The European ARC CalMS service (https://almascience.eso.org/tools/eu-arc-network/the-european-arc-calms-service) will be unavailable from 16 - 30 October 2023.

On September 25th, 2023, representatives of the ESO ALMA development study program and the European Science Advisory Committee (ESAC) met at the University of Manchester (UoM) with researchers from both UoM's Advanced Radio Instrumentation Group and the Science and Technology Facilities Council's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), kicking off a key ALMA study aiming to provide more integrated and scalable approaches to building the low noise amplifiers and mixers at the heart of ALMA receivers. 

The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) is offering a postdoctoral fellowship position to join the ALMA science operations group in Santiago, Chile. The goal of this fellowship is to offer young scientists the opportunity to enhance their research programs through involvement in science activities and interactions with experienced staff at the world's foremost observatory for sub-mm astronomy. The application deadline is 31/10/2023.

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) invites applications for the ESO Fellowship Programme 2023/2024. The Programme is designed to help early career scientists to develop their independent research programmes and successfully reach the next step of their scientific careers. The application deadlines are 15/10/2023 for the ESO-Chile and ESO-Germany Fellowship Programmes, respectively.

ALMA is releasing data acquired as part of the Extension and Optimisation of Capabilities effort (EOC). These data were taken as part of the High-Frequency Long-Baseline Campaign (HF-LBC-2021) during Cycle 7, which was organised to test the calibration and imaging capability of ALMA at high-frequencies (397 - 908 GHz, Band 8-10) and using long baselines (~16 km).

One main priority was to make a final validation of the band-to-band (B2B) phase referencing observation mode in Bands 8, 9, and 10. This technique allows the calibration of high-frequency observations by using a phase calibrator observed at a lower frequency, e.g. pairing Band 10 target observations with a Band 7 phase calibrator.

The ALMA Science Helpdesk will be unavailable due to essential maintenance for two days starting October 9, 13:00 UT. During this time users and staff will not have access to their tickets and will be unable to create new tickets. Principle Investigators of Target of Opportunity programs who may want to trigger observations during this timeframe should contact their Contact Scientist prior to the downtime.

The ALMA Observatory announces five filler programs that have been approved on the main array by the ALMA director. The programs are designed to fill the gaps in the 12-m Array observing schedule at low frequencies in Configurations 8 and 9, based on input  from scientists at the Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) and the ALMA Regional Centers (ARCs). The proposed programs were reviewed by the Observatory Scientist and the Department of Science Operations head, and approved by the ALMA Director.

To reach the ambitious goal of the ALMA Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade (WSU) to quadruple the instantaneous bandwidth from 4 to 16 GHz a wide range of receiver components need to be upgraded including the junctions, the intermediate frequency (IF) hybrids and the Cryogenic Low Noise Amplifiers (CLNA). The latter component has a critical role, as its location early in the analogue part of the signal chain means it has a substantial contribution to the overall receiver noise and affects the quality of sideband separating receivers. Moreover, the IF bandwidth of the CLNA is often the limiting factor for the overall receiver bandwidth, making the CLNA one of the key components to upgrade for the WSU. The same CLNA can be installed in most upgraded receivers.

The European ARC Network invites users to an online training on Introduction to Data Combination on September 21^st, 11:00 CET [Zoom link].