The European ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) provides the interface between the ALMA project and the European science community. It supports its users mainly in the areas of proposal preparation, observation preparation, data reduction, and data analysis.

Unlike its partner ARCs in North America and Japan, the European ARC is organized as a coordinated network of scientific support nodes distributed across Europe. The central node is located at ESO Headquarters in Garching bei München and carries the responsibility for all the core ARC activities as well as the coordination of the additional science support provided by the regional nodes.

The European ARC is the point of contact for European ALMA users from the moment of proposal submission to the actual distribution of calibrated data and subsequent analysis via the ALMA Helpdesk.

European ARC nodes

The central European ARC node is located at the ESO headquarters in Garching bei München. A distributed network of ARC nodes is being set up to provide services to the community. ARC nodes are currently set up throughout Europe at the following locations:

Bonn-Cologne

Country: Germany
Contact person: F. Bertoldi
Current staff: 3 staff astronomers, 5 postdocs, 1 IT support, 2 COFUND fellows
Expertise: advanced data analysis and modeling (including Cologne Database for Molecular Spectroscopy), polarimetry, zero-spacings correction for continuum data
Local web pages

Bologna

Country: Italy
Contact person: J. Brand
Staff: 5 staff astronomers, 3 postdocs, 2 IT support, 1 COFUND fellow
Expertise: Data handling/GRID-technology, Mosaicing, Coordinating surveys/key-projects, Polarimetry
Local web pages

Onsala

Countries: Denmark, Sweden, Finland
Contact person: W. Vlemmings
Staff: 3 staff astronomers, 1 software engineer, 1 COFUND fellow
Expertise: Multi-Frequency Synthesis, Phase modeling, Self-calibration, Astrometry, Deconvolution, GRID computing, Astrochemical modellingand radiation transfer
Local web pages

IRAM, Grenoble

Countries: France, Spain, Germany
Contact person: F. Gueth
Staff: 4 staff astronomers, 1 postdoc, 2 software engineers
Expertise: Calibration, Phase correction, Polarimetry, Imaging simulator, Schools
Local web pages

Allegro, Leiden

Country: The Netherlands
Contact person: M. Hogerheijde
Staff: 1 staff astronomer, 3 postdocs
Expertise: High-frequency, Wide field imaging, Data analysis tools
Local web pages

Manchester

Country: United Kingdom
Contact person: T. Muxlow
Staff: 3 staff astronomers, 2 postdocs, 1 COFUND fellow
Expertise: Data analysis, Archive, Data reduction heuristics, Proposal preparation, Multi-Frequency-Synthesis and Wide-field & high-dynamic range imaging
Local web pages

Ondrejov

Countries: Czech Republic
Contact person: M. Karlicky
Staff: 2 staff astronomers, 2 postdocs, 1 IT support
Expertise: Solar and (extra)galactic astrophysics, Laboratory measurements of molecular spectral lines, Observation planning, Data quality check, Data storage and processing, Data reduction using CASA
Local web pages