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 TitlePIStatusAdditional 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

Final Report

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 TitlePI
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 TitlePI
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 TitlePI
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 TitlePI
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 TitlePI
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

Advanced Solar Observing

Bastian (NRAO)

 Study has resulted in ALMA offering solar observations in Cycle 4 Observations

2nd Generation Band 10 Receiver

Kerr (NRAO)

Community Science Tool Development

Leroy (NRAO)

2nd Generation Band 6 Receiver

Kerr (NRAO)

Millimeter Camera

Claude (NRC-Herzberg)

Calibration Refinements for ALMA Imaging

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

PINotes
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

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