ALMA at 10 years: Past, Present, and Future

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The ALMA partnership is organizing a conference to commemorate 10 years of ALMA Science Observations, taking place in Puerto Varas, Chile, on 4-8 December 2023. The aim of the conference is to look back on the observatory’s accomplishments, highlight the latest ALMA results from all scientific fields, as well as look forward to future technical developments. The latter will include a focus on its ambitious 2030 development roadmap and in particular the ongoing plans for the Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade that will ultimately quadruple the system bandwidth and improve observing efficiency and sensitivity for both continuum and spectral line observations. 

The conference will have a hybrid format and while in-person attendance has reached capacity and is closed, on-line participation, including posters, is open until November 1, 2023 (register for online attendance here). 

For more information, visit the conference website: https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/alma-at-10-years-past-present-and-future/

Lorentz Workshop: Tuning to the high frequency ALMA Universe

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In the week of September 4-8, an ALMA-dedicated workshop will take place at the Lorentz Center in Leiden.  The workshop aims at gathering the ALMA community to discuss and further develop the unique science that can be achieved at the highest frequencies offered (Bands 8, 9, and 10).  ALMA is the only ground-based interferometer that can routinely observe at frequencies > 350 GHz, making it a truly unique instrument. At the workshop, we aim to discuss the status of high frequency observations for galactic and extragalactic science and to explore which questions have arisen in the field that can be answered with high frequency observations. We will also discuss future developments, technologies, and the ALMA upgrade. The overall goal is to create new ideas, collaborations and synergies within our community and the observatory that will enhance the discovery space of ALMA.

The workshop will be attended by 50 participants from several relevant scientific areas from all ALMA regions, the executives and the Joint ALMA observatory. 

For more information visit: https://www.lorentzcenter.nl/tuning-to-the-high-frequency-alma-universe.html

MAYA2022 Group Photo

MAYA – Meeting of ALMA Young Astronomers – First Edition

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From March 2 to 4, 2022, the first Meeting of ALMA Young Astronomers (MAYA) took place fully online. The conference was dedicated to undergraduate and PhD students as well as postdocs. The goal of the meeting was to allow participants to share their ALMA projects in an open and friendly atmosphere, interact with other participants and staff from the ARC nodes, and potentially trigger new collaborations and projects.

The organising committee received more than 150 registrations and more than 90 submitted abstracts for the program. In the end, the program covered all types of astronomical subjects from solar observations to distant galaxies as well as two invited talks about the history of ALMA and the European ARC network. The presentations were recorded and are available in the MAYA playlist on the European ALMA Regional Centre Network YouTube channel. Participants who were not awarded presentation time during the conference were given the opportunity to pre-record their talks and upload them to the same playlist.

The high quality of the presentations and the friendly interaction in the Q&A time after each talk as well as on Slack was impressive. Besides the presentations, the meeting offered ample time for the participants to get to know each other in Zoom breakout rooms and during the social evenings. A quiz with ALMA trivia questions added a playful tone to some of the breaks.

An overwhelming 93% of participants who filled the feedback survey were overall satisfied with the meeting, making this first MAYA conference a great success! The survey participants stated that they most enjoyed the variety of the program and the early career attendees. More than 90% of the survey participants are interested in participating in the next MAYA event in 2023!

ALMA at the European Astronomical Society meeting

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The next meeting of the European Astronomical Society will take place in Valencia (Spain) from 27 June to 1 July 2022. This conference will be in-person. The abstract submission deadline has already passed but registration is open until the start of the conference.

Building bridges: The lifecycle of dust and gas in the Milky Way with ALMA and SKA – EAS S7 symposium

Our Galaxy and its immediate neighbourhood are the only regions where we can undertake detailed studies of the physics driving the formation and evolution of astrophysical objects throughout the entire life cycle of the interstellar medium. ALMA is playing a groundbreaking and fundamental role in the study of a broad range of environments and phenomena due to its unprecedented spatial resolution and sensitivity. At the same time, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is now under construction, and it will provide a unique perspective on our Galaxy, complementary to that of ALMA.

Within the life cycle of dust and gas, accretion, fragmentation, feedback, astrochemistry, and temporal changes are common to many astrophysical objects. The respective communities investigating these objects often do not interact – even though they are using many of the same techniques. Symposium 7 is dedicated to building bridges between communities studying events of similar nature in the life cycle of gas and dust but at different astronomical scales and in different environments. The program of the symposium contains five invited talks focusing on accretion and fragmentation on large and small spatial scales, feedback in star-forming regions and evolved stars as well as synergies between ALMA/SKA and other observing facilities.

This style of event- instead of object-focused symposium will hopefully attract many contributors from different fields and communities, lead to interesting discussions and foster new collaborations.

More information about the topics and programme of the symposium can be found here:

ALMA in Europe: support by the European ALMA Regional Centre Network and new ways of interacting with data through the ALMA Science Archive

In this lunch session we aim to present to the European astronomical community how ALMA user support in Europe has evolved over the last years, the various types of support it offers, and the ways the European astronomical community can make use of this support. We will provide an update on the ALMA Science Archive and the tools that were developed to maximise its science output. We will furthermore discuss the outcomes of the ALMA Redesign the User eXperience (RedUX) project and show some of the actions that have been taken regarding user support and archive development. We will finish by taking time to discuss recent relevant changes within ALMA that are of direct interest to the astronomical community, including for example the distributed peer review system of proposals and how the connection between the astronomical community and the European ARC network can be further improved. More information can be found here.

During the conference, ALMA will have a booth in the exhibition space where interested conference participants can visit to ask questions about ALMA and the ARC network and take home merchandise.

4th Netherlands ALMA Science Day: January 25, 2021

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Allegro announces the 4th Netherlands ALMA Science Day, which will be held (online) on Monday, January 25, 2021. At this meeting, we will hear presentations of the latest scientific results obtained with ALMA by the Netherlands astronomical community. Special guest speakers include Rychard Bouwens (Leiden Observatory, on the REBELS Large Program), and Leen Decin (Leuven, on the Atomium Large Program – to be confirmed). We will also hear the latest updates on the status of ALMA and its return to science operations, and allow time to discuss user experiences and other ALMA related topics.

Following the Science Day, on Tuesday, January 26, 2021, introductory CASA training will be offered, again online (click here for more information). Throughout the remainder of that same week, Allegro staff will be available to (remotely) work with you on exploring the capabilities of CASA on the Allegro computing system.

Important dates:
– January 11, 2021: Deadline for registering to present a talk and registering to attend the CASA training.
– January 21, 2021: Deadline for registering to attend the Science Day talks.

Program January 25, 2021
12:30-12:35 Zoom connection opens
12:35-12:45 Welcome (Violette Impellizzeri)
12:45-13:15 Rychard Bouwens
(Invited Talk)		 Probing the Most Massive ISM Reservoirs in the Early Universe with the REBELS ALMA Large Program
13:15-13:30 Alice S. Booth An inherited complex organic reservoir in a warm planet-hosting disk? First detection of methanol in a Herbig Ae/Be disk
13:30-13:45 Matus Rybak Full of Orions? Dissecting the extreme star-formation in the early Universe with ALMA
13:45-14:00 Pooneh Nazari Complex organic molecules in low-mass protostars
14:00-14:20 Liz Humphreys Status of ALMA operations
14:20-14:35 Gergö Popping ALMA Cycle 8 2021
14:35-14:55 Discussion
14:55-15:05 Break
15:05-15:20 Huib Jan van Langevelde Status of The Event Horizon Telescope
15:20-15:35 Karina Caputi An ALMA galaxy signposting a MUSE galaxy group at z=4.3 behind El Gordo
15:35-15:50 Ardjan Sturm Tracing outer disk carbon depletion using [CI]
15:50-16:05 Raffaella Morganti Taking snapshots of the jet-ISM interplay with ALMA: the case of PKS 0023–26
16:05-16:20 Martijn van Gelder Modeling SO and SO2 in accretion shocks
16:20-16:30 Break
16:30-17:00 Leen Decin
(Invited Talk)		 Stellar and planetary companions shape the winds of evolved stars
17:00-17:15 Niels Ligterink Serpens SMM1-a: A primordial soup in space
17:15-17:30 Ko-Yun (Monica) Huang Characterizing the shock properties in NGC1068
17:30-17:45 Tomoko Suzuki Dust, gas, and metal content in star-forming galaxies at z~3.3
Closing remarks

 

Registered participants: (Last update 22-01-2021)

Michiel Hogerheijde Leiden Observatory
Violette Impellizzeri Leiden Observatory
Leen Decin KU Leuven
Rychard Bouwens Leiden Observatory
Aida Ahmadi Leiden Observatory
Alex Hygate Leiden Observatory
Andrés Pérez-Sánchez Leiden Observatory
Ashley Bemis Leiden Observatory
Katharina Immer Leiden Observatory
Elizabeth Humphreys ESO/JAO Chile
Gergö Popping European Southern Observatory
Huib Jan van Langevelde JIVE & Leiden Observatory
Benoît Tabone Leiden Observatory
Yipeng Lyu Leiden Observatory
Simon Gazagnes Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Giovanna Pugliese Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy – UvA
Pratik Dabhade Leiden Observatory
Felix Semler University of Groningen
Simin Tong Leiden Observatory
Fernanda Roman de Oliveira University of Groningen
Olga Bayandina Joint Institute for VLBI ERIC
Margot Leemker Leiden Observatory
Ramlal Unnikrishnan Chalmers University of Technology
Dazhi Zhou Leiden Observatory
Jeroen Terwisscha van Scheltinga Leiden Observatory
Vincent Icke Leiden Observatory
Joris Kersten Radboud University
Joshua Joseph Butterworth Leiden Observatory
Alice S. Booth Leiden Observatory
Ko-Yun (Monica) Huang Leiden Observatory
Niels Ligterink Space Research & Planetary Sciences department, University of Bern
Saskia Matheussen NWO
Matus Rybak Leiden Observatory
Jozsef Varga Leiden Observatory
Pooneh Nazari Leiden Observatory
Ardjan Sturm Leiden Observatory
Helga Denes ASTRON
Martijn van Gelder Leiden Observatory
Cristina Garcia Leiden Observatory
Leindert Boogaard Leiden Observatory
Louise Lamblin Leiden Observatory
Núria Casasayas Barris Leiden Observatory
Alvaro Hacar University of Vienna, Austria
Areli Castrejon Aviles Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Vanesa Ramírez Leiden Observatory
Teymoor Saifollahi Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Daniele Aragão Ronso da Costa Lima Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Bayron Portilla Revelo Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Jakob van den Eijnden University of Oxford
Jurjen de Jong Leiden Observatory
Sarah Leslie Leiden Observatory
Karina Caputi Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Tom Oosterloo ASTRON & Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Tomoko Suzuki Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Raffaella Morganti ASTRON & Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Lingyu Wang SRON
Kirsty May Butler Leiden Observatory
Juliëtte Hilhorst Leiden Observatory
Pavel E. Mancera Piña ASTRON & Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Theodoros Topkaras Leiden Observatory
Per-Gunnar Valegard Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy – UvA
Lucas Stapper Leiden Observatory
Ivana van Leeuwen Leiden Observatory
John McKean ASTRON & Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Nanna Kerlauge ASTRON & Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Marta Frias Castillo Leiden Observatory
Di Wen Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Teresa Paneque-Carreno ESO & Leiden Observatory
Sander Schouws Leiden Observatory
Iris de Ruiter Anton Pannekoek Institute – UvA
Anna de Graaff Leiden Observatory
Jan Brand INAF-IRA, Italian node EU ARC
Ewine van Dishoeck Leiden Observatory
Marijn Franx Leiden Observatory
Martin Zwaan European Southern Observatory
Belen Alcalde Pampliega European Southern Observatory
Andres Felipe Ramos Padilla RUG / SRON
Serena Viti Leiden Observatory

ALMA-VLBI QA2 Workshop– Leiden Lorentz Center, 24-28 February 2020

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Allegro is hosting a QA2 training workshop for phased-ALMA data acquired during VLBI observations, which will be held in Leiden (the Netherlands), on February 24-28 2020.
VLBI is an observing mode offered since Cycle 4, and the first observations were conducted in Apr 2017. The QA2 process for VLBI projects is significantly more complex than the procedure for standard projects, requiring a close loop between ARCs, JAO and VLBI correlators.
The main goal of the workshop is to train ALMA astronomers so that the QA2 work load can be distributed across different regions. The training workshop will involve hands-on work on past cycles datasets.
This workshop is restricted to the trained QA2 analysts in ALMA Regional Centers (ARCs).

 

 

SOC / LOC:

 

Ciriaco Goddi (Chair) Allegro/Dutch ARC node
Geoff Crew Haystack/MIT
Ivan Marti-Vidal University of Valencia
Hugo Messias JAO
Stefanie Muehler German ARC node
Dirk Petry ESO
Helge Rottmann MPIfR
Registered participants:Abhijeet BorkarCzech node

 

European ARC nodes  
Lydia Moser German node
Rosita Paladino Italian node
Kazi Rygl Italian node
Andres Perez Allegro/Dutch node
Daniel Tafoya Nordic node
Tobia Carozzi Nordic node
Ciro Pappalardo PACE/Portuguese node
Adam Avison UK node
Anita Richards UK node
East Asia ARC  
Atsushi Miyazaki Japanese node
Jihyun Kang Korean node
Alfonso Trejo-Cruz Taiwanese node
North America ARC  
Brian Mason NRAO
Erica Keller NRAO
JAO  
David Rebolledo JAO
VLBI Correlators  
Jan Wagner MPIfR
Yurii Pidopryhora MPIfR
HOTELSYou could consider staying either close to the Lorentz Center (about 2.5 km from the center), or near the railway (Leiden Centraal) station (where the center begins).
There are regular buses from the Leiden Centraal station to the Lorentz Center (see the links below for more specific details if you will be coming by bus).
In alternative, you can look into renting a bike for your stay. You can pick this up at the railway station, at the rear (exit towards the hospital). Bikes costs 7.50 euro per day or 37.50 for a week.Near the workshop venue:

 

Hilton Garden Inn (500-m to the Lorentz Center, 4-stars)
Holiday Inn (950-m to the Lorentz Center, 4-stars)
Van der Valk Hotel (1.6-km to the Lorentz Center, 4-stars)

Near the train station / center of Leiden.

Golden Tulip Leiden-centre (Central station, 4-stars)
Fletcher Wellness-Hotel (Central station, 4-stars)
Tulip Inn Leiden-centre (Central station, 3-stars)
Ibis Leiden-centre (Central station, 3-stars)

Boutique Hotel d’Oude Morsch (Near Central station, 3.5-stars)
Best Western City Hotel (Center, 3-stars)

DIRECTIONS

 

-Directions to Leiden ObservatoryNote that this is not the old Observatory in the center of Leiden.There are regular buses from the Leiden Centraal station, buses 43 (direction Den Haag) or bus 57 (direction Nieuw Vennep). These take around 7 minutes. Please see the link below for more specific details if you will be coming by bus.

 

Instructions on how to get to Leiden Observatory, including transportation from Schiphol Airport, can be found here:
https://www.lorentzcenter.nl/howto.php
And a site map can be found here:
https://www.lorentzcenter.nl/map_LC_hotels_stat_web.php

lorentzcenter

The venue of the workshop is the Snellius building of the Lorentz Center. The Leiden Observatory and Allegro offices are located on the 4-5th and 11th floor, respectively, of The Huygens building (in front and to the right with respect to the Snellius building).

-Directions inside the building:

 

  • Room TBD on the 2nd floor of the Snellius building:
    hl_226
    At the entrance of the building there is a reception were they can provide you with directions.

EAS2020 – Special Session Nr. 13: Eight years of ALMA ground-breaking results.

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We would like to bring to your attention the special session ‘Eight years of ALMA ground-breaking results: A joint venture between the ALMA user community and the ALMA Regional Centres‘ that is organised as part of the yearly meeting of the European Astronomical Society. The conference will take place in Leiden, The Netherlands, on June 29 – July 3, 2020. The Special Session No. 13 will be held on the last day of the conference (July 3rd).

The Special Session SS13 will focus on scientific results that emphasise the connection between the ALMA users and the EU ARC network, and include:

  • Scientific highlights from large programs.
  • Scientific results from special modes with EU-specific strengths:
    high frequencies, polarization, solar observations, deep fields, data combination.
  • Results based on archival research and data mining.
  • Community and EU ARC network software/tools development.
  • Optimization of observations setup and data calibration.
  • Computing facilities for data reduction and analysis.

For more information on the SS13, please visit this link.

For general information on the EAS 2020, please click here.

Abstract submission is open for the SS13 in a form of oral or poster presentations. In order to submit your abstract, please visit the Abstract portal:

Sincerely,
The EAS2020 SS13 SOC.

Netherlands ALMA Science Day — 22 November 2019.

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Allegro is organizing an ALMA Science Day on Friday November 22, 2019, at Leiden Observatory.

Allegro organizes this meeting for the Netherlands ALMA community to share their exciting new science, hear the latest news from the telescope, and discuss user experiences and ALMA-related topics.

  • Program
  • Participants

  • Directions

     

    Program

    The third edition of the Netherlands ALMA Science day will be held in the 2nd floor of the Huygens Building (HL), room HL-226. We will start the program at 11:30 am with lunch. All the registered participants are invited to join us. We will offer sandwiches and fruits for the registered participants. Then, the science talks will start at 12:30. The first afternoon block of talks will finish with the presentation by this year’s invited speaker Dr. M. Zwaan (ESO). Our program is full of exciting topics including results from high-redshift studies, as well as studies of dust and molecular gas in proto-planetary disks. During the second block of talks, we will have a presentation by Dr. C. Goddi (Allegro) on the results of the Event Horizon Telescope!
    We will finish the day with a Borrel at the 11th floor, next to the Allegro offices. We look forward to seeing you!

    Follow this link to see the Program.

    Registered participants: (Last update 13-11-2019)

    Michiel Hogerheijde Leiden Observatory
    Jim Morrison University of Groningen
    Rudolf Le Poole Leiden Observatory
    Dazhi Zhou Leiden Observatory
    Shota Notsu Leiden Observatory, Leiden University
    Zhenlin Zhu SRON/Leiden University
    Prof. Harry van der Laan Leiden Observatory, ASTRON, ESO
    Ruslan Brilenkov Kapteyn Institute, University of Groningen
    Yuan Chen Leiden Observatory
    Gerard Pujol Hernandez API
    Margot Leemker Leiden University
    Huub Rottgering Leiden Observatory
    Marta Frias Castillo Leiden Observatory
    Alvaro Hacar Leiden Observatory
    Rychard Bouwens Leiden University
    Ewine van Dishoeck STRW-UL
    Stefan van der Giessen Leiden University
    Leon Trapman Leiden Observatory
    Gleb Fedoseev Laboratory for Astrophysics, Leiden Observatory
    Huib Intema ICRAR – Curtin University
    Jeroen Terwisscha van Scheltinga Leiden Observatory
    Kirsty Butler Sterrewacht Leiden
    Schuyler Wolff Leiden Observatory
    Sander Schouws Leiden University
    Leindert Boogaard Leiden Observatory
    Robin Mentel Leiden Observatory
    Lukasz Tychoniec Leiden Observatory
    Jozsef Varga Leiden Observatory
    Tabone Leiden University
    Yijun Wang University of Science and Technology of China & Leiden Observatory
    Andrew Barr Leiden Observatory
    Matthew Kenworthy Leiden Observatory
    Alexandru-Daniel Taun University of Groningen
    Vincent Icke Leiden University
    Violeta Gámez Rosas Leiden University
    Pengyu Liu Leiden University
    MARIANNA PATATOUKOU Leiden University
    Martijn van Gelder Leiden Observatory
    Micha Heilman Leiden University
    Pooneh Nazari Leiden University
    DIRECTIONS

    -Directions to Leiden Observatory

    Note that this is not the old Observatory in the center of Leiden.

    There are regular buses from the Leiden Centraal station, buses 43 (direction Den Haag) or bus 57 (direction Nieuw Vennep). These take around 7 minutes. Please see the link below for more specific details if you will be coming by bus.

    Instructions on how to get to Leiden Observatory, including transportation from Schiphol Airport, can be found here:
    https://www.lorentzcenter.nl/howto.php
    And a site map can be found here:
    https://www.lorentzcenter.nl/map_LC_hotels_stat_web.php

    lorentzcenter

    Note these specify the route to the Lorentz Center, which is in the forward leaning building in the photo. The event will be held in the joining taller building – The Huygens building. Leiden Observatory and Allegro offices are located on the 4-5th and 11th floor of that same building, respectively.

    -Directions inside the building:

    • HL-226 on the 2nd floor of the Huygens building:
      hl_226

    At the entrance of the building there is a reception were they can provide you with directions.
    The afternoon session will be held on the 2nd floor of the Huygens Building (HL), room HL-226.
    The borrel will be held on the 11th floor of the Huygens Building (HL), next to the Allegro offices (HL-11.22).

Allegro hosted the EU ARC All-hands meeting

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During the last week of September the staff working in all the European ARC nodes had their yearly meeting in Den Dolder (NL) hosted by the Allegro node.

This yearly meeting brings together all the expertise in the network, in an unique occasion that allows us to share our experiences, strengthen our links and discuss pass, present and future developments.

We all are looking forward our next meeting organized by our colleagues at the Czech ARC node.

Picture Credit: A. Borkar

Special Session SS20 at EWASS – Prague, 26 – 30 June 2017

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The European Week of Astronomy and Space Science (EWASS) Special Session No. 20, held on the first day (26 June) of the conference, will be devoted to the three particular modes of observing with ALMA that demonstrate the unique capabilities of the facility: High-Frequency Observations (specifically in Bands 8, 9 and 10); High-Angular-Resolution Observations with baslines up to 16 km; Solar Observations. Further details on the S220 site.