Proposal Preparation Support

provided by the German ARC node in March/April 2019

On 19 March 2019, the ALMA Director, on behalf of the Joint ALMA Observatory and the partner organizations in East Asia, Europe, and North America, has issued the Call for Proposals for observing time with ALMA in Cycle 7. The deadline for proposals is on Wednesday, 17 April 2019 at 15:00 UT, with observations starting in October 2019. For more details, please see the ALMA Cycle 7 Call for Proposals.

As a service to the local astronomical community, the German ARC node organizes a series of ALMA proposal preparation tutorials as well as video sessions using zoom, which the participants can join without charge and from a variety of platforms. The tutorials cater to astronomers with different levels of expertise, ranging from an introduction to the necessary terminology for non-radio astronomers to a concise overview of ALMA's capabilities in Cycle 7 for experienced ALMA users.

Prospective ALMA users are very welcome to follow up the tutorials in one-on-one chats with experienced ARC node staff during our virtual drop-in proposal clinic and/or by visiting the node for further face-to-face interaction and one-on-one help with their proposals.

1) Proposal Preparation Tutorials

As a new feature this year, the German ARC node offers a series of brief video tutorials that can be watched at any convenient time. The tutorials cater to astronomers with different levels of expertise. Newcomers to Radio Astronomy are recommended to familiarize themselves with the basic interferometric concepts in the tutorials "Radio Interferometry with ALMA". [Please note that playing the videos in Safari may not work properly. If you experience issues, please use a different browser or download the tutorial and play it locally.]

Introduction to ALMA
A brief introduction to the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), its capabilities and science.

Radio Interferometry with ALMA: Basic terminology and spatial filtering
An introduction to the basic radio astronomical terms and concepts.

Radio Interferometry with ALMA: How to set up your observations
An introduction to the ALMA observing setup to be specified at the time of proposing.

Life of an ALMA Project I: From an idea to an ALMA proposal
ALMA procedures and policies, part I.

Life of an ALMA Project II: From the proposal to published results
ALMA procedures and policies, part II.

Don't Panic! How to get help
An overview of the various options for getting support at different stages of an ALMA project.

OT Video Tutorials
A series of audio-visual demonstrations on how to prepare a proposal with the ALMA Observing Tool (OT), kindly provided by the ESO ARC node.

What is new in Cycle 7?
An overview for experienced users of ALMA's extended capabilities and new features in Cycle 7.

2) Virtual drop-in proposal clinic

In addition to the tutorials, experts of the German ARC node are happy to provide one-on-one advice in our virtual drop-in proposal clinic. During the opening hours of the virtual clinic, experienced staff of the German ARC node will be available in a zoom videocon session which the participants can join without charge and in the browser of their choice. Zoom offers screen sharing capabilites for all users allowing optimum interaction over large distances. If you would like to talk to an ALMA expert, but can not join the zoom session during the scheduled opening hours, please send an email to arc at astro.uni-bonn.de for a special appointment.

link to the ALMA proposal clinic
opening hours: Mondays, 15:00 - 16:00 CEST, and by appointment