ALMA Cycle 6 Call for Proposals Announced
The Joint ALMA Observatory is pleased to announce the opening of the Cycle 6 call for proposal period. The call commences today (20th March 2018) with a deadline of 19th April 2018 (15:00UT). Observation of Cycle 6 projects will start in October 2018 and continue for 12 months, with 4000 hours of 12m time and 3000 hours of ACA time available.
The full information relating to the announcement, ALMA Cycle 6 capabilities and proposal types can be found in the call for proposals. Proposal submission will require using the latest version of the ALMA Observing Tool, which can be downloaded from this webpage. New versions of the Proposer's Guide and Technical Handbook are also available.
People who need assistance with proposal preparation can contact the UK ARC Node for help.
ALMA Observation Support Tool Version 6
To coincide with the release of the Cycle 6 call for proposals, the UK ARC Node are please to announce the release of version 6 of the ALMA Observation Support Tool (OST). The OST is an ALMA simulator which is interacted with solely via a standard web browser. It is aimed at both expert and non-expert interferometry users to easily obtain simulated ALMA images.
This new version contains all of the previous features and is updated to include Cycle 6 antenna configurations, the expanded IF in Band 6 and other features in Cycle 6 observing.
The OST can be accessed via this link.
Data Protection Legislation: Do Newsletter Recipients Wish to Remain on the ALMA-UK Mailing List?
On 25 May 2018, new legislation governing data protection of personal information of EU citizens, known as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), comes into effect. To ensure we are compliant with the legislation, we are asking newsletter recipients to confirm that they wish to remain subscribers. We will retain only the email addresses (no other personal information) of those who want to sign up to the new mailing list. All other previous subscribers will be deleted from our system as required by law.
After 25 May, we will move to using LISTSERV software maintained and hosted by the University of Manchester. This will allow subscribers to opt-out from receiving our newsletter easily as well as changing email addresses as required.
The UK ARC Node will be sending multiple subscription reminders to recipients of the current newsletter before 25 May.
ALMA Teaching and Outreach Materials
Staff at the UK ARC Node have been developing teaching and public outreach materials that you may want to use at your institution. First, the UK ARC Node has produced a series of lab experiments aimed at secondary school and introductory undergraduate levels. These are posted on a new lab activities page. Second, the UK ARC Node has also created a series of colouring sheets that are popular with young children (and sometimes with adults as well). These are available to download from a new colouring sheets page. Let us know if you have any requests for more lab scripts, colouring sheets, or other materials.
Upcoming ALMA-Related Meetings
Tracing the Flow: Galactic Environments and the Formation of Massive Stars
02-06 July 2018
Lake Windermere, UK
Developing a comprehensive understanding of the varied and complex processes associated with the formation of massive stars requires connecting a wide range of environments and physical size scales from galactic disks down to individual massive sources. We can now map the flow of material from galactic environments through clouds to protostars by combining large scale surveys of our galactic plane with sub-arcsecond ALMA images in the millimetre and sub-millimetre. Increasingly these observations probe not only the structure and kinematics of regions but also their chemistry and magnetic fields. Wide field surveys also help to place massive star formation in the wider context of the environment of our galaxy as well as other more extreme galaxies.
Pre-registration now open. For more information please see the meeting website.