ALMA Science Archive mining
Since years, several ItARC node activities are devoted to develop and improve the ALMA archive and its usage from general data miner with important perspectives in the framework of the new generation radio facilities:
- The Additional Representative Images for Legacy (ARI-L) development project: the node host the PIship of a development project for ALMA upgrade dedicated to the production and ingestion in the archive of images for cycles 2-4 projects with the Imaging Pipeline.
- The ALMA Re-Imaging Study
- The ALMA Keywords filler
- KAFE:Key-analysis Automated FITS-images Explorer
- Italian ALMA archive user survey
Contacts: M. Massardi (ARI-L; massardi@ira.inaf.it), E. Liuzzo (ALMA Keywords filler; liuzzo@ira.inaf.it)
Millimeter-VLBI
The huge potential of VLBI at submm/mm wavelengths is that it enables the highest resolution imaging currently possible at any wavelength in astronomy. Using ALMA as a phased array to form part of a global VLBI network will offer unprecedented sensitivity at very high angular resolution, making one order of magnitude weaker sources accessible to μas-resolution studies and greatly improving image fidelity for the brighter objects. Moreover, it will allow the shadow of a black hole, a test of general relativity near black holes, investigate jet launch and collimation from AGN and microquasars, pulsar and magnetar emission processes, the chemical history of the universe and the evolution of fundamental constants across cosmic time, maser science, and astrometry.
VLBI inherently requires many telescopes to operate together in dedicated simultaneous sessions. ALMA observations at 3 mm operates within the Global Millimeter VLBI Array, and at 1 mm within the Event Horizon Telescope project.
Contacts: E. Liuzzo (liuzzo@ira.inaf.it), K. Rygl (kazi@ira.inaf.it), N. Marchili (n.marchili@ira.inaf.it), M. Massardi (massardi@ira.inaf.it)
ItARC node members started to get involved in mm-VLBI with ALMA in 2013, making use of our extensive in-house experience with (radio frequency) VLBI. Since January 2018, we are members of the BlackHoleCam and Event Horizon Telescope Consortium.
We perform Quality Assurance for European mmVLBI ALMA projects.
HPC and AI for ALMA
In progress…
Polarimetry