ALMA MONTHLY REPORT December 2012 Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION... 2 2. PROJECT MANAGEMENT... 3 3. EAST ASIAN EXECUTIVE... 8 4. EUROPEAN EXECUTIVE... 10 5. NORTH AMERICANEXECUTIVE... 14 6. SITE... 16 7. SYSTEM ENGINEERING... 18 8. SCIENCE IPT... 19 9. COMPUTING IPT... 20 10. SCIENCE OPERATIONS... 22 11. ALMA DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING... 26 12. ALMA DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTING (ADC)... 30 13. ADMINISTRATION... 31 14. HUMAN RESOURCES... 31 15. EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH... 33 16. SAFETY... 35 17. LIST OF COMMONLY USED ACRONYMS... 36
1. INTRODUCTION The conference The First year of ALMA science was held in Puerto Varas, Chile, with very good success. Eventually 199 participants from all ALMA regions and the broader community attended the meeting. Senior astronomers and many young students and postdocs shared the enthusiasm for the first ALMA results. The present, past and future ALMA directors addressed the participants at the conference dinner, sharing with them their insights and excitation reflecting on the initial phases of construction, the excitement of delivering the first science observations and the great expectations on the future science results. The conference science program was vibrant and span the full range of ALMA Early Science; overall, the program included 43 oral contributions, all presenting ALMA science results, as well as 10 overview and invited talks and two public talks, which attracted a wide and lively audience from the local community. Approximately 100 poster contributions were also presented at the conference. The poster prize committee, composed by the overview speakers and the project scientists, awarded three prizes for the best science posters ex aequo to: E. Akiyama for the analysis of the Science Verification data on the protoplanetary disk HD163296 M. McCoy for the study on the Early Science absorption spectrum of Centaurus A R. Herrera-Camus, for the important work on the [CII] line as a star formation tracer in the deep Universe Two posters describing important technical developments also received a special mention: A. Avison for the Observations Support Tool and H. Nagai for the description of the status of ALMA polarization observations. The meeting practical organization was a great success, thanks to the efforts of the local organizing committee at JAO, chaired by Gautier Mathys. Figure 1. Participants to the First Year of ALMA Science conference in Puerto Varas, Chile. 2
2. PROJECT MANAGEMENT Overall the project proceeded nominally in the month subsequent to the ALMA Board meeting. There is great focus from the Executives and the JAO, both in terms of engineering and science on the power system as the transition to the permanent power generation system has started. There have been a number of reliability issues but the product assurance processes are in place and in most cases a root cause and corrective action is understood quickly. This effort will continue throughout the months of January and probably also February. 2.1. Management IPT and IPT Meetings End-of-Construction Review Response to the AAER2012 panel report is under discussion among JAO and relevant ALMA IPT members. The draft will be finalized by end of January and will be reported to the ALMA Board face-to-face meeting in mid March 2013. Preliminary discussion started on the preparation of the Observatory Operations Readiness Review that will be held as AAER2013 in late 2013. 64 Antenna Correlator Integration The acceptance of the 64 correlator in its final configuration has been held on December 20 th and passed successfully. The activity to demonstrate science capability continued in collaborative effort with the commissioning and science verification (CSV) and computing teams. The system level acceptance of the correlators will be developed during the course of the preparation of the Early Science capabilities. A successful demonstration of the cycle 1 early science capabilities with a released software during January 2013 will be a next important milestone. OSF Laboratory Coordination The introduction of the front end (FE) test measurement set at the operations support facility s technical facility (OSF/TF) laboratory area started with an actual shipment of the first set; the second set will be shipped January 2013. The renovation of the laboratory area at OSF continued; the installation of the equipment will begin in late January 2013. Preparation of the operation readiness review (ORR) of the system has been started and it will become operational in the second trimester of 2013. 2.2. Budget Status The first table represents the position from the bilateral agreement. The second table shows the ALMA-J contribution. A detailed report of the financial and schedule information underlying these summary tables for the construction project cost-to-complete was shared with the ALMA budget committee and with the Board. Below table contains actuals as of November 2012 and In-process section as of January 11 th. 3
A p p r o v e d Construction Budget + Commitment Summary NA (M$) EU (M ) ALMA Actuals as of November 2012 (M Y2000$) Approved Bilateral Budget 521.1 440.9 762.9 A Remaining Contingency + Reserve 13.9 11.9 18.9 B TOTAL Available Budget (bilateral, no-alma-j, 535.0 452.7 781.8 no G&S) C=A+B Actual Cost 527.0 400.8 733.9 D Unpaid Commitments 4.7 33.4 31.4 E Actual Cost + Unpaid Commitments 531.6 434.2 765.3 F=D+E Total Remaining Available Budget 3.4 18.5 16.5 I=C-F I n - p r o c e s s Budget Changes in Process 15.9 7.6 18.4 K NA BCRs 12.6 0.0 9.5 EU BCRs 0.0 10.7 8.9 JAO BCRs 3.4-3.1 0.0 Forecast Remaining Contingency + -2.0 4.2 0.5 Reserve M=B-K Risk Register Probability-Weighted Cost Risk (Risk Register V23-All 2012.10.18) 1.7 2.6 3.5 C:\DOCUME~1\cocampo\LOCALS~1\Temp\[EV_spreadsheet_Nov2012-2013Jan11_DATA.xls]MTsSummary This version includes the implementation of the following change requests: PMCS CR # Description Exec Comments 3.0605 NA Antenna May 2012 CTC 1.03.050.0500 Added 2012-Jul-19. -$59K Y2K, -$456K TYD. NRAO Production Implemented 2012-Dec-20. 3.0614 NA Antenna May 2012 CTC 1.03.050.0500 Added 2012-Oct-10. +$488K Y2K, +$734K TYD. NRAO Vertex Damage Repair Change Orders Implemented 2012-Dec-20. 4.0805 Final Closure of Alt LO Work Element NRAO Added 2012-Nov-30. -$3K Y2K, -$99K TYD. Implemented 2012-Dec-20. 9.0533 JAO 380.3080 (NA) - CSV budget reprofile to Added 2011-Dec-13. -$174K Y2K, +$0K TYD. NRAO Sep-2013 Implemented 2012-Dec-21. 9.0534 JAO 380.3080 (EU) - CSV budget reprofile to Added 2011-Dec-13. +$0K Y2K, +0K Y2012. ESO Sep-2013 Implemented 2012-Dec-21. 9.0532 EU Science and Commissioning support Added 2011-Dec-02. +$114K Y2K, +146K ESO 380.3040/3050/3070 Y2012. Implemented 2012-Dec-21. A l m a - J NA (M$) EU (M ) Site and Site Integration Contribution 15.5 16.9 LSM Reimbursement 5.1 - Site and Site Integration Contribution (in 2.3 0.0 process) LSM Reimbursement (in process) 0.2 - Site and Site Integration (received) 14.4 15.4 LSM Reimbursement (received) 3.6 - Open Commitments (received) 0.6 0.0 C:\DOCUME~1\cocampo\LOCALS~1\Temp\[EV_spreadsheet_Nov2012-2013Jan11_DATA.xls]MTsSummary The above table does not show major difference compared to last month. Note: Tables above are from November earned value report version. 4
2.3. Schedule Status as of December 30 th, 2012 Key schedule topics of the month are: Array Operations Site (AOS) - Infrastructure: o Stations: 45% of the array is conditionally accepted for use, as previously reported. o Power Distribution: Turbines are powering up the OSF; still branch 3 & 4 are due to be energized on December 21 st and 22 nd. - Antennas in the Array: o A total of 52 antennas delivered with 49 at the AOS, and three in maintenance. OSF - Antennas: no antennas were delivered. - Permanent power: turbines 1 and 2 are operational. Turbine 3 is on revision. The transition of OSF and AOS-technical building (TB) to the permanent power system (PPS) took place at the end of November. The following diagrams show the ALMA general overview of the current and the previous month, and the same for next two diagrams with more details of 2012 and 2013. 5
Current Month Previous Month 6
Current Month Previous Month 7
3. EAST ASIAN EXECUTIVE 3.1. Management The East Asian (EA) project manager performed regular reviews of the schedules of the antennas and Band 4/8/10 cartridges. The workshop for the 30 th anniversary of Nobeyama Radio Observatory titled New Trends in Radio Astronomy in the ALMA Era was held from December 3 rd through December 8 th, 2012 in Hakone, Japan. Researchers involved in ALMA and many other researchers attended, and it ended with great excitement. It also marked a significant milestone for Nobeyama Radio Observatory and the vivid beginning of the ALMA era in Japanese radio astronomy. On December 2 nd, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) held an academic lecture titled "Investigating the Mysteries of the Dark Universe -the Origin of the Universe, the Formation of Planets, and the Birth of Life" at Miraikan (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation) in Odaiba, Tokyo, which was given by Dr. Eiichiro Komatsu, Prof. Ewine van Dishoeck and Dr. Thijs de Graauw. The audience listened attentively to the world's leading researchers. 3.2. ACA Antennas During a period from November 30 th to December 12 th, MELCO completed the antenna control unit (ACU) software update to new version for all the PM and CM antennas. The major purpose was to significantly reduce the occurrence frequency of the fault relating to the clock board. It was found that the measure was effective as expected, but still the fault was not completely eradicated. MELCO continues to improve the measure. 3.2.1 ACA 12m antennas: PM01 and 02 have been used for CSV and early science activities at THE AOS. PM03 was relocated to MELCO site erection facility (SEF) on December 1 st for maintenance. By December 17 th, MELCO completed a set of long-life protection measures on PM03 against rain water leakage. With those, all planned improvements of rain protection were concluded for all the ACA antennas. PM04 was relocated from the OSF/ TF to the AOS on December 19 th. The whole activity to refurbish PM04 was completed by changing the old insufficient main reflector with the current better one. 3.2.2 ACA 7-m antennas: Eleven ACA 7m antennas -except CM11- are located at the AOS. The uninterruptible power supply (UPS) repair work of CM12 was done successfully from December 10 th through 12 th, and the antenna has been back to operations. The mechanical failure of the sub reflector hexapod of CM11, located at MELCO SEF, was successfully fixed on December 14 th. CM11 was relocated from SEF to OSF TF on December 27 th. 3.3. EA Front End 3.3.1 EA Front End Integration Center (FEIC): EA FEs from #1 to #17 are contributed by EA, #18 to #22 by NA, and #23 to #26 by EU. The work on two FEs has been continued at the EA FEIC in Taiwan in December 2012 (EA #26). EA FE #24 (FEND S/N50) passed the provisional acceptance on-site (PAS) review, and EA FE #25 (FEND S/N64) is currently under the PAS testing. 8
EA FE #26 (FEND S/N68) is the last FE integrated for Europe. This EA FE was shipped out on December 7 th. No instrumentation problems occurred in December. Preparations for relocating one of the two EA testing lines to Chile are going on. 3.3.2Band 4/8/10 Cartridges: Band 4 cold cartridge assembly (CCA4): To date, a total of 27CCA4 cartridges, out of the 73 CCA4 cartridges, have been delivered. This month s progress is as follows: Arrived at the OSF S/N 12, 14, 30, 32 In transit to the OSF S/N18, 19 To be shipped to the OSF None To be authorized to be shipped None PAI review report in preparation S/N 9, 38,40 PAI test report in review S/N 16, 33, 36, 39 Ready for PAI test S/N 35 Band 8 cold cartridge assembly (CCA8): To date, a total of 40CCA8 cartridges, out of the 73 CCA8 cartridges, have been delivered. This month s progress is as follows: Arrived at OSF S/N 44 In transit to OSF S/N46, 48 To be shipped to OSF None To be authorized to be shipped None PAI review report in preparation S/N 2, 7, 22 PAI test report in review S/N 47 Band 10 cold cartridge assembly (CCA10): To date, a total of 17CCA10 cartridges, out of the 73 CCA10 cartridges, have been delivered. This month s progress is as follows: Arrived at OSF S/N 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20 In transit to OSF S/N 19, 24, 25 To be shipped to OSF None To be authorized to be shipped None PAI review report in preparation S/N 21, 22, 23, 26, 28, 30 PAI test report in review None Summary Status is as follows: PAI review completed Delivery completed Band 4 Cartridge Assembly 29 27 Band 8 Cartridge Assembly 41 40 Band 10 Cartridge Assembly 23 19 9
3.4. New Development Projects 3.4.1 Band 1 Cartridge: Each consortium member institution (ASIAA, NRAO, HIA, the University of Chile, and NAOJ) evaluated feasibility of prototypes of the key components they are developing for Band 1 cartridges, in preparation for a down-selection meeting to be held in Taipei in January, 2013. In the down-selection meeting, it will be decided which institute to be in charge of which key components of the Band 1 cartridges. 4. EUROPEAN EXECUTIVE 4.1. Management In December another FE assembly (EU #24) was delivered. This leaves two units to go. Design work on the ALMA Residence continued after the location decision in November, and the final design review was successfully passed on December 20 th. Consultancy reports concerning the design of power cable trench upgrades to increase the threshold against extreme rain damage have been received, and an English summary prepared by ESO was distributed within JAO. The lead for the Back End IPT and the System Engineering IPT, Hervé Kurlandczyk, left ALMA and started on the E-ELT project as of January 1 st 2013. Both IPTs closed on December 31 st 2012 with the remaining staff being reassigned to the EASC and Antenna IPT. The ESO-ALMA power engineer, Massimiliano Camuri, has left ESO in December after handover of the PPS to the JAO. The ESO project planner for ALMA, Gareth Aspinall, has left ESO at the end of 2012. The European Project Office would like to thank Hervé, Massimiliano, and Gareth for their important contributions and dedication to ALMA over many years. 4.2. EU Antennas and transporter AOS/OSF status and progress Accepted antennas At the time of writing there are 17 antennas accepted in total, of which 15 are at the AOS and two (DA56, DA57) are at the OSF. All antennas are operational except DA52 and DA53, which had troubles with their heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system. In one case a spare part was missing, and in the other case some tests in the HVAC system are taking place at the time of writing, to diagnosis frequent tripping of the feeding relay. Both antennas are expected to be operational by the end of the second week of January. Antennas DA54 and DA55 were moved to the AOS on December 21 st and December 28 th, respectively. Both antennas are integrated in the array. DA56 and DA57 are in commissioning by assembly, integration and verification (AIV). The DA57 reflector surface was adjusted in December by the AIV team to around 9 micron RMS, which so far constitutes the best for the European antennas. 10
Figure.1- One of the best antenna surface maps obtained with DA57 during the AIV holography campaign. The surface error is about 9 micron RMS. During the second half of December a considerable step forward was achieved in closing the open works of the delivered antennas. Such open works originate from minor updates of the design decided on the basis of the experience gained during the acceptance testing and in the course of operation of the delivered antennas. While the recent units are in general up to date, the first units had accumulated a list of those design updates. As per today almost all electrical updates have been completed with only a very few exceptions. Mechanical updates including the calibration volume thermal control of DA41 and DA42 (cumbersome with the WVR installed) and the Apex solar protections for all antennas, need still to be done. The date of completion of these remaining open works is still to be agreed, but February 2013 could be a good window of opportunity if the array operation is suspended. In December the intervention at the OSF by AEM with their suppliers was completed. The issues related to the drives have basically been cleared with various software (SW) and hardware updates. Also it is worth to note that the suppliers of the brakes and the HVAC did not find any design issue when investigating the few problems reported. ESO is still waiting for the final report of the investigations, but it is safe to state that the malfunctions experienced during operation of the antennas are in most cases to be ascribed to incorrect procedures of assembly. The corresponding problem reports will be closed by the normal administrative procedure in force between ESO and the contractor. The associated JIRA tickets will be updated and treated as needed. AEM Work Area Antennas During December acceptance testing of antennas #18 and #19 was continued. Antenna #18 did not show pointing results as clean as those of previous antennas and various investigations were carried out. Testing by the EU antenna IPT (AIPT) continued during the complete holiday period including Christmas and New Year s Eve. What can be stated as per today is that with the performance achieved to date the antenna is expected to be within 11
specification when the tests will be finished in the first half of January. Then the situation will be analysed in view of performing the acceptance meeting review and delivering this antenna to ALMA AIV. This delivery is foreseen to take place by January 25 th. Pointing tests of antenna #19 were carried out in the first half of December, but then damage in the azimuth cable wrap occurred (a technician inadvertently misaligned it) and testing was stopped to carry out repair activities. At the time of writing the repair is completed and the pointing campaign was resumed. The acceptance of #19 is foreseen to take place within February 15 th, if the weather does not interfere too much with the pointing tests. Progress can also be reported on the assembly and commissioning of the remaining units. Presently antenna #20 is close to start acceptance testing, followed at approximately two weeks of distance by antenna #21. As per end of December all was prepared for the assembly of the reflector in the antenna #22. Also, reflector #23 had been completed (thanks to double shift work) and is waiting for antenna #23 to be ready. Assembly of antenna #24 and #25 is proceeding well. The AIPT continued to spend some effort in order to keep the two prototypes of optical pointing telescopes (OPTs) operational. OPT#1, which was serviced and upgraded (cooling system) in November 2012, is performing well. Malfunction of its electronics was encountered at end of December due to a power cut, but the system has been made operational again by the Antenna IPT (AIPT). Backup Structure (BUS) #24 arrived on site on December #14, while BUS #25 is presently in Antofagasta and will be on-site at the beginning of January 2013. This completes the delivery of parts to the site. Open Points/ Reservations Figure 2.- Arrival of BUS #24 on site mid of December 2012. The work to close the reservations associated to the delivered antenna is well progressing. This issue has been also mentioned above with respect to the completion of open works on the delivered antennas. Following the delta acceptance review (ACRV) held in November, related to the general aspects of maintainability, maintenance and reliability, the AEM Consortium is working on the actions raised at the review including the final update of the manuals. Regarding the 12
JAO, it has now become formally responsible for the preventive maintenance of delivered antennas. Work progressed also on software aspects. The expected release of the ACU SW version 1.5.0 of the ACU has been postponed in order to include corrections of lately discovered bugs. It is still planned for January 2013. Regular interaction with the SW designer and the AEM Consortium are taking place to complete the update and the regression tests of the ACU software. Since contract amendment #13, also covering warranty aspects, was signed back in November, AEM has effectively started to intervene at the AOS, without request for reimbursement. Spare parts procurement is ongoing. Europe progress Production in Europe is finished. Support from the technical teams in Europe is continuing. Ridges, I/F plates, and others Nothing is pending. Work has been completed, and the spares provided to ALMA. Transporters In December the foreseen mechanical upgrade of the X-Y positioning tables of the two transporters to increase the safety factor against shearing loads in the bolted flanges was successfully performed by the AIPT. This upgrade was technically designed by the AIPT, and planned and coordinated with Antenna Group (AG) manpower support. In summary various measures were taken of which the most relevant is the use of friction shims and the use of high strength bolts. This demanded rework of the X-Y assemblies for space reasons. Various mechanical repair works were also needed, to correct for the small damages occurred before the problem was detected in August 2012. Figure 3.- Removal of the left X-Y table of one of the transporters for checking and performing mechanical modification of the bolt seats. In approximately ten days both transporters were operational again and were successfully tested with dynamic overloads. The results are fully positive and both transporters are in regular service. This is the only down time experience with the two transporters in four and a half years of operation. 13
Finally, recommendations for preventive checks were also provided by the AIPT to the AG of ALMA. 4.3. EU Front End Good progress was made this month with only one remaining major European FE IPT construction activity, the delivery of FE assemblies, remaining. The delivery status of European FE products by the end of 2012 was 100% for all deliverables except FE assemblies which was 92% (two still to be delivered). On December 20 th the PAI review meeting of the FE assembly SN66 was held. Due to the upcoming Christmas holiday it was decided to ship this FE assembly in early January 2013. It is scheduled that the FE assembly deliveries by the EU FEIC will be completed in January 2013 with only two units, SN65 and SN70, to go. The warm cartridge assembly (WCA)/CCA storage facility, previously used at the EU FEIC, arrived at the OSF. With the positive decision by the JAO on December 7 th 2012 that cartridge Tier 2 maintenance will be done at the OSF, the plans to train JAO FE Team staff for this maintenance and provide the necessary test equipment and special tools to the JAO could be continued. The focus is now on band 7 cartridge maintenance, several preparatory meetings with JAO and IRAM have been held. The plan is to deliver and install equipment in the first trimester of 2013. 4.4. EU Back End and Correlator All parts including Faraday rotating mirrors are available to complete photomixer production. The last photomixer production batch (#13) consisting of 56 units passed PAI mid December. An additional smaller batch (#14) is being made to compensate some S/N duplicates, which have occurred during production. This batch will be finished mid January and will complete the entire European back-end (BE) production. ESO was involved in the ALMA acceptance review and handover meeting to JAO of the 64- antenna correlator. 4.5. System Engineering and Integration The European System Engineering (SE) team ramped down while continuing to support the resolution of CARs and systems verification by review. All-relevant activities are discussed on the weekly SE telephone conference where JAO, EA, EU, and NA participate. The European systems engineering and integration IPT is being closed by December 31 st. The remaining tasks done by relevant SE staff is taken over by the EASC and the antenna IPT. 5. NORTH AMERICANEXECUTIVE 5.1. Management The cost to complete estimate that was presented to the 2012 AAER forecasted a $3.2M overrun for NA when the project was completed in September 2013. Since that estimate was made, a number of cost recovery items have been identified in the NA antenna, Site, FE, and Computing IPTs to offset the overrun. The total cost recovery from these items will be approximately $1.9M, and budget change requests for the items are being implemented in the PMCS system. Additional cost recovery items are being identified. The cost to complete estimate also assumed a $2.25M financial contribution from Taiwan to NA in 2012. The contribution was received on December 18 th. Taiwan contributions to NA after 2012 were also agreed and will improve NA s financial standing in the project. NRAO and NAOJ met on December 17 th to determine the timescale for the transfer of NAOJ contributions towards its share of the remaining NA Site and Site Integration costs as forecasted in the recent cost to complete analysis, and to determine the disposition of funds 14
remaining in the NSF Goods and Services (G&S) account. The parties agreed that NRAO would send NAOJ an invoice for the site and site integration costs immediately. The receipt of these funds will avoid any cash flow problems in the completion of the NA Site work. The parties also agreed that NAOJ would continue to reimburse AUI for forecasted LSM costs on a periodic, recurring basis per the original AUI/NAOJ agreement. The G&S agreement will be modified to utilize some remaining G&S funds to include additional work done by NRAO on behalf of NAOJ. Memoranda describing the use of NA contingency for the NA Site cost to complete were prepared for the ALMA Board s consideration and approval. 5.2. NA Antennas All 25 Vertex antennas have been delivered to the JAO. A meeting with Vertex was held on December 10 th -12 th to discuss deformations of the antenna surfaces and possible root causes. A potential cause is variable porosity of cells in the antenna BUS, which may lead to surface changes as atmospheric pressure varies between the AOS and the OSF. The remedy for this is to equalize the pressure between cells by drilling small holes on the underside of the BUS. Holes have already been drilled in the BUSs of DV22-DV25. Temperature-dependent astro-holography measurements of these antennas will be made to determine if the surface deformations and their temperature dependence have been suppressed. Another potential cause is a significant difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) between the BUS and quadrupod. Vertex will determine the CTE of a quadleg, compare it to the BUS CTE, and model the thermal performance of the antenna in an attempt to replicate measurements to date. If the CTE mismatch proves to be the issue, a quadleg with a BUS-matched CTE will need to be designed and fabricated, and the quadlegs on all Vertex antennas would presumably need to be replaced. The factory acceptance test of the final OPT was successfully completed at the vendor facility in Tucson on January 4 th. It will be shipped to Chile later in the month. On-antenna tests of the production OPTs continues at the SEF, with the intent of completing this testing effort by the end of February 2013. The first nutator arrived at the OSF on January 8 th. Its on-antenna tests are still scheduled for January 21 st through February 8 th. Also in January, the nutator contractor, CoTech, will send two nutator mirrors to CMA in Tucson for the coating of their surfaces. 5.3. NA Front End All 22 FEs from the NA FEIC have been delivered to the JAO. An FE test and measurement set and a band 6 test set were shipped to the OSF by the NA FE IPT on December 4 th. Their arrival in Antofagasta was delayed due to port congestion there. The sets will be used for FE maintenance at the OSF. Preparations to accommodate the test sets in the OSF TB are underway. The reassembly and installation of the sets is still scheduled for completion by late March 2013. A study was completed to resolve clearance and maneuverability issues for the front end handling vehicle (FEHV) in the EU) 12m and East Asian (EA) 7m antennas. The study showed that the FEHV can turn the corner at the entrance to the receiver cabin of the EU antenna with adequate clearance. The vertical clearance of the FEHV in the EU cabin door is adequate if an appropriate cover for the FE s warm optics is used. For the EA 7m antennas, the FEHV outriggers can be deployed in the receiver cabin without interfering with existing HVAC ductwork. The results of the study were reviewed and agreed by the EU and EA Antenna IPTs at a meeting on December 18 th. The next steps in advancing the production of the FEHV are to submit change requests on FEHV dimensions and its power supply to the change control board, address the remaining FEHV JIRA tickets, and conduct a delta-cdr on the timescale of February 2013. 15
Skip Thacker, the NA FE IPT leader, retired from the NRAO in December 2012. We thank Skip for his leadership and his commitment to the NA FE IPT and the ALMA Project. Under his guidance, the NA FE IPT completed the delivery of NA-assembled FEs and NA FE components. For the remainder of the construction project, Kamaljeet Saini will succeed Skip as the NA FE IPT leader. Saini will be the primary point of contact for FE-related matters in NA, and will represent the NA FE IPT at biweekly IPT meetings and FE systems engineering meetings. Eric Bryerton will continue to lead NA work on warm cartridge assemblies and local oscillators. He will also assume overall responsibility for the NA FE IPT budget. John Effland will continue to lead the NA effort on the Band 6 cold cartridge assemblies, NA-assembled FEs, and NA FE components. 5.4. NA Back End The NA BE IPT continues to perform routine repairs of BE components in support of ALMA operations. A shipment of 10 retrofitted fiber optic wraps will be made in January. 5.5. NA Correlator The acceptance review for the four-quadrant correlator was successfully completed on December 20 th. A press release describing the correlator installation was issued (http://www.almaobservatory.org/en/press-room/press-releases/520-supercomputer-readyto-make-alma-a-powerful-telescope). Currently, the correlator is being used in its 64- antenna mode. 6. SITE 6.1. JAO During December the whole OSF and the AOS Technical Building have been powered by the PPS turbine system while the antennas were still powered by the temporary power system (TPS) generators. A number of unexpected shut downs in the first five weeks have taken place due to reasons that after some analysis were all understood and are corrected for or will be avoided in the future. The last two weeks have shown only one shut down, the first one caused by an operator error. Actions are ongoing to learn from this event and avoid this happening again. The transition of the not-powered Branches 3 and 4, needed for cycle-1 observations, was attempted but resulted in an unexpected shut down. Detailed investigations both by ESO and NRAO are ongoing to understand and avoid this from happening again. It is expected that it will take until the end of January before the transition of these branches will continue. Due to the departure of the responsible ESO electrical engineer, the JAO power team has been experiencing a much steeper learning curve than was hoped for. The preparations for implementing a permanent backup option at the AOS are progressing slower than expected mainly due to the holiday period; readiness is expected by early February. In view of the recent PPS experiences, the completion of this facility is essential for the completion of the AOS transitions to the PPS. 6.2. ESO AOS Acceptance of the remaining stations is still pending, though not time critical. OSF TF Formal closure of the acceptance review and acceptance certificate is pending. ALMA Residence 16
The final design review was held on December 20 th and successfully completed, pending the revision of the documents as per identified action items. More than 200 review items had been discussed and resolved during the review. In the meantime, following the approval of the final position, the adaptation of the design was started and is expected to be concluded within January 2013. In order to enhance the chances for a quick tendering process for the construction contract, which would allow submitting it to the ESO Finance Committee in May 2013, the possibility of a preliminary inquiry to select potential Contractors is being considered. Roads The company that started an International arbitration process against ESO has submitted to the Santiago Court of Appeal a request for annulment. Such a move didn't come unexpected, as it is the only action still allowed by the Chilean law. ESO had already prepared the counteraction contracting a Chilean legal office to support us in the procedure. The impression is that the move was undertaken by the claimant to gain time not to reimburse ESO for the fees as ruled by the arbitration tribunal, but the chances of a positive resolution are deemed rather low. The latest four similar cases were all resolved with the rejection of the annulment request. The call for tender for the construction of the intersection with the public highway conducted by the MOP (Ministerio de Obras Publicas) failed because only one bid, far above the budget was received. The process is now lead by ESO Site IPT to have better control. The ESO Site IPT requested a revision of the original design by a consultant to assess the fair price and identify cost saving options, still keeping the design compliant with the MOP requirements Power Out of the three turbines, turbine defined as #3, although having being commissioned had shown a failure that prevents the operation on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The fault has been identified and requires the replacement of a limit switch. The replacement part has been shipped to the OSF. Until the repair is accomplished it has been decided not to operate Turbine #3. The operations with the other two turbines progressed although with some issues that caused several outages: fuel leakages (most likely due to high vibration levels that are being investigated) and some minor hardware failures. However for most of the failures explanations have been found, while the familiarity of the operational team with the equipment is increasing. The activities to define and implement the safety/security fencing around the power facility area have started. A survey on site was executed and negotiations with potential contractors are ongoing. The design of the improvements for the OSF-AOS underground line was completed, the final report has been delivered and a summary in English has been distributed. No plans have yet been defined for the implementation. 6.3. AUI/NRAO Progress during November 2012 was 0.72%, reaching a total progress of 86.3% for this project. This includes total progress, including previous work and all done by other contractors. The partial progress in this month is still low; progress is due to few resources allocated to the contract. 17
Agua Santa is still completing the inner array with testing and documentation delivery. The inner array is ready for acceptance from the JAO. This will have to be a provisional acceptance, because of the lack of permanent power to complete all the electrical tests. The only missing issue is SWGR 4 (still named SWGR provisorio), part of the TPS. There is no firm date from the JAO for the return, but it is to be returned after connecting of all presently TPS powered branches to the PPS. The connection of the PPS to complete the power tests, has been delayed again due to the last turbine failures, so the full completion of the inner array will depend on the PPS connection. On our side, the pads associated to science needs in cycle 1 are complete, except for those depending on the JAO returning the loaned switchgear. That will also happen when the PPS is connected. The contractor continues civil work with a small progress in that area, digging trenches in the Southern arm of the extended array. The electrical and fiber optics work in laying those cables starts next week. The estimate completion date by the contractor is moving towards the February 2013, which is being reviewed and a request will be sent to adjust the contract termination date. 7. SYSTEM ENGINEERING According to the managerial decision within the JAO to assign Ryusuke Ogasawara, JAO Deputy Project manager, to coordinate project system engineering tasks after the departure of project system engineer, re-assignment of PSE tasks was discussed and transition started one by one. JAO system engineering has attended the MRB meetings for branches 1,2,3 and 4 of the power distribution system at AOS. The critical design and manufacturing readiness review (CDMRR) of the band 10 WCA continued. SE chaired the TRR of the acceptance process of bands 4, 8 and 10 cartridges as OSF and PAI/PAS of FEIC. The system verification activity was focused on the preparation of the system verification plan until the ALMA end of construction and the detailed analysis of the antennas beam shapes. Due to the retirement of system verification team member at the end of 2012, the workforce of the team will be sensibly reduced from eight to seven people, (two full time plus five part time). The 64-Antenna correlator has been accepted on December 20 th, and started demonstrating system level verifications. Preparation for the acceptance of the NAOJ holography receiver #2 continued to hold the ACRV in the week of January 21 st. Preparation of the acceptance of the first nutator from North America started in order to coordinate activities at OSF among relevant parties. The delta CDR of the FEHV started after a successful discussion on the maneuverability on AEM antennas; the review will be held in February 2013. Planning of the maintainability review for the ACA antennas continued in conjunction with closure of action items from acceptances from all four types of antennas. Concerning staffing changes, the project system engineer, Ravinder Bhatia will leave from the project in January 2013 effectively, EU system engineer lead Herve Kurlandczyk, and Peter Napier from the system verification team will leave from the project at the end of 2012. No direct replacement of those members has been planned yet. The normal work is ongoing for configuration management, release of requirements documents, and chairing of acceptances. SE continues to support computing in the testing and deployment processes of next software releases. The following chart provides a summary of acceptance events held up to and including the reporting period (December 2012). 18
8. SCIENCE IPT 8.1 Commissioning and Science Verification The month of December was a rewarding yet difficult month for CSV. Power, UPS, weather and software testing resulted in effectively three out of 18 days allocated for CSV to be useful for science capability testing. Without the extra days beyond the normal cycle taken from Early Science time, the number would have been zero. However, the enthusiasm at the ALMA First Results meeting in Puerto Varas served to remind us of how far we have come and what new discoveries we have supported already. 8.1.1 New Capabilities We made a concerted push toward first images at bands 4 and 8 but were unable to collect sufficient data due to a combination of weather, power and conflicting resource issues. Significant progress on the readiness of the ACA correlator was made with the installation of the frequency compatibility of the Baseline and ACA correlator, the ACA correlator calibration correction and the linearity scaling of the ACA correlator. Much of this, unfortunately, is still pending final verification in the month of January. At the time of writing, we are still not confident that we will be completely ready with the ACA correlator to start Cycle 1. The work on the 64 input correlator continued with upgrades of the computing hardware to a 64-bit operating system. We have to date successfully cross-correlated 45 antennas, 990 baselines, in the low spectral resolution mode. The new operating system was intended to allow us to collect high spectral resolution data on many antennas, but at the time of writing, we are still limited to about 40 antennas in that mode. It is unclear if this limitation is due to the ability to collect the data or in the correlator itself. ALMA Software version R9.1.2, which includes the features from R9.1.1, still includes a number of blocking items for the beginning of Cycle 1 and we are coordinating effort with computing to resolve the correlator problems in the coming days and arranging a visit from the control subsystem specialist in February to help close out existing blocking or critical items. We are still in the debugging phase of R9.1.2 but hope that early January brings closure to many of the critical and blocking issues. It has been challenging to verify the efficiency enhancements brought to us by this mode completely because of the issues described above. 19
Long baseline testing, including the final verification of 1km imaging, is still on hold pending the final deployment of the permanent power system. Cycle 2 capability testing took on lower priority in December although we did make small progress in regards to on axis polarization and some more significant progress on continuum total power data collection in fast scanning mode. We will discuss the path forward on these capabilities at the upcoming Observing Modes meeting in Santiago, January 12-14. In January, we expect to finalize the Cycle 1 verifications, with special emphasis on the ACA and SOS, and then proceed to preparations and further testing of Cycle 2 proposed modes as the Altiplanic winter approaches. 8.1.2 Calibration We continue to work on the online water vapor radiometer application and have integrated the ability to make these measurements in scheduling blocks (SB). The scheduling blocks remain to be tested. 8.2 Science Observing Scripts (SOS) Science observing script testing has gone well. We are ready to deploy dynamic calibrator selection. We have generated and are in the final stages of debugging the single dish observing mode performance. We expect a significant reduction in the time required to create SBs and we have received feedback from testers that this is indeed the case. 8.3 ASAC The December ASAC telecom was cancelled. 8.4 Staffing Former deputy project scientist Alison Peck returned to help us prepare for cycle 1 during December and to help test new modes for cycle 2. Her knowledge of the system allowed her to parse the long list of CSV tasks and related issues and compile a summary of issues that could affect cycle 1 observing. This parent list, when combined with three other such lists dedicated to software, correlator and SOS work, comprises our current action list in preparation for cycle 1. Kartik Sheth of the NAASC, took a few days to help us work on scheduling block generation for testing. 8.5 Conferences and Outreach Several staff members attended a meeting in Hakone, Japan and presented on a range of issues from personal science research to science verification. Many staff attended the ALMA First Results meeting in Puerto Varas, Chile. The community was very positive about their results and clearly hungered for more. The meeting was a pleasant reminder to the staff that despite our tendency to focus on the problems we face, the progress in the last year has been truly amazing. As usual, several members of the team worked with visiting journalists and film crews at the OSF and in other locations. 9. COMPUTING IPT In December work on the baseline correlator continued in two areas. Testing of the transition from 32-bit to 64-bit operating systems on the correlator data processing computers continued. This change is necessary to support more than 40 antennas with the 4-quadrant correlator. This is working reasonably well. In addition, with the latest (9.1.2) incremental release of the software a change to further optimize the scheduling of correlator subscans (to enable 1.5s subscan latency, which is the fast-switching specification) was introduced, but as of the end of December this was still being debugged with the assistance of CSV and the ALMA Department of Computing (ADC). To mitigate wrong Tsys problem for ACA correlator observations and calibrations, upcoming 9.1.3 features for ACA correlator were back ported for the CSV test on the sky. These 20
features seem to be working reasonably. Further and final solutions will come with 9.1.4 and 9.1.5. Remote testing of the new bulk data system is on-going. ACA Antenna related computing equipment, such as network switches and VoIP adapters were delivered to JAO/ADC except for three missing network switches. This missing equipment was already prepared in Japan and will be shipped to complete NAOJ computing hardware delivery for the construction phase. The first few ALMA cycle 0 data sets left their proprietary period in December. These were made available to the community via a straightforward web pages while various ALMA science archive (ASA) issues discovered in late testing (e.g., related to Java versions on various browser/os combinations) were investigated. This situation will be satisfactory through early February, at which time a relatively large number of projects will leave their proprietary period. The related software (code name A9.1R2) has been accepted in December conditioned to resolution of the pending issues. The Department of Science Operations (DSO) tested the SB generation for the cycle 1 version of the observing tool in December. As expected a number of issues were discovered and resolved. We are confident that phase 2 SB generation (an internal observatory function for cycle 1) will be considerably more efficient than it was in cycle 0, with fewer manual interventions being required. A boot camp to train staff for the SB generation will be held in Santiago in mid January. CASA version 4.0 was released to the community on all supported platforms in December. It contains a number of important improvements, including polarization calibration of linear feeds, improved models of solar system objects for primary flux calibration, simulation of combined ACA and main arrays, support for a beam-per-plane in image analysis tasks, improved single dish processing, improved spectral profile displays in the viewer, and parallel processing options in most of the visibility handling tasks. Preparations for the switch over from the CVS version control system to Subversion are in full swing. The relevant licenses for the multi-site replication of the repository and the required servers have been purchased. The switch over is planned for February 2013. The set up of a new JIRA system for the Integrated Computing Team and several other improvements to support the new team structure have made good progress and will be rolled out early 2013. A number of power shortages happened in December, impacting testing. Short-term test plans of R9.1.2 incremental release had to be adjusted accordingly on a short notice. The release has been handed over to science (CSV) in any case. Band 5 and band 10 testing continue to be supported by the team in Chile. The AOS test interferometer is now in operations and has started to be used for testing by computing, engineering, and science. Starting in January, CIPT will be superseded by the Integrated Computing Team (ICT). The heading of this section will be changed accordingly. 21
10. SCIENCE OPERATIONS Cycle 0 observations The cycle 0 observations are now finished. The last observing block (number 29) finished on January 1 st in the morning. Figure 4 shows the observing statistics. Two of the last three blocks had a relatively low efficiency due to power and correlator problems. Figure 4: Efficiency statistics by observing block Figure 5 shows the cumulative number of SBs for which observations have begun, and the number of SBs that are finished (having passed the first level of quality assurance - QA0 with enough successful executions done to reach the required noise level) as a function of observing block, including both highest priority and filler projects. The purple line is an estimate of how many SBs should have been finished during these observing blocks in order to complete all 113 highest priority projects (in total 374 SBs executed in 29 observing blocks) at the end of cycle 0. 22
Figure 5: SBs started, and finished, by observing block Cycle 0 data processing Data processing is proceeding at the ALMA regional centers (ARCs) as well as at the JAO. Figure 6 shows the number of SBs that have been processed and delivered to PIs as function of time (=completed executions of SBs that have passed QA2), and Table 1 shows the cumulative status of observations and data processing until January 9. Pipeline testing is currently ongoing at the JAO and the ARCs, and a new version of the pipeline will be installed at the JAO in the beginning of January. Figure 6: Data Processing and data delivery on January 9th 23
Priority=Highest Projects SBs Executions Total Number 113 374 754 Started 109 328 744 Nominally completed (i.e. if pass QA2) 91 321 688 Passed QA2 or delivered (partly or completely) 85 275 568 Completed & delivered 57 252 517 Table 1: Status of cycle 0 observations and data processing on January 9 th Table 2 shows the executive balance derived from the number of hours of successful observations (datasets that have passed QA0) for the highest priority projects. Time of Executions for Highest Priority projects that passed QA0 Executive: CL EA EU NA Sum (hours) 107.0 217.2 326.6 326.0 Fraction (%) 11.0% 22.2% 33.4% 33.4% Difference from share 1.0% -0.3% -0.3% -0.4% Table 2: Executive balance of observing time and the differences with respect to the regional share During cycle 0 two highest priority projects were cancelled, leaving 111 projects to be observed. Of these, 91 will be complete if all executions pass QA2, 16 will be partially complete (not all science goals were completely observed), and two were not observed at all (both are band 9 compact configuration projects). A total of 13 filler projects were observed in cycle 0. Two are complete and delivered and eight more are expected to be complete if all executions pass QA2. As of January 9 th, 2013, a total of 67 datasets remain to be processed through QA2 and delivered to PIs (see Fig. 3). The goal is to finish the data processing for all cycle 0 projects before the end of February. Projects with SBs which have obtained at least half of the estimated number of executions will be calibrated and imaged and delivered to PIs. The remaining SB's (i.e. those with less than half of the estimated number of executions) will be quickly processed and delivered on an "as is" basis, since these data are probably insufficient to reach the requested science goals. Six highest priority projects and three filler projects have SB's that fall in this category. SciOps IPT f2f meeting A SciOps IPT face-to-face meeting was held in Santiago December 18 th -20 th. The discussions included final data processing of cycle 0 projects, planning for cycle 1 observations and data reduction, and preparations for the cycle 2 call for proposals. Archive deployment Six datasets have become public and are available through the science portal. Preparations for cycle 1 Scheduling blocks are now being prepared for the first cycle 1 observations in January. The 12 highest priority projects selected for this first block were chosen to cover the complete range of observing modes offered in cycle 1. The first observations will be done as part of the test of the cycle 1 software release. Preparations for Cycle 2 24
Several meetings were held to define the cycle 2 capabilities and a f2f meeting to discuss single dish observing and data reduction strategies was held in Santiago. There will be a f2f meeting between the subsystem experts in Santiago in early January to go through the implementation of the capabilities in detail. DSO Hiring: Job offers have been sent to the selected candidates for the first three JAO postdoctoral fellowship positions. The selection processes for the data analyst and two science archive content manager positions are ongoing. There were several good candidates and shortlists are now being prepared. EA ARC: Five EA ARC staff and postdocs attended the ALMA 1 st Science Meeting in Puerto Varas. Ken Tatematsu, Daniel Espada, Eiji Akiyama, and Yasutaka Kurono attended the ALMA single dish workshop. Ken Tatematsu attended the SciOps IPT f2f meeting in Santiago. Erik Muller participated in archive and pipeline testing. Data reduction and delivery support continued for EA projects. We have interviewed candidates for the positions of four staff members and five postdocs (job offers will be made mid January). EU ARC: One ESO Fellow provided AoD support for two turnos at the OSF. Four ESO-ALMA Fellows attended the ALMA 1 st Science Meeting in Puerto Varas and presented their cycle 0 results. Ten people working for the EU ARC nodes attended as well. Most of the EU ARC staff could not attend because of ESO budget restrictions for science trips. Attendance from EU ARC (including nodes) to the single dish observing and data reduction strategies workshop in Santiago was achieved via videolink. Paola Andreani attended both the ALMA 1 st Science meeting and the SciOps IPT f2f meeting in Santiago. Data reduction and delivery have been the major effort in December together with the testing of the ALMA science archive. A workaround had to be found to make the Cycle 0 public data available from the science portal. EU ARC worked on the OT Phase 2 test, participated in the OT developers meeting, and created the SBs for cycle 1 batch 1 observing block. NA ARC: Thirteen NAASC staff and postdocs attended the ALMA 1 st Science Meeting in Puerto Varas. Ed Fomalont remains deployed to the JAO for CSV/DSO support. Kartik Sheth, Alison Peck and Jansky Fellow Arielle Moullet traveled to the OSF to provide AoD and CSV support, and Mark Rawlings traveled to the JAO to provide cycle1 batch1 support. Crystal Brogan, Todd Hunter, Juergen Ott and John Hibbard traveled to the JAO to attend the ALMA Single Dish workshop, which several others attended parts of remotely (include Jeff Kern for pipeline). Phil Jewell and John Hibbard attended the SciOps IPT f2f meeting in Santiago. We participated in archive and pipeline testing and supported the archive deployment for the NA mirror archive. The helpdesk was updated to the latest version of Kayako. Preparations were made to support several ALMA-related events at the January AAS meeting in Long Beach in January 2013 and an ALMA data reduction tutorial to be held in Charlottesville at the end of February 2013. Data reduction and delivery support continued for all NA projects. 25
11. ALMA DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING (ADE) 11.1Management December was a little slower than average as a result of the holiday season and lower staff levels. The biggest event was the transition from the diesel generators to the permanent power system and its new turbines. The JAO worked with the ESO lead engineer up until he left Chile (and ESO) to return to Italy. There have been several short interruptions to the power with significant impact to CSV and Science Operations but the frequency of these interruptions is diminishing. AIV continues to progress very well. There were no significant schedule slips reported other than those affiliated with the various components of the power generation and distribution systems. 11.2Antenna Group (AG) In December Max Kraus from ESO came to the OSF to supervise the permanent repair of the transporter X-Y tables. Working with transporter team members Patricio Saavedra, Winston Cordova, Cesar Pulgar and Alfredo Elgueta and machinist Christian Aguilar the repairs to both OTTO and LORE were completed and tested in five days time well ahead of schedule. Although the repairs were seen to be a success the condition of these assemblies will be continually monitored as part of the regular maintenance. There were no incidents reported in December. 11.3Instrumentation Group (IG) Back End: AIV activities: PAS testing of BE Antenna Articles are continuing with unchanged pace, two have been finalized this month; Station 2 integrations have been performed on five antennas (DV25, DA57 and DA55); four antennas were delivered to CSV: (DV09, DV11, CM04, CM06). Operations: continued maintenance service was provided for two array elements (DV09, DV11); Protection and handling of the CLO equipment during unexpected power outages was improved. Front End: AIV activities: Unchanged pace with FE processing; this is expected to continue until the end of February, until all FEs have arrived at the OSF: seven FEs were PAS tested, as were a batch of four band 8 cold cartridges, and multiple monitor and control systems for FE power supplies after their upgrade, the swap-out of which continues at the AOS; three FEs were installed in Array Elements. Holography campaigns for DA57 and DV25 were executed. Reception of band 4/8/10 cold cartridges continues. Operations: 29 individual trouble shooting activities were performed on various line replaceable units (LRUs) and subsystems; the calibration devices (ACDs) at the AOS were updated for the solar filter positions. Band 5 observation testing (phase closure on the night before Christmas!) was achieved; the quality of the FE on-call support has been improved by dividing up the specialization to two persons. Laboratory outfitting continues: concrete foundations are finished, electrical and floor works scheduled within January for having the rooms ready for installation and commissioning of the FE tilt tables in February. Cryo Team: Integration: PASs on four FEs were supported, and cryo systems were installed on one new array element; in the cryo labs, the works on the centralized gas distribution network continues in coordination with the other external contractors. The solution for upgrade of the power distribution rails in the outdoor enclosures (ICCUs) is found and being implemented. Maintenance & Troubleshooting: five new array elements (CM11, CM12, PM04, DA56, DA57) have been incorporated into the CMMS database; several cryo systems of Front Ends have been investigated due to high temperatures of the 2nd cooler stages. Lab outfitting continues, including the development of refurbishment and maintenance processes for the cryogenic cold heads. Correlator/data transfer system (DTS): AIV activities: Most of the efforts have been devoted to achieve the 64 antennas capability for the BL correlator on software verification; ACA correlator LRU s/n recovery was done. Information ready to be added to CMMS; PA 26
and Safety inspection was done (BL correlator). BL correlator 4-Quadrants PAS was done. ALMA accepted the correlator. Operations: several hours has been spent addressing power outages. The Correlator STE is functional again; a UPS was added to the correlator-ste equipment. Early Science has agreed to used the latest Final Adder firmware; (currently the 4-quadrants configuration is in use as a definitive deployment); loss of coherence issues has been successfully addressed. 11.4 Maintenance Group Power Generation: OSF (TF, camp area, antenna vendors and transporter) and AOS TB are already supplied with power by PPS (Turbines). The operational condition adopted is keep running just one turbine at time due to the low demand. AOS Antenna field is been supplied by the TPS; the operational condition is keep running 4/5 of the generators available. The power supplied by turbines was affected for several incidents during the months: Power Outages: 6 Turbine Incidents: 3 The root cause of the incidents are identify in three areas: Turbine Design/Commissioning: 5 (56%) Operation: 3 (33%) External Source: 1 (11%) At the end of the month only turbine T01 is working, while turbine T02 is under investigation as this equipment was exposed to an emergency shutdown, and turbine T03 is still waiting for reparation by the supplier. On Friday, December 14 th, the system supervisor for HVAC at AOS (NAE) configuration was reset resulting in a total failure in HVAC performance. BL and ACA Correlators were stopped due to high temperature for 10 hours and CLO for 8 hours. The root cause of the failure is understood and affects the communication protocol. The system assumed wrong values as a result of this defect in their configuration. This defect is partially solved waiting for permanent solution to be implemented in February. 11.5 AIV Processing During this month two additional array elements (AE) were delivered to the AOS, bringing the delivered total to 54 or 82% of completion. No new EU antennae were transferred to AIV in December, but array element CM11 s damaged hexapod could be repaired by NAOJ/Melco and the AE got transferred back to AIV. In this scenario 2/3 of the existing AIV processing capacity could be used during this month while transitioning towards a processing pace of only one AE/month from January onwards. Even when work on array element PM04 has been considered a maintenance activity it underwent again full AIV verification and successfully passed its readiness review in December. On this antenna the prototype dish backup structure had been replaced by a production one by the vendor, among other refurbishment activities. Station 4 data taking has slowed down significantly due to a combination of power outages, software problems and non-adequate weather conditions. As from January 1 st, 2013, the AIV Project closing phase will start. A baseline plan for this phase has been prepared that includes intermediate milestones and proposes organizational adjustments, among other aspects. During the first trimester of 2013 the AIV project, via the 27
respective functional line managers, needs to reduce the AIV-related staffing costs by 25-30% in order to fit the now lower level of workload, and in order to stay on budget. 11.6 Array System Group (ASG) Fault tracking and diagnosis efforts continue. The health of array is updated daily. Charts from Jan 15, 2013 are shown here. The first is a summary of the AOS status. The second is a status on each array-element. The RED S implies the element is shutdown and not available for science. The ORANGE E implies engineering attention is required and the element may not be available for science. The YELLOW C implies CSV attention is needed to complete integration or another function and the GREEN O implies the element is fully operational. 28
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11.7 Projects Office Electrical Works These will start on January 17 th and after finishing the Tilt Table Rooms the testing room will follow, as the Tilt Table and Band 7 CCA commissioning teams require it. Civil Works Works are ongoing and next week all the doors will be installed. 11.8 Integration of Bands 4/8/10 at OSF No relevant progress has been made during December. First activities mainly related to cartridge acceptance testing are expected to start as from January 1 st. Considering that the situation regarding funding is still unclear a definition would be required as soon as possible. Also, the JAO internal accounting mechanism needs to be updated in order to correctly reflect related charges as from next month. 12. ALMA DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTING 12.1 Management Periodic project meetings to follow up the progress in the fiber optic project have been set up. The project has been progressing as anticipated. The ADC management team started to prepare the 2013 purchase plan. This work will continue in January with the Head of Administration. The Cisco call for tender has been initiated and is expected to be awarded in January. The new frame contract will include telecommunication, phone, video conferencing and wireless network equipment. The statement of work for Oracle maintenance contract is almost completed. The call for tender will be issued in early February. 12.2 Information Technology Group (IT) Several power cuts happened during the permanent power system rollout. To minimize the impact on the IT systems, several small UPSs at the OSF and the AOS were installed to protect critical equipment Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) has been enabled on the ALMA Internet link (ENTEL/Level3) to provide redundancy in the access to SCO facilities. IT has also enabled a new firewall between ALMA SCO and AUI. The emergency protocol for the SCO data center was reviewed and updated. The review was triggered after an accidental discharge of the proinert gas. 12.3 Archive and Pipeline Operations Group (APO) Multiple misalignments between the OSF and the SCO (and therefore the ARCs) have been fixed and the JAO and all three ARCs databases are now in-synch. This was a very important milestone in order to guarantee all the project information was correct at the ARCs before querying/downloading metadata by the scientific community. 30
Archive test environment is now installed. Currently, different configurations setups are being tested (i.e.: Oracle VM, NGAS virtualization, etc.). This will allow JAO to suggest the best working archive topology, namely, right number of the new generation archive system (binary archive) nodes and Oracle instances. The ultimately goal is to reduce cost of hardware and software licenses without affecting performance, while at the same time allowing to test software in a production-like environment. Optimization done last month in ESO Network equipments is still working as expected, however a permanent solution is still subject ESO review. ALMA science data distribution kick off meeting (working group) took place on December 5 th. Different scenarios were discussed and not only technical specs, but also operational constraints were part of this first round of meetings. 13. ADMINISTRATION The approved 2013 budget was revised to incorporate the changes recommended by the ABC, which include the ALMA deputy director and the AOS paramedic (to be reviewed quarterly). The total budget remains at the amount approved by the ALMA Board in the November meeting. This final version will be referred as 2013.0 in future financial reports. The final financial report for Chilean operating costs for the financial year 2012 is anticipated to be slightly above the approved budget envelope for 2012. Explanations and justification will be provided in the ALMA Operations 2012 Financial Report to be released early February. 14. HUMAN RESOURCES Employee Relations JAO staff, at the OSF and the SCO, were pleased to gather and share memories of the past year at modest end of year dinners. It was also beneficial for OSF based staff to interact with Pierre Cox, ALMA s incoming Director, at one of the dinners in San Pedro. On Christmas day, hardworking OSF based staff enjoyed a special meal together at the site. Prior to staff leaving for holidays, the ALMA director, ALMA head of human resources and the AUI legal representative met with union leadership to discuss the JAO s new catering/cleaning contract and other issues of concern to the union. Follow up meetings were scheduled for January. The JAO noted that it would seriously consider a modification to the catering/cleaning contract, analyze options and budgetary impact and the union acknowledged that it would be receptive to finding a compromise. 31
LSM Recruitment and Selection Positions Filled from Jan 1 - December 28, 2012 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 60 50 10 Total Positions Filled LSM Positions Filled ISM Positions Filled Local Staff Member (LSM) on-going recruitment ALMA Human Resources is searching for six LSM positions, with three on hold as follows: ALMA Department of Engineering (3) o Antenna Group (1) (On-Hold) o Maintenance Group (2) (On-Hold) ALMA Department of Science (3) o Program Management Group (1) o Data Management Group (2) ALMA Project Management (3) o Product Assurance/Quality Assurance (3) New Arrivals: One electrical specialist, power team, ADE Maintenance Group. Turnover: Two LSM s left the organization during December: One engineer II, array system group and one engineer II-electrical, ADE Instrument Group. 32
ISM Recruitment and Selection ALMA Postdoctoral Fellows (3 ISMs) Offer letters were sent to the three candidates selected to receive postdoctoral fellowships at ALMA. Violette Impellizzeri, current CSV scientist, accepted the job offer and will begin work as NRAO s ALMA Postdoctoral Fellow in April. The candidates for ESO and NAOJ are evaluating the offers and are expected to provide responses in the near future. 15. EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH Valeria Foncea was appointed as Education & Public Outreach Officer. One of the milestones of December was the Puerto Varas Conference on ALMA Early Science, where EPO was part of the Organization Committee (see picture below). Even though EPO-IPT decided not to call the press to the event -since non-peer reviewed data would be shared- EPO had a lot of work focused on the local media in order to invite people to attend the two public talks held. For that purpose, 10 schools were visited ahead of the Conference, the tourist office and all local media were called. As a result, 13 newspapers and website articles were written and four radios and one local TV reported on this issue. Even more important: around 120 people attended each public talk. In preparation for the next ALMA milestone -the Inauguration event- the EPO-IPT issued a Media Advisory to invite the international media interested to attend to submit applications of interest in advance. JAO called for a press conference in collaboration with Fundación Imagen de Chile on December 4 th where 25 journalists from Chilean media and foreign correspondents attended (see picture below). As a result, there is an estimation that 100 to120 journalists worldwide will arrive. Media kits and VIP gifts are being prepared by the partners. EPO is working on the last phase of an ethno-astronomy book that will be delivered to the Atacaman population as part of the ALMA Inauguration community day on March 9 th 2013. The project sponsored by ALMA is now being edited before going to design and print. Media Coverage - Media visits to the ALMA site: on December JAO coordinated the visits of a journalist from Nature Magazine and a documentary crew working for the Australian free-to-air TV Channel 7. NAOJ EPO led the visit onsite of biologist Dr. Takeshi Naganuma and a Japanese TV station (Nippon TV) for their documentary program "Another Sky", broadcasted on December 28th (in Japanese). 33
- Interviews to our staff: EPO coordinated 12 interviews with media, such as Sky & Telescope, Science and Nature, also including the first interview to our newly-appointed ALMA director, Pierre Cox, by Chilean Magazine Qué Pasa. - Chilean media: 51 features (mainly on the Puerto Varas Conference, ALMA Inauguration, and Press Releases on brown dwarfs and the Correlator). - Press releases: EPO-IPT worked on one Press Release on the Correlator (see picture below) and two Announcements regarding Puerto Varas conference and the Media Advisory. NAOJ EPO reported that a Japanese journalist is writing a book featuring ALMA (in Japanese) after the book editor and a photographer visited the observatory. Two public talks on ALMA were delivered to Tokyo via Skype from the OSF and one in Santiago by T. Hasegawa at the Japan-Chile Chamber of Commerce. Besides the IPT press releases, NAOJ EPO uploaded web news articles on the Academic Lecture "Investigating the Mysteries of the Dark Universe"; a Japanese TV Show "Another Sky" features ALMA Telescope, and a picture of the three types of 12-m Antennas at the OSF. ESO EPO created a virtual tour at Chajnantor, and 2 video compilations: one time-lapse of the ALMA antennas, and another one of a relocation of an ALMA antenna". Besides, ESO posted two Pictures of the Week on its website focused on ALMA: "Whirling Southern Star Trails over ALMA" and "ALMA s Solitude". 34
16. SAFETY Meetings & Training A meeting was held with ESACH (contractor for the policlinic). We were informed that their main office in the second region is being moved from Calama to Antofagasta. We also discussed the training calendar for ALMA s paramedics and some of our requirements during ALMA s inauguration. Vehicles Over 3000 speed controls were taken on the ALMA road. Two suspensions were issued to contractors. Environment A diesel leak was found at the power generation area. ALMA safety and brigade carried out the containment and clean up of the hydrocarbon. Power ALMA safety has committed a large percentage of its time to provide support to all the activities regarding the LPG facilities and power up of the turbines. 35