Astrobites Post: My first “turno” at ALMA

Check out this astrobites post about my first turno at ALMA!  Throughout this year, I will try to post periodically in the "Personal Experiences" section of astrobites.com, specifically about current astronomy research in Chile.

The driest place on Earth, most days

The Atacama Desert is considered as one of the driest places on Earth. -- The ALMA website 

A lot of effort goes into choosing the site of an observatory, and science at ALMA will depend on a dry atmosphere.  For this reason, ALMA is located in the extremely dry Atacama Desert.  Extremely dry nearly the whole year, except during the "Altiplanic Winter", which brings precipitation typically in the month of February (see some snow on the top of the nearby volcano in the photo above).  As we near February, weather at ALMA can change quickly, and today we saw a storm blow in.  A weather report by the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security in Chile called for an "Alerta Temprana Preventiva por chubascos y tormentas eléctricas" (an Early Preventative Warning for Showers and Thunderstorms).  Big news, it seems!

When it began raining today, everyone stopped what they were doing to look outside in wonder.  Unfortunately, the antennas must be stowed during rain and snow, so our planned observations were interrupted.  We continued observing in "simulation" mode, meaning that we could test scripts, but couldn't physically operate the antennas.


At first one could feel discouraged that observations at the site which was thought to be the driest on earth actually were interrupted by precipitation.  Was there a mistake in the site selection?  However, by the reaction of the people here, I still believe that this inclement weather is rare.  Several astronomers and staff convened outside, beyond the protection of the roof, feeling the the cold refreshing rain on our skin.  Those who spend so much time working up here seemed rejuvenated just like the plants coming to life after a long dry spell.  

Coordinating so many people, and so many antennas

With hundreds of people working around the clock for years with the goal of creating the largest observatory in the world by 2014, it can be a challenge to make and track progress in this astronomical marathon.  Sitting in the control room for 12 hours each day, I see the hustle and bustle of many people performing many tasks, from telescope operations to antenna engineering tasks, often with success but occasionally with some failures as well.  It's important that everyone remain safe (for example, if someone is moving an antenna at the testing site outside, no one should walk over there unaware), that jobs are performed efficiently (i.e. two people don't perform the same redundant task unknowingly), and finally that jobs and problems be prioritized.  In a sense, communication is the key. 

Photos from almaobservatory.org

How do hundreds of people, each with different areas of expertise, communicate effectively?  One way is by creating layers of organization, including the ALMA board, management, committees, and teams of staff.  For example, I'm a part of the "Joint ALMA Observatory Science Team", and I work in the "Commissioning and Science Verification" group.  We meet every weekday at 3 pm to discuss the status of the previous day's projects, and plan for the day/night ahead.  It's certainly easier to get everyone together for 30 minutes and explain everything once, rather than having many small discussions which need to be repeated throughout the day.  Once per week, we have a Science Team meeting, when all of the groups come together for more coordination. 

The ALMA board in one of their important meetings in Santiago.  This room can connect via telecon to a meeting room at the OSF.

When I say "together", I mean this rather loosely, because at any give time, some of the team is in Santiago at the "Santiago Central Office (SCO)", while others are at the ALMA "Observations Support Facility (OSF)".  We connect via telecon, and it feels like one meeting room merges right into the other, only separated by a projector screen.  

Another innovative way that we stay connected and coordinated is via an online commercial software product called "JIRA".  The name is actually based on the similar bug tracking program "Bugzilla", which became called by the Japanese name for Godzilla, pronounced something like "go-jira".  How JIRA works at ALMA is that any time there is a problem that needs to be addressed, someone makes a "ticket" for the issue, and assigns the issue to someone on the ALMA team.  As the issue is addressed, it's important to keep good documentation in the form of comments and attachments on the ticket's website, and when the issue is resolved, the ticket is closed.  The tickets are helpful for letting others within the group, and also in other groups, what are the most important issues for developing and maintaining the telescope system (hardware, software, and anything in between).

Jumping into the CSV project head first, I was assigned several tickets and was able to determine their status, following the comment trail left by people who worked on the same problems recently (some of whom were visitors, or work elsewhere now).  Attached to the tickets were reports, programs, and information on how to access relevant data.  When the tickets were re-assigned to me, I even got emails from others who had been involved, encouraging me to ask questions whenever something wasn't entirely clear.  In this way, projects (especially long-term projects) are less likely to fall off the radar completely, even with many people working on many different projects, because the goal is to ultimately "close" all of the tickets in preparation for the fully-operational ALMA. 

The OSF Control Room is a very collaborative environment, and a great place to ask for help or explanation of the ALMA system.

Today I made my first JIRA comment, updating others on what I had accomplished (or rather, where I found a bug) with my project.  I'll keep working to fix the bug, with the goal of "closing" the ticket as soon as I can, and moving on to another.  I sometimes stop to think about how remarkable it is that ALMA can progress, considering the scope of the project.  But, when I think of the project as being comprised of teams with many dedicated and capable people, each closing issues one JIRA ticket at a time, I think that anything is possible. 

Chilean astro-culture

Tonight I'll highlight two recent news pieces relating Chilean culture and astronomy.  An observatory can feel isolated, but I enjoy the reminder that we're connected to the community, even when far away from the nearest city lights.  

From my experiences, Chile has embraced astronomy, and astronomy has embraced Chile.  When I say that I'm working for ALMA, I rarely need to explain to a Chilean what is ALMA, rather I'm told that ALMA appears in the news quite frequently here.  And, when I talk with ALMA astronomers about Chile, it seems that many astronomers make an effort to explore Chile and experience the culture and environment.  

The first news story, ALMA Observatory supports recovery of the Kunza language , I found highlighted on the ALMA Observatory webpage.  The ALMA Observatory is located in Chile's 2nd Region, which is important archaeologically because it is the site of several ancient cultures.  The Atacameño people comprise the 3rd largest indigenous population in Chile, and this article specifically focuses on maintaining several of the endangered languages in this region.

A traditional ritual performed at the telescope site in 2007 (photo from almaobservatory.org)

Second, and dealing more with popular culture in Chile, is the article Chile’s space wine Meteorito: the first meteorite-aged wine in the world (and for the bilingual: Observatorio chileno ofrece exclusivo vino hecho en base a un meteorito).  Considering that Chile is known for its wine, possibly more than it is known for its astronomy, the idea to create a wine aged with a submerged meteorite really "blends" the two concepts with marketing genius.  This article was sent in an email from an astronomer at European Southern Observatory, and it stood out amidst the other more typical emails announcing astronomy seminars and telescope status.  

If you know of other astronomical and/or cultural articles of interest, please do share!

On top of the world, and looking up

To explain ALMA, I will borrow the tagline from www.almaobservatory.org : "The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile, is the largest astronomical project in existence. ALMA will be a single telescope of revolutionary design, composed initially of 66 high precision antennas located on the Chajnantor plateau, 5000 meters altitude in northern Chile."

Driving to ALMA.  The OSF is an isolated community in the mountains towards the right.

The largest project, a huge international collaboration, and pushing the limits of astronomical technology.  To me it sounded fascinating enough, and that was even before I arrived to the driest desert in the world to begin my first shift at the Operations Support Facility (OSF).  To arrive at the OSF, I took a 2 hour flight from Santiago to Calama, an important mining city in northern Chile.  Then, an ALMA bus drove us two more hours, through San Pedro de Atacama (a dusty tourist town, with population of about 2000 people), up to the OSF at an elevation of about 10000 feet above sea level.


From the OSF, the telescope array (at 5000 meters elevation) can be controlled remotely, in addition to testing antennas, engineering, and other telescope operations.  The environment here is unique, with somewhere between 400 to 600 people "living" at the OSF at any given time, including scientists, engineers, telescope operators, and other staff.  I think it's a great work environment, considering that every single person here is dedicated to the operation of this observatory, 24 hours a day.  

My home for 8 days.

Several shifts, and many jobs go into making this telescope function.  For this week, I'll have a day shift, meaning I work from about 1 pm until midnight on several projects related to "Commissioning and Science Verification (CSV)" (in other words, making sure the telescope is working as expected) and "Early Science" (the first scientific observations to be proposed and made, now that a portion of the telescope array is in operation).  Others work night shifts, or morning shifts.  The dorms have shades on the windows, so you can sleep at any time of the day or night, and signs around the dorm buildings remind you to be very quiet at all hours.  In general, it appears very comfortable in the little ALMA village, with nice accomodations, a "casino" (which means cafeteria, in Chile), exercise facilities, and more.


I can give more details of what I actually do here as I get more involved.  For now, I just wanted to communicate some of my excitement in being involved with a project of such grand scope.  In the words of the ALMA Director, Thijs de Graauw: “We are living in a historic moment for science and particularly for astronomy, and perhaps also for the evolution of humanity, because we start to use the greatest observatory under construction at the moment.”