Announcement for early proposal planning for Cycle 11

Published: 20 Dec 2023
Eight ALMA antennas on Chajnantor*

ALMA is making the following information available to assist with early proposal planning for Cycle 11.

Key dates (anticipated) for Cycle 11:

  • 21 March 2024: Release of the ALMA Cycle 11 Call for Proposals and Observing Tool, and opening of the archive for proposal submission
  • 25 April 2024: Proposal submission deadline
  • October 2024: Start of Cycle 11 observations, spanning 12 months

New observing capabilities

    The following technical capabilities are anticipated to be available for the first time in Cycle 11:

  • Full polarization in Band 1 on the 12-m Array with the same polarization capability and accuracy as in Band 3 – 7
  • Band 1 on the 7-m Array for Stokes I only (no Stokes Q/U/V)
  • High-frequency and long-baseline observations with Band 9 in C-10 configuration, and Band 10 in configurations of C-9 and C-10

Observing modes for Large Programs

  • Large Programs are proposals with an estimated execution time of greater than 50 hours on the 12-m Array (with or without accompanying ACA time) or 150 hours on the 7-m Array in stand-alone mode. Large Programs should not involve time-critical or ToO observations, and may not include observations in full polarization measurements, solar observations, VLBI, Phased Array mode, Astrometric observations or observations requiring band-to-band calibration or bandwidth switching calibration.

Configuration schedule

    The schedule is provided in this page.

Full details will be published in the Cycle 11 Call for Proposals.