A new development study, led by ASTRON in Dwingeloo (The Netherlands) will investigate the possibility of implementing initial processing steps of ALMA raw data from the correlator in a streaming process of the visibilities. This study builds synergies with the LOFAR and SKA telescopes, where similar processes will be applied by the software engineers at ASTRON. In particular, the Default PreProcessing Pipeline (DP3) is a modular framework that can be adapted to be used on ALMA data.

The European ARC CalMS service (https://almascience.eso.org/tools/eu-arc-network/the-european-arc-calms-service) will be unavailable from 17/08/2023 - 23/08/2023 and 16/10/2023 - 30/10/2023.

An international team of astronomers and engineers at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have made the first measurements using new receivers installed on multiple ALMA antennas. The receivers allow to observe within the final frequency range — with wavelengths between 2.6 to 4.5 millimeters (67-116 GHz) — for which it was designed. Band 2 opens a new window into our cosmic origins, allowing measurements that reveal how distant stars and galaxies form, all the way down to the origins of planets and the building blocks of life.  

The demand for the European ARC CalMS service (https://almascience.eso.org/tools/eu-arc-network/the-european-arc-calms-service) has been roughly constant since the beginning of 2023 at 100 MOUSs/month. The 3000th MOUS was served at the end of July 2023 (counting since January 2020). The service will continue as it is for the foreseeable future.

Allegro, the Netherlands node of the European ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) at Leiden Observatory, invites applications for one or more postdoctoral support position(s). The position offers the opportunity for research at one of the major centres of astronomy in the Europe as well as an in-depth involvement in the development and operations of ALMA.

The deadline for applications is Sept 15, 2023.

The European ALMA Regional Centre network is organising an ALMA School for ALMA users, hosted by the UK Node on 10th - 14th June 2024 in Manchester. The school is designed to provide training on a broad range of aspects related to ALMA, including interferometry, data calibration and imaging, the ALMA archive, analysis techniques, ALMA science and future ALMA developments.

An issue has been discovered in the Cycle 10 ALMA Observing Tool (OT) that affects the estimated Atacama Compact Array (ACA) integration times for some 4x4-bit ACA observations (7-m and TP). We have fixed this problem and a patched version of the Cycle 10 OT is now available on the Science Portal. All PIs of projects that include ACA observations should download the updated OT version and submit or resubmit their proposals using this version. The correct version can be identified by checking for the words "Patch 1" in the title bar at the top of the OT window.

As described in the ALMA Cycle 10 Proposer's Guide, both spectral-line and continuum observations in Band 1 will be available only with the 12-m Array at Cycle 10, from March 2024 onwards. The Observing Tool will not prevent the submission of projects containing Band 1 ACA observations, but Band 1 ACA (7m and Total Power) observations are not technically feasible at this Cycle. Proposals requiring Band 1 ACA observations should therefore not be submitted.