What's new in Cycle 11?
The most important changes to the OT since the last release are the following.
- New capabilities:
- Band 1 on the 12-m Array for full polarization.
- Band 1 on the ACA, for Stokes I only (no Stokes Q/U/V).
- More than one science target per science goal for VLBI observations.
- All bands (Band 1, 3-10) are now allowed for all 12-m configurations (C1-C10).
- The 938 MHz - 1024 chan setup is now also available in 4x4bit mode.
- The default correlator for the ACA is the baseline correlator (BLC).
- Configuration assignment: New configuration tables for larger range of available antennas and new assignment logic. The OT now compares the user entered values for angular resolution with the angular resolution values in the configuration tables. The user entered values are increased by +/- 20% to increase the chance of configuration matching. The OT issues a validation error if no fitting configuration can be found.
- VLBI and Phased Array projects: A text box in the Technical Justification section is presented whenever user-defined calibration has been selected.
- A warning will be triggered by the OT if the line width entered by the PI in the Field Setup is larger than 20% of the bandwidth of the representative spectral window.
- Simultaneous 12-m and ACA observations: a warning will be triggered by the OT if the requested angular resolution and maximum recoverable scale combination requires two 12-m configurations and the more compact configuration is being dropped because the simultaneous observation option has been chosen.
- An error will be triggered by the OT if the source velocity is larger than the speed of light for Doppler Types Radio and Relativistic.
- Time-constrained projects: Subsequent visits are now by default relative to visit 1.
- The page limit for large programs has been increased to seven pages and the document is now called Science Case and Management Plan.
- For large programs, the PI has to confirm the scheduling feasibility of the proposed observations by checking a new box. If this box is not selected, the OT will issue a validation error.
- No page limit for the science case pdf for joint proposals with ALMA as partner.
- Once a proposal has been submitted and a proposal code assigned, its proposal type cannot be changed anymore (the options are greyed out).
The ALMA OT Team, 2024 Mar 01