This Knowledgebase article is a repository for information relevant to submission of Cycle 12 proposals. These items may affect how users write their proposals or set up their observations in the OT. The content may evolve rapidly as the 24 April 2025 proposal deadline approaches. Items added to this list after its initial deployment will include the date they were added. We encourage all PIs to check back here regularly prior to proposal submission.
Important News Items:
Proposer’s Guide:
- The data file associated with Figure 5 ("Estimated available observing time") of the Proposer's Guide was updated at 19:00 UTC on 20 March 2025. Users who downloaded this file before that time should retrieve the updated version to use for proposal planning.
Joint Proposals
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Proposers submitting Joint Proposals with ALMA as the Main observatory and JWST as a Partner Observatory should submit their APT files to STScI within two weeks of the ALMA Proposal Deadline, not four weeks as stated in the ALMA Proposer's Guide (see the JWST User Documentation)
Announcement for early proposal planning for Cycle 12
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Date |
Milestone |
|
20 March 2025 |
Release of the ALMA Cycle 12 Call for Proposals and Observing Tool, and opening of the archive for proposal submission |
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24 April 2025 (15:00 UT) |
Proposal submission deadline |
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October 2025 |
Start of Cycle 12 observations |
Observing Tool Known Issues - Please check this page for updates on OT known issues
|
Issue |
Description |
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C1_032 |
Leaving the OT open for days at a time can cause an error upon saving. Saving to another file, closing the OT and re-opening produces a "ZLIB input stream" error i.e. the project is unreadable. This issue is yet to be satisfactorily characterised. |
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C6_001 |
The OT's mosaicing algorithm will not allow an even number of pointings along a single row. A custom mosaic may be used instead. |
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C8_002 |
When setting the hour of a multiple visit using the time-constraint interface, it may not be possible to select certain values and attempting to do so may cause the OT to freeze. There is no known workaround at present. |
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C8_003 |
Sources with different velocities may bring up a validation error relating to 'tuning groups'. Small changes to the source velocity may solve the problem. The first source typically seems to be the problem. |
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C10_001 |
When selecting “Simultaneous 12-m and ACA observations” in a project where two different 12-m configurations are required (e.g., C-5 and C-2), the smaller configuration (e.g., C-2) is dropped without any warning. |
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C10_004 |
In the correlator configuration section of the Technical Justification in the OT, the effective bandwidth is wrongly displayed as representative spectral window resolution and thus the calculation of the line width / representative spectral window resolution is not correct. |
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C11_003 |
In the science goal summary of the proposal pdf, the time windows for time-constrained projects with multiple visits are not displayed. |
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C11_004 |
For spectral scan projects, the achieved RMS over the total bandwidth reported in the Technical Justification is wrong. One should refer to the requested RMS. |
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C12_001 |
Since Cycle 11 the OT uses angular resolution tables for each configuration based on simulations of arrays with 43 to 50 antennas which contain a minimum and maximum resolution per declination. This works correctly except for the shortest and longest 12-m configurations offered in a given cycle. In Cycle 12 the angular resolution ranges of C-1 and C-8 are therefore slightly limited; specifically, the OT does not validate the nominal coarsest resolution for C-1, and the nominal highest angular resolution for C-8. |
|
C12_002 |
If a JWST image in FITS format is loaded in the OT spatial visualizer to create ALMA pointings, the OT may incorrectly read the WCS information. We recommend loading the JWST image in CARTA, create the pointings there, and use them in the OT without relying on the OT spatial visualizer. |
|
C12_003 |
For Spectral Scans, in Cycle 12 the OT erroneously calculates the integration time if the bandwidth used for sensitivity is set to “AggregateBandWith”. If one wishes the OT to calculate the sensitivity over the aggregate bandwidth, one should set the bandwidth used for sensitivity to “User” with a frequency width of 3.75 GHz. |