Video Credit: Ana A. Alpizar

 

ALMA Cycle 10 Pre-Announcement

ALMA has announced that the next Call for Proposals (CfP) will be in April 2023 with proposals due in May 2023.  The current dates are as follows:

18 January 2023: Cycle 10 pre-announcement

12 April 2023: Release of the ALMA Cycle 10 CfP and Observing Tool, and opening of the archive for proposal submission

10 May 2023: Proposal submission deadline

August 2023: Proposal review results sent to proposers

01 October 2023: Start of Cycle 10 observations

ALMA in Cycle 10 will have several new capabilities, including Band 1 observations, spectral scan observations that include Total Power, full polarization Band 3 solar observations, phased array modes in Bands 1, 3, 6, and 7, and VLBI in Bands 1, 3, 6, and 7.  Additionally, Cycle 10 will introduce the option of submitting Joint Proposals with other observatories as discussed below.

More details are available from the ALMA Cycle 10 Pre-Announcement.

 

Restart of ALMA Cycle 9 Observations

ALMA has sufficiently recovered from the October 2022 cyberattack that it is now capable of resuming PI science observations. Additionally, various user services, including ALMA user profiles, SnooPI, and the Cycle 9 DDT submission server, are now online. More information is available from the announcement on the ALMA Portal.

Observations are currently being performed in configuration C-3. However, ALMA will continue with the schedule listed on the Configuration Schedule page, so it will not be observing using configurations C-1 and C-2. UK PIs whose programs rely upon these configurations should contact their Contact Scientists via the Helpdesk so that we can determine what would be the best course of action to take regarding these observations.

 

ALMA announces Joint Proposal agreements for JWST, VLA, and the VLT

ALMA has entered into Joint Proposal agreements with three other observatories:

  • The James Web Space Telescope (JWST)
  • The Very Large Telescope (VLT)
  • The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA)

Joint Proposals are dedicated to scientific projects that require observations with two or more observatories to achieve their scientific goals. However, these proposals will only need to be submitted to a single observatory for scientific peer review, and that observatory will have the power to award observing time on multiple telescopes. This will save time in terms of proposal preparation and avoid "double jeopardy" situations during the review process.

Additional information is available from the announcement on the ALMA Portal. Details on the how to apply for Joint Proposals will be provided in future announcements from each observatory. ALMA-specific queries about the process can be submitted via the ALMA Helpdesk.

 

ALMA School for ALMA Users Pre-Announcement

The UK ALMA Regional Centre Node in conjunction with the European ALMA Regional Centre is organizing an ALMA School for ALMA Users on 4-8 September 2023 in Manchester. This school will 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. More information will be provided in future announcements.