After the release of the Cycle 3 Call for Proposals on March 24, 2015, any items that are of potential interest to proposers which are not completely clarified in the main call materials will be summarized here. These items may affect how users write their proposals or set up their observations in the OT. We will collect them here as they are identified, so check back often.
Relevant Knowledgebase Articles:
OT updates:
(added April 17 2015): a new version of the OT has been released correcting a number of the OT "known issues" identified to date. The OT will prompt users when a new version is available for download. All users are recommended to upgrade to the latest release - Web Start users will automatically get the new version upon restarting the OT. The upgraded OT will be labeled "ALMA Observing Tool (Cycle3u1)".
Array configuration files:
(added April 22 2015): The Cycle 3 array configuration files that ship with CASA are not the same as adopted in the Cycle 3 OT and Technical Handbook. The latter are available from the ALMA Science Portal "Documents and Tools" page under the heading "Array Configuration Files"
Unclear items in the Call for Proposals and Proposers Guide (added April 8 2015):
Says that "baselines up to 2 km for Bands 8, 9 and 10" are available. It should be up to 2.3 km (i.e. up to and including configuration C36-6, see Table 7.2 of Technical Handbook). The OT does the correct validation.
Says that "baselines up to 5 km for Band 7" are available. It should be up to 6.1 km (i.e. up to and including configuration C36-7, see Table 7.2 of Technical Handbook). The OT does the correct validation.
Says that baselines > 2 km are considered "non-standard". It should be baselines > 2.3 km. (i.e., C36-6 is considered standard). Note that the OT correctly reports when non-standard modes are triggered.
Proposers Guide Section A.9.3 says that the spectral dynamic range is "per execution". However, this limitation is due to systemics and so the per execution limit is the same as the limit for the completed observation (i.e., it will not "integrate down" with more executions).
Duplication checks (added April 8 2015):
Column "J" of the cycle 2 duplication list does not list the PI specified bandwidth for sensitivity; it is instead the same spectral bandwidth as reported in Column "AZ". Since the reference frequency, spectral bandwidth, spectral resolution and sensitivity are all correctly reported, it should still be possible to avoid most duplications. We are working on getting a corrected file uploaded, and will note here when that happens. FIXED - NEW FILE DEPLOYED APRIL 9
The archive query is not returning the expected resolution for the observations. We are hoping to patch this before the proposal deadline, and will note here if and when that happens. FIXED - NEW QUERY DEPLOYED APRIL 13 (select "spatial resolution" from the "More columns" option. Units are arc sec.)
Notable Changes from Earlier Cycles (added April 17 2015):
The proposal template for the Scientific Justification is different. There is still a 4 page limit, but the minimum font size is now 12pt. See the Knowledgebase article: "What format, font size, etc., should I use for the scientific and technical justification?"