ALMA Community Meeting
3-4 September 2007
IPP Auditorium, Garching
Surveys for ALMA
5-6 September 2007
IPP Auditorium, Garching
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 and
submillimetre 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)
Sponsored by
and