The
European Organisation
for Astronomical
Research in the
Southern Hemisphere
Organisation
Européenne
pour des Recherches
Astronomiques
dans l’Hémisphère
Austral
Europäische
Organisation
für astronomische
Forschung in der
südlichen Hemisphäre
DMO
The European ALMA Regional
Centre: the ESO ARC and the
ARC nodes
Doc. No.: DMO-xxx-ESO-xxxxx-xxxx
Issue: 1
Date: 1.07.2009
Prepared:
P. Andreani
01.07.2009
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CHANGE RECORD
ISSUE
DATE
0.1
0.2
0.3
July
July
August
1.
September
2009
1.0
Sept 2009
SECTION/PARA.
AFFECTED
REASON/INITIATION DOCU
MENTS/REMARKS
All
Copied as ALMA
document
Ready for Implementation Plan
review: Santiago Sept 30-Oct 1,
2009
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RELATED DOCUMENTS
ISSUE
DATE
NAME OF THE DOCUMENT
BODIES
Version III
May 7th 2009
ALMA Project Plan
JAO/ALMA Board
Version D
Oct. 9 2007
OPERATIONS PLAN
JAO
Version 3
Version ?
May 25 2008
Sep 2009
Sep 2009
Memorandum of Understanding ESO/DMO, ARC nodes
ESO ARC Implementation Plan ESO ARC/DMO
ARC nodes Implementation Plan ARC nodes ARC/DMO
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Table of Contents
1 ....................................................................................................................................................... 5
1
INTRODUCTION AND GOALS .......................................................................................... 5
2
BACKGROUND...................................................................................................................... 5
2.1
2.2
2.3
3
TIMELINE ........................................................................................................................................................ 6
THE ROLE OF THE CENTRAL ARC NODE AT ESO ............................................................................................. 6
THE ROLE OF ARC NODES ............................................................................................................................... 6
STAKEHOLDERS .................................................................................................................. 8
3.1
PEOPLE INVOLVED ........................................................................................................................................... 8
3.1.1 ARC staff ..................................................................................................................... 8
3.1.2 ARC node staff ............................................................................................................. 8
3.1.3 The user community .................................................................................................... 8
3.2
RESPONSIBILITIES............................................................................................................................................ 9
3.2.1 The ARC Manager ....................................................................................................... 9
3.2.2 The ESO ARC astronomer........................................................................................... 9
3.2.3 The ARC nodes representatives................................................................................... 9
4
SETUP AND PLANNING .................................................................................................... 10
4.1 SETUP OF THE FACE TO FACE HELP ................................................................................................................ 11
4.2 ........................................................................................................................................................................... 10
4.3 COMMUNICATION CHANNELS BETWEEN THE ESO ARC AND THE ARC NODES ............................................. 10
4.3.1 Telecons ..................................................................................................................... 10
4.3.2 Face-to-face meetings ............................................................................................... 10
4.3.3 TWiki ......................................................................................................................... 11
5
CONTROLLING .................................................................................................................. 13
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
6
VISITS AND MEETINGS (WITH ARC STAFF AND REPRESENTATIVES) .............................................................. 13
FEEDBACK FROM USERS ................................................................................................................................ 13
FEEDBACK FROM ARC STAFF ........................................................................................................................ 13
PROVIDING FEEDBACK TO THE ARC NODES .................................................................................................. 13
RISKS ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................ 15
6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
6.5
DEALING WITH PROJECTS DELAYS ................................................................................................................. 15
DEALING WITH PROJECTS AND OPERATIONS CHANGES .................................................................................. 15
DEALING WITH FUNDING SHORTAGE ............................................................................................................. 15
DEALING WITH STAFF CHANGES .................................................................................................................... 15
DEALING WITH CONFLICTS ............................................................................................................................ 15
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Introduction and goals
This document describes how the network of the European ALMA Regional Centre will work
together in order to offer a coherent and organized service for the European user community. It
outlines the interaction between the ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) Department at ESO (also
referred to as the main node) and the European ARC nodes.
The role of the Regional Centres in the ALMA project is extensively described in the ALMA
Project Plan and the ALMA Operations Plan. The scope and mission of the European Regional
Centre at ESO are detailed in the ESO/ARC Implementation Plan. A similar plan is in progress
for the ARC nodes.
The goal of this document is to outline how the network of the European Regional centres
works together, how information is exchanged, problems are identified, and solutions are
foreseen. It highlights risk areas and proposes backup solutions.
It is of formenost importance that the European ALMA Regional Centre be perceived by
European users as a single entity. The services provided by the ARC structure should be
transparent to the users. Every user should know where and who to find help when they need it
and every interaction between the user and ALMA should happen in such a way that the user
perceives the ARC as a unified structure, not as seven individual entities.
Background
The European ALMA Regional Centre forms the interface between the ALMA observatory
and the European user community from the proposal preparation stage to actual distribution of
data and subsequent analysis. As such, the ARC provides critical services to both the ALMA
operations in Chile and to the European user community. These services can be divided into
core services, which are financed by the ALMA operations budget and are critical to a
successful operation of ALMA, and additional services, which are not funded by the ALMA
project but are critical to achieve its full scientific potential. Most core services will be
provided by the ARC department at ESO, while most additional services will be provided by
the ARC nodes
The agreement between ESO/ARC and the ARC nodes in Europe was signed in 2008 by the
institutes hosting a regional centre and the ESO upper management in the form of a
Memorandum of Understanding. This documents states that, following the dictation of the
ALMA Operations Plan, some of the additional functions, particularly one-on-one or face-toface support and support for archival research, be included in the core functionalities. In
Europe the face-to-face support will be hosted and supported at the ARC nodes.
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As a core function the face-to-face user support is one of the main deliverables of the ALMA
Regional Centres. The ESO ARC Department has therefore the responsibility for its happening,
implementation and success. One of the ARC astronomers will be appointed to coordinate the
face-to-face support at the ARC nodes. It is important to stress that the ESO ARC is not staffed
to support ARC node activities beyond managing face-to-face support.
1.1 Timeline
The ARC activities can be divided into two separate phases, a pre-operations stage and a
operations stage. The first stage refers to the period up to point when the ARC begins it full
operations, which is defined to coincide with the Early Science Decision Point (ESDP). The
pre-operations stage will require activities that ensure that the nodes and the ESO ARC
department are ready to conduct their support functions and related activities as soon as this is
needed. The pre-operations stage is characterized by tasks related to software testing, training,
and preparing for and assisting with ALMA commissioning.
After the ESDP, i.e. eight months for the start of Early Science, the ARC moves into its
operations stage. The activities of the central ARC during this stage are stipulated in the ESO
ARC Implementations Plan, whereas the tasks of the ARC nodes are detailed in the ARC
Nodes Implementation Plan. The following sections briefly summarize these tasks.
1.2 The role of the central ARC node at ESO
The most important services of the ARC at ESO are to provide user support to European users,
host and maintain a complete mirror of the ALMA archive, and provide duties at the OSF
during observations.
In terms of expected number of person days per year spent on the various tasks, the most
significant tasks of the ESO ARC during the operations stage are validation of user supplied
scheduling blocks, astronomer on duty support in Chile, offline and data reduction helpdesk
support, and archive reseach support. These tasks amount to roughly 60% of the ESO ARC
work.
An important role for the ESO ARC is to interface with the Joint ALMA Observatory. This
function of the ESO ARC consists of supporting the Chilean Operations and of shielding the
JAO as much as possible from questions regarding user support. In fact, the primary function
of the JAO is to operate and maintain the array at the Array Operations Site (AOS) and the
Operations Support Facility (OSF). As such, the number of communication channels to the
JAO is kept to a minimum. Therefore, all queries from the nodes that concern the JAO should
be made via the central node.
1.3 The role of ARC nodes
In addition to the face-to-face help, the ARC nodes have agreed to fulfill the following tasks:
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Enhanced archive and data reduction operations: This includes face-to-face data processing
support for large and/or complex datasets, and help with archival research projects.
Helpdesk support: Helpdesk tickets that can be better handled by the nodes will be forwarded
from the ESO ARC
Development and maintenance of new software and techniques: This implies e.g.,
development of modified pipeline versions, advanced simulation development and use, and the
development of novel algorithms
Special projects support: Providing support for public surveys and large programs.
Storage of advanced data products: Help users with making available advanced data
products, including cubes, images, calibration data, etc.
Scientific community development: Providing support for ALMA research (e.g., basic
training for new users), post-doctoral fellowships, training schools and workshops, ALMArelated specific science workshops, and leading science community development activities.
Public relations and outreach: Advertising ALMA through outreach programmes.
Feedback to the ESO node: The nodes will need to report to the ESO node on all their
acivities.
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Stakeholders
This section describes the roles of the different actors involved in the ARC structure in Europe
and details their resposibilities.
1.4 People involved
1.4.1 ARC staff
During the ARC operations stage, the ESO ARC will employ seven astronomers and five
scientists. This pool ensures that a different mixture of expertise is covered from experts in
observations to experts in data reduction and the archive. Scientists will concentrate mainly on
the technical aspects of scientific support tasks, whereas astronomers will work most on the
more scientific tasks. Within the ESO ARC, two groups are set up to enable a more efficient
management: the ALMA User Support Astronomers Group (AUSG), and the ALMA
Operations Support Group (AOSG).
ARC staff communicates with the user community on a number of occasions throughout the
lifetime of an observing project. Primarily, this will happen during preparation of Phase 1 and
Phase II material, and when data reduction help is needed. All communications with the users
happen through the ALMA user portal or via regular email and telephone.
1.4.2 ARC node staff
The ARC nodes together employ a large pool of support astronomers and technical personnel.
The exact job description of these staff vary from node to node. Partly, the ARC node staff will
consist of postdoctoral researchers with a substantial amount of time available for their
personal research, while other node staff may be on permanent contracts and are contractually
allocated less time for scientific research. Each node will have at least two members of staff
whose primary function is to provide face-to-face support. Each node also employs at least one
technical staff, responsible for setting up and maintaining the computing facilities for visiting
astronomers.
A complete directory of all staff in the ESO ARC and the ARC nodes will be maintained on the
ARC TWiki pages. This directory will list for each staff member their position, their
responsibilities, and their expertise areas. The availability of each member of staff (in the
office, on leave, or travelling) should also be registered.
An important difference between ARC node staff and ESO ARC staff is that the node staff also
interacts with users face-to-fase.
1.4.3 The user community
At this stage it is very difficult to characterize the user community in Europe. It is expected that
the potential user community increases in volume during the next few years, especially when
first science verification results will be made public and when the call for Early Science will be
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released. It is essential for a good functioning of the European ARC that the ARC structure be
perceived as a single, unified entity. Although European ARC staff are distributed over seven
locations (in reality even more since some ARC nodes are split in several locations), it is
important that the user community can communicate with the ARC through well defined
channels… .
1.5 Responsibilities
1.5.1 The ARC Manager
The ARC manager performs a critical role in maintaining the linkage between the ALMA
Director’s Office, ESO management, and the ARC nodes. For operational purposes, the ARC
manager reports to the ALMA director, as he/she is responsible for providing Board-approved
operational deliverables to the JAO and the user community.
The ARC manager is responsible for the running of the ESO ARC and for creating the network
of nodes in Europe and overseeing it successful operation.
1.5.2 The ESO ARC astronomer
One of the astronomers in the ESO ARC has the responsibility for dealing with matters related
to the nodes. It is their responsibility to coordinate the nodes, make sure that they work
according to commonly agreed standards and provide the face-to-face services that ESO is
contractually obliged to. This ARC astronomer will work closely with the ARC manager.
1.5.3 The ARC nodes representatives
Each ARC node appoints one representative, who is responsible for the node’s activities and
acts as the main contact point. An ARC Coordinating Committee (ACC), consisting of these
representative of each ARC node and chaired by the ARC manager, is set up. The ACC
provides descriptions of the tasks of each node, coordinates the activities of the central node
and the nodes in terms of tasks and expertise areas. Staffing and budget are the responsibility
of the individual nodes.
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Setup and planning
In order to ensure that the European ARC is functioning satisfactorily, it is essential that there
is a good interaction and exchange of information between the ARC department at ESO and
the ARC nodes, and between the individual nodes. It is crucial that the various services
delivered by the ARC nodes are coordinated …
1.6 Communication channels between the ESO ARC and
the ARC nodes
Given the unique setup of the European ARC structure, it is essential that this crosscommunication also takes place between the ARC nodes in Europe. To ensure that the
European ARC is functioning satisfactorily, it is essential that there is a good interaction and
exchange of information between the central and other nodes. The dispersion of ALMA user
support in Europe to a number of geographically separated institutions makes it crucial that the
various services provided by the nodes are coordinated.
This role is assigned to the central node at ESO.
The service provided by the ARC will be assessed by the JAO and the ESO node will also be
responsible for reporting on ARC activities to this body. Therefore, as much information as
possible on activities at the nodes will need to be passed on to ESO. A number of interfaces
between the central and other nodes are already in place (e.g. web/TWiki pages, telecons and
face-to-face meetings) and these will provide a basis for the more intense communications that
will be necessary as ALMA moves towards full operations.
1.6.1 Telecons
These will be held on a monthly basis with participants including the representatives of each
node and the ARC manager. The chair of the telecon will rotate through this pool of people and
will be responsible for preparing the agenda, publishing it in advance on the ARC TWiki and
writing the minutes. In addition to these, sub-groups of each node (e.g. software developers,
pipeline experts, face-to-face support staff) should hold separate regular telecons so that they
can keep each other updated on their activities. Such sub-groups should nominate a leader who
should in turn attend the main ARC telecon.
1.6.2 Face-to-face meetings
Staff from the various nodes will meet face-to-face on a number of occasions during the year.
At least twice a year, there will be a meeting organized which will be attended by all European
ARC staff. This will be an excellent opportunity to summarize the various parts of the ARC
activities over the past year, to discuss ALMA operations in general and to plan for the future.
Scientific presentations should be an important part of this. The venue for this will rotate
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through each of the nodes and ESO in turn. Either the central node’s manager or the appointed
astronomer will also visit each node at least once, and preferably twice, a year. This will allow
each party an opportunity to concentrate on the services provided by each i.e. to discuss
whether each is satisfied with the current arrangements and to establish whether there are any
improvements that could be made.
1.6.3 TWiki
As this is the quickest way to get information about the ARC it is essential that this be kept upto-date and contain as much useful information as possible. This will also reduce the need to
distract ARC staff members from their duties, ALMA-related or otherwise. Each node should
assign someone the task of, once every two weeks, ensuring that their node’s information on
the TWiki is up to date.
In addition to the above-described communication activities within the European ARC, the
three ARCs in Europe, North America and East Asia will also keep in touch via regular
telecons and occasional meetings. It is very likely that the expertise and experience shared will
prove very useful to the operations of all three centres. Staff from the European ARC nodes
will be important contributors to these.
1.6.4 Common logo and webpages with similar look and feel
Each node will require a web site on which all information that is likely to be needed by their
user community can be published. In order to present the European ARC and its nodes as a
united and coordinated entity, the web pages of each node should, within reason, look similar
to each other. Of course, it is appreciated that ARC node webpages may need to conform with
local standards as well.
1.7 Setup of the face-to-face help
Face-to-face support is currently described in the Implementation Plan for the ARC Nodes.
Nodes should only provide face-to-face support at Phase II and data reduction phases. Face-toface help for Phase I should only happen if the proposal and/or the observing program is
particularly complicated. The face-to-face support staff should therefore be familiar with the
operation of the ALMA Software tools. Nodes should also provide support for users wishing to
make visits for the purpose of exploiting the archive.
1.7.1 Coordinating a face-to-face support visit
Visits will usually be made to a user's local node as national funding bodies will normally expect this. If
the user requires specialist support that can only be (or better) provided at another node, this should be
encouraged (providing funding is available). Each visitor should be assigned a single member of staff for
support purposes and all support of a particular visitor should as much as possible come through this
member of staff.
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Requests for face-to-face support received via Helpdesk (or sent directly to ESO) will be forwarded by
email to the appropriate node. Requests made directly to the nodes should likewise be transmitted to ESO.
Once a node is made aware of a visit request, support staff at this node will be responsible for arranging
the details of the visit. It should be established as soon as possible (ideally within a week) whether a visit
is appropriate, that the user's needs can be catered for and support is available on dates acceptable to the
user. In the unlikely event that it proves impossible to arrange a visit (e.g. the node is fully booked around
the only dates available to a user) then the node shall inform ESO who will try and arrange support from
another node. If the node is able to host a visit for dates and duration acceptable to the user, and funding
is available, then the details of that visit should be forwarded to ESO. Prior to a visit, the following
information should be forwarded to ESO. This will be put into a table, one per node, on the ESO web
pages.







Name.
Affiliation.
Project Code.
Dates of Visit.
Node Support Person.
Purpose of Visit. (Phase I/II, data reduction, archival research, etc.)
Feedback received?
After a visit, the user will be invited to submit feedback on the service received and whether the goals of
the visit were met. This will be done via a web form on the ESO web pages and whether feedback has
been received will be noted in the aforementioned table. Feedback will also be required from the node
support staff in terms of problems encountered/ lessons learned regarding the data analysis during the
visit. It is important that the nodes share their F2F experience. This will also be done via a web form on
the ESO pages. This feedback will be discussed in monthly telecons of F2F support staff/interested
parties.
1.7.2
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Controlling
ESO are required to report and provide statistics on face-to-face support to the ALMA board
and the JAO. Therefore, the nodes will need to report on all their activities to the ESO central
node. This section describes how information on face-to-face support will flow from the nodes
to the the ESO ARC and which mechanisms are put in place to monitor the ARC nodes’
functioning.
1.8 Visits and meetings (with ARC staff and
representatives)
The ARC manager or a nominated deputy will visit each node at least once per year. This will
allow the nodes and ESO an opportunity to concentrate on the services provided by each, i.e.,
to discuss whether each is satisfied with the current arrangements and to establish whether any
improvements could be made.
1.9 Feedback from users
The feedback submitted by the users will form an important part of assessing the service
provided by the European ARC. The nodes will also submit feedback on a regular basis in
order to discuss mainly technical aspects of the support e.g.
* Problems encountered during data reduction.
* Solutions to those problems.
* Projects that, whilst possibly straightforward, are of interest to the other nodes.
After a visit, the user will be invited to submit feedback on the service received and on whether
the goals of the visit were met. This will be done via a web form on the ESO web pages.
Whether feedback has been received will be noted in the aforementioned table. Feedback will
also be required from the node support staff in terms of problems encountered/lessons learned
regarding the data analysis during the visit. It is important that the nodes share their f2f
experience. This will also be done via a web form on the ESO pages. This feedback will be
discussed in monthly telecons of f2f support staff/interested parties.
1.10 Feedback from ARC staff
The nodes will need to give detailed information regarding the face-to-face support delivered
to users.
1.11 Providing feedback to the ARC nodes
ESO will also pass on information to nodes regarding requests for f2f support.
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Risk analysis
1.12 Dealing with projects delays
1.13 Dealing with project and operations changes
1.14 Dealing with funding shortage
Funding for the ARC nodes is sought through their local national funding agencies and/or the
European Community funding programs such as the FP7 program. Therefore, it is not ESO’s
or ALMA’s responsibility that the nodes are funded to sufficient levels. If a particular node
cannot find sufficient funding the carry out its most important tasks, in particular face-to-face
support, solutions have to be found to avoid that certain ESO member states have no access to
user support through a local ARC node. Other nodes in Europe may take over user support
tasks of the node with funding difficulties.
Furthermore, if due to funding difficulties a node cannot function anymore in accord with the
MoU and the ARC nodes Implementation Plan, there is a risk that certain support expertise
areas are no longer covered in Europe. To avoid this situation, it is important that all main
expertise areas are covered by at least two, or preferentially more, different nodes.
1.15 Dealing with staff changes
Some of the support taks of the ARC nodes are delivered by staff on fixed-term contracts, i.e.,
postdocs. During their period of work at the nodes, these staff build up expertise in many areas
related to user support as well as in technical areas. To avoid that the ARC nodes lose a
significant fraction of their expertise upon departure of one of their staff, it is essential that all
ARC node staff keep detailed logs of their support activities, such that staff replacing them can
get up to speed in a short time. When nodes hire replacement staff member for staff that reach
the end of their contract or leave the node for other reasons, they should ensure that the new
hire overlaps for at least one month with the previous staff member to enable a smooth
transition and an optimal transfer of the knowledge.
1.16 Dealing with conflicts
Should any dispute arise on any matter relating to the provision of user support by the ARC
nodes, or relating the communication between the ARC nodes and ESO, such dispute will be
referred to the ACC, which will seek to resolve the dispute by mutual agreement. If a solution
cannot be found, the problem will be referred to the ESO Director General, ALMA director,…
If either through feedback from users, or through the direct observations of the ARC
astronomer in charge of coordinating the face-to-face support, it becomes evident that the face-
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to-face support delivered by a particular node is not in agreement with the agreed standards, the
following mechanism shall be put in place.
First, the ARC node representative of the node in question is contacted by the ARC manager or
the ARC astronomer in charge of coordinating the face-to-face support, and the observed
problems are discussed. If the parties agree on the gravity of the problem, the ARC manager
will propose a plan to improve situation. Solution could be, for example, training of node staff
members, procurement of improvement computer equipment, improvements of office space, or
agreeing to dedicate more time to visiting astronomers. This plan will be submitted in writing
to the ARC manager.
If the ARC node representative and ESO cannot reach an agreement, or when after
implementing the recovery plan the situation has not improved after a few months, the case is
put forward to the ESO director general.
The ARC node representative always has the right to appeal to the ACC, the ESO DG or the
ALMA director.
1.17 Backup solutions
If during Early Science it turns out that one or more ARC nodes are not ready to deliver their
user support tasks to the agreed standards, ESO will take over the task of user help, including
face to face during the first year of ALMA operations.
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ESO, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany
Abbreviations
ACA
ALMA Compact Array
ALMA
Atacama Large Millimeter Array
AIV
Assembly, Integration, and Verification
AoD
Astronomer-on-Duty
AOS
Array Operations Site
AOT
ALMA Observing Tool
ARC
ALMA Regional Center
ATF
Antenna Test Facility
CSV
Commissioning & Science Verification
DSO
Department of Science Operations
ESDP
Early Science Decision Point
ESO
European Southern Observatory
FTE
Full-Time Equivalent
ISM
International Staff Member
IPT
Integrated Product Team
JAO
Joint ALMA Office
NRAO
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
OSF
Operations Support Facility
OT
Observing Tool
PRC
Program Review Committee
QA
Quality Assurance
SB
Scheduling Block
SCO
Santiago Central Office
STS
Short-Term Schedule
SV
Science Verification
VO
Virtual Observatory
ESO, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany