Upcoming Events

NRDZ Partnership and Workshop Series
Sept 9 - 11, 2024 | Green Bank, West Virginia

Follow the Monarchs: A Journey to Explore the Cosmos at (Sub)milliarcsecond Scales with the ngVLA
          Nov 11 - 14, 2024 | Morelia, Mexico

Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XXXIV
November 9 - 14, 2024 | Valletta, Malta

Call for Applications - 2025 Jansky Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

Anna Kapinska (NRAO)

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is inviting applications for the 2025 Jansky Fellowship Program! The program, established in the 1980s, has been attracting exceptional researchers that moved on to eminent careers in radio astronomy and beyond. The Jansky Fellowship supports outstanding early career scientists to conduct independent research that is broadly related to the NRAO's mission. We welcome applicants who bring diverse and innovative dimensions to the Observatory and to the field of radio astronomy. Jansky Fellows spend most, if not all of their time on self-directed independent research within the NRAO scientific and research environment. Candidates with interests in radio astronomy science and techniques, instrumentation, computation, multi-wavelength collaborations, and theory are encouraged to apply. Jansky Fellows have also a unique opportunity to contribute to and learn from the development and delivery of the largest and most capable radio telescopes in the world, and become leaders in their fields.

The submission deadline for the 2025 Jansky Fellowship Program application is Wednesday, October 16, 2024 for the fellowship appointment starting nominally in September 2025. For details on the 2025 Jansky Fellowship Program and on how to apply see our application submission portal.

ALMA Program News

Al Wootten (NRAO/NAASC)

Image Credit - Pablo Carrillo (ALMA)

ALMA Observing Status

ALMA continues Cycle 10 observations. The 12-m Array is currently in configuration C-4, which provides a 0.92" beam at 1.3mm on 784m baselines, before moving to more compact configurations to finish out Cycle 10. Although atmospheric water vapor varies, it is best during current altiplanic winter months; daytime highs have generally proven below freezing during altiplanic winter under prevailing dry westerly winds; ALMA is concluding three decades of atmospheric monitoring this month.

The ALMA Development Program

One of the innovative aspects of the ALMA operations plan is that a vigorous development program has been included in Observatory operations funding from the beginning, in order to sustain ALMA, envisioned as a 30-yr+ endeavor, at the forefront of scientific discovery over the long-term. Several reports from the 2023 Call for ALMA Development Studies in North America are available:

• Wideband Isolators for Submillimeter Astronomy. L. Zeng (SAO), PI Hardware-focused report.
• A Detailed Characterization of Spectral Regridding and Noise in the WSU Era. S. Andrews (SAO), PI, Software/technique-focused report.

Release of Observatory Project Data for "B3 observation of a super-deep field in Hubble Deep Field-South"

The ALMA Observatory has started releasing the data acquired in one of the Observatory Projects, 2022.A.00034.S. The project consists in very deep B3 continuum mapping of a blank ~2.5 arcmin² field inside HDF-South, which could help studies of galaxy number counts, spectral energy distribution fitting, or simply provide high redshift galaxy targets to follow-up. The data can be accessed through this link. ALMA Science Archive links for all the Observatory Projects can also be accessed from this main page for the Observatory Projects.

Upcoming Meetings

• September 24-27, 2024: Born in Fire: Eruptive Stars and Planet Formation, Santiago, Chile - NAASC sponsored

The ALMA Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade (WSU) - News

Phil Jewell, Crystal Brogan, Catherine Vlahakis, and Arielle Moullet (NRAO/NAASC)

Figure (above): ALMA Instantaneous Contiguous Spectral Coverage of Band 7 now and after the WSU is complete. For a 0.2 km/s resolution, a similar bandwidth to the plotted spectrum of Class 0 protostellar binary IRAS 16293-2422 (Jorgensen et al. 2016) would require only two distinct spectral setups with ALMA WSU (BW x 2) and the upgrade to Band 7, as opposed to 18 spectral setups with current ALMA capabilities.

WSU Milestones

Following up on the successful Preliminary Design Reviews (PDRs) for the new correlator (ATAC) and OSF Correlator Room (OCRO), the WSU program passed combined external reviews in July: the delta Systems Requirement and Initial Program Plan reviews, capping a two-year effort in requirements definition and system/subsystem design. In their report, the review panel concluded that "the WSU Project is generally in good shape and is well set to satisfy the demanding scientific requirements of the ALMA2030 initiative" and made a number of helpful recommendations to strengthen the program. The next milestones for the program will be PDRs conducted this Fall, for the Data Transmission System (led by East Asia with a North American contribution) and the digitizers/DSPOT (Digital Signal Processing and Optical Transmission. In addition, a Conceptual Design/System Requirements review will be conducted for the Total Power GPU Spectrometer.

The scientific impact of WSU: increased correlated bandwidth for spectral surveys

The increased spectral grasp (IF) in upgraded and new receivers, combined with the dramatic increase of correlator capabilities provided by the ATAC, will transform the way ALMA observations can be used to perform spectral surveys. Today, for observations at high and medium spectral resolution, ALMA's correlator capabilities typically limit the portion of spectrum that can be observed instantaneously. Spectral resolutions down to ~0.1 km/s, are often needed to disentangle kinematic components in some galactic sources. The higher the spectral resolutions, the more limited the available correlated bandwidth. This limitation leads users to trade bandwidth for spectral resolution. For large spectral surveys, dozens of separate observations with different spectral setups may be required to stitch together the desired observing band.

The ATAC correlating power will allow processing of at least 16 GHz of bandwidth (per polarization) at almost any spectral resolution in a single spectral setup, eliminating the need for a tradeoff between spectral resolution and bandwidth for the vast majority of spectral survey projects. Considering that the IF of new and upgraded receivers will also be increased, by a factor 2-4, one can expect half or more of an expanded receiver's IF to be instantaneously correlated initially. Possible later developments of ATAC would allow an entire x4 expanded IF to be observed at once for any upgraded receiver.

This new paradigm will significantly increase the feasibility and efficiency of spectral surveys, especially at high resolution and low frequency. For many galactic sources, spectral scanning speeds would be increased by a factor >10; in the most extreme case, spectral survey efficiency in Band 1 at 0.1 km/s would be increased by a factor 68, not even taking into account gains from improved receiver efficiency. The generalized availability of high-spectral resolution will also open the way to more serendipitous spectral identifications on a variety of sources, and allow simultaneous detection of key transition combinations.

ALMA Data Processing/Analysis Workshops for Cycle 11

George Privon (NRAO/NAASC)

Image Credit - Pablo Carrillo (ALMA)

The North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC) and the Cycle 11 ALMA Ambassadors have organized a series of workshops on the processing and analysis of ALMA data. These workshops will take place in September-November 2024. The goal of these events is to train users on basic data processing and analysis techniques that they may need to use ALMA for scientific discovery. Topics may include:

• Imaging/cleaning of continuum and spectral line observations
• Self-calibration
• Imaging of data from multiple array configurations
• Using the Pipeline Weblog and Re-running the Imaging Pipeline
• Using CARTA for Image Visualization and Analysis
• Science-ready Data Products
• What's New in CASA (Common Astronomy Software Applications)
• The ALMA Press Release Process

Early registration is encouraged, to facilitate tailoring workshop presentations to the interests of the attendees.

IAU Recap: NRAO/GBO at the Cape Town XXXII General Assembly

(Left to right; top to bottom: Danielle Rowland talks about the National Astronomy Consortium; Srikrishna Sekhar talks to attendees about NRAO and his work in RFI flagging and scientific computing at scale; Brian Kent speaks to local Cape Town students visiting the exhibit hall about radio astronomy; María Fernanda Durán discusses work with AUI and astronomy outreach; Corrina Feldman visits Cape Town students with outreach activities; NRAO Director Tony Beasley informs the IAU membership about progress with ngVLA; NM Operations Director Trish Henning talks with attendees at the Women in Astronomy lunch; Yasmin Catricheo and Tiffany Stone Wolbrecht discuss their work in a morning poster session; ALMA/NAASC Director Phil Jewell talks about the ALMA Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade; Tony Beasley and Trish Henning discuss NRAO initiatives with students; Scott Ransom and Joe Lazio talk about NANOGrav during an evening exhibit hall session; Mark Lacy delivers a talk on the Very Large Array Sky Survey in the main auditorium. Photos courtesy of Trish Henning, Brian Kent, Barb Gruber, Corrina Feldman, and Yasmin Catricheo. View the NRAO/IAU gallery of conference photos.)

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Green Bank Observatory showcased world-class radio astronomy and science at the IAU General Assembly XXXII in Cape Town, South Africa, August 6-15, 2024.

NRAO/GBO/AUI and users from the community participated in the many Division events, symposia, working groups, outreach events, and focus meetings. Presentation recordings are available for viewing from IAU Astronomy 2024 on YouTube. View the NRAO/GBO schedule of presenters and news release.

Early career participants from Africa hosted the "RadioAstro" podcast, live from the IAU Exhibit Hall, and talked to NRAO about radio astronomy and telescopes at the meeting.

Thank you to the organizing committee, IAU leadership, and Cape Town friends in Africa for an outstanding science conference.

ngVLA Project News

Eric Murphy (NRAO)

Project Progress

Construction of the ngVLA prototype antenna is underway on the Plains of San Agustin in New Mexico! Click here to watch a live view of the prototype's assembly. Meanwhile, the ngVLA project is finalizing its preparations for a Conceptual Design Review run by the US National Science Foundation. That in-person review will happen September 3-6 in Virginia. Also, the ngVLA Science Advisory Council is pleased to release an update to the original ngVLA Key Science Goals, taking account of new results and progress in the 7+ years since their initial presentation (see the ngVLA Science article).

Follow the Monarchs to Old Mexico

The conference on "Follow the Monarchs: A Journey to Explore the Cosmos at (Sub)milliarcsecond Scales with the ngVLA" will be held November 11-14 in person in Morelia, Mexico. The conference coincides with the Monarch butterflies completing their migration journey from Canada and the US to the historic Morelia area. A program of 67 talks has been announced. The deadline for cost-saving registration and poster abstract submission is October 1. To take these actions, see the conference website .

IAU Focus Meeting in South Africa

The focus meeting on "A Coherent View of Atomic and Molecular Gas from Infrared to Radio Wavelengths" was held August 6-7 in person in Cape Town, South Africa. The program of 36 talks and 81 posters explored how work informed by existing facilities is shaping our understanding of the interstellar medium in the Milky Way and external galaxies, and how this work is re-framing the science to be addressed by the remarkable capabilities of future radio observatories. We applaud the participants, organizers and hosts for making this meeting so successful.

ngVLA Science - Key Science Goals for the Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA): Update from the ngVLA Science Advisory Council (2024)

David Wilner (CfA), Brenda Matthews (NRC Canada), et al.

Image by Sophia Dagnello (NRAO/AUI/NSF)

In 2017, the next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) Science Advisory Council, together with the international astronomy community, developed a set of five Key Science Goals (KSGs) to inform, prioritize and refine the technical capabilities of a future radio telescope array for high angular resolution operation from 1.2 - 116 GHz with 10 times the sensitivity of the Jansky VLA and ALMA. The resulting KSGs, which require observations at centimeter and millimeter wavelengths that cannot be achieved by any other facility, represent a small subset of the broad range of astrophysical problems that the ngVLA will be able to address.

This document (ADS link) presents an update to the original ngVLA KSGs, taking account of new results and progress in the 7+ years since their initial presentation, again drawing on the expertise of the ngVLA Science Advisory Council and the broader community in the ngVLA Science Working Groups . As the design of the ngVLA has also matured substantially in this period, this document also briefly addresses initial expectations for ngVLA data products and processing that will be needed to achieve the KSGs.

The original ngVLA Key Science Goals endure as outstanding scientific problems of high priority. In brief, they are: (1) Unveiling the Formation of Solar System Analogues; (2) Probing the Initial Conditions for Planetary Systems and Life with Astrochemistry; (3) Charting the Assembly, Structure, and Evolution of Galaxies from the First Billion Years to the Present; (4) Science at the Extremes: Pulsars as Laboratories for Fundamental Physics; (5) Understanding the Formation and Evolution of Stellar and Supermassive Black Holes in the Era of Multi-Messenger Astronomy.

Since 2015 the acronym ngVLA has appeared in 1180+ publications indexed in the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System. This article continues a regular feature intended to showcase some of those publications. We are especially interested in showcasing work done by early-career researchers. The collection of showcase articles can be viewed online. Anyone wishing to volunteer to author a feature should contact Joan Wrobel.

Evaluating the First ASM-2 Wideband Sinuous Antenna Prototype

David Bordenave (NRAO-CDL) and Chris De Pree (NRAO)

(Figure left) The frequency distribution of concurrence in the NRQZ requests (log scale) over the past 2.5 years indicates the critical importance of the 1-20 GHz range for spectrum monitoring in the NRQZ.

The Advanced Spectrum Monitor (ASM-2) has undergone a redesign since the first device was tested in Spring 2023. While the final ASM-2 device will be sensitive from 1-50 GHz, and have direction finding capabilities, the lowest frequency band of the ASM-2 spanning 1-20 GHz will be of great importance to quantifying the local RFI environment due to the plethora of likely signals, and the prevalence of concurrence requests in this frequency range (see Figure above).

The importance of this band motivated the design of a custom sinuous antenna to maximize both the bandwidth and sensitivity compared to commercially available options. The goals are achieved by using a less common method of operating the antenna via four balanced feedlines and a 180-deg hybrid vs the more conventional BALUN (BALanced-UNbalanced) structure that is typically employed to form the antenna beam. The delicate nature of this type of feedline structure was a primary challenge to the design and fabrication of such an antenna. Fortunately, the engineering team, led by David Bordenave and Rich Bradley, have recently resolved these potential pitfalls and produced the first operational prototype of the ASM-2 Sinuous antenna that already shows promising results based on preliminary lab measurements (see Figure below).

(Above, Top Row:) Photos of the completed device with detailed look of the front sinuous pattern, the cavity body, the rear feedline to coax transition, and the internal feedline assembly before integration. (Bottom Left:) The Reflection Coefficient (S11) quantifies how much power is reflected from the antenna ports, and conversely represents how well the antenna can absorb and radiate power at a given frequency. In the accompanying figure we can show that the two linear polarizations exhibit good performance from ~1GHz up to 20GHz with minimal frequency structure. This indicated good electrical integration of the sinuous radiating element, feedlines, cavity absorbers, and coax port transitions. (Bottom Right:) Preliminary antenna pattern measurements of the antenna taken at 2,4, and 6 GHz in the parking lot of the CDL. While the measurement setup was not ideal, it is in general agreement with the simulated beam pattern. This represents a significant improvement over the prior ASM-1 sinuous antenna which suffered from a poor beam response over frequency and even bifurcation of the beam, factors that are detrimental to accurate amplitude measurements and direction finding. Comprehensive beam measurements using the Green Bank Observatory indoor antenna test range are being planned.

Arizona Radio Observatory 2024B Call for Proposals

Remo Tilanus (ARO)

The University of Arizona's Steward Observatory solicits proposals for Arizona Radio Observatory (ARO) telescopes for observing during semester 24B (Oct 15, 2024 - Feb 15, 2025).

For both telescopes, proposals for 24B are accepted from Arizona-affiliated PIs only (UArizona, ASU, and NAU), due to budgetary and logistical reasons that include hosting a visiting instrument.

(1) The 10-m UArizona ARO Submillimeter Telescope (SMT), located on Mount Graham, Arizona. Proposals are invited for observations with the 1.3 (ALMA Band 6) and 0.8 (ALMA Band 7) mm receivers and the standard backend with bandwidths of 32 to 2000 MHz and channel resolutions from 0.25 to 1 MHz.

(2) The UArizona ARO 12-meter Telescope (12M), located on Kitt Peak, Arizona. Proposals are invited for a limited period, from Oct 15 - Dec 1, for observations with the 4-band receiver covering the 4, 3 (ALMA Band 3), 2, and 1 (ALMA Band 6) mm bands and the AROWS backend offering bandwidths of 20 to 4000 MHz and channel spacings from 9.8 to 625 kHz

In case of oversubscription, preference will be given to student thesis proposals. Proposers are requested to fill out both pages of the cover sheet, science justification (two pages), technical justification (two pages), and past allocation update (one page).

View the ARO Call for Proposals for complete instructions. The deadline for proposals is 23:59 MST on September 20, 2024.

SMA Call for Standard Observing Proposals - 2024B Semester

Mark Gurwell (SAO)

The Call for Standard Observing Proposals for observations with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) is for the 2024B semester with observing period nominally 16 Nov 2024 - 15 May 2025 (subject to adjustment as needed).

The deadline for proposals for the 2024B semester will be:

12 Sep 2024 9PM Cambridge (EDT) = 13 Sep 2024 1AM GMT = 13 Sep 2024 9AM Taipei

Please note the change in the deadline time of day relative to previous calls.

The SMA proposal system will open for users to begin crafting their submissions on or before August 15 at the SMA Observer Center (SMAOC) and will include full details on time available, and the proposal submission process.

Details on the SMA capabilities and status can be found at the SMA status website; proposal creation and submission is also done through the SMAOC. We are happy to answer any questions and provide assistance in proposal submission; simply email with any inquiries.

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From the Archives

Ellen Bouton

About this month's photo: The VLA was used with Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Deep Space Network in Goldstone CA to track NASA's Voyager 2 encounter with Neptune in August 1989. Years of preparation in New Mexico and coordination between NRAO and JPL led to the successful acquisition of VLA data from the late August flyby. On the left, Ray Heathwole and George Martin in the VLA control room, and on the right, Ray Gonzalez with equipment racks for the Voyager Mission.

From the Archives is an ongoing series illustrating NRAO and U.S. radio astronomy history via images selected from our collections of individuals' and institutional papers. If readers have images they believe would be of interest to the Archives, please contact Ellen Bouton.