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
Breen S
(2012)
12.2-GHz methanol maser Methanol Multibeam follow-up catalogue - II. Longitude range 186°-330° 12.2-GHz catalogue: longitudes 186° to 330°
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
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
Breen S
(2014)
12.2-GHz methanol maser MMB follow-up catalogue - III. Longitude range 10° to 20°
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
Avison A
(2013)
A graphical tool for demonstrating the techniques of radio interferometry
in European Journal of Physics
Stewart I
(2011)
A multiple-beam CLEAN for imaging intra-day variable radio sources
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Karczewski O
(2013)
A multiwavelength study of the Magellanic-type galaxy NGC 4449 - I. Modelling the spectral energy distribution, the ionization structure and the star formation history
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hughes T
(2014)
A resolved analysis of cold dust and gas in the nearby edge-on spiral NGC 891
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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
Richards A
(2014)
ALMA sub-mm maser and dust distribution of VY Canis Majoris
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Madden S
(2013)
An Overview of the Dwarf Galaxy Survey
in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Swinyard B
(2014)
Calibration of the Herschel SPIRE Fourier Transform Spectrometer?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Eales S
(2012)
CAN DUST EMISSION BE USED TO ESTIMATE THE MASS OF THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM IN GALAXIES-A PILOT PROJECT WITH THE HERSCHEL REFERENCE SURVEY
in The Astrophysical Journal
Wilson C
(2013)
COLD DUST BUT WARM GAS IN THE UNUSUAL ELLIPTICAL GALAXY NGC 4125
in The Astrophysical Journal
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
Wilcock L
(2012)
Cores in infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) seen in the Hi-GAL survey between l= 300° and 330° Cores in IRDCs from l= 300 to 330°
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
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
De Geyter G
(2015)
Dust energy balance study of two edge-on spiral galaxies in the Herschel-ATLAS survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ciesla L
(2014)
Dust spectral energy distributions of nearby galaxies: an insight from the Herschel Reference Survey
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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
Guidetti D
(2013)
e-MERLIN observations at 5 GHz of the GOODS-N region: pinpointing AGN cores in high-redshift galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Richards A
(2013)
e-MERLIN resolves Betelgeuse at ? 5 cm: hotspots at 5 R?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Richards A
(2012)
Evolved star water maser cloud size determined by star size
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Bendo G
(2012)
Extragalactic science with ALMA
in Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
Greaves J
(2014)
EXTREME CONDITIONS IN A CLOSE ANALOG TO THE YOUNG SOLAR SYSTEM: HERSCHEL OBSERVATIONS OF ? ERIDANI
in The Astrophysical Journal
Boselli A
(2012)
Far-infrared colours of nearby late-type galaxies in the Herschel Reference Survey
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Griffin M
(2013)
Flux calibration of broad-band far-infrared and submillimetre photometric instruments: theory and application to Herschel-SPIRE
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bendo G
(2013)
Flux calibration of the Herschel-SPIRE photometer
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gendre M
(2013)
Flux density variations of radio sources in M82 over the last three decades
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Tilanus R. P. J.
(2014)
Future mmVLBI Research with ALMA: A European vision
in arXiv e-prints
Rémy-Ruyer A
(2014)
Gas-to-dust mass ratios in local galaxies over a 2 dex metallicity range
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Peretto N
(2013)
Global collapse of molecular clouds as a formation mechanism for the most massive stars
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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
Clark C
(2015)
Herschel -ATLAS: the surprising diversity of dust-selected galaxies in the local submillimetre Universe
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kamenetzky J
(2012)
HERSCHEL -SPIRE IMAGING SPECTROSCOPY OF MOLECULAR GAS IN M82
in The Astrophysical Journal
Bourne N
(2013)
Herschel ? -ATLAS: correlations between dust and gas in local submm-selected galaxies
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
Ford G
(2013)
HERSCHEL EXPLOITATION OF LOCAL GALAXY ANDROMEDA (HELGA). III. THE STAR FORMATION LAW IN M31
in The Astrophysical Journal
Auld R
(2012)
Herschel observations of Cen A: stellar heating of two extragalactic dust clouds Herschel observations of Cen A dust clouds
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
Rashed Y
(2013)
High-resolution observations of SDSS J080800.99+483807.7 in the optical and radio domains A possible example of jet-triggered star formation
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
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
Bendo G
(2012)
Investigations of dust heating in M81, M83 and NGC 2403 with Herschel and Spitzer
in Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
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
Parker Q
(2015)
Kathryn's Wheel: a spectacular galaxy collision discovered in the Galactic neighbourhood
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Xanthopoulos E
(2010)
Linear radio structures in selected Seyfert galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Rémy-Ruyer A
(2015)
Linking dust emission to fundamental properties in galaxies: the low-metallicity picture
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 |