ALMA Community Meeting and Surveys for ALMA

ALMA Community Meeting

3-4 September 2007

IPP Auditorium, Garching

Surveys for ALMA

5-6 September 2007

IPP Auditorium, Garching

Home | Agendas (Updated) | Accommodation | List of participants | Talks/Presentations | How to reach us |

Summary

The Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) consisting of 54 12m and 12 7m telescopes and at least 6 frequency bands at the high-altitude Chajnantor site in Chile will provide a major leap forward in millimetre and submillimetre astronomy, allowing fundamental questions in the formation of galaxies, stars and planets to be addressed. Now ALMA has entered its main construction phase, ESO and Radionet are organising two back-to-back meetings aimed at the European astronomical community.

The goals of the ALMA Community Meeting are

The aim of this one and a half day meeting is to keep the European astronomical community informed about ALMA progress since the last ALMA Community Day in September 2004 . The meeting will provide information about the project status, and additional reports on other ALMA activities such as the status of software. The definition of the ALMA Operations Plan and the organization of the European ALMA Regional Center (ARC) has considerably advanced during the last year. Plans for ALMA operation and for the organization of the ARC network in Europe will be presented and discussed at the Community meeting with the aim of obtaining feedback from the future ALMA users.Also, a sample of exciting recent scientific results relevant to ALMA and the opportunities afforded by ALMA in its Early Science phase will be presented.

The rationale of the Surveys for ALMA workshop

While ALMA is being constructed in Chile, several ground-based millimetre ands ubmillimetre observatories worldwide are being upgraded and are now coming on-line. The excellent wide-field survey capabilities of large bolometer arrays such as LABOCA and SCUBA-2 on single dish sub-millimetre telescopes such as APEX and the JCMT, and the the upgraded (sub-)millimetre arrays such as IRAM allow prospective ALMA users to develop ambitious science projects and get ready for the use of ALMA.During the first years of operation of ALMA, the Herschel Space Observatory and the Planck mission will also be operational, and provide unprecedented far-infrared survey capabilities. The progress in wide-field near-IR detectors on dedicated telescopes such as VISTA will also provide a major new data-set for ALMA follow-up observations. The aim of this one and a half day meeting is to coordinate the planning of these preparatory surveys for ALMA, and to solicit feedback from the community in the planning of the early science follow-up with ALMA from these surveys. The potential for deep legacy type surveys with the completed ALMA array in 2012 will also be briefly discussed.

Preliminary Agenda and Invited Speakers

 

Registration
  • If you are interested in attending one or both ALMA events, please register online.
  • Deadline for registration: 13th July 2007.
  • Some travel expenses may be covered by Radionet. Please indicate on the registration form if you wish to apply for support.

 

Organizing Committee
  • Leonardo Testi (ESO, chairman)
  • Robert Laing (ESO, co-chair)
  • Susanne Aalto (Onsala)
  • Paola Andreani (ESO)
  • Pepe Cernicharo (Madrid)
  • Carlos De Breuck (ESO)
  • Frédéric Gueth (IRAM)
  • John Richer (Cambridge)
  • Peter Schilke (MPIfR)
  • With the support of the European Scientific Advisory Committee (ESAC)