New release of ALMA Science Verification data

A new installment of Science Verification data is available. This release contains three new datasets corresponding to targets suggested by the community and listed on the Science Verification web page:

- The protoplanetary disk HD163296: multiple spectral lines, demonstrating the mixed modes capability, at Bands 6 and 7

- The Galactic Centre, Sgr A*: recombination lines at Band 3

The Science Verification data sets are available through the ALMA Science Portal at ALMA Data. The data products released here contain raw, uncalibrated data to allow users to try their hands at a complete data reduction process. A calibrated data set is also provided, allowing users to perform data analysis and post-processing, as well as reference images generated from the reduced data sets. There are data reduction suggestions for these datasets provided in the form of a script, as well as additional information about the dataset in a README file.

We hope that you will find that the quality of these datasets is impressive, but please remember that ALMA is still in the construction phase, and we are continuously testing new observing modes. These observations are made using new equipment and software and thus may contain more idiosyncrasies than data released to PIs in Early Science.

We thank the large number of staff at the JAO and the ARCs who have participated in the commissioning activities, observations and data reduction that made this release possible.

Reminder: In order to reduce and/or analyze the ALMA data, users need to use the Common Astronomy Software Applications (CASA) package. The CASA package can be accessed through http://casa.nrao.edu. The CASA Guide requires the CASA 3.4 version. Feedback on the data and on the CASA software is always welcome!