nb4. Query by scientific category


The relevant columns in the ALMA TAP service are:


The scientific categories of observations are:

Note: these categories are stable in time and valid for all ALMA Cycles and may thus slighly differ from the categories in the ALMA Observing Tool which can change from Cycle to Cycle.


Query scientific category



Query science keyword and data type



Example 4a: How many active galaxies (science category) have been observed with ALMA?

These queries only return science observations, not calibrator observations.

Showing the first 30 unique target names:

In which bands have the AGN (as determined by the science category) been observed?

Where have they been observed?

Within this science category there are several combinations of science keywords. We split each combination of science keywords up and then plot the pie chart.

Show the list of all Science Keywords in the the ALMA database:


Example 4b : How many sub-mm galaxies (science keyword) have been observed?

First, we investigate this question using the corresponding scientific keyword.

Similarly, we can look for sub-millimeter Galaxies in the proposal abstract texts. For example with

We can now plot the position of these sub-mm galaxies observations:


Example 4c : Which sub-mm galaxies have been observed the longest with ALMA?

To answer this question, we first group the observations together:

We then sum the exposure times, sort by them and print out a summary of the groups of observations identified. The entry 0 of that list contains all the observations that have no overlap with other observations and that group thus has to be skipped.

We now plot the 50 SMGs with the longest total exposure times:


Example 4d : How many quasars have been observed with ALMA?