Name: Atacama Large Millimeter / Submillimeter Array – participation of the Czech Republic
Institution: Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Coordinator: RNDr. Pavel Jáchym, Ph.D.; jachym@ig.cas.cz
Website
EU-ARC.CZ provides support to ALMA users, in particular from the Czech Republic and Central Europe at all levels – from assistance with the preparation of observation projects, through quality assurance of the acquired data, their calibration and imaging, to assistance with data analysis. EU-ARC.CZ is the only node of the European network that has expertise in solar research with ALMA, but also in galactic and extragalactic astrophysics, stellar physics, the physics of interstellar matter, and microwave laboratory spectroscopy. EU-ARC.CZ contributes to the further development of ALMA’s capabilities – with its unique capability, it leads European participation in the development of the special solar observing mode and related software for processing specific solar data. Access to ALMA observations and to the services provided by EU-ARC.CZ is fully open to the scientific community, regardless of nationality, institutional affiliation or professional background. EU-ARC.CZ is part of a network of seven nodes of the European ALMA Regional Centre (ARC), coordinated by ESO from Garching near Munich, Germany. Thereby, EU-ARC.CZ works closely with other nodes of the European ARC network, ESO and other partners in the ALMA consortium.
ALMA (Atacama Large Millimetre/Submillimetre Array) is an excellent astrophysical facility built and operated through worldwide collaboration in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, at 5,000 meters of altitude with dry and thin air, to observe the universe at (sub-)millimetre wavelengths. The main partners in the ALMA consortium are ESO (European Southern Observatory), the U.S. NRAO (National Radio Astronomical Observatory) or the Japanese NAOJ (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan). ALMA is the largest existing ground-based astronomical observatory. It comprises 66 high-precision antennas (radio telescopes) that can be configured to achieve baselines of up to 16 km. It is equipped with state-of-theart receivers covering all the atmospheric windows up to 1 THz. ALMA operates as an interferometer, with its antennas interconnected and working together as if they were a single giant telescope. This results in unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution that exceeds that of the Hubble Space Telescope. ALMA has opened up entirely new possibilities in the exploration of the Universe, such as the imaging of proto-planetary disks, observations of the earliest stars and galaxies, providing direct views of the event horizon of black holes, and allowing for detailed studies of the Sun and the Solar System.
Societal and economic impacts
Throughout its existence, ALMA has generated a number of breakthrough discoveries. EU-ARC.CZ has enabled the research community in the Czech Republic to access this state-of-the-art instrument and to use its capabilities to study the formation and evolution of planets, galaxies and organic molecules as building blocks of life in the Universe. Thanks to EU-ARC.CZ, Czechia is the only country in the region of Central and Eastern Europe directly participating in ALMA activities. In the area of solar research with ALMA, EU-ARC.CZ plays a leading role across Europe. This increases the competitiveness of the Czech Republic in the field of astrophysical R&I. EU-ARC.CZ is actively involved in the further development of ALMA, in particular in the development of the special solar observing mode and related software. In the framework of Czech membership in ESO (European Southern Observatory), Czech companies participated in the construction of the ALMA observatory. Activities of EU-ARC.CZ bring the potential for Czech enterprises to participate in the further technological development of this revolutionary instrument in the frame of the ALMA 2030 Development Roadmap. EU-ARC.CZ engages in a number of educational activities to help create opportunities for a new generation of experts in Czechia and contribute to quality education and the development of international cooperation not only in the modern field of observational radio astronomy and astrophysics.
