ALMA REGIONAL CENTRE
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
This proposal is for funding of the UK node of the European ALMA Regional Centre, which will provide the UK ALMA community with direct user support, training and specialized software for experiment design, scheduling, data analysis and astrophysical interpretation. The Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) is currently being constructed in northern Chile by a global consortium involving 17 nations. ALMA will revolutionise astronomy in the millimetre and sub-millimetre band with angular resolution, sensitivity, imaging quality and spectral coverage orders of magnitude beyond what is available today. The range of scientific applications is very broad, stretching from comets to cosmology, but the ALMA's key strength will be detailed imaging of the processes of star and planet formation in our own galaxy and in the universe at large, directly addressing many of the key themes of STFC's astronomical vision. The operating plan for ALMA devolves all user interaction and support to three regional centres (ARCs) in US, Japan and Europe. While the US and Japanese centres will be large and monolithic, the European model is a distributed one, with proposal handling and basic data provision based at ESO in Garching and all face-to-face user support and more advanced data analysis facilities provided by individual nodes funded at the national level. The largest of these nodes are expected to be at IRAM (Grenoble) and in the UK, building on their expertise in sub-mm, mm and cm-wavelength astronomy and interferometry. The UK ARC node therefore offers an excellent opportunity to enable the UK community to make the best possible use of ALMA, by providing the facilities and support required. We aim to bring together experience from the established single dish mm/sub-mm community with interferometric expertise from the MERLIN/VLBI National Facility as well as UK teams already involved in developing key subsystems (archive, observing tool, calibration system) This proposal presents a work plan and staffing structure to establish a dedicated support unit for the UK ALMA community, which will be hosted in purpose-designed offices in a new building of the University of Manchester's School of Physics and Astronomy. Development and support effort will also be based at Cambridge, Oxford and Edinburgh. The UK ARC node will provide training, documentation and one-to-one support for every aspect of using ALMA including feasibility studies of large and small projects, proposal submission, observation scheduling, data analysis for standard and non-standard projects, quality assurance feedback and data interpretation. Specialised simulation software will be developed for optimizing experiment design and evaluating image quality. Data reduction techniques for large and complex projects will be developed in response to specific UK needs. We request funding to establish and operate the UK node of the ALMA Regional Centre. The Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA), currently being built in Chile, is the most complex and ambitious ground-based observatory ever built and through our ESO membership, the UK can expect to obtain approximately 10% of the total observing time for a substantial UK user community. The UK ARC node will educate, develop and support UK astronomers to make the best scientific use of ALMA in all areas from planetary science to cosmology. ALMA will be a complex instrument to use and the majority of UK users will be unfamiliar with the techniques of observing, calibration, imaging and interpretation for a millimetre interferometer .
Publications
Casey C
(2009)
A search for neutral carbon towards two z = 4.05 submillimetre galaxies, GN???20 and GN???20.2
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bartkiewicz A
(2009)
The diversity of methanol maser morphologies from VLBI observations
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Green J
(2009)
The 6-GHz multibeam maser survey - I. Techniques
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Casey C
(2009)
Confirming a population of hot-dust dominated, star-forming, ultraluminous galaxies at high redshift
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Casey C
(2009)
Constraining star formation and AGN in z ~ 2 massive galaxies using high-resolution MERLIN radio observations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Muxlow T
(2010)
Discovery of an unusual new radio source in the star-forming galaxy M82: faint supernova, supermassive black hole or an extragalactic microquasar?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Soleri P
(2010)
Investigating the disc-jet coupling in accreting compact objects using the black hole candidate Swift J1753.5-0127 Disc-jet coupling in black hole candidates
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Caswell J
(2010)
The 6-GHz methanol multibeam maser catalogue - I. Galactic Centre region, longitudes 345° to 6° Methanol maser catalogue: Galactic Centre
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Desmurs J
(2010)
Discrete Source Survey of 6 GHz OH emission from PNe and pPNe and first 6 GHz images of K 3-35
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Hägele G
(2010)
Subarcsecond radio continuum mapping in and around the spiral galaxy NGC 3351 using MERLIN Subarcsecond mapping in NGC 3351
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Richards A
(2010)
Observational evidence for the shrinking of bright maser spots
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Araya E
(2010)
QUASI-PERIODIC FORMALDEHYDE MASER FLARES IN THE MASSIVE PROTOSTELLAR OBJECT IRAS 18566+0408
in The Astrophysical Journal
Szymczak M
(2010)
Outburst OH maser activity in the envelopes of S Persei and VX Sagittarii
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Argo M
(2010)
High-velocity-resolution observations of OH main line masers in the M82 starburst
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Rampadarath H
(2010)
Hanny's Voorwerp Evidence of AGN activity and a nuclear starburst in the central regions of IC 2497
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Xanthopoulos E
(2010)
Linear radio structures in selected Seyfert galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Aalto S
(2010)
13 CO 1-0 imaging of the Medusa merger, NGC 4194 Large scale variations in molecular cloud properties
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Asanok K
(2010)
OH and H 2 O masers towards the star-forming region S140-IRS1
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bothwell M
(2010)
High-resolution CO and radio imaging of ULIRGs: extended CO structures and implications for the universal star formation law
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Fenech D
(2010)
Wide-field Global VLBI and MERLIN combined monitoring of supernova remnants in M82 Global VLBI and MERLIN monitoring of SNR in M82
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Green J
(2010)
The 6-GHz methanol multibeam maser catalogue - II. Galactic longitudes 6° to 20° Methanol maser catalogue: 6° to 20°
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Galametz M
(2011)
Probing the dust properties of galaxies up to submillimetre wavelengths II. Dust-to-gas mass ratio trends with metallicity and the submm excess in dwarf galaxies
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lobanov A
(2011)
VLBI imaging of a flare in the Crab nebula: more than just a spot
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Caswell J
(2011)
The 6-GHz methanol multibeam maser catalogue - III. Galactic longitudes 330° to 345° Methanol maser catalogue - III. 330° to 345°
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Stewart I
(2011)
A multiple-beam CLEAN for imaging intra-day variable radio sources
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Rangwala N
(2011)
OBSERVATIONS OF Arp 220 USING HERSCHEL -SPIRE: AN UNPRECEDENTED VIEW OF THE MOLECULAR GAS IN AN EXTREME STAR FORMATION ENVIRONMENT
in The Astrophysical Journal
Casey C
(2011)
Molecular gas in submillimetre-faint, star-forming ultraluminous galaxies at z > 1 CO in z > 1 submm-faint ULIRGs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
De Looze I
(2011)
The reliability of [C ii] as an indicator of the star formation rate The reliability of [C ii] as an SFR indicator
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Green J
(2011)
MAJOR STRUCTURES OF THE INNER GALAXY DELINEATED BY 6.7 GHz METHANOL MASERS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Breen S
(2011)
STATISTICAL PROPERTIES OF 12.2 GHz METHANOL MASERS ASSOCIATED WITH A COMPLETE SAMPLE OF 6.7 GHz METHANOL MASERS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Madden S
(2011)
The Elusive ISM of Dwarf Galaxies: Excess Submillimetre Emission & CO-Dark Molecular Gas
in EAS Publications Series
Magrini L
(2011)
The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey IX. Dust-to-gas mass ratio and metallicity gradients in four Virgo spiral galaxies
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Madden S
(2012)
Low Metallicity ISM: excess submillimetre emission and CO-free H 2 gas
in Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
Spinoglio L
(2012)
SUBMILLIMETER LINE SPECTRUM OF THE SEYFERT GALAXY NGC 1068 FROM THE HERSCHEL -SPIRE FOURIER TRANSFORM SPECTROMETER
in The Astrophysical Journal
Romero-Cañizales C
(2012)
e-MERLIN and VLBI observations of the luminous infrared galaxy IC 883: a nuclear starburst and an AGN candidate revealed
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Breen S
(2012)
12.2-GHz methanol maser MMB follow-up catalogue - I. Longitude range 330° to 10° 12.2-GHz catalogue: 330°-10° longitude
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Etoka S
(2012)
Methanol and excited OH masers towards W51 - I. Main and South Methanol and excited OH masers towards W51 - I
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Foyle K
(2012)
The dust and gas properties of M83 The dust and gas properties of M83
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cortese L
(2012)
The dust scaling relations of the Herschel Reference Survey
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Buckle J
(2012)
The JCMT Legacy Survey of the Gould Belt: mapping 13CO and C18O in Orion A GBS HARP survey: Orion A
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
De Looze I
(2012)
Herschel ? and JCMT observations of the early-type dwarf galaxy NGC 205 Herschel and JCMT observations of NGC 205
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
{Ciesla}, L. And {Boselli}, A. And {Smith}, M.~W.~L. And {Bendo}, G.~J. And {Cortese}, L. And {Eales}, S. And {Bianchi}, S. And {Boquien}, M. And {Buat}, V. And {Davies}, J. And {Pohlen}, M. And {Zibetti}, S. And {Baes}, M. And {Cooray}, A. And {de Looze}, I. And {di Serego Alighieri}, S. And {Galametz}, M. And {Gomez}, H.~L. And {Lebouteiller}, V. And {Madden}, S.~C. And {Pappalardo}, C. And {Remy}, A. And {Spinoglio}, L. And {Vaccari}, M. And {Auld}, R. And {Clements.}, D.~L.
(2012)
Submillimetre obs. of 323 HRS nearby galaxies (Ciesla+, 2012)
in VizieR Online Data Catalog
Bendo G
(2012)
Investigations of dust heating in M81, M83 and NGC 2403 with the Herschel Space Observatory Dust heating in M81, M83 and NGC 2403
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Fritz J
(2012)
The Herschel Exploitation of Local Galaxy Andromeda (HELGA) I. Global far-infrared and sub-mm morphology
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Mentuch Cooper E
(2012)
SPATIALLY RESOLVED STELLAR, DUST, AND GAS PROPERTIES OF THE POST-INTERACTING WHIRLPOOL GALAXY SYSTEM
in The Astrophysical Journal
Corbelli E
(2012)
The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey X. The relationship between cold dust and molecular gas content in Virgo spirals?
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Wilson C
(2012)
The JCMT Nearby Galaxies Legacy Survey - VIII. CO data and the LCO(3-2)-LFIR correlation in the SINGS sample
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Smith M
(2012)
THE HERSCHEL EXPLOITATION OF LOCAL GALAXY ANDROMEDA (HELGA). II. DUST AND GAS IN ANDROMEDA
in The Astrophysical Journal
Hoare M
(2012)
The Coordinated Radio and Infrared Survey for High-Mass Star Formation (The CORNISH Survey). I. Survey Design
in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Boquien M
(2012)
The IRX- ß relation on subgalactic scales in star-forming galaxies of the Herschel Reference Survey
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Description | The grant has funded staff who support UK astronomers using ALMA. By providing support from proposal preparation to producing the final data products, including carrying out detailed quality control on the data, the ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) Node has directly contributed to the full range of projects undertaken on ALMA by UK-based astronomers. |
Exploitation Route | The ARC Node helps UK astronomers carry out world-leading research using ALMA. This research can be used to inspire school children in to study STEM subjects. |
Sectors | Education,Other |
Description | The ALMA Regional Centre Node staff have been involved in a range of public outreach activities over the entire course of the award. |
First Year Of Impact | 2010 |
Impact Types | Societal |
Description | European ALMA Regional Centre |
Organisation | European Southern Observatory (ESO) |
Country | Germany |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | We have provided user and community training and support for ALMA. Supporting the call for early science. We have contributed interferometer expertise and an online simulator tool. Software testing. Calibration of ALMA test data. |
Collaborator Contribution | We have an ESO Fellowship holder on a 3 year position resident in Manchester. |
Impact | Online simulator. Contributions to various documents. |
Start Year | 2009 |