Welcome to the UK ALMA Regional Centre

The UK ALMA Regional Centre (UK ARC) provides support for UK scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).

The UK ARC is a STFC-funded collaborative project between the University of Manchester, the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, the UK Astronomy Technology Centre (ATC) and the  STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The UK ARC is hosted at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics (JBCA) at the University of Manchester.  The ARC has been set up to support ALMA users and prospective users (face to face and by providing information) in acquiring the new techniques needed to explore the depths of the 'cool universe' which will become accessible with orders of magnitude greater resolution and sensitivity than ever before.

We provide a range of expert assistance in planning observations, date reduction and so on, developed over many years of experience with e-MERLIN, VLBI and VLA, (sub-)mm interferometry and single dish observations such as with JCMT and most recently  ALMA comissioning activities.  We are extensively using and teaching ALMA software such as CASA for  existing science observations as well as ALMA tests. These activities are complemented by the ALMA archive development group in Manchester, the ALMA Observing Tool team at the ATC in Edinburgh, the calibration team at the Cavendish in Cambridge, the simulation-tool team in Oxford and the engineering skills of the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory. The ARC node will tailor its support for the UK ALMA community requirements by providing additional specific expertise and assistance in the areas of high-sensitivity, wide bandwidth and high dynamic-range imaging, multi-frequency synthesis and astrometry.

For further information see the rest of this website and links or contact alma@jb.man.ac.uk for email support or to arrange a visit.

The JBCA is one of the largest astronomy groups in the UK, with 27 permanent academic staff. In addition to hosting the UK ARC, it operates the Jodrell Bank Observatory and e-MERLIN, and hosts the international headquarters for the SKA project. Active research areas in Manchester range from cosmology to planets, with particular strengths in pulsars, gravitational lensing, Planck and other CMB projects, dust and astrochemistry, star formation and evolution, and solar astronomy. There is also an active instrumentation group spanning the wavelength range from sub-mm to centimetre. In addition to ALMA and eMERLIN, observational interests include Herschel, the JCMT, the VLT and the VLTI. For more detail on our research please see JBCA Research.

ALMA links

• ALMA (Chile)
• ESO: ALMA (Europe)
• NRAO: ALMA (North America)
• EA-ARC (East Asia)
• European ALMA regional centre
• European ARC Nodes: Czech ARC  Dutch ARC German ARC IRAM ARC Italian ARC Nordic ARC U.K. ARC
• UK ARC Twitter 

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