ALMA OT Release Notes for Cycle 4 Phase II (Update 2)
Update 2 addresses the following known issues for Cycle 4 Phase II:
- C4_012: OT is ignoring user-specified sensitivity unit when reading project
- Centre frequency in process of being edited is copied across spectral setups
- Frequencies are copied from one spectral spec to another when a frequency edit is not confirmed
- OT not always showing band-edge error
ALMA OT Release Notes for Cycle 4 Phase II (Update 1)
Update 1 addresses the following known issues for Cycle 4 Phase II:
- This update fixes a bug that made it impossible to generate SBs for Solar proposals using mosaics.
ALMA OT Release Notes for Cycle 4 Phase II release
Summary list of the key new capabilities, features and improvements since Cycle 4 Phase I. For the major changes please consult the Proposer's Guide for more details.
- The primary change in this release is to allow Principal Investigators the ability to generate their own Scheduling Blocks from their approved Science Goals.
- It is not possible to generate Scheduling Blocks from descoped Science Goals.
- Principal Investigators may only edit certain fields in a Science Goal, and only within pre-defined margins. PIs are not allowed to edit Scheduling Blocks directly.
- The project file chooser has been enhanced with a history feature to file chooser.
ALMA OT Release Notes for Cycle 4 (Update 2)
Update 2 addresses the following known issues for Cycle 4:
- C4_010: Executive share and validation does not work correctly for SACA Large Programs
- C4_011: Some EA PIs are getting Chilean executive shares
ALMA OT Release Notes for Cycle 4 (Update 1)
Update 1 addresses the following known issues for Cycle 4:
- C4_006: High redshifts can lead to the OT refusing to display the time-estimate dialogue.
- C4_005: In the Technical Justification editor, the achieved RMS over the total bandwidth and over 1/3 of the line width are reported as 0.00
- C4_008: Sources read in from a source list will have their coordinate system set to FK5. This should be ICRS.
ALMA OT Release Notes for Cycle 4
Summary list of the key new capabilities, features and improvements since Cycle 3. For the major changes please consult the Proposer's Guide for more details.
- It is now possible to create a Science Goal that will make use of the ACA only (7m and TP)
- Large programs are now supported.
- It is now possible to create Science Goals to observe Solar phenomena. Choose "Sun" as your Solar System target.
- The creation of VLBI proposals is now supported, in conjunction with the global VLBI mm network.
- Full polarization with spectral line setups is now allowed.
- It is now possible to select a number of sources across the visible sky in one Science Goal, with the same spectral spectral setup and performance parameters.
There is no longer a restriction on the closeness. During Phase II these sources will be separated into clusters for separate Scheduling Block execution.
- "Shadowing" is accounted for in 7m array and compact array sensitivity calculations.
- All ALMA Observations are taken using the ICRS coordindate system, accordingly ICRS is the default for coordinate specification and is recommended. All FK5 (J2000) cooordinates will be treated as if they were ICRS. Galactic is still
supported.
- Previously submitted proposals from the Archive may now be used as the basis for new proposals, even if they have been moved to "Phase II".
- It is no longer possible to override the choice of using or not using the ACA.
- "Standard" proposals are now called "Regular" (to avoid confusion with Standard/non-Standard observing setups) although the ".S" suffix is retained.
- It is now possible to use projects from the Archive as "templates".
- A number of user interface enhancements have been made.
- C1_001: On MacOS cmd-X, cmd-C and cmd-V should now be used for cutting, copying, pasting in text field and text areas within the OT.
- C3_012: It should no longer be the case that the proposal title on proposal node can become that of an open template.
ALMA OT Release Notes for Cycle 3 (Update 1)
Update 1 addresses the following known issues for Cycle 3:
- C3_001: The time shown on the Cover Sheet for "Multiple visit" Science Goals is too high
- C3_002: Copy and paste of a Science Goal followed by an edit of the spectral setup can cause the source line width to change.
- C3_003: The time estimate in brackets is not always that due to the sensitivity, but also includes certain minima.
- C3_004: Time overrides when two 12-m configurations are required cannot be requested.
- C3_005: It is possible to define multiple clusters of pointings using the custom mosaic option.
- C3_006: The polarization non-standard time on the cover sheet is too long.
- C3_007: Changing between Doppler types doesn't always work properly.
- C3_010: Moving to a new Science Goal deselects ACA in the original Science Goal
ALMA OT Release Notes for Cycle 3
Summary list of the key new capabilities, features and improvements since Cycle 2.
- Band 10 is now available for limited use.
- Free choice of TDM frequency for full polarization observations, in Bands 3, 6 and 7.
- Increase in number of antennas: 36 12-m array, 10 7-m array, 2 Total Power array.
- Introduction of non-standard modes.
- New antenna beamsize definition in use.
- Sesame is now used to query source information.
- A Science Goal may now contain multiple sources with rectangular field definitions.
- The Total Power mapping area is automatically calculated for custom mosaics or single pointings.
- Fuller Import/export of pointing positions.
- Absolute positions are now supported for pointing centres.
- The “Point source” button has been removed.
- Source declination is taken into account when determining which array configurations are required.
- Total Power will not be scheduled if the 7-m array can achieve the requested Largest Angular Scale.
- Noise contribution from the image sideband is now explicitly calculated for DSB receivers (Bands 9 and 10).
- Improvements to the time-constrained interface.
- Overhaul of Technical Justification node:
- Better organised
- More information for the user
- Copy and Paste between SGs improved
- The total time for a proposal can be displayed in the main OT GUI - see under "Tool" on the top-level menu bar.
- J2000 coordinate system name changed to "FK5 J2000".
- The target linewidth may only be specified in velocity units, km/s or m/s.
More detailed information on the above can be found in the Science Portal under Documents and Tools.