The European ALMA Regional Centre: a model of user support
Paper i proceeding, 2014

The ALMA Regional Centres (ARCs) form the interface between the ALMA observatory and the user community from the proposal preparation stage to the delivery of data and their subsequent analysis. The ARCs provide critical services to both the ALMA operations in Chile and to the user community. These services were split by the ALMA project into core and additional services. The core services are financed by the ALMA operations budget and are critical to the successful operation of ALMA. They are contractual obligations and must be delivered to the ALMA project. The additional services are not funded by the ALMA project and are not contractual obligations, but are critical to achieve ALMA full scientific potential. A distributed network of ARC nodes (with ESO being the central ARC) has been set up throughout Europe at the following seven locations: Bologna, Bonn-Cologne, Grenoble, Leiden, Manchester, Ondrejov, Onsala. These ARC nodes are working together with the central node at ESO and provide both core and additional services to the ALMA user community. This paper presents the European ARC, and how it operates in Europe to support the ALMA community. This model, although complex in nature, is turning into a very successful one, providing a service to the scientific community that has been so far highly appreciated. The ARC could become a reference support model in an age where very large collaborations are required to build large facilities, and support is needed for geographically and culturally diverse communities.

Författare

P. Andreani

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

F. Stoehr

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

M. Zwaan

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

E. Hatziminaoglou

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

A. D. Biggs

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

M. Diaz-Trigo

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

E. Humphreys

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

D. Petry

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

S. Randall

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

T. Stanke

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

E. van Kampen

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

M. Bárta

Czech Academy of Sciences

J. Brand

Istituto di Radioastronomia

F. Gueth

Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)

M. Hogerheijde

Universiteit Leiden

F. Bertoldi

Universität Bonn

T. Muxlow

University of Manchester

A. Richards

University of Manchester

Wouter Vlemmings

Chalmers, Rymd- och geovetenskap, Onsala rymdobservatorium

Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering

0277786X (ISSN) 1996756X (eISSN)

Vol. 9149 Art. no. 91490Y- 91490Y
9780819496171 (ISBN)

Ämneskategorier

Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi

Fundament

Grundläggande vetenskaper

Infrastruktur

Onsala rymdobservatorium

DOI

10.1117/12.2054908

ISBN

9780819496171

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2021-11-12