Major new ALMA Science Archive features

Published: 23 Jul 2026
Cutout images show a combination of a background picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope with a very deep ALMA view of the field

The ALMA Science Archive has received substantial feature upgrades, some of which have been worked on for years.

The ALMA Science Archive Query Interface now allows users to search for lines that have been detected by ADMiT in the public ALMA data products. Users can not only search for molecules and transitions, but redshifts and source velocities or line intensities. Previews are also included for the detected lines. The Request Handler download interface has also received an upgrade - it now shows the hierarchy of the data structure in a modern, intelligently scrollable way where the displayed information can be easily expanded and collapsed. A new powerful search bar at the top allows users to filter the displayed rows by text-, unix-pattern or regular-expression search. The output can be sorted, and a quick-select menu allows users to perform the most-used selections. 

While we expect the new line search functionality to be a useful addition for archival researchers, we do note that this feature comes with a large number of caveats. This is due to the often uncertain or incorrect source redshifts or velocities, as well as the incompleteness of the information presented - for example, not all spectral windows in the raw data were imaged by ALMA. We ask users to proceed with utmost care and use their scientific judgement.

Another new feature of the line search functionality is the display of histograms that give an overview of the content of the Archive. For each numerical input field and column, histograms show the value distribution of the full Archive holdings, as well as of the content of the result table if filters or subfilters have been applied. This visual display of Archive metadata should help the users better explore the full range of data.

Last but not least, the Request Handler interface allows users to select a list view, showing only the file names, as well as a tile view showing only the previews for faster browsing.  We encourage users to check out these new features for an improved data exploration and retrieval experience. Please report problems or provide comments through the ALMA Helpdesk.
 

Contributed by Felix Stoehr