On October 28, CIERA hosted the ALMA Data Reduction Workshop at Northwestern University (with virtual attendees as well), a workshop designed by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and organized by Tarraneh Eftekhari, a CIERA Postdoctoral Fellow and ALMA Ambassador. The workshop was part of the ALMA Ambassador Program.
“As an ALMA Ambassador, I organized the workshop and led all of the lectures. I originally applied because I was interested in learning more about ALMA and becoming more involved with the NRAO. The NAASC and ALMA are committed to providing users with a wide range of resources to help facilitate their science, and to making ALMA data accessible to all astronomers, not just seasoned radio astronomers. This workshop in particular was designed to introduce new ALMA users to the basics of radio and mm interferometry and how to image interferometric data.” – Tarraneh Eftekhari (Learn more about Tarraneh and her work at tarraneheftekhari.com.)
This event was designed for all astronomers, from seasoned ALMA users to those who do not regularly utilize radio data in their research or have no radio background. Participation was encouraged from graduate students and junior postdocs, though welcomed astronomers at all levels of experience. The workshop was designed to provide an overview of basic data reduction with ALMA and interferometric data processing in general. It covered the basics of interferometry, imaging interferometric data, as well as how to use cutting-edge data visualization tools like CARTA. The workshop was designed to be a continuation of the Proposal Preparation workshop held in the Spring. There were about 14 participants in total.
“The workshop was a great learning experience. Tarraneh explained the concepts well and the presentation not only covered radio astronomy basics (which I can never revisit enough) and introduced helpful tools such as CARTA that are beneficial for the science we are doing.” – Vic Dong
“I found the ALMA workshop very informative. I have a lot of experience with the VLA and how to reduce its data, but had not yet ventured into ALMA. Tarraneh was great at explaining the importance of each step in the reduction process, and her familiarity with both the VLA and ALMA helped me understand the similarities and differences between the 2 facilities (besides frequency coverage). I was especially interested in how the ALMA SRDP brought you science-ready images to use.” – Genevieve Schroeder
Thank you to CIERA staff, including Michael Stroh, William Vercellone, William Samano, and Janet Lyons, without whom the event would not have been possible! For folks who are interested in applying to be an ALMA Ambassador and leading similar workshops in the future, you can find more information here.