Since March 17, thanks to Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), our antennas join every day or night an observing network with 10 other stations located in Europe, North America, Chile and the South Pole.
And although this is not the first time ALMA has worked on this campaign together with EHT (Event Horizon Telescope) and GMVA (Global mm-VLBI Array), the conditions under which the mission is being carried out, due to the pandemic, present great challenges.
“In the past, the VLBI campaign was conducted at the OSF. All the ALMA scientific team involved in these observations were in the same place, so we could evaluate situations together and solve them in the same way,” says David Rebolledo, astronomer and ALMA VLBI Deputy Observations Coordinator. “This way of working limits us in case of an adverse situation, so we have had to anticipate possible problems.”
Since last year, all coordination has been done remotely. Due to capacity, today there can only be one astronomer in the control room (in Santiago). This year, moreover, the work plan was defined less in advance than on previous occasions, which has put more pressure not only on the astronomers, but also on the engineering and software teams.
“The organization is very dynamic, with a lot of interaction between us and the international teams,” says Hugo Messias astronomer and ALMA VLBI Observations Coordinator. “The most exciting part is already during the VLBI campaign, when we are deciding whether we will be able to observe at night or not. There is a lot of suspense in the air. And it’s great to see that such a culturally diverse group can come together and create something at this level.”
Fortunately the EHT observations ended very well! Now comes GMVA’s turn.
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