Enabling New ALMA Science with Improved Support for Time-Domain Observations
Abstract
While the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is a uniquely powerful telescope, its impact in certain fields of astrophysics has been limited by observatory policies rather than the telescope's innate technical capabilities. In particular, several observatory policies present challenges for observations of variable, mobile, and/or transient sources --- collectively referred to here as "time-domain" observations. In this whitepaper we identify some of these policies, describe the scientific applications they impair, and suggest changes that would increase ALMA's science impact in Cycle 6 and beyond. Parties interested in time-domain science with ALMA are encouraged to join the ALMA Time-domain Special Interest Group (ATSIG) by signing up for the ATSIG mailing list at https://groups.google.com/group/alma-td-sig .
Cite
@article{arxiv.1703.04692,
title = {Enabling New ALMA Science with Improved Support for Time-Domain Observations},
author = {Kate D. Alexander and Edo Berger and Geoff Bower and Sarah Casewell and S. Brad Cenko and Shami Chatterjee and Ilse Cleeves and Jim Cordes and Jeremy Drake and Maria Drout and Trent Dupuy and Tarraneh Eftekhari and Giovanni Fazio and Wen-fai Fong and James Guillochon and Mark Gurwell and Michael Johnson and Tomasz Kaminski and Albert Kong and Tanmoy Laskar and Casey Law and Stuart P. Littlefair and Meredith MacGregor and W. Peter Maksym and Lynn Matthews and Michael McCollough and Stefanie Milam and Arielle Moullet and Matt Nicholl and Aaron Rizzuto and Barry Rothberg and Andrew Seymour and Eric Villard and Belinda Wilkes and Peter K. G. Williams and Steven Willner and Farhad Yusuf-Zadeh},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1703.04692},
year = {2017}
}
Comments
9 pages; whitepaper submitted to the ALMA Science Advisory Council; corresponding author P. K. G. Williams (pwilliams@cfa.harvard.edu)