Construction of the international Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) is underway, with early science operations currently planned to begin in Q3 2011 and full science operations planned for Q4 2012. ALMA is among the largest advances in observational capabilities in ground-based astronomy ever made, larger than the step from 4m-class optical telescopes with photomultipliers and photographic plates to 10m-class telescopes with CCDs, in terms of combined improvements in sensitivity, frequency coverage, resolution, imaging, and spectral capabilities. ALMA will address many of the paramount astrophysical questions of our day, from the earliest epochs of galaxy formation, through the detailed formation of stars and planets in our Galaxy. Such a transformational facility will attract a large majority of the astronomical community to use ALMA. To support this very broad user community in fully realizing the dramatic advance in scientific capabilities afforded by ALMA, a cost-effective operations model and plan that is fully consistent with the global ALMA Operations Plan (AOP) has been developed. The AOP has been vetted extensively by an international working group over several years and is approved by the ALMA Board, the international oversight body for the ALMA.
ALMA operations consists of (i) the facility operations in Chile carried out by the Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) in cooperation with local support provided by the Awardee and the other international partners, (ii) the support of the basic core functions of ALMA in each region of the ALMA partners by the respective ALMA Regional Center (ARC), and (iii) the full science support of the user communities to realize the scientific promise of ALMA. The North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC), located at the NRAO Headquarters in Charlottesville, VA, will provide the support to the ALMA user community in North America.
This CSA is a transfer of award AST-0705244 (SPO-8) under Cooperative Agreement 0223851 into the new Cooperative Agreement for AUI/NRAO (0836064).
