ALMA Development Studies and Projects History
ALMA North American Development Projects
Development projects that have received NA funding (the ALMA executives often partner on development projects, in these cases the leading executive is indicated first).
| Project Title | PI | Status | Additional Info |
|---|---|---|---|
| WSU OSF Correlator Room Project: Phase 1 (NA) | Brito (AUI) | In progress | |
| WSU Data Transmission System: Phase 1 (EA, NA) | (NAOJ, NRAO) | In progress | |
| WSU 2nd Generation ALMA Correlator/Beamformer - the Advanced Technology ALMA Correlator (ATAC; NA) |
Carlson (NRC/NRAO) | In progress |
ATAC was formerly known as the ALMA TALON Central Signal Processor (AT.CSP) |
| WSU ALMA Band 6v2 Receiver Upgrade: Phase 1 (NA) | Navarrini (NRAO) | In progress | Presentation |
| Enabling New Science with the ALMA Phasing System (APS) Phase 3 (Small Project, NA) | Matthews (MIT) | Completed |
Final Report |
| Enabling New Science with the ALMA Phasing System (APS) Phase 2 (NA) | Matthews (MIT) | Completed | Final Report |
| Sumitomo Variable Speed Helium Compressor Analysis (Small Project, NA + Ops) | Ford (NRAO) | In progress | |
| Band 3 Cold Cartridge Assembly Magnet and Heater Installation for Deflux Operation (NA) | Knee (NRC/HIA) | Completed |
The authors acknowledge the contribution that our late colleague and friend, Dr. Stéphane Claude, made to the technical leadership of the ALMA Band 3 project at NRC from its very beginning. It was under his direction that this ALMA Upgrade Project was initiated, but to everyone’s sorrow and regret, he did not live to see completed. We dedicate this report to his memory. |
| Expansion of the Central LO Article to 5 Subarrays (NA) | Jacques (NRAO) | Completed |
ACRV completed with no non-conformances identified. |
| Design and testing of a prototype Band-2 Cartridge (NA) |
Saini (NRAO) | Completed | Updated report |
| Next generation viewer: CARTA (NA) | Rosolowsky (U. of Alberta) | Completed | http://cartavis.github.io/ |
| ALMA Data Mining Toolkit: ADMIT (NA) | Mundy (U. of Maryland) | Completed | http://admit.astro.umd.edu/admit |
| ALMA Phasing Project (NA/CL/EU) | Doelman (MIT/Harvard) | Completed | https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/link_gateway/2018PASP..130a5002M/EPRINT_PDF |
| Fiber optic data link from the OSF (NA/EU/CL) | Completed | http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=2540598 | |
| ALMA Band 5 (EU/NA) | Belitsky (Chalmers) | Completed | A&A Volume 611, March 2018 |
| ALMA Band 1 (EA/EU/CL/NA) | (NAOJ, ASIAA) | Final Commissioning | First Light |
ALMA North-American Development Studies
Directors Discretionary (DD) Studies
These are studies that are time-critical and cannot be accommodated by the normal Study Proposal cycle.
DD Study Title |
PI |
|
FY2022: Evaluate Suitability of Next Generation FPGA Technology and 400 Gigabit Ethernet Switches for Use in a 2nd Generation ALMA Correlator (Report) |
S. Harrison (NRC) |
FY2023
This call follows new naming convention linking Study with fiscal year in which funding will start rather than Cycle. Studies will begin @Jan 1, 2023 and run for 1 year.
The call can be viewed HERE.
FY2023 Study Title | PI |
|---|---|
| Hardware-oriented Studies | |
| Wideband Isolators for Submillimeter Astronomy (Report) |
L. Zeng (SAO) |
| Wideband InP and GaAs Intermediate-Frequency Low Noise Amplifiers (extended to end of 2024). | A. Densmore (NRC) |
| Software or Technique-oriented Studies | |
| A Detailed Characterization of Spectral Regridding and Noise in the WSU Era (Report) | S. Andrews (SAO) |
Cycle 8
The results of the Cycle 8 call for ALMA Development Studies were reported in eNews August 2020: https://science.nrao.edu/enews/13.9
The Call can be viewed HERE
| Cycle 8 Study Title | PI |
|---|---|
| Hardware-oriented Studies | |
| ALMA Band 6v2 SIS Mixer-Preamp Development (Report) |
Kerr (NRAO) |
| Challenges of Extending the IF Bandwidth of Band 6 SIS Mixer-Preamps to 12 GHz and 16 GHz with Optimal Noise Performance: An Experimental Demonstration (Report) | Pospieszalski (NRAO) |
| Examine if the NRC ALMA Very Coarse Channelizer FPGAs can Handle 16 GHz per sideband per polarization (Report) | Gunaratne (NRC) |
| Software-oriented Studies | |
| Beyond Black Hole Images: Extending New Imaging Techniques from EHT to ALMA (Report) | Matthews (MIT) |
| Regularized Maximum Likelihood Techniques for ALMA Spectral Line Imaging (Report) |
Czekala (PSU) |
Cycle 7
The results of the Cycle 7 call for ALMA Development Studies were reported in eNews September 2019: https://science.nrao.edu/enews/12.8
The Call can be viewed HERE
| Cycle 7 Study Title | PI |
|---|---|
| Hardware-oriented Studies | |
| Ubiquitous Quantum-Limited Wideband 4-Kelvin Amplifiers for Radio Astronomy (Report) | Mena (NRAO) |
| Investigation into Improvement of FE LO Sideband Noise for ALMA Band 6 (Report) |
Saini (NRAO) |
| Band 6v2 SIS Mixer Development (Report) |
Kerr (NRAO) |
| High-level Design and Integration of NRC TALON based Correlator for Increased Channels, Bandwidth and Baselines (Report) |
Carlson/Vrcic (NRC) |
| ALMA Central LO Improvements and Upgrades (for longer baselines) (Report) | Jacques (NRAO) |
| Software-oriented Studies | |
| Link CASA to the Astropy Ecosystem (Report) |
Ginsburg (NRAO, U. of Florida) |
| ALMA Archive Research using ADMIT (Report) | Teuben (U. of Maryland) |
|
ARCADE: ALMA Reduction in the CANFAR Data Environment (Report) |
Brown/Kirk (NRC) |
| Investigating the future potential of an Upgraded ALMA to image Planet-Forming Disks at Sub-AU Scales (Report) |
Ricci (CSUN) |
Cycle 5
The results of the Cycle 5 call for ALMA Development Studies were reported in eNews August 2016: https://science.nrao.edu/enews/10.7/
The Call can be viewed HERE
| Cycle 5 Study Title | PI |
|---|---|
| Wideband Low-Noise Balanced IF Amplifiers for ALMA Band 6, with Future Application to ALMA Bands 3-10 (Report) | Kerr (NRAO) |
| Quantum-Limited Very-Wideband 4-Kelvin RF and IF Amplifiers for ALMA (Report) | Noroozian (NRAO) |
| Neuroscope: Neural Machine Intelligence Tools for Discovery and Interpretation in Complex ALMA Data (Report) |
Merenyi (Rice U.) |
| Full-Mueller Mosaic Imaging with ALMA (Report) | Bhatnagar (NRAO) |
Cycle 4
The results of the Cycle 4 call for ALMA Development Studies were reported in eNews August 2016: https://science.nrao.edu/enews/9.7/index.shtml
The Call can be viewed HERE
| Cycle 4 Study Title | PI |
|---|---|
| Development of 2nd Generation SIS Receivers for ALMA | Kerr (NRAO) |
| Prototype of a Complete Dual-Linear 2SB Block and a Single-Polarization Balanced 2SB Block | Henke (NRC-HIA) |
| Digital Back End Antenna Article | Ford (NRAO) |
| Diversifying the Scientific Applications of the ALMA Phasing System | Matthews (MIT) |
| Cleaning Up Interactive Cleaning | Rosolowsky (U. Alberta) |
| Total Power Map to Visibilities | Koda (Stony Brook) |
Cycle 3
Results from the third call for ALMA Development Studies (Cycle 3) were reported in eNews Dec 2015: https://science.nrao.edu/enews/8.11/index.shtml
| Cycle 3 Study Title | PI |
|---|---|
| Extensions & Enhancements to the ALMA Phasing System | Matthews (MIT) |
| Spectral Resolution and Bandwidth Upgrade of the ALMA Correlator | Lacasse (NRAO) |
| Improving the Calibration of Atmospheric Spectral Features | Hunter (NRAO) |
| Pulsars, Magnetars, and Transients with Phased ALMA | Cordes (Cornell) |
| Feature Extraction and Data Cube Visualization through Topology | Rosen (U. of Utah) |
| Advanced Materials and On-wafer Chip Evaluation: 2nd Generation | Lichtenberger (UVA) |
| Digital Correlation and Phased Array Architectures | Weintroub (SAO) |
Cycle 2
The second call for ALMA Development Studies (Cycle 2) was reported in eNews Feb 2014:
https://science.nrao.edu/enews/7.3/index.shtml
|
Cycle 2 Study Title |
PI | Notes |
|---|---|---|
|
Bastian (NRAO) |
Study has resulted in ALMA offering solar observations in Cycle 4 Observations | |
|
Kerr (NRAO) |
||
|
Leroy (NRAO) |
||
|
Kerr (NRAO) |
||
|
Claude (NRC-Herzberg) |
||
|
Wilson (NRL) |
Cycle 1
The first call for ALMA Development Studies (Cycle 1) was reported in eNews: https://science.nrao.edu/enews/5.6/index.shtml#almadev
|
Cycle 1 Study Title | PI | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Second Generation Receiver for ALMA Band 6 | Kerr (NRAO) | Study continues into Cycle 2 |
| Ultra-wideband quantum limited amplifiers for receiver frontends | Woody (Caltech) | |
| Design Study for Production of the Band 2 Cartridges | Bryerton (NRAO) | Study has become a Cycle 2 ALMA Development Project: Design and Testing of a Prototype Band-2 Cartridge (PI: K. S. Saini) |
| A Visualization Portal for ALMA Data | Rosolowski (UBC-Okanagan) | Study has become a Cycle 2 ALMA Development Project: The Next Generation ALMA Viewer (PI: E, Rosolowsky) |
| Millimeter/Submillimeter VLBI with ALMA | Kern (NRAO) | Study was associated with an ALMA Development Project now reaching realization: The ALMA Phasing Project (PI: S. Doeleman, MIT) |
| Unleashing Large Dataset Science | Mundy (U. of Maryland) | Study has become a Cycle 2 Development Project: ALMA Data Mining Toolkit: ADMIT (PI: Lee Mundy) |
| Increasing the ALMA Data Rate | Glendenning (NRAO) | Study proposal was withdrawn |
| ALMA Band 1 Receiver Development Study | Ho (ASIAA) | Study has become an ALMA Development Project led by East Asia, in collaboration with North America and Universidad de Chile |
ALMA Partner Development Webpages
EA Development Program: https://researchers.alma-telescope.jp/e/report/development/
EU Development Program: https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/alma/development-studies.html
