Meeting of ALMA Young Astronomers 2023
March 10th marked the successful completion of the second Meeting of ALMA Young Astronomers, MAYA 2023. The goal of MAYA is to provide a platform where early career astronomers can present their recent ALMA work, and to facilitate new collaborations and projects through the interaction with other participants and staff working in the ARC nodes.
Work presented at MAYA showcased some of the most exciting research done by early-career astronomers who are interested in ALMA. This week-long virtual conference included participants from around the world who gave talks on topics ranging from protoplanetary disks to high redshift galaxies. The conference had a total of 192 registrants, with 69 abstracts submitted. There were 51 talks on the final MAYA 2023 program, and the majority of these talks have been recorded and will be available shortly on the YouTube channel of the European ALMA Regional Centre Network. The full program can be found on the MAYA 2023 webpage, along with an abstract booklet, and PDFs of the three invited talks (Astronomer on Duty, the ALMA Science Archive, and the Future of ALMA).
ALMA Data Reduction Training Day: Dec 9, 2022
Following the 6th Netherlands ALMA Science Day, on Thursday, December 8, 2022, we will host an ALMA Data Reduction Training Day in-person in HL 111.
The training will begin at 9:30 AM and continue into the afternoon with coffee breaks and an hour lunch break. The Allegro team will be presenting a series of talks that cover the following topics: how to go from the archive to obtaining calibrated visibilities, calibration, imaging, self-calibration, and analysis tools. There will be a short Question & Answer session at the end of each talk (approximately five minutes).
Several of the talks will include a hands-on component that participants can follow along with. Information on how to connect to the Allegro workstations will be provided prior to the training day.
- Program
- Connection details will be sent to registered participants
- Directions to Leiden Observatory
| Program* | December 9, 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| 9:15-9:30 | Welcome | |
| 9:30-10:15 | Aida Ahmadi | ALMA data: From the archive to calibrated visibilities |
| 10:15-11:00 | Andrés Pérez-Sánchez | Calibration |
| 11:00-11:20 | Coffee break | |
| 11:20-12:20 | Ashley Bemis | Imaging & tclean |
| 12:20-12:50 | Andrés Pérez-Sánchez | Self-calibration |
| 12:50-14:30 | Lunch break | |
| 14:30-15:30 | Alex Hygate | Analysis Tools |
| 15:30-16:30 | Aida Ahmadi | Intro to CARTA |
* Note that this is a rough schedule as we plan to dedicate plenty of time for questions after each session.
Directions to Leiden Observatory
Note that this is not the old observatory in the center of Leiden. Instructions on how to get to Leiden Observatory, including transportation from Schiphol Airport or the central trains station, can be found here. Note that these instructions specify the route to the Lorentz Center, which is in the building on the right in the photo below (Oort building). The event will be held in the joining taller building – Huygens building. Leiden Observatory is located on the 4-5th floors of both buildings, and the Allegro offices are located on the 11th floor of the Huygens building.
Locations inside the building
Workspaces reserved for the ALMA Data Reduction Training Day on December 9, 2022 are located in room HL-111 on the 1st floor of the Huygens building. There is a reception at the entrance of the building where they can provide you with directions.
6th Netherlands ALMA Science Day: Dec. 8, 2022
Allegro announces the 6th Netherlands ALMA Science Day, that will take place in person at Leiden Observatory on Thursday, December 8, 2022. At the Science Day, we will highlight the latest scientific results obtained with ALMA by the Netherlands astronomical community. The meeting will also allow ample time to discuss user experiences and other ALMA related topics. Registration for contributed talks is now open (deadline: Nov. 25, 2022) and we welcome contributions in all science areas.
Following the Science Day, on Friday, December 9, 2022, we will also host an introductory ALMA Data Reduction Training Day. At this workshop, Allegro fellows will introduce CASA and ALMA data reduction techniques, share tips & tricks, and offer hands-on training in exploring the ALMA archive, self-calibration, imaging, and data analysis.
| 6th Netherlands ALMA Science Day Dec. 8, 2022 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Session I (Chair: Ashley Bemis) | ||
| 1000-1005 | Welcome (Allegro) | |
| 1005-1020 | Joshua Butterworth (Leiden) | Understanding if molecular ratios can be used as diagnostics of AGN and starburst activity: The case of NGC 1068 |
| 1020-1035 | Ko-Yun (Monica) Huang (Leiden) | Reconstruct shock history in NGC 253 with ALCHEMI |
| 1035-1050 | Mathilde Bouvier (Leiden) | Sulphur-bearing species in NGC 253: what do they trace? |
| 1050-1105 | Ian Roberts (Leiden) | Gas Compression from Ram Pressure in Nearby Cluster Galaxies |
| 1105-1120 | Raffaella Morganti (ASTRON, Groningen) | On-going feeding of the radio galaxy 3C84 |
| 1120-1145 | Gergö Popping (ESO) | The latest from ALMA |
| 1145-1205 | ALMA Q&A and discussion | |
| 1205-1300 | Lunch | |
| Session II (Chair: Alex Hygate) | ||
| 1300-1330 | Rychard Bouwens (Leiden) | The REBELS Large Program |
| 1330-1345 | Ivana van Leeuwen (Leiden) | Dust-obscured star formation at z ∼ 6 from [CII] selected companion galaxies |
| 1345-1400 | Violeta Gamez Rosas (Leiden) | Kinematics of the molecular torus in NGC 1068 |
| 1400-1415 | Di Wen (Groningen) | Testing Primordial Black Hole Dark Matter with ALMA Observations of Strong Gravitational Lensing |
| 1415-1430 | Hector Olivares (Nijmegen) | Black hole physics and the Event Horizon Telescope |
| 1430-1445 | Short break | |
| Session III (Chair: Aida Ahmadi) | ||
| 1445-1500 | Margot Leemker (Leiden) | Hot or cold: finding the temperatures in transition disks using ALMA |
| 1500-1515 | Logan Francis (Leiden) | Accretion Burst Echoes as Probes of Protostellar Environments and Episodic Mass Assembly |
| 1515-1530 | Milou Temmink (Leiden) | Investigating the Cold Chemistry in the Asymmetric Disk of HD 142527 |
| 1530-1545 | Lucas Stapper (Leiden) | Herbig disks: flat vs flared, really? |
| 1600 | End of meeting | |
Directions to Leiden Observatory
The address of Leiden Observatory is Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333 CA Leiden. Note that this is not the old observatory in the center of Leiden. Instructions on how to get to Leiden Observatory, including transportation from Schiphol Airport or the central trains station, can be found here. Leiden Observatory is located on the 4-5th floors of the Oort building (seen on the right in the photo below), and the Huygens building (the taller building seen on the left in the photo below). Allegro offices are located on the 11th floor of the Huygens building.
The Science Day will take place in room HL 414 on the 4th floor of the Huygens building. We will have signs and there is also a reception at the entrance of the building where they can provide you with directions.
For those joining us online, connection details will be sent to you by email before the start of the event.
Allegro releases CASSIS cookbook
Allegro has developed a simple cookbook that describes how to use CASSIS, a free interactive spectrum analyser. It is a powerful and user-friendly software to efficiently analyse spectral lines, for example to determine physical conditions like column densities and excitation temperatures of different molecules.
The cookbook material can be downloaded from the Allegro website. It describes how to use CASSIS with a special emphasis on ALMA observations, including instructions on how to extract a spectrum from ALMA data in a format that can be read by CASSIS. The document comes with hands-on practice material that can be downloaded as well. The material contains a copy of the cookbook, scripts, an ALMA dataset that can be used to extract a spectrum from, a spectrum formatted for CASSIS, and a folder with codes and files relevant for scripting CASSIS. Detailed instructions on how to install and use CASSIS can be found on the CASSIS website.
Don’t hesitate to e-mail us if you would like to use CASSIS on the Allegro computing nodes or if you encounter any issues using the cookbook.
Enjoy CASSIS in the ALMA era!
Allegro launches Friends of Allegro 2023 program
Allegro is looking for applicants for its Friends of Allegro 2023 program, which aims to expand and facilitate connections across the ALMA community in the Netherlands. This program is open to Ph.D. students and Postdoctoral Researchers at Dutch research institutes and universities. Members of the Friends of Allegro program will be given opportunities to develop ALMA-related skills and expertise further. They will also help Allegro spread relevant ALMA-related communications within their institutes.
If you are interested in participating in this program, please fill out this form. We will contact successful applicants near the end of December for participation in 2023. If you are interested in learning more, don’t hesitate to contact us at alma@strw.leidenuniv.nl.
Self-calibration and improving image fidelity for ALMA and other interferometers
The high quality of ALMA calibrated data sets allows researchers to tune the imaging parameters to their preferences, and to produce images ready for publication in few steps.
Sometimes the exploratory analysis of calibrated datasets can also show the need for post-calibration processing. Identifying and/or diagnosing imaging problems from structured artifacts, or to identify errors induced from the observations and/or prior calibration, could save valuable time when researchers deal with challenging datasets.
Although there is extensive documentation out there for experts, a document accessible for researchers less experienced with radio interferometry was still missing. Recently, Anita Richards et al. published an internal ALMA memo (620), also available in the ArXiv, with the title “Self-calibration and improving image fidelity for ALMA and other interferometers”.
This document is an up-to-date manual with practical explanations of the errors normally found in interferometric data, and corrections that can be applied.
The main topic is self-calibration, in particular with ALMA data. However, the concepts explained are also relevant for other long-baseline interferometers.
The document includes examples and a quick-start guide for continuum self-calibration, as well as special cases.
Complementary to the ALMA Memo is the I-Train tutorial on self-calibration. In this tutorial, Anita Richards, Emily Moravec, Carmen Toribio, and Andrés Pérez explain and show examples of self-calibration.
ALMA probes atoms and molecules, near and far
ALMA’s supreme capabilities to detect spectral lines across the Universe are beautifully illustrated in two recently published papers by astronomers in the Netherlands. Bouwens et al. (2022, ApJ 931, 160) give an overview of the design and results of the ALMA Large Program REBELS. Using an efficient selection scheme, REBELS detects no less than 18 star-forming galaxies with bright [CII] 158 µm ISM cooling lines, out of a sample of 40 z>6.5 systems. This makes ALMA [CII] searches as efficient as Lyα to find high-redshift star-forming galaxies. Brunken et al. (2022, A&A 659, A29) stay closer to home and detect Complex Organic Molecules (COMs) in the highly asymmetric planet-forming disk around the young star IRS48. The disk around this star has a very pronounced ‘dust and ice trap’ where material accumulates, and future planet(esimals) may form. Brunken et al. report the first detection of dimethyl ether (CH3OCH3) vapor in a planet-forming disk, and a tentative detection of methyl formate (CH3OCHO) vapor. The presence of these molecules shows that a wide variety of oxygen-carrying COMs are present in the birth environment of planets. As these two papers show, wherever ALMA turns its ‘eye’, atoms and molecules leap out at us.
ALMA Proposal Preparation Day 2022
The Allegro ARC Node would like to invite you to attend a proposal preparation workshop on March 28, 2022. The aim of this workshop is to assist you in making the most out of ALMA’s new capabilities, getting an overview of the new modes offered, and proposal preparation through the ALMA Observing Tool (OT). We will also offer guidance with writing double-anonymous proposals and in the new stages of proposal writing and reviewing (the “distributed proposal review process”) that has been in use from Cycle 8 2021. An overview of important dates and what’s offered in Cycle 9 will be released with the Call for Proposals on March 24, 2022.
The workshop will consist of:
- an in-person event with the Allegro team on March 28th with a few presentations and an extensive Q&A session. The workshop will take place at Leiden Observatory, but we will organise streaming for those unable to travel.
- individual 1-1 support that can be booked at any time (e-mail us)
You can register to attend the workshop using this registration form. Deadline for registration: March 20, 2022
| Program | March 28, 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| before 11:00 | Arrival to Allegro offices (HL 1122) | |
| 11:00-11:30 | Welcome coffee/tea & cookies (HL 11th floor) | |
| 11:30-12:00 | ALMA science overview | Katharina Immer & Aida Ahmadi |
| 12:00-12:20 | ALMA Call for proposals & capabilities in Cycle 9 | Violette Impellizzeri |
| 12:20-13:15 | Lunch | |
| 13:15-13:35 | Distributed peer review | Katharina Immer |
| 13:35-13:50 | Dual anonymous proposal review | Andrés Pérez-Sánchez |
| 13:50-14:15 | How to write an ALMA proposal | Violette Impellizzeri |
| 14:15-14:35 | Break | |
| 14:35-15:10 | The ALMA Observing Tool | Ashley Bemis |
| 15:10-15:30 | Simulating ALMA observations | Alex Hygate |
| 15:30-15:50 | Mining the ALMA archive | Aida Ahmadi |
| 15:50-16:10 | Break | |
| 16:10-16:30 | Open Q&A session | |
Registered participants
| Michiel Hogerheijde | Leiden Observatory |
| Violette Impellizzeri | Leiden Observatory |
| Alex Hygate | Leiden Observatory |
| Andrés Pérez-Sánchez | Leiden Observatory |
| Ashley Bemis | Leiden Observatory |
| Aida Ahmadi | Leiden Observatory |
| Katharina Immer | Leiden Observatory |
| Marco Grossi | Observatório do Valongo, UFRJ |
| Sander Schouws | Leiden Observatory |
| Maren Hempel | Universidad Andres Bello , Chile |
| Veronica Allen | University of Groningen |
| Wuji Wang | Center for Astronomy of Heidelberg University |
| Pooneh Nazari | Leiden Observatory |
| Simin Tong | Leiden Observatory |
| Thomas Steinmetz | Nicolaus Copernicus Center for Astronomy (Torun) |
| Di Wen | Kapteyn Astronomical Institute |
| Agnieszka Kobak | Nicolaus Copernicus Center for Astronomy (Torun) |
| Alice Booth | Leiden Observatory |
| Lucas Stapper | Leiden Observatory |
| Margot Leemker | Leiden Observatory |
| Bayron Portilla Revelo | Kapteyn Astronomical Institute |
| Marta Frias Castillo | Leiden Observatory |
| Fernanda Roman de Oliveira | University of Groningen |
| Ko-Yun (Monica) Huang | Leiden Observatory |
Directions to Leiden Observatory
The address of Leiden Observatory is Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333 CA Leiden. Note that this is not the old observatory in the center of Leiden. Instructions on how to get to Leiden Observatory, including transportation from Schiphol Airport or the central trains station, can be found here. Leiden Observatory is located on the 4-5th floors of the Oort building (seen on the right in the photo below), and the Huygens building (the taller building seen on the left in the photo below). Allegro offices are located on the 11th floor of the Huygens building.
Upon arrival and before the start of the event, join us on the 11th floor of the Huygens building for tea, coffee, and cookies. The workshop will take place in room HL 106-109 on the 1st floor of the Huygens building. We will have signs and there is also a reception at the entrance of the building where they can provide you with directions.
For those joining us online, connection details will be sent to you by email before the start of the event.
Useful resources:
- Cycle 8 2021 Call for Proposal
- Video tutorials from Allegro’s proposal preparation workshop in 2021
Fifth European ALMA Regional Centre community assembly
The Fifth European ALMA Regional Centre community assembly meeting will take place virtually on the 24th of March at 11:00 AM CET and can be accessed via this Microsoft Teams link. During the meeting, staff from the European ALMA Regional Centre will present updates on the current and future ALMA cycle, including the imminent ALMA cycle 9, which is scheduled to be announced the day before the meeting. In addition, you will hear about the support for using ALMA that the European ARC network offers the community. There will also be a dedicated question and answer session where staff from the European ALMA Regional Centre will be on hand to answer your questions.