Science at Q-band meeting, Manchester

I am at the science at Q-band meeting for the first part of this week:

http://www.alma.ac.uk/documents/science-at-q-band-early-summer-2009

See you maybe here...

Radio interferometry at millimetre and sub-millimetre wavelengths -- lecture at ERIS

This is the lecture I gave at the European Radio Interferometry School:

http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/~bn204/publications/2009/NikolicERIS2009.pdf

European Radio Interferometry School 2009

I will be at the European Radio Interferometry School in Oxford for a couple of days next week:

http://astrowiki.physics.ox.ac.uk/ERIS2009/WebHome

See you maybe there...

New version of AATM

I've released a new version of the ALMA atmospheric modelling library.

You can view what is new and grab the source code at:

http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/~bn204/alma/atmomodel.html#Current+version%3A+V0.08

As a side note, we are experimenting with the use of the collaborative platform launchpad. The project page is:

https://launchpad.net/aatm

The talk at JAO/Santiago

Here is a link to the talk I presented here in Santiago:

http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/~bn204/publications/2009/ALMAAugust2009.pdf

Memo on inference of phase correction coefficients

This is the second memo in the series.

Abstract:

By observing bright and compact astronomical sources while also taking data with the 183 GHz Water Vapour Radiometers, ALMA will be able to measure the `empirical' relationship between fluctuations in the phase of the astronomical signal and the fluctuations of sky brightness around 183 GHz. Simulations of such measurements assuming only thermal noise in the astronomical and WVR receivers are presented and it is shown that accurate determination of the empirical relationship should be possible in a relatively short time. It is then proposed that the best way of using these empirical coefficients is to include them as a constraint on a physical model of the atmosphere -- this allows them to be used for longer period of time, increasing the efficiency of observing. This approach fits naturally into the analysis framework presented in the previous memo, which has now been extended to implement it. The technique is illustrated via simulations and on a short data set collected at
the SMA.


Full text:

http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/~bn204/publications/2009/ALMAMemo588.pdf

Visiting ALMA Santiago office and the ALMA Site

For the next two weeks I'm in Chile visiting the ALMA offices in Santiago as well as the ALMA site itself where we will be doing some experiments with the ALMA Water Vapour Radiometers.