired Sensitivity per Pointing: you should enter the sensitivity required for the most restrictive
line/continuum observation to achieve the scientific aims of the Science Goal, and if relevant mention the
S/N achieved for the remaining lines/continuum in the Technical Justification. In the case of a rectangularfield mosaic you should specify the sensitivity required over the mosaic, not that for individual overlapping
pointings. We recommend that the sensitivity requested is good enough to give a 3 σ detection at the very
least, ideally 5 σ.
Bandwidth used for Sensitivity: for continuum observations, this field is automatically set to AggregateBandwidth. For spectral line or spectral scan observations you can pick one of six choices given in the
dropdown menu:- RepresentativeWindowBandWidth: the bandwidth of the spectral window chosen as the representative
spectral window (and containing the Representative Frequency) in Section 6- RepresentativeWindowResolution (default): the (Hanning-smoothed) spectral resolution of the representative spectral window, taking into account spectral averaging- AggregrateBandwidth: the summed bandwidth of all your selected spectral windows- LargestWindowBandwidth: the bandwidth of your widest spectral window defined- FinestResolution: the finest (Hanning-smoothed) resolution of any spectral window, taking into account spectral averaging- User: a bandwidth of your choice (useful if you are intending to smooth your data after observationto achieve a certain S/N)

Please pay close attention that the Bandwidth used for sensitivity is appropriate for your scientific aims. For spectral line observations we recommend that it is at most 1/3 of the expected
spectral line width. Selecting too wide a bandwidth will lower the time estimate, but yield too
low a sensitivity.

Science Goal Integration Time Estimate: The Time Estimate button will estimate the total timerequired to achieve the desired sensitivity goal on the 12-m Array antennas, including calibrations, multiple
pointings, and overheads (see Fig. 11). In the event that two 12-m configurations are needed to provide
sufficient baseline coverage, the time breakdown will be calculated for the more extended of the two,
while the time required for a more compact configuration or the ACA will be calculated based on the
more extended 12-m Array configuration by using a configuration-dependent multiplicative factor. Unlessspecified otherwise (see below), it is the total time reported here that will be used by the observatory as
an estimate of how long your project will take to complete.

The time estimates for Cycle 4 have been extensively revised compared to those for Cycle 3
taking into account the experience gained by the project particularly in the areas of imaging
and scheduling. They are expected to be more realistic than the Cycle 3 estimates, howeverusers should be aware that despite the increased number of antennas, the estimated observing
time required to reach the requested sensitivity may have increased for some projects. The
Time Estimate pop-up now provides information not only on the time required for a Science
Goal, but also gives an indication of the configuration(s) required and how widely separated
sources will be clustered into separate SBs.

Figure 12: The time constraints interface and Time Estimate box for the example of Multiple Visits.
Override OT’s Sensitivity-Based Time Estimate If your Science Goal is not sensitivity driven, butinstead requires a certain time (e.g. for a monitoring experiment) you can choose to override the OT’s time
estimate. The time entered should be the total time (including calibrations and overheads) for the more
extended 12-m configuration needed; time estimates for the ACA are the automatically calculated by the
OT.
Are the Observations Time-Constrained? The OT now has the ability to capture the following time
constraints:- Single Visit: specify fixed time intervals during which your observations should be executed. The
observations will be carried out only once in total, within any of the time windows specified. You
can manually Add time windows individually, or Import a list of time slots from an ASCII file. See
the Control & Performance section of the ALMA OT Reference Manual for the format required.
- Multiple Visits: define multiple visits for your Science Goal. The timing constraints of the individual
visits are specified in terms of arbitrary, fixed or relative time intervals (see Fig. 12). Here, theobservations will be carried out once for each visit specified. The time estimate computed by the
OT will be multiplied by the number of visits.

Selecting Tool in the OT menu gives you access to a number of useful tools to help you better
plan your observations. You can use the Sensitivity Calculator to bring up a pop-up windowthat allows you to experiment with project execution times and sensitivities, the Project timesummary to give a time and data rate summary, and generate printable and pdf summaries
of individual Science Goals as well as the whole proposal (including a cover sheet).

Figure 13: The technical justification editor.

10

Technical Justification

For the majority of proposals, the technical justification is entered in three sections: Sensitivity, Imaging, andCorrelator configuration. Relevant parameters are taken or computed from the Science Goal setup and the
Expected Source Properties are displayed for each section. If the OT detects values it thinks should be doublechecked, an informative message is displayed in blue. You should pay special attention to these issues in yourjustification text. Note that any supporting figures (e.g. simulations) should be included in the science case
PDF.
You must enter a short justification text in the free-format text boxes of each section. In addition, text
boxes will appear for any choices that need to be justified. These include using single polarisation, non-standard
continuum frequencies, non-Nyquist spatial sampling, a user-defined calibration strategy, overriding of the OT’s
suggestion of the ACA or time estimate, low maximum elevation of a source and time-constrained observations.
For detailed guidelines on filling the Technical Justification please see Appendix C of the Proposer’s Guide andthe technical justification video tutorial.

11

Validating and Submitting

By clicking on Menu > Validate or the corresponding tick icon in the toolbar you can check whether the projectcontains any setup errors (see Fig. 14). Successful validation is required before submitting a project. Warnings
are for your attention and should be double-checked, but they do not prevent you from submitting a technicallysound proposal. Double-clicking on an error/warning message will take you to the relevant Science Goal, so that

Figure 14: An example of failed validation.

Figure 15: Successful validation!
you can easily identify and correct the problem. If all is well, the Feedback pane will report “No problems found”(Fig. 15). Your project is now ready to be submitted!
Before submitting your project, you should check whether any of your Science Goals makeuse of non-standard modes. Non-standard modes require manual intervention during data
reduction and will be allocated up to a maximum of 20% of the available observing time. You
can see which, if any, of your Science Goals use non-standard modes on the Proposal summary
sheet. Non-standard modes will also trigger a validation warning, and include VLBI proposals,
Solar observations, long baselines in Bands 7 and above, full polarisation observations andhigh frequency observations (Bands 8, 9, and 10), among other things (see Appendix A of the
Proposer’s Guide for a complete list). Since it is expected that observing time for these modes
will be more competitive than for standard observations you should ensure that you did not
inadvertently trigger a non-standard mode.
To submit your project to the ALMA archive, select File > Submit Project in the menu bar. You and allof your Co-Is should receive a confirmation e-mail after each proposal submission. Once you have submitted,
the Unsubmitted Proposal label in the blue proposal status bar will be replaced by a red Submitted label. This
indicates that the proposal has been stored in the ALMA archive and assigned the Project Code listed in thetop-level overview panel of your proposal. You are encouraged to save your project to disk after submission inorder to ensure that any updates are made on the submitted version.
You can make changes and re-submit your Submitted proposal until the deadline; any re-submission will
overwrite the previous version of the proposal stored in the archive. For more detailed information on the
ALMA OT and the technical capabilities in Cycle 4 you are invited to consult the documentation available on
the Science Portal. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to submit a ticket to the ALMA
Helpdesk, also accessible from the Science Portal.