Title: Annual Progress Report FY2020 Author: ADs Date: 11/30/2020

Version: 1.0 Doc # NRAO-83-2761

Annual Progress Report FY2020

PREPARED BY ORGANIZATION DATE NRAO Management Team NRAO 11/30/2020

APPROVALS ORGANIZATION

Nicole Thisdell NRAO

Tony Beasley NRAO

David Curren AUI

Title: Annual Progress Report FY2020 Author: ADs Date: 11/30/2020

Version: 1.0 Doc # NRAO-83-2761

Change Record

VERSION DATE REASON 0.01 9/20 Template to ADs 0.02 10/15 Edits due from ADs 0.03 10/23 CA edits due 0.04 10/26-29 SSR review 0.05 10/30 to 11/3 Review by SciCom 0.06 11/5 Edited APR to ADs and AUI 0.07 11/12 AD and AUI edits due to CA 0.08 11/15 Budget tables due 0.09 11/16 APR to Director 0.10 11/23 Director edits due 1.0 11/26 Preliminary draft produced 1.0 11/30 APR to NSF 1.0 12/8-9 Program Review

Annual Progress Report FY2020

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 OVERVIEW ...... 7 1.1 Science Highlights ...... 8 1.1.1 Time Domain Studies and Fundamental Physics ...... 9 Solar System and Planetary Science ...... 10 Star and Planet Formation and Evolution, and the Search for Life ...... 12 Galaxies and Galaxy Formation ...... 15 General Development Initiatives ...... 16 Long Term Developments in Radio Astronomy ...... 18 2 NORTH AMERICAN ALMA OPERATIONS ...... 20 The North American ALMA Science Center ...... 20 ALMA Community Support ...... 21 ALMA Telescope Interface and Diagnostics Team ...... 23 NA ARC Data Analyst Group ...... 24 NAASC Milestone Summary ...... 25 Development ...... 25 Ongoing Development Projects ...... 25 Ongoing Development Studies ...... 26 ALMA Development Milestone Summary ...... 27 NA ALMA Offsite Hardware Technical Support ...... 27 Offsite Hardware Support Group Activities ...... 27 Construction Warranty Support ...... 33 Office of Chilean Affairs ...... 33 Legal Representation ...... 34 Business ...... 34 Projects ...... 35 Human Resources ...... 35 Labor Relations ...... 36 Safety, Health and Environment ...... 36 EPO and Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) ...... 36 OCA Milestone Summary ...... 37 3 NEW MEXICO OPERATIONS ...... 38 Very Large Array (VLA) ...... 38 Science Operations ...... 38 Array Operations ...... 39 Development ...... 39 VLA Electronics Maintenance and Renewal ...... 40 VLA Site Maintenance and Renewal ...... 40 VLA Observing Capability Enhancements ...... 42 VLA Technical Upgrades and Enhancements ...... 42 VLA Milestone Summary ...... 43 Very Large Baseline Array (VLBA) ...... 44 Science Operations ...... 44 Array Operations ...... 45 Development ...... 45 VLBA Maintenance and Renewal ...... 46 VLBA Observing Capability Enhancements...... 47 VLBA Technical Upgrades and Enhancements ...... 47

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VLBA Milestone Summary ...... 48 4 CENTRAL DEVELOPMENT LABORATORY ...... 49 Repair, Maintenance, Production, Support ...... 50 Low Noise Amplifiers (LNAs) ...... 50 Millimeter and Submillimeter Receivers (MSMRx) ...... 50 Integrated Receiver Development ...... 51 ALMA Offsite Hardware Support ...... 51 CDL Development Plan ...... 52 Millimeter and Submillimeter Detectors (MSMRx) ...... 52 Optics and Electromagnetic Components ...... 52 Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and Correlators ...... 54 LO Reference and Timing ...... 55 LO Group ...... 55 Integrated Receiver Development (IRD) ...... 56 IRD ngVLA Work ...... 57 Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) ...... 57 Network for Exploration and Space Science (NESS) ...... 58 Dark Ages Polarimeter Pathfinder (DAPPER) SmallSat Mission Concept ...... 58 Advanced Spectrum Monitoring Hardware ...... 58 CDL Milestone Summary ...... 58 5 SCIENCE SUPPORT AND RESEARCH ...... 60 Telescope Time Allocation ...... 60 Science Ready Data Products ...... 61 Scientific User Support ...... 62 5.3.1 NRAO Library ...... 63 5.3.2 Historical Archives ...... 63 5.3.3 Statistics and Metrics ...... 64 Scientific Staff and Jansky Fellows ...... 64 Student Programs ...... 66 SSR Milestone Summary ...... 67 6 DATA MANAGEMENT AND SOFTWARE ...... 69 Scientific Information Services ...... 69 System Software ...... 70 ALMA System Software ...... 70 VLA System Software ...... 72 VLBA ...... 73 Software Development...... 73 CASA ...... 73 CASA Testing ...... 74 CASA Pipeline ...... 75 Science Support and Archive (SSA) ...... 75 Algorithm Research and Development ...... 76 DMS Milestone Summary ...... 76 7 PROGRAM MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT ...... 78 PMD Office Operations ...... 78 Proposal Development ...... 78 Program Management Activities ...... 78 PMD Headquarters ...... 78

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New Mexico Operations ...... 78 Central Development Lab ...... 79 ALMA Development ...... 79 Project Management/Systems Engineering Activities ...... 79 7.4.1 Risk Management...... 79 Program Management Software Implementation ...... 80 ALMA OSF Sports Facility ...... 80 Science Ready Data Products ...... 80 VLBA Fiber ...... 81 VLBA St. Croix Hurricane Repairs ...... 81 ALMA Band 1 LNAs and Local Oscillators ...... 81 PMD Milestone Summary ...... 81 8 EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH ...... 83 News and Public Information ...... 83 Multimedia Engagement ...... 84 STEAM Education and Outreach ...... 88 Visitor Center Operations ...... 89 EPO Milestone Summary ...... 90 9 COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SERVICES ...... 91 Observatory-Wide Support ...... 91 Site Specific Facilities Infrastructure ...... 91 Maintenance and Renewal ...... 92 CIS Milestone Summary...... 92 10 OFFICE OF DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION...... 93 Local and National Programs ...... 94 Project RADIAL ...... 94 National Astronomy Consortium ...... 95 VA-NC Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation ...... 97 NSBP and SACNAS ...... 97 URM Student Network Partnerships ...... 98 International Partnerships ...... 98 National and International Non-Traditional Exchange (NINE) ...... 98 OCA Collaboration: ...... 100 ODI Milestone Summary ...... 100 11 HUMAN RESOURCES ...... 101 Workforce Management...... 101 ngVLA Hiring ...... 101 GBO Workforce Management Plan: ...... 101 Training and Development ...... 102 Observatory Leadership Cohort Training ...... 103 How to Travel as an Observatory Employee Training Module ...... 103 Bullying Prevention Online Training ...... 103 Compensation ...... 103 Enhance Online Marketing Pricing Tool: ...... 103 Variable Pay Plan and Performance Bonus Structure ...... 104 JDE Position Control Module Implementation ...... 104 Career Pathing ...... 104 Benefits ...... 104

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Electronic Benefit Enrollment ...... 104 Third-Party Vendor Upload Preparation ...... 104 Recruitment/Employment ...... 105 Background Checks and Credit Checks ...... 105 HR Support ...... 105 Climate Survey Results Initiatives ...... 105 Climate Survey Results Initiatives ...... 105 Bi-Weekly Payroll Shift ...... 105 HR Support for OCA ...... 106 HR Milestone Summary ...... 106 12 SCIENCE COMMUNICATIONS ...... 108 SciCom Milestone Summary ...... 108 13 ADMINISTRATION ...... 109 Business Services ...... 109 Contracts and Procurement ...... 110 Environmental Safety, and Security ...... 110 Management Information Systems ...... 111 Technology Transfer Office ...... 111 Admin Milestone Summary ...... 112 14 BUDGET ...... 113 Information ...... 113 Observatory Risk Management ...... 113 Cost Estimating ...... 113 Budget Operations ...... 113 Internal Common Costs (ICC) ...... 114 Budget Milestone Summary ...... 114 15 SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT ...... 115 Site Spectrum Management ...... 115 VLA and VLBA Radio Frequency Interference Mitigation ...... 115 National and International Spectrum Management ...... 115 National Issues ...... 115 International Activities ...... 116 Spectrum Management Milestone Summary ...... 117 16 DIRECTOR’S OFFICE ...... 118 16.1 Director’s Office ...... 118 Milestone Summary ...... 118 Appendix A: MAJOR MILESTONES COMPLETION MATRIX ...... 119 Appendix B: FINANCIAL PLAN COMPLETION MATRIX ...... 139 Appendix C: FY2020 ANNUAL OBSERVATORY METRICS ...... 141 Appendix D: RISK REGISTER OVERVIEW ...... 154 Appendix E: ORGANIZATIONAL CHART ...... 155 Appendix F: ACRONYMS ...... 156

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1 OVERVIEW

This Fiscal Year 2020 Annual Progress Report (FY2020 APR) summarizes National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) progress against the FY2020 NRAO Program Operating Plan (POP). All references to Quarters 1, 2, 3, and 4 (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, respectively) are to FY2020 unless otherwise noted.

Section 1.1 describes a sample of the science highlights derived by scientists from North America and around the world using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), and the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA).

The FY2020 activities associated with operations, development, maintenance, and renewal for North American ALMA Operations are described in Section 2; the FY2020 activities associated with operations, development, maintenance, and renewal for the Jansky VLA, the VLBA, and New Mexico Operations are given in Section 3. The numerous technical production and research and development accomplishments of the Central Development Laboratory (CDL) are given in Section 4. Section 5 details the Science Support and Research (SSR) activities that maximized the scientific impact of NRAO telescopes, provided ready access to all NRAO telescopes and services, expanded access to new users, improved user services, and directly supported the Observatory’s user community. Section 6 chronicles the activities and accomplishments of the Data Management and Software (DMS) department, including the milestones and key tasks supporting Scientific Information Services, System Software, Software Development, and Algorithm Research Development.

Section 7 reports on the FY2020 accomplishments of the Program Management Department (PMD) at NRAO Headquarters and across the Observatory. The activities and initiatives of the Education and Public Outreach (EPO) department are described in Section 8, including the increasingly effective portfolio of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM) education programs, and the accomplishments of News and Public Information, progress in Multimedia Engagement, and Visitor Center Operations. Section 9 reports the FY2020 activities and achievements of the Computing and Information Services (CIS) division in overseeing and maintaining the Observatory’s operational information technology and computing support for all NRAO sites.

Section 10 describes the FY2020 activities and accomplishments of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI). NRAO believes that a diverse staff is critical to achieving its mission and is committed to a diverse and inclusive work place culture that accepts and appreciates all individuals. Section 11 reviews the activities of the Human Resources (HR) Department, including its achievements in improving compensation, performance management, policy development and administration, training, and development.

Section 12 describes the key activities and performance of the Science Communications Office in science community communication and outreach. Section 13 details the activities and accomplishments of the Administration department, including the milestones and progress of the department’s divisions: Business Services, Contracts and Procurement, Environmental Safety and Security, Management Information Systems, and the Technology Transfer Office. Section 14 describes the FY2020 NRAO budget.

Section 15 reports on the FY2020 achievements and activities of the Spectrum Management Office in representing the astronomy community’s vital interests in radio frequency allocation at the national and international level. Finally, Section 16 describes the FY2020 activities and accomplishments of the NRAO Director’s Office.

Six appendices provide additional information that support Sections 1 through 16. Appendix A presents the Major Milestones Completion Matrix. Appendix B is the Financial Plan Completion Matrix. NRAO

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 7 performance against key annual Observatory metrics in FY2020 is illustrated in Appendix C. Appendix D shows Risk Register changes over time. The Observatory organizational chart is given in Appendix E. All acronyms that appear in this APR are defined in Appendix F.

Despite the extraordinary challenges to Observatory operations during FY2020, the VLBA and VLA maintained continuous operations, and ALMA has provided effective data reduction support and archive research support. In parallel, NRAO has pushed the capabilities of its facilities to explore new, topical areas of astrophysics, and fostered the long term development of radio astronomy, in collaboration with the community.

There has been no slowdown in ground-breaking science results obtained and published in FY2020 from the NRAO facilities, ranging from measuring the most accurate ephemeris of Saturn, to determining the dense gas history of the Universe. Proposal pressure remains high, with the NRAO facilities being among the most sought-after observational facilities in the world, at any wavelength.

In FY2020, the NRAO continued to improve the scientific capabilities of the facilities through hardware development, improved observing strategies, and easier archive access. Commissioning has begun on a new low frequency system at the VLA, which operates in tandem with the Long Wavelength Array (LWA), to provide high resolution imaging at frequencies down to 50 MHz. The ALMA phasing capabilities continue to improve as the anchor element in the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). The VLBA has performed the first tests of a real-time data transmission and correlation system—an important step toward the next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) Long Baseline Array. The VLA Sky Survey (VLASS) is into its second epoch of full sky coverage. These new data, compared to the first epoch and to targeted observations of other fields, have already produced important publications in time domain astronomy. The NRAO has instituted X-proposals, corresponding to 1000+ hour allocations of telescope time, with an emphasis on programs that provide science pathfinders to the ngVLA. Test data for the first X-proposal were obtained in FY2020.

User tools have improved over the last year, designed to facilitate the ease of use of the NRAO facilities. The Cube Analysis and Rendering Tool for Astronomy (CARTA) is in science testing, providing state-of- the-art visualization capabilities for the complex data from ALMA and other interferometers. The Science Ready Data Products (SRDP) group has implemented capabilities for improved data mining of the NRAO archives, including new capabilities in pipeline calibration and imaging. User education continued unabated, with a highly successful online NRAO synthesis summer school being over-subscribed (as usual), with well over 100 attendees.

The NRAO, in collaboration with the community, made a strong case to the Decadal Survey for a new vision for radio astronomy: the next generation VLA and ALMA 2030. These facilities will keep U.S. astronomy global leaders well into mid-century. Working through the pandemic, the ngVLA project hosted a very successful virtual summer science symposium, with hundreds of attendees from all over the world. The ngVLA project also hosted a virtual series of science talks by eminent community members in areas of interest to the ngVLA science program. These talks have received ~1000 views to date. ALMA 2030 established its primary science goals and development roadmap to major advances in submillimeter capabilities into the 2030s. The following sections highlight a sample of the major science discoveries from the last year, and summarize programmatic initiatives with high science impact.

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NRAO facilities provide unique capabilities to study the dynamic radio sky at timescales from milliseconds to years, as well as to obtain the highest resolution images of objects in the Universe. The VLBA, VLA, and ALMA remain the most sensitive radio facilities for high resolution imaging of the electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave sources identified with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Likewise, ALMA remains the anchor element in the imaging of supermassive black holes using the EHT. Capabilities in these areas continued to improve at both facilities in 2020.

The VLA and VLBA made important magnetar discoveries in 2020. Magnetars are a new cosmic object, slowly rotating neutron stars with the largest magnetic fields measured in the Universe (> 1014 G). Decay of the magnetic fields leads to X- and gamma-ray bursts, as well as radio pulsations in some cases, including the highest fluence radio pulse ever recorded in the Milky Way, making them a possible source of Fast Radio Bursts (FRB). However, the magnetar birth mechanism remains unknown, given the lack of good distance and proper motion measurements. The VLBA has measured the annual geometric parallax to the magnetar XTE J1810-197 (Ding et al. 2020 MNRAS, 498, 4736). The parallax of 0.40 micro-arcsec implies a distance of 2.5 kpc. The implied transverse peculiar velocity is comparable to other pulsars (200 km/s). The observations allow for an extrapolation to the point of origin, possibly a supernova remnant.

Deep VLA observations of a magnetar have set some of the best limits to the nature of axions, a top candidate for cold dark matter. Axions may convert their rest energy into photons in extreme magnetic field regions, such as the > 1014 G fields that exist around magnetars, the strongest fields known in the Universe. Such conversion would produce photons in the range of 0.2–20 GHz. With the VLA, the PSR J1745 2900 magnetar in the Galactic Center was searched for axion decay producing radio emission at 1.0–38 GHz down to levels of 100 µJy. The radio non-detection provides one of the best limits to date on the− axion-photon coupling constant.

Figure 1.1.1.1: Limits on the axion-photon coupling constant from the VLA observations of the PSR J1745-2900 (Darling 2020). The yellow regions are current models for the axion magnetic coupling constant for a reasonable range in axion mass. The blue boxes indicate the limits set by the deep VLA observations. The green box indicates the best laboratory limits to date (Darling 2020, Phys.Rev.Lett. 125, 121103).

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The origin of relativistic jets in the accretion disk region of supermassive black holes has taken on new relevance with the extreme resolution observations obtainable at millimeter wavelengths with the VLBA, High Sensitivity Array (HSA), and EHT. The VLBA has imaged the polarized emission at 24 and 43 GHz in M87 down to 0.2 milli-arcsec (mas) resolution, approaching the resolution of the EHT observations of the black hole event horizon itself. The polarization shows a two-component pattern, with smooth rotation of the emitted polarization angle around the core. Rotation measures of over 104 rad/m/m are observed. This general pattern remains stable over 11 years, with monthly small scale variability. The authors interpret the results with a model in which the observed polarimetric pattern is associated with the magnetic structure in the confining magneto-hydrodynamic wind from the Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) torus, which also serves as the cause of the large Faraday rotation.

Figure 1.1.1.2: VLBA images of the polarized (color) and total (gray contours) intensity from M87, plus observed position angles vectors (Kravchenko et al. 2020, A&A, 637, 6).

Solar System and Planetary Science The NRAO facilities act in concert with ground-based facilities at other wavelengths, and deep space missions, to obtain a clearer picture of the physics, chemistry, and potential exo-biology, of the Solar System.

The VLBA has tracked the position of the Cassini spacecraft from its insertion into Saturnian orbit in 2004, until mission end in 2017. Observations were made at 8.4 GHz with 1 mas resolution. These observations have helped improve the orbital ephemeris for Saturn by an order of magnitude. The orientation of the orbit is now known to within 0.25 mas (Jones et al. 2020, AJ, 159, 72).

An important result appearing this year was ALMA imaging of SO, SO2, and KCl gases in the atmosphere of Io, as it went into and emerged from Jovian eclipse. Volcanic plumes distort the line profiles causing high-velocity ( 500 m/s) wings. SO2 abundance drops in eclipse, increasing linearly as Io re-emerges into sunlight and is indicative of a ~30–50% contribution from volcanic sources to the atmosphere. ≳

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Figure 1.1.2.1: [Top] SO2 distribution on Io-in-sunlight, at 6 and 15 min after entering eclipse (dePater et al. Planetary Science Journal, 2020 arXiv:2009.07729). [Lower]: SO2 distribution on Io in eclipse, and emerging into sunlight 2 Sep. 2018, starting with a partial eclipse, as indicated. Io North is up. The large circle shows the outline of Io. The small circle, lower left, shows the half-power beam width. Letters show the positions of several volcanoes: P for P207; Pf for PFd1691, and N for Nyambe Patera, Karei Patera (K), Daedalus Patera (D), and North Lerna (L, on one panel only) are indicated.

The VLBA has measured the astrometric wobble of the nearby ultra-cool, low mass M dwarf star, TVLM

513–46546 (10pc, 0.07 M⊙), caused by a Saturn-mass planet. Observations of the non-thermal emission from the star were made at 8.4 GHz with a resolution of 1 mas. They derive an orbital period of 221 days, and orbital radius of 0.3 Astronomical Units (AU). This is the first astrometric discovery of a planet using VLBI. The presence of such a massive planet around a low mass star, at such a small orbital radius, was unexpected, and presents a challenge to planet formation models.

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Figure 1.1.2.2: [Upper] Non-thermal radio emission from active regions on the star TVLM513-46546 at 8.4 GHz seen with the VLBA. [Lower] Proper motion of the star showing the wobble due to the planet over time (Curiel et al. 2020, AJ, 190, 97).

Star and Planet Formation and Evolution, and the Search for Life The VLA and ALMA provide unique capabilities to study the cold gas and dust associated with forming stars and planets, as well as being powerful tools for imaging the late time processes in stellar evolution.

Dust substructures in protoplanetary disks display fascinating arrays of gaps, rings, and spirals suggesting a population of unseen planets whose presence may be betrayed by potentially observable features; improving image resolution, spectral resolution, and sensitivity are key ALMA2030 goals. Recently, particularly in gas-rich disks, ALMA has imaged subtle features in the kinematic structure of gas disks, suggesting the wakes planets stir in the disk material. Detection of these kinematic features requires consummate line sensitivity and spectral and spatial resolution. Claimed detections of disk-embedded planets have been made for a handful of objects, hampered by the need for 0.1 arcsec spatial resolution and 100 m/s kinematic resolution, along with sufficiently long integrations to allow novel synthesis imaging techniques. Such requirements are the subjects of two current ALMA Development Studies, as well as wider-band, more sensitive receivers and longer baselines, also currently targets of other development studies.

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Figure 1.1.3.1: The DSHARP data showing a break in the iso-velocity contours indicative of an embedded planet. The left panel shows the channel at a velocity offset of 1:16 km s-1 from the systemic velocity. The central panel shows a zoom-in of the break region. The solid white lines show the observed iso-velocity contour that traces the spine of the emission. The black dotted line shows the iso-velocity contour for Keplerian rotation, revealing a clear departure consistent with a kinematic planetary signature. The right panel shows an unperturbed channel. Note that the predicted planet location in the central panel is the projected location at the emission surface of the 12CO emission. Figure from Disk Dynamics Collaboration et al. (2020) PASA, in press, arXiv:2009.04345.

ALMA has imaged a set of misaligned rings in a protoplanetary disk around the triple star system GW Orionis. This system has an inner binary of 1 AU separation, and an outer star orbiting at 8 AU, with a different orbital plane. ALMA images of thermal dust emission show rings at 46, 185, and 340 AU. These rings appear misaligned in projection. The projected misalignment implies a strong warp of the inner ring relative to the outer rings. The disk has been either torn apart by the gravitational pull of the three stars orbiting in different planes, or warped by an as-yet unseen massive planet in the disk.

Figure 1.1.3.2: ALMA 230 GHz and VLT images of the misaligned protoplanetary disk around the young triple star system GW Orionis (Bi et al. 2020, ApJ, 895, L18; Kraus et al. 2020, Science 369, 1233), plus the 3D model in projection.

Red supergiants (RSG) are massive stars near the end of their lifetime. Understanding their atmospheres provides crucial information on their ultimate demise via supernova. Radio observations are a unique tool to ‘peel’ their atmospheres, due to the strong frequency dependence of free-free opacity. ALMA and VLA imaging of the nearest RSG, Antares, down to 45 mas, shows an extended atmosphere, with a temperature rise from 2800 K at 1.5 Rp to 3800 K at 2.5 Rp, where Rp is the optical photospheric radius. The millimeter- photosphere is elongated by 15% in the direction of the binary companion. The VLA images also reveal emission from the RSG wind ionized by its B-star companion. The radio chromosphere is cooler than derived from ultraviolet measurements, suggesting an inhomogeneous atmosphere of hot and cool regions, and complex chromospheric heating by stellar acoustic and magnetic waves.

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Figure 1.1.3.3: [Left] ALMA and VLA images of the Red Super Giant Antares, and its associated ionized wind around the companion B star, down to 45 mas resolution. [Right] Radio-derived temperature profile of the atmosphere (O’Gorman et al. 2020, A&A, 638, 65).

A particularly exciting prospect enabled by the high sensitivity and resolution of the ngVLA is the ability to image stellar radio photospheres with high fidelity. A recent study funded through an ngVLA community grant to the Smithsonian Astronomical Observatory (SAO), shows remarkable promise in high resolution imaging of surface structures of the radio photospheres of giant stars, including making movies of the mass loss processes from evolved stars on annual timescales. These future studies will be crucial for understanding the origins of extreme exospace weather, and end-of-life processes in stellar evolution, and the subsequent enrichment of the Interstellar Medium (ISM).

Figure 1.1.3.4: Models (top) and simulated ngVLA images (bottom) at 43 GHz and a resolution of 1.5 mas ~ 0.04 stellar radii (Akyama & Mathews 2020, ngVLA memo 66), of the ‘boiling’ atmospheres of Asymptomatic Giant Branch (AGB) stars near the end of their lifetime. AGB star mass loss is a dominant contributor to metals in the ISM. The Freytag model is a 1 Mo AGB star experiencing periodic mass loss near the end of its lifetime. The Chiavassa model is a 12 M RSG star experiencing extreme mass loss prior to going supernova. The two models are at distances of ~200 pc. Movies of the mass loss observed ⊙ over yearly timescales are available.

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Galaxies and Galaxy Formation This year saw the publication of a number of important results from NRAO facilities in the study of the molecular gas, dust, and star formation, across cosmic time, as well as the origin and evolution of supermassive black holes.

Results from the ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (ASPECS) are now published. This survey provides a deep spectroscopic survey of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, covering 5 arcmin2 and scanning the full ALMA Bands 3 and 6. The observations represent an unbiased, large cosmic volume measurement of the evolution of the molecular gas content of galaxies across cosmic time, as well as the deepest 1.2 mm continuum image ever made. The results provide an estimate of the evolution of the molecular gas density of the Universe—the fuel for star formation in galaxies. A rise and fall of the cosmic dense gas density is measured, paralleling the rise and fall of the star formation rate density.

Figure 1.1.4.1: [Left] CO-selected galaxies from ASPECS. [Right] Evolution of the molecular gas density of the Universe derived from ASPECS and other methods (Decarli et al. 2020, ApJ, arXiv 200910744; Walter et al. 2020, ApJ, arXiv:2009.11126).

The VLA remains an ideal engine with which to identify supermassive black holes. Massive black holes are found in many galaxies of different types, and the hole mass correlates with the stellar mass of the host galaxy, suggesting a causal connection between the formation of galaxies and massive black holes. Recently, the VLA has identified massive black holes in very low mass galaxies, comparable to the Large Magellanic Cloud. The surprising result is that these holes are not always located at the galaxy center. The result suggests that galaxy mergers can produce galaxies in which the massive black holes wander through the galaxy potential for long time periods before settling to the dynamical center. The VLA will continue to search for fainter black hole systems, and possibly identify multiple massive black holes in dwarf galaxies, indicative of the merger histories.

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Figure 1.1.4.2: Images of dwarf galaxies containing massive black holes, as identified with the VLA. The red dots indicate the black hole positions, which often do not reside at the galaxy center (Reines et al. 2020, ApJ, 888, 36).

General Development Initiatives VLA Sky Survey (VLASS): The second epoch of VLASS began in June 2020. This repeats the imaging of the entire sky visible to the VLA (34,000 deg2) over a frequency range of 2–4 GHz at 3 arcsecond resolution. Results from time-domain science being done with VLASS are already appearing. By comparing to the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-centimeters (FIRST) survey, Nyland et al. (arXiv:2005.04734) found several AGN whose radio jets have switched on within the past ~10 years, changing their classification from radio-quiet to radio-loud. Comparing the first 1000 deg2 of VLASS Epoch 2 with VLASS Epoch 1, Hallinan et al. (ATel 14020) found a 1.4 mJy source present in the second epoch, but not in the first, which they associate with the supernova SN2019xhb/ZTF19adaxza. VLASS is also proving useful in more general studies of cosmic radio sources, where its combination of high resolution and high sensitivity makes it a unique resource (e.g. Patil et al. 2020 ApJ 896 18; Ruan et al. 2020 MNRAS 495 2125; Tang et al. 2020 MNRAS.tmp doi:10.1093/ mnras/staa2805). The VLASS project is continuing to collaborate with the community to produce enhanced data products and services. In particular, the Canadian Initiative for Radio Astronomy Data Analysis (CIRADA) has produced a source catalog from the VLASS Epoch 1 Quick Look images, and an image cutout server that can serve both Epoch 1 and Epoch 2 images.

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Figure 1.1.5.1: VLASS Epoch 1 (left) and Epoch 2 (right) images of the field of SN2019xhb, showing the appearance of the radio transient associated with the supernova.

VLA: In 2020, the realfast transient detection system has become fully operational for observing at L through X band. This system is a commensal search engine for fast (millisecond) transients. The system will run commensally with VLASS Epoch 2 observing as well. Phased-array coherent de-dispersion observations of pulsars with the VLA were promoted to General Observing in FY2020.

Low Frequency Radio Astronomy: In FY2020, NRAO expanded its testing of the expanded LWA (eLWA) to use all VLA antennas, and the data path from the VLA to the University of New Mexico (UNM) was defined and demonstrated. This system represents a powerful, and commensal, observing mode for high resolution observations at 58–84 MHz. P-band polarization observations were promoted to General Observing. The Naval Research Lab-supported VLA Low Band Ionospheric and Transient Experiment (VLITE) commensal observing program, covering 320–384 MHz, continues routine operation, and is implementing a fast transient search methodology.

VLBA: The electronic transfer (E-transfer) system continues development, to increase real-time connectivity of the VLBA sites to the operations center in Socorro, NM, from a typical data rate of 1.4 Mbps to a minimum of 200 Mbps. Nine of ten VLBA sites have completed fiber network links at the end of FY2020. Using this new capability, a diagnostic test has been developed that can verify proper timing, pointing, and tuning of the VLBA antennas within minutes of observing. First tests of real-time correlation have been performed using up to eight VLBA stations; this capability will eventually lead to additional diagnostics and scientific use cases. A four Gbps data rate was made available as a General Observing capability, first on the VLBA, then on the HSA (excluding Arecibo). Also, including a single VLA antenna in VLBA observations was made a General Observing capability in FY2020.

ALMA Development Program: ALMA announced the opportunity to observe pulsars using the ALMA phased array at Cycle 8. The observations are offered at Band 3 only and they will take place in campaign mode during pre-defined time periods. Owing to the delay of Cycle 8 observations, no observations have occurred yet.

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Long Term Developments in Radio Astronomy ALMA 2030: The ALMA Development Roadmap has identified the multiplication of the IF bandwidth of ALMA (at least by a factor of two) as one of the main priorities for ALMA upgrades in the 2020s. This increase of the instantaneous bandwidth will be realized with the coordinated upgrade of the correlators and the electronics feeding them: digitizers, backend and Data Transmission System (DTS), and the receivers ultimately supplying the signals.

A series of three conferences are being held to discuss considerations for all three elements needed to increase ALMA's bandwidth. The first, a conference to discuss considerations for the design of the next ALMA correlator, was held in Charlottesville, Virginia 11–13 February 2020. Experts on the ALMA system and modern digital correlator design assembled to inform the submission of viable designs for the next ALMA correlator in the near future.

Next Generation Very Large Array: The NRAO has engaged the broad scientific and technical community in the design of the ngVLA, building on the legacies of ALMA and the VLA. The ngVLA is envisaged as an interferometric array with ten times the resolution and sensitivity of both ALMA and the VLA, optimized for operation at 1.2–116 GHz. The ngVLA will open a new window on the cosmos through thermal line and continuum imaging down to milliarcsecond scales.

Despite the significant impact of COVID-19, the ngVLA project has continued to see substantial progress in the development of the science program and technical design, with broad community involvement, led by the ngVLA project office and the Science and Technical Advisory committees. During FY2020, the project showcased ngVLA alignment with community priorities through detailed responses to a number of Requests for Information, including an in-person presentation, from the Astro2020 Decadal Survey Radio, Millimeter, and Submillimeter Program Panels. On the technical front, design development activities resulted in three additional ngVLA antenna costed concept designs that were reviewed Q4. This work has led to a new Request for Proposal (RFP) that will be released in Q1 FY2021 for the next phase of the project, developing a design to Preliminary Design Review readiness. The downselect for the RFP award will include a selection of the conceptual design the NRAO intends to advance to prototype and construction.

In addition to these deliverables, the project sponsored a virtual science workshop 14–15 July 2020 that replaced the planned in-person FY2020 meeting on the topic of Compact Objects and Energetic Phenomena in the Multi-Messenger Era, which the NRAO hopes to hold next year. The virtual workshop consisted of 14 short invited talks attended by ~650 individuals representing 40+ countries, the majority of which were students and early career scientists. Recorded presentations and Q&A sessions are online, and covered topics pivotal to the future of multi-messenger astronomy. Presenters focused on current progress, future directions, and how to best use the suite of multi-messenger facilities through the 2020s and beyond. The conference presentations have already accrued 150+ views.

In other efforts to keep the community engaged with the project, the ngVLA Science Advisory Council organized a weekly virtual ngVLA Summer Short Talk Series that ran 25 June–10 September 2020. The recorded presentations and Q&A exchanges discussed key science questions and their connection to present and future observing facilities at all wavelengths. A total of 768 individuals from 47 countries attended one or more presentations. The average attendance at each meeting included 200+ participants, ranging between 150–380, and represented well over 100 institutions. A large percentage of participants were graduate students. As of 13 September 2020, there were 817 additional views of the online talks.

While the pandemic has blocked the ability to host in-person meetings, the pivot to virtual meetings has engaged a larger, more diverse global audience. The recordings of these virtual events provide a lasting legacy for the scientific community and the public.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 18

Broadening the User Base: The VLA and VLBA have initiated a new category of X-proposals, corresponding to proposals that require more than 1000 hours and extend over a few years. The hope is to explore some of the key science goals identified as drivers for the ngVLA. The first X-proposals went through the review process, with one program, HI imaging of nearby galaxies, selected for the VLA. This program is in progress.

The Science Ready Archive and Operations component of Science Ready Data Products (SRDP) is in Wave 1 operations. Through this initiative, the NRAO provides the community with quality-assured calibrated VLA data for X-band and higher frequencies; C-band will be added in November 2020. Users now have the capability to download calibrated VLA and ALMA data from the NRAO archive and can generate new images from ALMA data using NRAO computing resources, with the ability to adjust angular resolution coming in the near future. A similar service is being prepared for the VLA (initially only continuum imaging) over the next year.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 19

2 NORTH AMERICAN ALMA OPERATIONS

North American ALMA Operations (NA ALMA Ops) is the NRAO department that provides North America’s scientific and technical partnership support to the international ALMA Observatory and supports the North American community in their use of ALMA. NA ALMA Ops ensures that the North American scientific community has the tools, information, support, and access to make optimal scientific use of ALMA. It also provides scientific, technical, and business support to Observatory operations in Chile in concert with the Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) staff and international partners, and supports a long-term development program for the technical enhancement of ALMA.

NA ALMA Ops consists of four divisions: (1) the North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC); (2) the Offsite Technical Maintenance and Support group, including Construction Warranty support; (3) the NA ALMA Development Program; and (4) the NRAO/AUI Office of Chilean Affairs (OCA).

In FY2020, NA ALMA Ops focused on the following high-level initiatives:

• Support JAO Operations and NA scientific community use of ALMA; • Support the JAO and the NA science community with the Cycle 7 Supplemental Call, utilizing Distributed Peer Review; • Support the NRAO SRDP strategic initiative while continuing to meet ALMA core deliverables; • Facilitate NA Principle Investigators (PIs) in the publication of their ALMA results and help ensure that they have the tools, training, and assistance to be competitive with their regional peers; • Initiate the strategic plan to continue to expand the ALMA user-base beyond the radio, millimeter, and submillimeter experts; • Enhance staff relations and the work environment in Chile, building toward the next collective bargaining agreement; complete the Multicancha indoor gymnasium project and deliver to JAO Operations for use by the staff; and • Participate in the implementation of the ALMA 2030 Development Roadmap through NA projects and collaborations, and collaborate on long-range visions for ALMA.

FY2020 began smoothly for ALMA, with the JAO and NA ALMA Ops on track to meet Cycle 7 observing targets and operational milestones. Owing to the coronavirus pandemic, the JAO suspended observing operations in mid-March, and at about the same time, NRAO North American staff began working from home. Even though half of Cycle 7 observing was lost in FY2020, many of the high-level initiatives listed above were achieved. The sections below highlight the FY2020 deliverables of NA ALMA Ops. The North American ALMA Science Center In FY2020, the NAASC supported the SRDP initiative as a top priority. Several NAASC staff were matrixed into the SRDP office with the goal to enhance delivered PI data products in support of publications, and expand the NA ALMA user base. In addition to supporting the SRDP initiative, the NAASC also successfully focused on user-facing tasks, telescope-facing tasks, data analysis, and development while navigating the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the message to NAASC staff from management was to ensure their personal and family health and safety as the top priority. Several staff were in quarantine (for precaution only) before the Observatory entered Work From Home (WFH) status. All NAASC staff started WFH on 16 March 2020.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 20

ALMA opened the Cycle 8 Call for Proposals (CfP) on time 17 March 2020, but stopped Cycle 7 Observing 19 March 2020. Several weeks after opening, the Cycle 8 CfP was delayed for a full year and the ALMA site was completely shut down. Only recently have staff in Chile started ramping-up operations. This operations ramp-up is expected to take 100+ days before the start of PI science observing.

During the six months since the WFH order, NAASC staff have been in at least weekly communication through NAASC meetings (now biweeklyy) and informal communications, discussions, and updates through Slack. Through discussions with the staff, work efficiency varied greatly—some worked with high efficiency, a few at lower efficiency owing to family responsibilities, and the large majority worked at a reasonable, but somewhat reduced efficiency. Most issues were resolved and the NAASC was able to complete many of the initiatives outlined in the FY2020 POP.

ALMA Community Support The ALMA Community Support group develops the strategic plans and initiatives to grow and educate the ALMA user base beyond the radio, millimeter, and submillimeter experts, to help the community optimize their use of ALMA, and to facilitate the publication of data (original or archive). To realize these goals, the group is also responsible for the validation and analysis of existing or proposed user tools, research in support of requirements definition for the ALMA calibration and imaging pipeline, routine testing and requirements definition for these user tools, and the coordination of NRAO-wide Common Astronomy Software Applications (CASA) testing. The group is responsible for the calibration, imaging, and delivery of PI science data to the community and contributing to the ALMA archive improvements and deployment testing. The ALMA Community Support group was responsible for the following activities in FY2020.

NAASC Community Outreach: The NAASC hosts outreach forums designed to broaden and facilitate ALMA use by the scientific community. Building on the successful ALMA Community Days and recent NRAO Live! events, NAASC staff continued to organize and participate in outreach activities to inform the community about upcoming ALMA capabilities and data reduction and analysis techniques despite the limitations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. NAASC staff continued the ALMA Ambassadors program in which scientists from the community visited the NAASC for training in the use of ALMA tools and software. The Ambassadors then organized and ran ALMA training events around the country. Before the start of the pandemic, the Cycle 8 ALMA Ambassadors met for a training session in Charlottesville, VA (Figure 2.1.1).

Figure 2.1.1: ALMA Cycle 8 Ambassadors during the February 2020 training at headquarters, Charlottesville, VA.

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Fifteen events were planned prior to the start of the pandemic and 13 were executed. The virtual events started 19 March and were offered continuously until 3 April. The total number of registered participants was ~230; the total number of attendees was ~180. Table 2.1 lists all ALMA Ambassador events.

Table 2.1- List of ambassadors and their events details.

In Q2, NAASC staff began to investigate the possibility of running interferometric training workshops using a similar model to the ALMA Ambassadors, with a goal of facilitating such workshops nationwide. While formally this goal was never achieved, the NAASC successfully worked with colleagues in Socorro on providing logistical and scientific support for the first virtual Synthesis Imaging Summer School, the 17th NRAO Synthesis Imaging Workshop in Socorro in Q3. A majority of the planning for the summer school took place in Q2.

Hosting or sponsoring scientific meetings and workshops is an integral part of the NAASC strategic initiative for knowledge transfer and results dissemination, and expanding the ALMA user base beyond the traditional radio, millimeter, and submillimeter community. In FY2020, the NAASC was to be a major contributor and/or host to multiple scientific and topical meetings. Applications for this program were submitted to the NAASC in FY2020 for upcoming conferences in CY2020 and the decisions were announced within four to six weeks of submission. The list below summarizes the community proposals submitted for NAASC funding support and those meetings/workshops that were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Extreme Galactic Nuclear Activity - Ultraluminous Starbursts and AGN: A Symposium in Honor of Dave Sanders (Honolulu, Hawaii), 9 January 2020 (Requested/Awarded: $11–13K/$2.5K) • Gordon Research Seminar on Origins of Life (Galveston, Texas) – 18-19 January 2020 (Requested/Awarded: $5K/$5K (shared with ngVLA)) • Quenching and Transformation Throughout Cosmic Time (Aspen Center for Physics, Aspen, Colorado) 8-13 February 2020 (Requested/Awarded: $21K/$12K) • Ground and Space observatories: a Joint Venture to Planetary Science. Planets2020 (Santiago, Chile) 2- 6 March 2020 (Requested/Awarded: $10K/$10K) • From Collapsing Cores to Forming Disks: Fostering Connections Between Theory, Observation, and Chemistry (NRAO, Charlottesville, Virginia) 10-13 March 2020 (Requested/Awarded: $14.8K/$2K) • ACS Symposium: Astrochemical Complexity in Planetary Systems (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) 22-26 March 2020 (Requested/Awarded: $3071/$3071) Cancelled due to COVID-19

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• Multiphase Gas in Galaxy Groups (NRAO, Charlottesville, Virginia) 23-25 June 2020 (Requested/Awarded: $25K/17.5K plus full logistical support) Postponed due to COVID-19 • The Aftermath of a Revolution: Planet Formation Five Years After HL Tau (Puerto Varas, Chile) 7-11 December 2020 (TBA) (Requested/Awarded: $15K/$15K (shared with ngVLA) Virtual meeting due to COVID-19.

Finally, the NAASC hosted a Special Session at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting in Honolulu, 4–8 January 2020. The 75th International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy scheduled in Champaign, Illinois 15–19 June 2020 was postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

User Documentation: Before the postponement of ALMA Cycle 8, the NAASC completed the documentation preparation and review activities for the Cycle 8 Call for Proposals, Proposer’s/User’s Guide, ALMA Primer, ALMA Technical Handbook, Guide to the NA ARC, software user guides (including CASAGuides), and the additional documentation on how to access NAASC services.

It was anticipated that the JAO would continue to test the new proposal review process via a Supplemental Call for Proposals for the Atacama Compact Array (ACA, 7-m, and Total Power arrays) in mid-Cycle 7. NAASC staff would have assisted the JAO in preparing for this Supplemental Proposal Call by helping draft the relevant documentation and preparing the ALMA science portal with the relevant information. However, the supplemental call for mid-Cycle 7 was canceled due to the ALMA pandemic shutdown.

Face to Face Visitor and Helpdesk Support: The NAASC manages ALMA Helpdesk activities including routine ticket reviews, enforcement of ticket service level agreements, and formulation of new Knowledgebase articles based on user questions. Face-to-face (f2f) support includes hosting one to two data processing teams from NA institutions per week at the NA ALMA Regional Center (ARC) in Charlottesville or at the National Research Council (NRC) in Victoria, British Columbia. The visiting data processing teams work with the NAASC data analysts and NAASC or NRC scientific support staff on various aspects of data processing and image analysis. In FY2020, the NAASC continued hosting f2f visitors despite the COVID pandemic. This was managed by transitioning to virtual visits. The NAASC hosted 21 f2f visitors; five visitors were hosted virtually.

ALMA Pipeline Development and CASA Testing: ALMA calibration and imaging pipeline testing and development continued in FY2020. Even though ALMA Cycle 8 was postponed for a year, NAASC staff will deliver a new pipeline in Q1 FY2021, and is aligned with the broader aim of supporting the SRDP project. The new pipeline will include improved Quality Assurance 2 (QA2) scores and assessment, and Pipeline-assisted polarization calibration.

Data Processing Workflow and Lustre Access: An important objective of the Data Processing Workflow group is to deliver fully calibrated data and representative images of ALMA standard observing modes to PIs within 30 days of the last successful execution on the array. NAASC staff continued to work closely with the JAO teams and delivered, on average, 30–35 datasets per week to the NA ALMA user community until the ALMA shutdown. After the shutdown, NAASC staff continued processing the more difficult datasets that needed manual calibration.

ALMA Telescope Interface and Diagnostics Team The Telescope Interface and Diagnostics group is the NAASC technical liaison to the JAO. In FY2020, the group was responsible for several initiatives, including organizing and running the ALMA proposal review process. As communication and interaction between the ARCs and the JAO, especially f2f visits, are of critical importance to ALMA project success, NAASC staff were to take part in an ALMA Science

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 23

Exchange with the other ARCs and the JAO. Due to the COVID pandemic, several of these initiatives were cancelled; a summary of the activities achieved or cancelled in FY2020 are described below.

ALMA Proposal Review Process: The NAASC provides technical expertise in support of the ALMA proposal review process, the Proposal Handling Tool (PHT) technical assessment, and technical secretary functions. Due to the one-year ALMA shutdown and the postponement of ALMA Cycle 8, the NAASC did not participate in the Cycle 8 ALMA proposal review process nor provide technical secretaries or the Phase 1 Manager Cognizant Lead to the Review Panels and Proposal Review Committee meetings.

Phase 2 Group (P2G): NAASC P2G staff provide the technical expertise to review and set up Phase 2 materials (Scheduling Blocks (SBs)) submitted by NA PIs for an observing cycle. This includes modifying SBs that require expert technical input, coordinating with the JAO to request calibrator searches, and ensuring that all SBs are ready to run on the telescope. During a cycle, the NAASC staff also provide any SB changes required following an approved change request or other edits requested by the PI or as needed for scheduling, and also support new programs approved mid-cycle, including Director’s Discretionary Time (DDT) proposals and supplementary calls. In preparation for an upcoming cycle, NAASC staff participate in software testing of the ALMA Observing Tool (OT) and relevant end-to-end tests, as well as related software such as the Project Tracker, and closely coordinate with the JAO and the other ARCs on developing P2G best practices at the annual P2G f2f meeting. NAASC staff continued to provide P2G support for the NA scientific community up to the ALMA shutdown. In addition, because of the travel restrictions, the annual f2f meeting was cancelled and the group met virtually.

Contact Scientists: NAASC staff provide oversight and support for all approved NA ALMA PI programs for an observing cycle. This includes ensuring PIs have submitted, reviewed, and approved their projects for scheduling prior to cycle start, and, if needed, providing communication between PIs and the JAO during a cycle. NAASC staff also provide oversight of PI scheduling block status and coordinate with the JAO on scheduling issues. All Cycle 7 observing programs were assigned a contact scientist and NAASC staff provided support to the NA ALMA PI observing programs until the ALMA shutdown.

Support for Telescope Operations in Chile: The NAASC coordinates with the JAO and other ARCs to schedule Astronomer on Duty (AoD) shifts in support of ALMA telescope operations in Chile. In a typical year, the NA ARC covers a minimum of 14 shifts. Due to travel restrictions and the ALMA shutdown, AoD shifts were cancelled after March 2020.

Telescope Diagnostics: The NAASC continues to play a critical role in the JAO technical and diagnostics-related meetings and teleconferences, such as the Control System and Correlator Group weekly meetings and software readiness review meetings. The team also provides significant diagnostic support to the JAO, including identifying and coordinating critical fixes for issues. NAASC staff continue to maintain a close interaction between data processing and the telescope diagnostics teams at the JAO to ensure problems are reported and tracked efficiently. Throughout FY2020, the NAASC continued to coordinate with the JAO on troubleshooting issues and problems found with the telescope systems or in data collection and analysis.

NA ARC Data Analyst Group The NA Data Analysts are integrated into NA ALMA Operations and are critical to user and telescope support. The Data Analyst group continued to support the following activities either f2f before March 2020 or virtually thereafter:

• CASA Guides, f2f visitors, data processing workshops; NRAO Live! events, Synthesis Imaging School documentation and demonstrations, community outreach events, and Helpdesk.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 24

• Data services, NA data processing, and weblog review (pipeline and manual); calibration survey data processing; QA3 execution and documentation. • ALMA scientific software including involvement in ALMA pipeline and CASA software testing; CASA documentation; diagnostics investigations and Science Portal maintenance; and generating meeting webpages.

NAASC Milestone Summary Of the six milestone deadlines, four were completed on time, one was postponed, and one was cancelled.

Milestone 2.5.3 - Participate and Sponsor ISMS – The 2020 International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy was postponed to 2021 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Milestone 2.5.5 - Coordinate planning and execution for Cycle 8 APR – This milestone was cancelled owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. ALMA Cycle 8 observing was postponed a full year, and will commence in October 2021. Development Development efforts during FY2020 are described in the succeeding sections. A recent Call for Proposals yielded four studies funded for Cycle 8 which will commence in FY2021. The next Call for Proposals is anticipated for Q1 FY2021 for Cycle 9 studies and projects beginning in FY2022.

Ongoing Development Projects Fiber Optic Project – JAO (Cycle 1): The OSF/AOS/Santiago fiber optic link is fully functional and operating pursuant to a temporary permit. The project continues to be held open for administrative purposes while the final operating permit is being processed by the Chilean Ministry of National Assets (Ministerio de Bienes Nationales.)

Expansion of the Central Local Oscillator Article (CLOA) to Five Subarrays – NRAO (Cycle 2): This project procured and tested all the required modules and equipment to complete Photonic Local Oscillator (LO) subarray five. The complete chain was installed, tested, and commissioned at the Array Operations Site (AOS) Technical Building. The completed system was integrated into the current software control system. The project is being held open pending adjudication of final test results (after Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) testing done in August 2019) and acceptance of the final report by ALMA.

Band 3 CCA Magnet and Heater Installation for Deflux Operations – NRC-HIA (Cycle 2): This project is modifying the Band 3 Cold Cartridge Assembly (CCA) to add a heater element to reduce observed azimuth-dependent total power variations. The heater solution was successfully tested at NRC- HIA and underwent verification testing by the JAO. Various delays in the project were caused by validation of test results and the inability to reproduce the original total power variations. The design is now finalized and NRC-HIA is building the initial heater kits for delivery in Q1 FY2021. Integration into each Band 3 CCA will continue over the next three years.

ALMA Phasing System Phase 2 (APP2) – MIT Haystack (Cycle 5): Several initiatives will improve VLBI capabilities and performance for ALMA. Major components include enabling spectral line VLBI, extending the frequency range of phasing to Bands 1–7, improving the calibration mechanism to allow observations on weaker sources, the introduction of a single-dish VLBI mode, and a pulsar mode. Two of the intended project capabilities, passive phasing and a pulsar mode, are on track for Cycle 8 release; other capabilities have been delayed for reasons beyond project team control—primarily lack of access

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 25 to test time and the COVID-19 suspension. An extension proposal to complete the full, original scope of the project is presently in the approval process in ALMA.

Variable Speed Compressor Analysis Small Project -- NRAO / JAO (Cycle 7): This conceptual design project will characterize Sumitomo FA-70 compressors modified for variable-speed operation at operational conditions. The existing Sumitomo CAN-61D compressors in use in ALMA will soon be obsolete and are already difficult to maintain. The newer-generation FA-70 compressors have multiple operational advantages that could save money and return observing time. The new compressors have a much faster restart time following a power outage or maintenance shutdown, and are potentially much more energy efficient owing to the variable speed operation. This conceptual design project will prototype an operational system, quantify potential savings, and will inform next steps for ALMA with respect to cryo- compressor operation and a replacement strategy.

Ongoing Development Studies The following studies completed during FY2020:

• Quantum-Limited Very-Wideband RF and IF Amplifiers – NRAO (Cycle 5) • Full-Mueller Mosaic Imaging with ALMA – NRAO (Cycle 5) [final report pending] • NRC TALON Frequency Slice Architecture Correlator/Beamformer -- for ALMA (Cycle 7)

Quantum-Limited Very-Wideband RF and IF Amplifiers – NRAO (Cycle 5): The ALMA 2030 roadmap recommends the development of receivers with larger bandwidth and better sensitivity for improving observation speed. This one-year study describes progress on the development of a breakthrough amplifier technology called the Traveling-Wave Kinetic Inductance Parametric (TKIP). These “paramps” are a new type of cryogenic power amplifier applicable in the microwave to THz range (0.001 to 1 THz) that exhibit ultralow noise reaching the fundamental quantum limits set by Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, along with very wide instantaneous bandwidth (an octave or more). These amplifiers are considered strategic for NRAO’s long-term technology program, and their successful development could have a huge impact on the performance of ALMA and other future radio telescopes. This study describes progress in developing microwave (post-down-conversion, or IF) and millimeter-wave (pre- downconversion, or RF) paramps during the ongoing study. Several versions of the IF were designed, fabricated, and tested with improvements in gain, bandwidth, noise, dynamic range, gain ripple, pump power level, and chip footprint. The study demonstrated that the paramps can operate at 4 K while maintaining high gain ~15 dB) and wide bandwidth (>6 GHz not yet tested). When operated at ≤1 K, the study consistently measured noise within a factor of two of the fundamental quantum limit for the IF paramps. At higher frequencies, the study designed and fabricated several RF paramps with a simulated gain of >15 dB over the 65-150 GHz band, and made significant improvements in the fabrication methods. The results from the combined efforts at NRAO/UVA and Caltech/JPL and the new testbed infrastructure have put the project team in an excellent position to continue this promising work, which is clearly synergistic with ALMA’s roadmap.

NRC TALON Frequency Slice Architecture Correlator/Beamformer (ALMA TALON Correlator/Beamformer, or AT.CBF) for ALMA (Cycle 7): Receivers recommended for ALMA 2030 address bandwidths of 8 GHz or greater. This investigation studies the feasibility, cost, and impact on existing ALMA systems of utilizing NRC’s Frequency Slice Architecture (FSA) and TALON technology (TALON/FSA) for a new ALMA correlator and VLBI beamformer. A TALON/FSA correlator and VLBI beamformer for the ALMA telescope can be available and deployed within a five year horizon to replace the Baseline Correlator (BLC), meet ALMA 2030 goals of at least 2X bandwidth. It is believed to be future- proof in its physical/electrical architecture and signal processing approach to provide ALMA, with a foundation to build on for years to come. By upgrading the ALMA correlator to AT.CBF now, not only NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 26 will it provide much-improved science capability in the near term, but it will position ALMA to provide uninterrupted science operations whilst transitioning to upgraded ALMA 2030 antennas, a process that will take several years2.

The following studies are in progress:

Hardware-oriented Studies 1. Ubiquitous Quantum-Limited Wideband 4-Kelvin Amplifiers for Radio Astronomy (Noroozian et al./Goddard Space Flight Center, NRAO). 2. Investigation into Improvement of FE LO Sideband Noise for ALMA Band 6 (Saini et al./NRAO). 3. Band 6v2 SIS Mixer Development (Kerr et al./NRAO). 4. ALMA Central LO Improvements and Upgrades (Jacques/NRAO). 5. Wideband Low-Noise Balanced IF Amplifiers for Band 6 – NRAO (Cycle 5).

Software-oriented Studies 1. Link CASA to the Astropy Ecosystem (Ginsburg/NRAO, University of Florida). 2. ALMA Archive Research using ADMIT (Teuben/University of Maryland) 3. ARCADE: ALMA Reduction in the Canadian Advanced Network for Astronomical Research (CANFAR) Data Environment (Kirk/NRC) 4. Investigating the future potential of an upgraded ALMA to image planet-forming disks at sub-AU scales (Ricci/Cal State University Fullerton)

ALMA Development Milestone Summary Milestones 2.5.7 (Call for Cycle 8 Study Proposals) and 2.5.8 (Cycle 8 Study Award Notifications), were completed in FY2020. Three studies are ongoing in FY2020 that relate to the Band 6 upgrade, which will lead to a development project proposal. NA ALMA Offsite Hardware Technical Support The NRAO NA ALMA offsite hardware maintenance team is comprised of six NRAO support groups in Charlottesville and Socorro responsible for maintaining various sub-systems, as well as a support team at NRC-Herzberg (Victoria, BC) which maintains the Band 3 cold cartridge as part of the NA ALMA partnership. These groups addressed all of the operational activities listed in the NRAO FY2020 POP. The following paragraphs summarize the key operational activities of the various NRAO groups to support the operations and maintenance of the ALMA telescope.

Offsite Hardware Support Group Activities

Antenna Group: Preventive and corrective maintenance tasks are a JAO responsibility, in accordance with the ALMA Operation Plan. The role of Offsite in this model is to provide technical support and to serve as the interface with the NA Antenna Vendor (Vertex).

For FY2020, the NA Offsite antenna corrective maintenance related activities included:

• Reviewed corrective maintenance activities via daily work coordination, Jira tickets, and the Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS). Approximately 223 Antenna Jira issues were addressed in FY2020 (noting that ALMA JAO maintenance operations ceased during the last week Q2) with the following support provided: o Troubleshooting/suggestions when possible. o Identification of reoccurring issues which might indicate failure trends.

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• Continued to provide technical support to JAO staff for resolution of tier-3 level issues. • Interfaced with U.S. vendors for procurement as well as repair of critical NA antenna spares. • Coordinated with NA antenna contractor (Vertex) for development and installation of antenna hardware or software upgrades. • Coordinated with JAO staff on matters related to the mitigation or resolution of antenna component and/or software obsolescence. • Implemented revisions to maintenance or configuration documentation resulting from changes/improvements associated with corrective maintenance issue resolution.

There were no Tier-3 Line Replaceable Unit (LRU) spare parts that required NA Antenna procurement support during the shortened FY2020 operational period.

NA Antenna engineering continues to assess antenna improvements related to corrective actions following antenna shutdowns caused by unplanned power failures and excessive snowfall. Efforts for FY2020 given the operations shutdown were limited to engineering analysis development of a winterized antenna shutter system that can be efficiently returned to operation following a snow/ice event.

Front End (FE) and Band 6 Cartridge Group: This offsite hardware support group at the CDL in Charlottesville is responsible for maintaining the following systems: • Band 6 Cold Cartridges (including mixer-preamplifier subassemblies, feed-horn, Orthomode Transducers (OMTs), and warm IF amplifiers), • A majority of FE components including various electronic sub-assemblies such as: IF switches, ▪ Cartridge Bias Modules, ▪ Gate Valve Drivers, ▪ Front-End Monitor & Control (FEMC) units, ▪ FE Thermal Interlock modules, and several mechanical parts) ▪ software support for the FEMC firmware. ▪

The responsibility of this NA Integrated Engineering Team (IET) group includes maintenance of CDL test systems including the band 6 SIS Mixer Test Set (MTS), the band 6 Cold Cartridge Assembly (CCA) Test Set (CTS), and test systems for several other FE component and sub-assemblies for the repair and requalification of components and modules. This NA Integrated Engineering Team (IET) group is also responsible for the hardware and software support of three FE Test and Measurement Systems (FETMS)— including noise temperature measurement apparatus, tilt tables, and beam scanners—two situated at the ALMA OSF and one in NA (at CDL), as well as their respective associated test operation and measurement software suites. Additionally, the FE group provides management support, product assurance, and executes other administrative activities (e.g. arranging for ALMA related export/import with support from the NRAO export/import officer) in Charlottesville.

The following is a partial list of significant support tasks undertaken this year and shipments sent to the OSF:

• NA FE team members provided on-site support related to various FE and FETMS issues during their site visit to the OSF from 22 February–6 March 2020. FETMS and beam-scanner computer software was updated with latest enhancements during this visit. Outstanding hot/cold chopper issues previously reported on JIRA were also resolved. The team also worked on various software bugs and feature requests from the OSF/JAO staff during the year.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 28

• The NA visiting team also supported the PAI acceptance testing of the first Band 1 receiver (which has significant NA delivered hardware component) from Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica (ASIAA). • Antenna Bus Master Standard Interface (AMBS1) firmware 1.2.0 rollout was in-progress at the OSF and nearly complete before the 2020 shutdown. During the NA team site visit in early 2020, FEMC firmware 3.0.0 was tested successfully with front ends in the OSF lab and in one antenna. Testing included DHCP address assignment to the front end and remote firmware update via FTP. Since then, two change requests related to new firmware features have been circulated and discussed in detail. One change request, related new Ethernet cables in the antennas, has been approved and the components procured subsequently. • The software on the second cartridge test set, CTS-2, in NA was updated to match that on the other cartridge test set, CTS-1. • WCA data delivery format was reviewed and consensus reached on the new format in consultation with JAO, and a change request initiated. This should simplify the flow of data to the TMCDB and help to reduce human errors during WCA replacement. • Obsolescence mitigation work was executed for several modules, assemblies, and components, such as, IF switches (Qty. 3 were repaired and exercised the maintenance operation at the vendor premises for this important, although reliable, part). • In FY2019, one channel of the redesigned FETMS IF Processor (this was done to improve Mean Time To Repair (MTTR), primarily by adding modularity), was completed, and tested, and improved. This year (i.e. in FY2020) work was undertaken to produce three additional channels to have a complete four-channel modular FETMS IF Processor. This work was hampered by the pandemic induced constraints, but all of the parts required for the build were procured and assembly is in an advanced stage, nearing completion. • As part of the effort to replace the cold head in the NA FETMS tilt-table cryostat, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (funded by Science and Technology Facilities Council, STFC) provided heaters (in dummy cartridge configuration) that were installed and the existing cold head capacity evaluated ahead of the STFC staff visit for the cold head replacement. This task was impacted by the pandemic related shutdown and remains to be completed. • FETMS IF Processor SN 03 was repaired and returned to the OSF.

During FY2020, 16 Front End Line Replaceable Units (LRUs) were worked upon (tier-2 repair), and about 11 lower level sub-assemblies/modules were serviced (tier-3 repairs), or new replacements built.

Maintenance and production of ALMA Band 6 (211–275 GHz) mixer-preamps was greatly delayed over the past several years by the CDL’s inability to reproduce mixer-preamps with the stringent gain flatness of those used in the original receiver production run. To remedy the problem, about three years ago, CDL initiated work with the Low Noise Factory (LNF) to produce a direct replacement preamplifier (using their low-power 4–12 GHz Monolithic Millimeter-wave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) amplifier which meets or exceeds the ALMA Band 6 preamp noise and gain requirements) incorporating a Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS) mixer bias chip. This effort was successful and a few Cold Cartridge Assemblies were repaired and incorporated into ALMA after an engineering change request was approved.

The LNF amplifiers were more sensitive to impedance mismatch at their input compared to the original discrete device-based chip-and-wire amplifiers. Consequently, the mixer preamplifier yield was quite low (due to oscillations), because many of the old SIS mixer devices exhibit negative dynamic resistance (at least at the low end of the RF band). This issue was investigated during FY2019 and FY2020 and improved inter-stage matching networks were designed and tested. Simultaneously, an effort began to use the now commercially available Heterojunction Field-Effect Transistor (HFET) transistors (instead of the original

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 29

Cryo-3 devices) from the Swiss company Diramics to repair the original amplifiers. This effort was successful and work continued to repair additional mixer-preamplifiers using this approach.

During FY2020, Band 6 cold cartridge assemblies CCA6-021, CCA6-064 were also repaired and returned to the OSF.

Front End Local Oscillator (FE LO) Group: This CDL group repairs and maintains the Warm Cartridge Assembly (WCAs) for all receiver bands (including active multiplier chains, power amplifiers and phase lock modules—this requires microassembly and wire bonding capability—as well as FE LO cryogenic multipliers which are physically integrated into the CCAs. This group operates and maintains the necessary bench test sets needed to carry out repair and requalification of FE LO components and modules, as well as the First LO offset generator distribution modules.

A 70 nm GaAs BAE Systems fabrication run was initiated in FY2018 for producing power amplifier MMICs. The wafer run was scheduled to complete in FY2019, producing additional spare MMICs for the continued upkeep and repair of the Band 7 power amplifiers and active multiplier chains used in the ALMA first local oscillator systems. However, upon wafer-testing the devices, BAE discovered gate shorts due to a process anomaly. The root-cause analysis of the process failure was completed, and the follow-up wafer run began in early FY2020. It was progressing well, up until the pandemic related shutdown/delays started, and remains an ongoing task.

Meanwhile, the FE LO group procured samples of a commercial power amplifier MMIC in the 70–130 GHz frequency range and has successfully evaluated them as an alternative for Band 7, and possibly other bands as well.

During FY2020, 35 FE LO LRUs were worked on (tier-2 repair), and ~88 lower level sub- assemblies/modules were serviced (tier-3 repairs), or new replacements built. An LO team member provided onsite support during an OSF visit with the FE support team in late February/March.

Back End (BE) Group: This group in Socorro, NM is responsible for offsite maintenance of the BE Antenna Articles (AAs), including Fiber Optic Wraps (FOWs), Data Receiver Articles (DRXAs), and support of some LRUs in the CLOA. The group is also responsible for the maintenance and operation of various test systems, in Socorro and at the OSF, for requalification and testing of repaired or failed BE modules. Additionally, the BE group provides management support, product assurance, and other administrative activities (e.g. arranging for ALMA related export/import with support from the NRAO export/import officer) at Socorro.

The following is a partial list of significant support tasks undertaken this year and shipments sent to the OSF:

• One FOW SN 164 repaired and returned to the OSF. • Nine digital Yttrium Iron Garnet (YIG)-tuned oscillators were repaired and shipped to the OSF. • Qty. 11 BE IF Processor units were repaired and returned to the OSF. Another five were repaired, retested, and await return shipment to the OSF. • UPS specifications for the BE test rack were finalized.

One positive outcome of the pandemic related shutdown was that it provided sufficient time for the IFP vendor to complete repairs of all outstanding LRUs. Having all of the IFPs repaired and on hand would be very useful, should we need extra spares during the telescope restart process.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 30

Finally, an obsolescence mitigation/sustainability effort was started for the DTx (data transmitter) articles. The CDL is faced with a depleting stock of obsolete DTx LRU spares so a two-pronged approach was identified. One is an interim solution maximizing the use/applicability of remaining spare hardware that is on hand, while the other is the long term one. The DTx half transponders are channel specific, and there are 12 different types. Some of the types have only a few spares left, so in the situation where there are no spares for a specific color, the proposal is to procure media converter Rx/Tx pairs, and configure them to accept input from a DTx transponder of a different color and change the color to the desired channel and route the signal back into the system as usual. Such media converters are commercially available, and reasonably priced. Correlator/software would not notice any difference, and testing them would include verifying that the overall error rate after incorporating them is satisfactory. The short-term solution/proposal is to buy a couple of such pairs, prove the solution, and stock sets at the OSF. This will not alleviate the overall problem, but impart the flexibility that spares can be used for any channel.

After extended discussion, it was concluded that trying to make hardware compliant to ALMA2030 needs and be backwards compatible with the baseline correlator would most likely stall the project, since the 2030 requirements are not yet clearly specified or well understood. The long-term proposal is to make a drop-in replacement design using current parts in the most efficient manner. There were again many options, but the intention is to leverage the existing final adder work and use that hardware to produce something equivalent. A confluence page was setup for this collaborative work. The goal is to only make drop-in replacements for use when the older articles fail, not to upgrade the entire DTS system.

Back End Photonics and Local Oscillator Group: This CDL group maintains and repairs the Central LO Article (CLOA) elements: fiber lasers (Master Laser and Laser Synthesizer) and amplifiers (Master Laser Distributor, Photonics Reference Distributor, and Low Frequency Reference distributor), passive splitters, Sub Array Switch (SAS) and Line Length Corrector (LLC) LRUs, as well as LO Photonic Receivers (LPR) which are part of the Front End assemblies. The group also supports the Hydrogen Maser at the site for VLBI operation and maintains a fully functional reference generation and distribution system at CDL to serve as a test bed for returned and/or repaired LRUs. This duplicate system serves as a source of last resort for backup spares if the OSF runs out of single point failure LRU spares (while broken ones are being serviced).

The following is a partial list of significant support tasks undertaken this year and shipments sent to the OSF: Two SAS optical modules and two SAS electronic modules were repaired, recalibrated and shipped back. Three LPRs were repaired and returned to the OSF. In addition, two LLCs, four SAS optical modules, and several LLC mainboards (some of them new spares) remain at various stages of test and acceptance reviews.

Some other tasks executed by this support group during FY2020 include: • NA Central LO and Photonics team member provided on-site support during the site visit to the OSF from 4-17 February 2020. Tasks included: o Gathered technical info needed to procure UPS system for Master Lasers. o Performed LS5 VLBI phase drift measurements for completing its acceptance report. o Installed required hardware for HiL project: 2 x SAS Optical, 2 x SAS Electrical, 2 x LLC modules, fiber cables, and CVRR2 top penetration panel. Missing fiber optic cable components were ordered for installation at a later date. o T4 Science technician completed the maintenance of the Hydrogen Maser (including the replacement of the Temperature Controller that couldn't drive one of the heaters) and reported a healthy unit. Full functionality of all three heaters was reported, and the settings were tweaked to as close to factory settings as possible. The Hydrogen reserve was

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 31

determined to be sufficient for the next few years. ALMA personnel were present and key functions and parts were shown or explained. An additional temperature controller, with required settings, was left as a spare. o T4 Science provided a wiring diagram to double the number of battery backups. The second set of batteries, purchased a few years ago and available in the BE laboratory, can therefore be installed now. • Provided remote diagnostics and support for the central LO system when called upon.

Correlator Group: The correlator/DSP group supported the ALMA Baseline Correlator by providing requested support to the ALMA correlator group in Chile (most Baseline Correlator issues are handled directly by the Chilean correlator group). Effort was required from the NA correlator group during FY2020 to repair/address failures in the NA two-antenna correlator system (this system, named “black- hole,” is used by the NA ICT for software development work).

A correlator sustainability effort was also launched during the course of the year, and critical spares, which need to be procured/built, were identified in consultation with the JAO. Sources for obsolete components had to be identified and procurement process for the same was initiated. Orders were placed for the spare LRUs that were identified before the end of FY2020. Further work on assembling and testing the hardware when it is received will continue in FY2021.

ALMA Hardware Maintenance Activities Summary: Careful monitoring of LRU failure rates, shipping/transit time to and from the OSF, as well as time to repair returned articles, enabled CDL to ensure an adequate supply of operational spares at the OSF, and to take mitigating/corrective actions when necessary. Having a usable spare available on site (when required to execute a tier-1 repair by replacement on the telescopes) ensured that science time lost was only time spent to execute the replacement, rather than wait for the part to arrive.

Figure 1: Volume of Tier-2 (LRU repair) and Tier-3 (sub-assembly/component) repair effort for various significant sub-systems, presented as a rolling 12-month average for FY2020 quarters.

Analysis on the type of failures and failure counts indicates that most failure rates were commensurate with expectations (i.e. calculated Mean Time Between Failures or MTBF). The offsite support teams also spent significant time during the year mitigating obsolescence issues and finding alternative solutions. Overall, despite the pandemic, FY2020 was a successful period and timely repair and return all of the supported hardware ensured that NA supported hardware stayed off the critical path while the telescope was in operation during the first part of the fiscal year. After the shutdown since mid-March, the NA IET teams effectively used the period to refurbish almost all the LRUs returned to NA for

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 32 repairs, and have placed themselves in good position to handle any additional new failures once the telescope restart is initiated.

Construction Warranty Support The ALMA Warranty Policy (ALMA-10.00.00.00-0016-A-PLA) governs the resolution of claims against North American ALMA Construction Project deliverables. Latent design and/or workmanship defects in two different deliverables are in various stages of development and implementation of corrective actions. These issues concern the antenna surface accuracy versus bulk ambient temperature performance, and the Front-End Handling Vehicle (FEHV) chassis fabrication problems.

North American Antennas: The NA ALMA Construction Project delivered 25 antennas to the JAO. The primary reflecting surface of all antennas exhibit, in varying degree, deviation from the required rms surface accuracy of 25μ over the full range of operating temperatures. Vertex acknowledged and accepted responsibility for the associated costs to correct. A cabin wall heater system, designed to alleviate the primary reflecting surface thermal dependence, was installed on four North American Antennas for testing through mid-Q4 FY2018. A delta-Design Review conducted by NRAO and Vertex with JAO in mid-Q4 FY2018 determined the wall heater system production design to be satisfactory for eliminating the root cause of the observed excessive thermal dependence of the antenna primary surface. The installation of the final production receiver cabin wall heater systems and software upgrades were completed in late Q3 FY2019. NRAO commenced working with JAO staff in early FY2020 to conduct wall heater system stability verification and implement a North American Antenna surface resetting campaign, which will incorporate the operation of the wall heater system. Wall heater system stability verification was completed on all but one of the NA Antennas. The one remaining antenna experienced a heater control system PLC hardware failure; the hardware replacement was delayed by the COVID-19 shutdown of the ALMA site. In addition, the COVID-19 shutdown of the ALMA site prevented any progress on the antenna surface re-setting campaign. The stability verification and surface re-setting efforts will re-commence once ALMA returns to operation later in FY2021.

Front End Handling Vehicles: The NA ALMA Construction Project was responsible for the delivery of four FEHVs to the Joint ALMA Observatory. Because of various anomalies and non-conformances identified during the Preliminary Acceptance Inspections (PAI) in late-FY2017, new vehicle chassis for the four FEHV Units were fabricated at the NRAO Machine Shop in Green Bank. Following the reassembly of the first FEHV in early-Q3 FY2018, it was determined that the FEHV Units were nominally 35 kilograms in excess of the FEHV weight limit. The new assembled unit weight was determined to be roughly 10 kilograms below the design limit; with these satisfactory findings, Unit #1 passed the delta-PAI with JAO and was ready for transfer to the OSF.

Delta-PAI review was successfully completed for the remaining three FEHV JAO for units at the end of FY2019. Feedback from the Delta-PAI review highlighted a few minor repairs, which were completed prior to shipment of all four FEHV units to the OSF. Shipment and final delivery following a successful on- site PAS review was completed in mid-Q1 FY2020 (26 October 2019). The PAS review identified a few handover action Items, which included adjustments to the FEHV lift platforms associated with the as-built Front End assemblies and verification of the onsite FEHV operation and maintenance manuals. Activities for these handover action Items were suspended in March because of the COVID-19 shutdown of the ALMA site. It is expected that closure of the FEHV Handover Action items will be conducted once ALMA returns to operation later in FY2021. Office of Chilean Affairs The NRAO Office in Santiago supports the legal and business affairs of AUI/NRAO in Chile for ALMA operations. It provides the services that require a local presence in Chile and cannot be effectively NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 33 discharged from North America. The Office of Chilean Affairs (OCA) oversees compliance with Chilean law in all Observatory operations, with a particular focus on human resources activities, including the implementation of collective contracts. The office is responsible for fiscal functions, contracts and procurement, local property management, export/import activities, and travel support. OCA also monitors safety, environmental, and regulatory issues in coordination with the NRAO safety manager and the ALMA Environmental Working Group.

By any measure, FY2020 was an exceptional and turbulent year in Chile. Starting in mid-October, widespread civil unrest swept the country and disrupted ALMA operations and business functions. Against this backdrop, the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March, leading to strict lockdowns and the first full shutdown of the ALMA Observatory. Throughout these unprecedented events, OCA staff switched to working from home and continued supporting ALMA without interruption.

Legal Representation The legal representation function linked AUI/NRAO with the Chilean government and institutions (keeping in touch with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the civil unrest and pandemic), as well as with the JAO and representatives from other international observatories in the country.

The legal representative advanced the negotiation of site use agreements with Simons Observatory, CCAT-prime (Fred Young Sumillimeter Telescope, or FYST) and Leighton Chajnantor Telescope. Progress was made on an agreement with Parque Astronómico Atacama (PAA) for the provision of fiber connectivity from Cerro Toco. Once the latter is signed, the PAA will centralize future requests for fiber coming from non-ALMA projects located in the Cerro Toco area.

Engineering and environmental feasibility studies for the PAA power project were completed in early 2020. In August, AUI and the PAA signed a memorandum of understanding to formalize joint exploration of power options for non-ALMA projects. The scope of this exploration includes determining interest from local stakeholders (San Pedro municipality, indigenous communities, and electric cooperative) and interest from private sector power companies.

Before the COVID-19 lockdowns, OCA hosted visits by the U.S. consul in December 2019 and by Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez and Data Observatory representatives in January 2020.

Business The architectural design and outfitting of the new OCA office were bid in late 2019 and early 2020, respectively. The contractor, Workplaces, was selected in February but construction could not start until September due to the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in Santiago. Remodeling began on 23 September and is scheduled to complete on 11 December 2020.

After six months in Infectious Disease Operating Status (IDOS), the current OCA office re-opened 16 September with limited staffing (maximum of four people) and under strict safety protocols. It is expected that many OCA staff members will continue working from home during the pandemic. Fiscal: Fiscal continued to support the AUI corporate office in fiscal functions, including accounting and reconciliation of JAO expenditures and responses to audits. The fiscal team digitized all historical records in FY2020.

Contracts and Procurement (CAP): The plan to improve maintainability of the AOS technical building advanced with an architectural design solution for insulation of roof and walls, an outdoor pedestrian snow melting system and other improvements. These are part of a biddable package, but adjustments to the proposal are still under discussion since prices exceeded initial estimates. NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 34

OCA CAP supported JAO operations during the Observatory shutdown, as well as in preparations to reopen: kept relationship and oversight of Newrest catering, cleaning, and maintenance contract during demobilization; secured lodging in San Pedro for the caretaker team and sanitary residence to quarantine eventual positive cases of COVID-19 among ALMA staff in Calama; and purchased Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

Information Technologies (IT): IT updated OCA’s webpage and coordinated a customized animation of ALMA for the Hour of Code. Importantly, the IT administrator successfully enabled work-from-home for all OCA members.

Travel: During FY2020, OCA travel handled regular transactions in the first half of the year. After the pandemic began, support focused on travel arrangements for the JAO caretaker team and contractors who monitored safety and security on site.

Projects Indoor sports facility at OSF (“Multicancha”): A new project management team assumed in January 2020 and performed a cost and schedule re-baseline that was finished in Q2, estimating completion and delivery on budget by Q1 FY2021. In late March, the ALMA Observatory shut down due to COVID-19 and the contractor was demobilized. The contract was left in standby mode, with monthly payments that covered staff salaries and rentals of equipment and machinery that were left on site. The costs of this temporary demobilization reached CLP 460m (~600k USD) by 30 September. Although project progress halted with the shutdown, the months of demobilization were used to retire technical risks focusing on engineering, planning, and documentation reviews.

In light of a protracted OSF/ALMA restart process and uncertainty about a reentry date for multicancha, NRAO management analyzed different scenarios for resumption, consulted with AUI and NSF, and decided to negotiate an indefinite contract suspension with minimal or no monthly payments. Indefinite suspension was deemed the lowest risk and cost of several options examined; the project can be restarted under several scenarios.

Human Resources The main HR highlight in FY2020 was the successful collective bargaining process (see Section 2.4.5) and the transition to work-from-home status during COVID-19. In the first stages of the pandemic, when ALMA was in full shutdown, HR supported JAO and OCA employees by implementing work-from-home procedures (e.g. creating the equivalent of an IDOS code for Local Staff Members (LSM) Electronic Timekeeping (ETK). Time worked from home was tracked as ES-T (sanitary emergency-telework) and documented based on percentages provided by JAO and OCA management. The graph below illustrates OSF and SCO hours worked/not- worked, on medical leave, and costs.

As the JAO prepared to return to operations, OCA HR helped negotiate longer shift arrangements (16x14 and 11x9) with both unions and prepared the corresponding contract addenda.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 35

Figure 2.4.4.1: OSF and SCO hours worked/not-worked, on medical leave, and costs.

Labor Relations Prompted by the civil unrest and the existence of two unions, AUI proposed to conduct collective bargaining in advance of the May deadline and in an unregulated manner. In March, three-year collective agreements were signed with both unions just before the COVID-19 lockdowns. The anticipated bargaining provided a flexible and non-confrontational environment that resulted in decisive voting in favor of AUI’s offer; the hope is to set a precedent for future negotiations.

As of 30 September 2020, the number of local employees was 243; 22 of whom are part of OCA and 215 of whom are unionized (172 in union 1, and 43 in union 2).

Safety, Health and Environment As the employer of local staff and joint title holder of the ALMA concession, during FY2020 OCA continued monitoring environmental and regulatory matters. This entails belonging to and coordinating the work performed by the joint peer committees on health and safety, as well as participating in the ALMA Environmental Working Group.

Due to the Observatory shutdown, biological monitoring was cancelled in June and September. The environmental authority was informed of the Observatory closure.

EPO and Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) The EPO officer and legal representative act as liaisons with the local communities and the JAO to increase recognition of ALMA, AUI, and NRAO in Chile.

During FY2020, some face-to-face activities such as the Sister Cities and Observatories NM cohort trip to Chile (March) and the Astronomy in Chile Education Ambassadors Program (August) were postponed due to COVID-19.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 36

Despite setbacks in face-to-face events, the OCA outreach and diversity officer maintained the momentum of the Provoca initiative designing virtual versions of several activities, including a workshop on communication skills and teamwork for high school girls of Liceo 1 in June and Provoca Valparaíso in August. The latter connected local mentors with high school girls in Valparaíso Region and discussed Chilean female role models and unconscious biases in STEM. Prior to the pandemic, the Provoca initiative was presented at the IAU Symposium on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Tokyo (November 2019).

Other highlights of FY2020 included: completion of a strategic plan for OCA EPO, which focuses on flow of participants and mentoring to integrate different programs and activities; beginning of a collaboration with Liceo 1 (all girl high school in downtown Santiago) to create a STEAM Education multidisciplinary project with physics, biology, and arts teachers; and launching of an ALMA corporate video for Chilean stakeholder engagement.

OCA Milestone Summary Of nine OCA milestones, one was completed early, six were completed on time, and two were delayed as the result of ALMA’s shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The two milestones that suffered delays are the following:

Milestone 2.5.14 – Management of FEHV warranty: The four Front End Handling Vehicles (FEHV) were delivered to the OSF and were conditionally accepted. Resolution of minor workmanship issues and completion of documentation are the only pending actions before final acceptance, but cannot take place until the observatory returns to operations. The estimated new target date is Q3-Q4 FY2021.

Milestone 2.5.15 – Multicancha project – delivery and inauguration: The shutdown of the Observatory in late March forced a demobilization of the contractor, with monthly payments that mounted unsustainably. As a result, an indefinite suspension with minimal or no monthly payments was negotiated to resume work once the pandemic and the JAO returns to operations stabilize.

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3 NEW MEXICO OPERATIONS

Two of NRAO’s telescope facilities—the VLA and the VLBA—are maintained and operated from New Mexico. Both instruments provide unique centimeter-wavelength capabilities to the astronomy community. During FY2020, NRAO commissioned new observing modes for these instruments, matched to the latest scientific requirements. The following subsections separately describe the operational, maintenance, and development activities associated with each instrument, though many activities are closely coordinated across both instruments and are carried out by the same personnel. Very Large Array (VLA) The VLA comprises twenty-seven 25-meter diameter antennas laid out in a Y-shaped configuration on the Plains of San Agustin in west-central New Mexico. In FY2020, NRAO continued to offer a suite of robust and scientifically powerful observational capabilities designed and tailored to address scientific needs. The availability of these capabilities is made possible through the activities described below.

Science Operations Observing Programs: NRAO continued to offer three types of observing programs to VLA users in the Calls for Proposals issued in FY2020: General Observing (GO), Shared Risk Observing (SRO), and Resident Shared Risk Observing (RSRO). In the Call for Proposals for the 2020B observing semester, three capabilities were promoted from SRO to GO: Coherent-dedispersion (YUPPI) pulsar observing for all observing bands except for 4-band, P-band polarization, and Y1 observing in support of VLBA. Two capabilities were promoted from RSRO to SRO: 4-band observing in Stokes I, and the dual 4/P-band observing in Stokes I. In the Call for Proposals for the 2021A observing semester, no new GO or SRO capabilities were added, but refinements regarding subarray use were made after finding that some types of observing were causing failures in the Correlator Back-End (CBE). RSRO programs supported in FY2020 included fast-dump times, data rates above 100 MB/s, 4-band polarization, 4-band coherent- dedispersion (YUPPI) pulsar observing, and more than three subarrays or subarrays with the 3-bit system.

Scientific Support of Receiver, Antenna, and Array Performance: A large fraction of the FY2020 scientific support went toward maintaining receiver, antenna, and array performance and ensuring that the NRAO user community had access to quality instrumentation and updated information to effectively use the VLA. Operational tasks carried out by the scientific staff in FY2020 in support of these functions are listed below.

Support Calls for Proposals: Capabilities to be offered in the 2020B and 2021A semesters were defined, user documentation for all capabilities for the relevant Call for Proposals were updated, scientific testing of user tools needed to prepare proposals—e.g., Proposal Submission Tool (PST), General Observing Setup Tool (GOST), Exposure Calculator Tool (ECT)—was undertaken, and technical reviews for proposals and evaluation of proposals for RSRO contributions were performed.

Hardware, Software, and Operational Documentation: Technical documentation detailing hardware and software functionality for staff and users was written, as well as operational procedures and documentation for the operations staff. The VLA Observational Status Summary was updated before the 2020B and 2021A Call for Proposals, along with the Guide to Proposing with the VLA and the Guide to Observing with the VLA on the NRAO web site.

Track and Measure VLA Performance: The sensitivity and gain response of each antenna at each band was characterized periodically. Surface accuracy checks with holography were carried out to ensure optimal

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 38 efficiency at the highest frequency bands. Antenna positions, collimation offsets, and pointing accuracy were determined whenever the array was moved into a new configuration.

Scientific Testing of Antennas Completing Major Maintenance: Antenna positions, collimation offsets, and pointing accuracy were determined each time an antenna came out of the Antenna Assembly Building after a maintenance overhaul. The performance of the new Antenna Control Units (ACUs) was evaluated.

System Health and Maintenance Feedback: Routine health checks were performed to determine if there were any hardware failures that must be followed up with maintenance tickets. Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) monitoring tests were carried out to characterize and help mitigate RFI contamination in observing bands.

Data Quality Assurance Checks: Data quality was evaluated based on pipeline results, and test observations were run to identify and diagnose problems that were not caught by the standardized tests and engineering checks.

Calibration Data: Detailed data was collected with the array for a range of calibration purposes, including flux density scale calibrator models, and polarization and bandpass calibration.

Array Operations Array Configurations: Array reconfigurations completed in FY2020 comprised the moves into the D, C, and B configurations. The reconfiguration to the B array was delayed by four weeks because of the coronavirus pandemic, and the need to define and review new COVID-safe procedures before proceeding with moving the antennas. A special call for exploratory DDT proposals to fill the additional four weeks of C configuration yielded 77 proposals requesting ~1200 hours of telescope time.

Operating Model: The VLA continued operations from the control room at the VLA site throughout the Infectious Disease Operation Status (IDOS) period, 16 March –1 June, while other activity at the array was either delayed or postponed. Operators worked alongside their VLBA counterparts to learn how to run the VLBA instrument to add flexibility when shorthanded. This practice is ongoing as backup support for VLBA operations when needed. A backup control room was set up at the Domenici Science Operations Center (DSOC) in case of a COVID-19 infection in the Operations area at the VLA site, but was fortunately not needed.

The process of transitioning major maintenance and overhaul scheduling to the VLA Technical Manager was delayed by the pandemic and was not completed within FY2020. It will continue into FY2021.

Development Realfast Commensal Fast Transient System: The rapidly developing field of Fast Radio Burst (FRB) detection is attracting the highest levels of attention. New discoveries, including localizations—from VLA, Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), and Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME)—have begun to narrow down the possible progenitors of these enigmatic events. The sparse number of accurate (~0.1 arcsec) localizations is still hampering our ability to further narrow down the progenitor possibilities. The goal of the realfast development project is to design and implement a commensal fast transient system for the VLA, and to investigate options for searching for these events: assessing the number of antennas, bandwidth, processing needed, algorithms to be used, etc. A proposal to support development of such a system was submitted to the NSF Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation (ATI) program for funds starting FY2017. This proposal was accepted and has been funded. The project was awarded a no-cost extension by the NSF for FY2021, which will be used to NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 39 complete the project and transfer its daily operations to NRAO. Meanwhile, in FY2020 the realfast system was made fully operational for observing at L- through X-bands, as well as with VLASS Epoch 2 observing.

Expanded Long Wavelength Array (eLWA): Low-frequency radio astronomy at meter wavelengths has undergone a recent renaissance. In support of observations at these wavelengths, the LWA has an NSF-funded three-year (FY2019–2021) grant to provide further community access to LWA stations, and to enable the use of the LWA in combination with the VLA 4 Band system (58–84 MHz). The NRAO has committed to support this project by contributing in-kind scientific staff and software effort. In FY2020, NRAO expanded testing of the eLWA to using all VLA antennas, and the data path from the VLA to the University of New Mexico (UNM) was defined and demonstrated.

VLA Electronics Maintenance and Renewal The New Mexico Electronics Division is responsible for maintaining all VLA electronic components, VLA servo and fiber systems, and the Wideband Interferometric Digital Architecture (WIDAR) Correlator. Division staff are located either at the VLA site or at the DSOC in Socorro, with maintenance and renewal activities occurring at both places. Due to the lifecycle stage of the VLA, maintenance and obsolescence management is a critical focus for the Division.

Routine work for FY2020 consisted of the following: • Performed checks and diagnostic testing of WIDAR Correlator boards. • Repaired 14 WIDAR circuit boards due to aging or damage caused by power outages. • Overhauled ~60 receiver cold heads to keep VLA receivers operating. • Reconditioned and replaced receiver desiccant in each of 240 units twice per year. • Performed preventive maintenance on 28 VLA compressor lines. • Overhauled 12 VLA compressors due to normal wear-and-tear. • Performed preventive maintenance on four helium circuits to maintain cryogenic performance. • Repaired 45 cryogenic receivers and 13 low-band receivers. • Performed checks of the fiber optics system to ensure proper operations and reset, cleaned, or adjusted as needed. • Investigated issues with locking, fringing, output power, and general communication dropouts. • Performed routine power supply and battery maintenance, including replacement of aged batteries. • Performed corrective maintenance through bench work on modules from various subsystems. • Monitored modules responsible for array timing and adjusted as needed. • Performed maintenance on legacy Antenna Control Units (ACUs) and Focus Rotation Mount (FRM) controllers. • Installed new ACU units in two additional antennas. • Monitored local RFI at the VLA site. • Swapped out and calibrated the VLA site weather station for yearly preventive maintenance.

WIDAR Power System Replacement: The power system for the WIDAR correlator received major maintenance and component replacements in FY2020. Funds made available at the previous year’s NRAO Budget Summit allowed for the purchase of new batteries and Power Distribution Units for the WIDAR power plant, and power line conditioners for the power which feeds the WIDAR chamber.

VLA Site Maintenance and Renewal Antennas: VLA antennas were cycled routinely through the Antenna Assembly Building (AAB) for checkout and overhaul throughout the year. Five antennas were planned for overhaul and were to be cycled through the assembly building in FY2020. The plan also specified the replacement of one antenna

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 40 azimuth bearing. Due to the loss of site access during the IDOS, the number of antenna overhauls was descoped to four and the Azimuth bearing change was cancelled.

The two transporters used to move the antennas during reconfigurations underwent maintenance and repair between move periods. Maintenance on the 40-year-old transporters included servicing the motors, checking the generators that maintain critical power to the antenna during a move, lubricating the moving parts, checking on the 24 wheel axles and wheels, and maintaining electrical and hydraulic systems. After a transporter collar failure, a subsequent inspection discovered fatigue cracks to exist on these truck rotation collars. An improved rotation collar was designed. Two of these collars were fabricated and installed on a transporter in FY2019 and the final two were replaced in FY2020. In FY2020, NRAO also began a program to inspect the rotation mechanism on the remaining transporter. This transporter does not use rotation collars but instead has a similar design that is more robust and is not suffering the same issues.

Track: During FY2020, inspection of the VLA railroad tracks continued, checking for problems that could compromise the safety of the transporters that carry the antennas during array reconfigurations and other antenna moves. These inspections also guarded against problems that could jeopardize the safety of the maintenance rail vehicles that are used by technicians to service the antennas.

A total of 2344 cross-ties were replaced in FY2020. This was significantly lower than the target goal of 5000 ties because the IDOS shut down interfered with the normal summer tie replacement schedule. Five track intersections were scheduled to be replaced in FY2020. This goal was completed. In addition to these intersections, a railroad spur and rail line to the ballast pile were also completed. This spur will greatly improve the efficiency of track ballasting operations.

Site Infrastructure: The VLA site buildings, utility systems, and grounds continued to undergo routine annual inspection and preventive maintenance in FY2020. The site transformers underwent yearly preventive maintenance procedures. Other regular activities included: annual road grading; general roof repairs; heating and cooling systems maintenance; pest and weed control along the railways and central site; fire brigade and emergency medical response team training; and the routine servicing of gas pumps, sewer, and water supply systems. Backup generator power and related systems also underwent preventive maintenance.

A 500 KW backup power generator was purchased to provide backup power to the control building and correlator. This generator will provide protection if the site backup power generator fails or is undergoing repairs/maintenance during a utility outage. It will be installed in FY2021. A tie plate inserter was also purchased to improve the efficiency and safety of the railroad tie replacements.

As specified in the AUI Recompetition Plan, large-scale improvements and purchases for the VLA site were carried out in FY2020 as part of overall VLA infrastructure improvement. In FY2020, purchases included road and parking lot improvements, track maintenance materials, new medium voltage switches, transformers, a chiller compressor, and test equipment.

Several heavy equipment or vehicles were purchased in FY2020. These included: • Five pickup trucks • One forklift • Six Utility Task Vehicles • Towable air compressor • Dump trailer • Heavy Duty Loader

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 41

Also included in the infrastructure improvement plan for FY2020 was the purchase of components necessary to outfit several antennas with new ACUs in the future, and a suite of new testing instrumentation for the Front End receivers.

VLA Observing Capability Enhancements The VLA continued to provide new capabilities to the user community to optimize and enhance the science that can be done with the array. This strategy has proven to be effective in keeping users engaged, and it is a critical factor in keeping the scientific productivity of the VLA high. Scientific staff and RSRO effort were directed to the following observing capability enhancements in FY2020:

P-band Polarization Observations: P-band Stokes I continuum and spectral line observations are both GO, while polarization observations were offered as RSRO because of difficulties with the antenna feeds. These issues were resolved, and P-band polarization observations were offered as SRO in the 2020A Call for Proposals, with the observations taking place on the VLA between February and October 2020. Meanwhile, further tests carried out by the scientific staff showed the readiness of this observing mode to be promoted to GO, and was offered as such in the 2020B Call for Proposals.

Pulsar Observations: Phase-binned imaging of pulsars using the WIDAR correlator was promoted to GO in FY2019. Phased-array coherent-dedispersion (Y Ultimate Pulsar Processing Instrument or YUPPI mode) observations of pulsars with the VLA was promoted to SRO in FY2019, and to GO in FY2020, with the exception of YUPPI mode using the 4-band system. The latter was offered as RSRO for the first time in the 2021A Call for Proposals.

Further Smoothing Options in Correlator: Simple frequency averaging (by factors of two or four) in the correlator software is already available as a GO capability. In FY2020, the intent was to implement additional smoothing options, such as Hanning smoothing. However, the impact of introducing such smoothing on the downstream data processing needed to be re-evaluated before proceeding with this project, and its importance relative to other software development needed to be determined. NRAO therefore canceled the work associated with this particular observing capability enhancement pending further internal review.

VLA Technical Upgrades and Enhancements VLA ACU Replacement: The electronics parts to repair the existing VLA ACUs are no longer available. Without replacement parts, antennas with failed ACUs would no longer be able to participate in observations, posing a serious operational risk. All legacy VLA ACUs must be replaced with newer technology units to increase the operational lifetime of the VLA antennas, as well as eliminating some inherent problems with the legacy design and greatly improving the pointing and tracking capabilities of the antennas. The first new ACU was installed in FY2013 and the thirteenth and fourteenth new ACU units were installed in FY2020.

Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) Development: To continue the development of a VFD for the helium compressor in an antenna’s cryogenic system, engineering staff developed an automated test stand and custom software to characterize the performance of a lab VFD system. Buffer tanks and mechanical mounting racks were installed on an antenna at the end of the fiscal year. A field-ready version of the VFD compressor and electronics hardware will be developed and installed on the VLA in the future.

Antenna Network Power Conditioner Assembly: Electronics hardware was developed to improve the stability of antenna network switch power when moving from commercial to battery-backup power. Over the course of FY2019 and FY2020, 26 antennas received this upgrade, reducing operational impacts during short power outages. The final two antennas will be upgraded during FY2021. NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 42

VLA Milestone Summary Of 42 milestone deadlines, 33 were completed on time, and one was delayed by a quarter. Of the remaining eight, two were cancelled, two had their scope modified to the actual work completed and were closed out in FY2020, one had its scope modified and is being carried over to FY2021, and three are being carried over to FY2021 in their entirety, as described below.

Milestone 3.3.12 – VLA technical manager assumes scheduler duties for major maintenance and overhauls of VLA and VLBA: Training on the scheduler duties, which includes developing familiarity with Microsoft Project, was significantly delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the inefficiencies of working from home. This milestone is now expected to be completed in Q2 FY2021.

Milestone 3.3.14 – Realfast project complete: There has been a delay in the handing over of full operations of the realfast project to NRAO, accompanied by a no-cost extension granted to the project team by the NSF. This is now expected to be completed by the end of FY2021.

Milestone 3.3.17 – Perform five antenna overhauls during the year: Only four antennas were overhauled during FY2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to develop new COVID-safe procedures and limited facility access during IDOS. The scope of this milestone was changed to performing four overhauls and closed out at the end of FY2020. All future overhauls will be covered by the FY2021 Program Operating Plan.

Milestone 3.3.18 – Replace one antenna azimuth bearing during the year: Insufficient resources were available to perform the azimuth bearing replacement due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated new operational procedures. This milestone was cancelled, and a new milestone for this work is included in the FY2021 Program Operating Plan.

Milestone 3.3.23 – Identify and replace 5000 aging or damaged cross ties: The need to develop new COVID-safe procedures, and limited facility access during IDOS, meant that only 2344 ties were replaced in FY2020. The scope of this milestone was changed to completing the actual number of tie replacements and closed out at the end of FY2020.

Milestone 3.3.38 – More smoothing options in correlator: The impact of more smoothing in the correlator on downstream data reduction procedures needs to be re-evaluated. This milestone was cancelled pending further internal review.

Milestone 3.3.39 – Complete installation of three more ACUs: The need to develop new COVID- safe procedures, and the associated disruption of the antenna overhaul schedule meant that only one of the three ACU installations was completed before the end of FY2020. The scope of this milestone was changed to the installation of two new ACUs, and is expected to be completed in Q1 FY2021. Additional ACU installations are being carried in the FY2021 Program Operating Plan.

Milestone 3.3.42 – Install network switch power conditioning system on all antennas: The disruption of the antenna overhaul schedule meant that the final two installations are now expected to be completed in Q2 FY2021.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 43

Very Large Baseline Array (VLBA) The VLBA comprises ten 25-meter diameter antennas at locations ranging from Hawaii to the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Science Operations Observing Programs: NRAO continued to offer three types of observing programs to VLBA users in FY2020: General Observing (GO), Shared Risk Observing (SRO), and Resident Shared Risk Observing (RSRO). In the Call for Proposals for the 2020B observing semester, two capabilities were promoted to GO: VLBA 4 Gbps observing, and VLA Y1 observing with the VLBA. One new capability was offered as SRO: HSA 4 Gbps observing (excluding Arecibo). In the Call for Proposals for the 2021A observing semester, the HSA 4 Gbps observing (excluding Arecibo) was promoted from SRO to GO. RSRO programs supported in FY2020 included many pulse cal tones per channel, improved troposphere model, rapid response capability, 4 Gbps data rate at Arecibo in HSA Observations, L/P dual-band observations, Y3 observing with the VLBA, and recording wide-band VLA visibilities in parallel with Y27 VLBI.

Scientific Support of Receiver, Antenna, and Array Performance: Operational tasks carried out by the scientific staff during FY2020 in support of maintaining receiver, antenna, and array performance and ensuring that the user community had access to quality instrumentation and updated information to effectively use the VLBA are listed below.

Support Calls for Proposals: Capabilities to be offered in the 2020B and 2021A semesters were defined, and user documentation for all capabilities for the relevant Call for Proposals updated. Scientific testing of user tools needed to prepare proposals—e.g., Proposal Submission Tool (PST), European VLBI Network Sensitivity Calculator—was undertaken, along with technical reviews for proposals and evaluation of proposals for RSRO contributions.

Hardware, Software, and Operational Documentation: Technical documentation detailing hardware and software functionality for staff and users was written, as well as operational procedures and documentation for the operations staff. The VLBA Observational Status Summary was updated before the 2020B and 2021A Call for Proposals. In FY2020, two new online guides were added to the NRAO web site to serve our user community: the Guide to Proposing with the VLBA, and the Guide to Observing with the VLBA.

Additional Help for New VLBA Users: Starting in Semester 2020A (Q2 FY2020) NRAO offered extra help to new or novice VLBA users to assist with their observing set up, and to provide initial calibration and Quick Look images of their data. Four proposals requested this support in FY2020. However, none met the criteria defined for the program. NRAO will continue to offer the program, and may re-evaluate it in the future to improve its reach and effectiveness.

Python-based SCHED software: The Joint Institute for VLBI European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) (JIVE) has produced a new Python-based version of the primary software used by observers for producing observing files for the VLBA, pySCHED. NRAO evaluated this software in FY2020, with a view to using it to replace the old, Fortran-based SCHED code. However, pySCHED was found to not be ready to use in the VLBA production environment without further modifications. NRAO provided feedback to JIVE.

Track and Measure VLBA Sensitivity, Pointing, and Focus: The sensitivity, pointing, and focus of each antenna at each band were characterized periodically, as receivers and equipment were replaced or as software was upgraded.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 44

Clock Maintenance: Accurate timekeeping is central to VLBI, and is provided by hydrogen masers and reference signals inserted into the astronomical data. Quality assurance checks were performed periodically by scientific staff and data analysts.

RFI Characterization and Mitigation: RFI tests to characterize and help mitigate RFI contamination in the observing bands were performed.

System Health and Maintenance Feedback: Routine health checks and analysis of the data to determine if there are any hardware failures were followed up with maintenance tickets.

Data Quality Assurance Checks: Data quality was evaluated and test observations run to identify and diagnose problems that were not caught by engineering checks.

Coordination for Global Millimeter VLBI and the High Sensitivity Array (HSA): The VLBA occasionally observed in parallel with other observatories, as requested by users whose scientific goals require the inclusion of baselines to large-aperture and/or distant facilities. Scheduling and correlation of these observations required coordination with local schedulers at each participating observatory, a significantly more complex process than normal VLBA-only observations require.

Array Operations Scheduling and Observing: Standard scheduling and observing procedures were used during FY2020 for the VLBA. The array transitioned completely to using Mark 6 media, so the Mark 5C inventory was completely replaced and the Mark 5C system retired.

Operating Model: The Array Operations Division continued to administer the JIRA-based maintenance tracking system. In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the group set up alternate backup operating stations in the DSOC to mitigate possible COVID-19 infection of the main VLBA control room. In addition, the ability to operate the VLBA temporarily from an Operator’s home was demonstrated.

Development During FY2020, progress was made on two major long-term development projects.

VLBA New Digital Architecture Project (VNDA): The VNDA project (previously called Oryx) is replacing the existing aging and performance-limiting data acquisition and digital signal processing system with a modern, extensible one. The project has four phases: Conceptual Design, Preliminary Design, Final Design, and Deployment. The project team completed the first phase of VNDA during FY2020. A successful Conceptual Design Review was held in May. In September, NRAO management approved the funding and execution of phase 2. During the execution of phase 1, prototype hardware was selected and procured, critical risk reduction was performed on this hardware, and key interfaces were exercised.

E-Transfer: A special NSF award funds increasing the VLBA site connectivity to the VLBA operations center in Socorro, NM from a typical initial data rate of 1.4 Mbps to a minimum of 200 Mbps. Nine of ten VLBA sites had completed fiber network links by the end of FY2020, with the tenth station (Los Alamos) to be complete in early FY2021. Considerable effort has been made to make use of this new capability. A new diagnostic test has been developed that can verify proper timing, pointing, and tuning of the VLBA antennas within minutes of observing. First tests of real-time correlation have been performed using up to eight VLBA stations; this capability will eventually lead to additional diagnostics and scientific use cases.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 45

VLBA Maintenance and Renewal The New Mexico Electronics Division is responsible for maintaining all VLBA electronic components, many mechanical systems, VLBA station infrastructure, and recording and playback hardware. Two VLBA site technicians are located at each VLBA site, and many engineers and technicians provide VLBA support from the DSOC in Socorro.

The site technicians carried out the bulk of the routine maintenance tasks at the VLBA sites. For FY2020 this work consisted of the following: • Inspection and lubrication of Focus Rotation Mounts (FRM), Azimuth/Elevation drive motors, encoder and pintle bearings, elevation gears, elevation hoist, and changing gearbox oil. • Check/test encoder motor tachometers, servo limits, ACU, vacuum pumps, all heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, dry air system, weather station equipment. • Perform maintenance on ACUs and FRM controllers. • Ensure safety equipment such as UPSs and generators, emergency power, fire alarm systems, fire extinguishers, and security systems are operating normally. • Ensure all other preventive maintenance tasks are completed, such as check and replace motor brushes and commutators, check of Azimuth wheel position, check for metal in grease samples, perform cable wrap maintenance, and replace oil filters. • Repair some VLBA specific modules and electronic systems to relieve some of this task from the technical staff at the DSOC and the VLA sites. • Maintain the grounds and building infrastructure. • Other diagnostic and repair tasks as needed. • Support major maintenance visits to two VLBA sites.

Electronics Division staff based at the DSOC or the VLA performed the following routine VLBA work in FY2020:

Front End and Cryogenics: • Overhaul ~60 receiver cold heads to keep VLBA Front Ends operating. • Perform preventive maintenance on four helium circuits to maintain cryogenic performance. • Repair and/or upgrade/retrofit eight VLBA FE receivers, on average.

Local Oscillator and Intermediate Frequency (LO/IF): • Investigate issues with locking, fringing, output power, and general communication dropouts. • Monitor maser performance and timing, adjusting as needed.

Data Acquisition: • Repair of ~10 VLBA recording and playback modules. • Repair of up to 50 recording disk packs.

Multiple Groups and Systems: • Retrofit upgrades or additions to enhance equipment safety. • Perform bench work on modules for repair or assembly. • Monitor for local RFI at the VLBA sites. • Send calibrated site weather station hardware to each site as needed. • Support major maintenance visits to two VLBA sites.

Major Antenna and Site Maintenance: Three VLBA stations were scheduled to receive a regular major maintenance visit in FY2020, including one postponed from the prior year. The participating

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 46 maintenance staff, referred to as Tiger Teams, consist of engineers, technicians, and VLBA site technicians that travel for multi-week visits to perform key preventive maintenance actions and corrective repairs on antennas and site infrastructure. During these visits, outstanding or critical issues are resolved in addition to maintenance and inspections. Examples include Focus Rotation Mount irregularities, HVAC system leaks or contamination, cryogenic receiver system problems, and mechanical drive system maintenance.

The first of these campaigns was carried out in October at the Brewster, WA site. This trip was done ~six months early clear the schedule in mid-2020 for the remaining trips needed. This approach was fortunate due to the unanticipated COVID-related shutdown of nearly all travel beginning in late Q2. The second planned campaign, an out-of-state trip, was cancelled due to safety concerns and travel restrictions.

After state travel restrictions were eased in New Mexico, the postponed FY2019 maintenance visit to the Los Alamos site was completed. To avoid LANL personnel restrictions and logistics issues, multiple day-trips were carried out from Socorro by an Electronics Division specialist. This approach allowed for deep preventive maintenance work and inspections on the servo, motor, and electronics systems while not fully shutting down the antenna.

A special FY2020 trip was undertaken by two VLBA site techs to support the Maunakea site techs in resolving an ongoing HVAC system issue that could not be resolved by island contractors. Maintenance support on other Maunakea systems and the installation of a new electronics rack was also performed.

VLBA Observing Capability Enhancements The VLBA continued to provide new capabilities to the user community to optimize and enhance the science that can be done with the array. Scientific staff and RSRO effort were directed to the following observing capability enhancements in FY2020.

4 Gbps Data Rate: During FY2020, the Mark 6 recorder systems became the sole VLBA data recording system. The observing mode enabling twice the sustainable bandwidth—up to 4 Gbps data rate or 512 MHz bandwidth per polarization—was made available as a GO capability, first on the VLBA, then on the HSA (excluding Arecibo).

Y1 Observing with the VLBA: The ability to include just one VLA antenna (Y1 observing mode) with the VLBA provides a critical short baseline that enables the imaging of structures more extended than those accessible to the VLBA alone. This observing mode was made available as a GO capability in FY2020.

VLBA Technical Upgrades and Enhancements VLBA Site Weather Station Upgrade: A replacement weather station system was successfully designed, integrated, and tested in the laboratory. COVID disruptions delayed the installation of the system at the Pie Town, NM site until mid-FY2021.

Complete Installation of Antenna E-rack: As part of a strategic development plan for VLBA antenna electronics, a new electronics rack is being installed in the VLBA antennas. Four installations had been completed before further work was disrupted by pandemic restrictions on travel. The remaining installations are now scheduled for FY2021.

E-Rack Production Power Supply Design: A design for an E-rack power supply passed an internal design review. This power supply will power the new synthesizers and other equipment that will eventually

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 47 be housed in the E-rack. Production on a small number of these supplies began in FY2020 and will continue in the future as funding permits.

VLBA Milestone Summary Of 20 milestone deadlines, 13 were completed on time, and one was completed early. Of the remaining six, three were cancelled and three are being carried over into FY2021, as described below.

Milestone 3.3.49 – Plan for future RFI monitoring: This milestone was delayed by the reduced efficiency of working during the pandemic. It is now expected to be completed in Q2 FY2021.

Milestone 3.3.51 – Deliver production proposal for Oryx rollout to all VLBA sites: After internal review, it was decided that it was premature to write a proposal to deliver production systems until the prototype testing was completed because the budget was too uncertain, and this milestone was cancelled.

Milestone 3.3.52 – Demonstrate Oryx capabilities in lab: The original intention of this milestone was to demonstrate the VNDA capabilities in the lab. However, it became clear that this work is more appropriately covered by FY2021 milestone #3.4.54 (Submit VNDA Preliminary Design for Review), and the FY2020 milestone was cancelled.

Milestone 3.3.56 – Major VLBA Maintenance Visit #2: COVID-related travel restrictions prevented completion of a second major maintenance visit during FY2020. This milestone was cancelled, and all major maintenance visits in FY2021 will be covered by the FY2021 Program Operating Plan.

Milestone 3.3.60 – Install upgraded VLBA weather station: This milestone was delayed by the IDOS Status and other COVID-related operational delays. It is now expected to be completed in Q2 FY2021.

Milestone 3.3.61 – Complete installation of E-racks at all VLBA sites: COVID-related travel restrictions prevented the installation of E-racks at six of the VLBA sites. These sites will now be visited in FY2021, with the installations expected to be completed by the end of Q4.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 48

4 CENTRAL DEVELOPMENT LABORATORY

The CDL mission is to support the evolution of NRAO facilities by developing the technologies and expertise critical for the next-generation of radio astronomy instrumentation. CDL-developed technology is integral to all NRAO-operated telescopes and to other radio telescopes around the world, and so, another important mission of the laboratory is providing maintenance and upgrades to these instruments. CDL maintains a staff of ~50 personnel organized into teams of engineers and technicians working across crucial radio telescope technologies, including digital design and signal processing; low noise amplifiers; millimeter and submillimeter detectors; optics and electromagnetic components; and new receiver architectures. The laboratory is the world leader in the application of many of these technologies to radio astronomy. In service to this mission, CDL also supports the greater NRAO mission of developing the next generation of instrumentation engineers and scientists by: • Hosting Jansky post-doctoral instrumentation engineers and scientists, • Advising, mentoring, and employing undergraduate and graduate engineering and astronomy students, and, • Participating in undergraduate and graduate co-operative and internship engineering programs.

The greatest challenge facing the laboratory is the many late career employees in key leadership and technical positions. Over a ~five-year period, it will be necessary to backfill one-third to one-half of all laboratory personnel. This presents a significant challenge to talent development, knowledge transfer, and operations continuity (especially under COVID-19 restrictions), and the management of this is a key component of CDL’s on-going strategic plan.

In FY2020, CDL hired seven new full-time staff: a millimeter/sub-millimeter wave research engineer, a digital engineer/correlator expert, a digital engineer, a RF engineer, a mechanical designer, a technical specialist/micro-assembler, and a technical services administrator. About four new CDL hires are expected in FY2021.

A key component of CDL’s talent development and knowledge transfer plan is establishing talent pipelines into the laboratory. In FY2020, CDL established a university co-op program (one student) and hired a Jansky post-doc fellow. CDL will continue to work to expand these programs in FY2021.

NRAO continued to operate two of the world’s most powerful and unique radio interferometers, the VLA, and. in cooperation with its international partners. ALMA. The NRAO, in collaboration with the U.S. radio astronomy community at-large, continued to plan and develop an engineering design for a next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) in preparation for the Astro2020 Decadal Survey. By participating as members of several Integrated Product Teams, CDL actively supported this process throughout FY2020 and will continue to do so in 2021.

Additionally, CDL continued to engage in cross-observatory repair, maintenance, support, and in several programmatic and work-for-other construction projects. All this while carrying out design and development of technologies for future instrumentation—especially ngVLA. CDL continued investigating new and emerging technologies that have the potential to advance the state-of-the-art in instrumentation. Partnerships were finalized with MIT Lincoln Labs and Optisys, LLC, for working on novel 3-D printing/additive manufacturing techniques that could lead to devices applicable to radio astronomy instrumentation, and preliminary work was initiated. Work on superconducting Traveling Wave Kinetic Inductance Parametric Amplifiers (TKIPs), a new technology that may improve millimeter and sub- millimeter wave receiver performance, slowed in FY2020 due to lack of a principal investigator/research engineer (some essential equipment was acquired). With the hiring of a new research engineer, TKIP work

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 49 will ramp up, although COVID-19 restrictions will continue to hamper this effort due to restricted lab access and inability of the Research Engineer to immediately relocate to Charlottesville.

In FY2020, two CDL-based proposals received approval/funding for ALMA Cycle 8 development studies:

• Extending IF Bandwidth of Band 6 SIS Mixer-Preamps to 12 GHz and 16 GHz with Optimal Noise Performance: An Experimental Demonstration (M. Pospieszalski / NRAO). • Band 6v2 SIS Mixer-Preamp Development (Kerr et al. / NRAO).

During the fiscal year, progress was made in long term planning, staffing, and succession:

• CDL Five-year Strategic and Long Range Plans were revised. • Selection/hiring process is ongoing for a new Research Engineer to lead the amplifier group who will overlap with and eventually replace an engineer with multiple decades at CDL. Repair, Maintenance, Production, Support The CDL core production and support activities for FY2020 are described in the following paragraphs.

Low Noise Amplifiers (LNAs) In FY2020, the production of ALMA Band 1 amplifiers for the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) and ASIAA continued until the scheduled project completion in April 2020. The final quantity of 24 Band 1 amplifiers were built and accepted by ASIAA this year, concluding the contract to produce and supply 160 Band 1 amplifiers to the project. This activity was outside the scope of the Observatory’s NSF award and was carried out as Work For Others (WFO). The CDL amplifier group continued to provide support for all VLA, GBT, and VLBA receivers in the field, a population of ~1000 amplifiers. Support for the refurbishment of ALMA Band 6 IF preamplifiers was also carried out—this included the usage of commercial Diramics devices as a substitute for the Cryo 3 devices when rebuilding chip-and-wire type Microwave Integrated Circuit (MIC)-based IF preamplifiers for use with ALMA Band 6 mixers.

Millimeter and Submillimeter Receivers (MSMRx) During FY2020, CDL continued to support the offsite maintenance of the ALMA Band 6 receivers originally built by NRAO, with focus on maintaining a sufficient quantity of spare mixers and preamplifiers. CDL also supported community projects, such as the Arizona Radio Observatory (ARO) on Mt. Graham, the South Pole Telescope, the Taiwanese Greenland Telescope (based on the Vertex ALMA prototype antenna), and in the outfitting of other millimeter/submillimeter telescopes for VLBI. With the exception of the ALMA support, these activities were outside the scope of the Observatory’s NSF award and carried out on a WFO basis and undertaken only when it did not interfere with work required under the NSF award.

Maintenance and production of Band 6 (211–275 GHz) mixer-preamps was delayed the past several years by the inability to reproduce mixer-preamps with the stringent gain flatness of those used in the original receiver production run. During FY2020, additional mixer-preamplifiers were built and tested using the chip-and-wire amplifier design, employing the commercial Diramics devices (see Section 4.1.1) and qualified for use in Band 6 cartridge repair work in FY2019. To help with expedited acceptance testing of Band 6 cartridges, the second cartridge test setup whose hardware was resurrected and prepared for use in FY2019, was made operational by installation of the same software suite that is in use on the first cartridge test set. Although progress was slowed due to the pandemic, the test set was thoroughly checked out and qualified, and has since enabled successful acceptance verification of at least one repaired Band 6 cold cartridge assembly.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 50

Integrated Receiver Development The Integrated Receiver Development (IRD) group continued to support and nurture NRAO-heritage telescopes such as the VLA and VLBA by providing construction and repair services on the multi-chip modules used in those facilities. The IRD group is uniquely qualified to carry out the specialized design and micro-fabrication tasks for such instruments, and takes seriously its responsibility to keep that institutional knowledge current via cross-training within the group, as well as with collaborators at the Green Bank Observatory (GBO).

ALMA Offsite Hardware Support The CDL offsite hardware support team provided extensive support to ALMA operations during FY2020, and continued to work on repairing broken LRUs returned for service, even though the telescope operations were shut down for ~half of the fiscal year. Support included diagnosis consultancy, onsite visits to the OSF by support teams, software and firmware support (bug fixes, implementation of new requested features), and repair and return of malfunctioning Line Replaceable Unit (LRU) hardware. In all, 16 Front-end LRUs (including receiver cartridges), 35 Warm Cartridge Assembly LRUs, and 28 Back-end Local Oscillator and Photonics LRUs were returned to the ALMA site after repairs. A few notable LRUs that were repaired during FY2020 include Band 6 cold cartridge assemblies, FE bias modules, FE IF switch assemblies, warm cartridge/local oscillator assemblies (a mix of bands), Line-length correctors, Sub-array switches, and LO Photonic Receivers. Lower level hardware repair was carried out on 156 sub-assemblies. Hardware for the FE Test & Measurement Systems including the IF processor modules and tilt tables were also repaired/replaced during FY2020. A batch of digital YIG-tuned oscillators were repaired for use as spare units in the Back-end system.

This group is also involved in WFO construction projects. In FY2020, the production of ALMA Band 1 LO assemblies for ASIAA continued and 30 articles were built, accepted, and shipped. The final quantity of 15 Band 1 LO assemblies have also been built and are in acceptance reviews, concluding the contract to produce and supply 65 Band 1 LO assemblies to the project.

Figure 4.1.4.1: CDL LO system is incorporated amongst other receiver components in the ALMA Band 1 WCA assembly pictured above.

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CDL Development Plan As described in the FY2020 POP, the CDL Research and Development (R&D) efforts were aimed at supporting the following NRAO Strategic Goals: • Developing technologies necessary for the long-range objectives of the Observatory. • Advancing the state-of-the-art in mission-related technology.

Millimeter and Submillimeter Detectors (MSMRx) In FY2020, CDL and University of Virginia Microfabrication Laboratory (UVML) continued to develop the technology for the next generation of ALMA receivers, including a new generation of SIS mixers and efforts towards restarting the development of ALMA-compatible TKIP amplifiers.

Under an ongoing ALMA development study, noise and S-parameter measurements were made at 4 K on a 4–20 GHz ferrite isolator and low-noise amplifier for possible use in the Band 6 receiver upgrade.

A wafer of small chip (1 mm x 3 mm) 4–12 GHz superconducting quadrature hybrids was completed at UVML and S-parameter measurements were made at 4 K. The performance was found to be acceptable up to 8 GHz but the return loss is excessive at higher frequencies. This project is being continued to develop a 4–16 GHz and/or 4–20 GHz hybrid for use in a future Band 6v2 receiver upgrade. Samples of these superconducting quadrature hybrids were also provided to the University of Massachusetts for evaluation for use in the IF stage of their 1.3-mm multi-beam SIS receiver.

A goal for the expanded ALMA Band 6v2 (211–280 GHz) design effort is to develop wideband SIS mixers with Nb/AlN/Nb and Nb/AlOx/Nb junctions and compare the performance and fabrication yield of the two processes. To this end, a new ALMA Band 6 mixer was designed (designs were finalized for both material systems) and the mask sets manufactured. Fabrication of this design at UVML is planned but start of that effort has been hampered due to the pandemic-related delays in refurbishing the UVML cleanroom and bringing it online again.

A Microwave Office program for millimeter-wave receiver analysis and design was completed, and will be useful for the emerging generation of millimeter receiver designers at CDL. It replaces the older CDL software which has been rendered obsolete since it is incompatible with modern operating systems. For the planned Band 6 upgrade, the new software will allow the mixer and amplifier designers to work together to optimize the wideband IF circuit of the mixer-preamp.

Almost all RF instrumentation hardware was procured for the TKIP milli-kelvin dewar during FY2020, but remains to be incorporated into the test system.

Optics and Electromagnetic Components In support of the ngVLA project, axially corrugated feed-horn designs were analyzed as radiators for the 1.2 to 12.3 GHz frequency range. Analysis of the efficiency of the reference design antenna was carried out, and its sensitivity to horn positioning was computed. Beam-pointing and efficiencies were also calculated for translations and rotations of the optical elements on the ngVLA antenna. This work was archived in multiple ngVLA electronics memos.

Work on the design, fabrication, and testing of a 310 MHz short-backfire antenna for the synchrotron radiation measurement on the GBT continued in FY2020. After the initial design was completed, mechanical tests with a mechanical wooden mockup were carried out. A decision was made to modify the design for safe stowing under high wind conditions, prior to fabricating a prototype. This revised design was completed, but fabrication and testing remains to be completed.

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Figure 4.2.2.1: The large, lightweight feed, required to achieve a GBT spillover contribution of 10 K or less, was designed with special mechanical folding regions to permit safe prime-focus arm stowing under dangerous wind conditions.

To monitor the progress of additive manufacturing technology (3D printing) and to determine if any advances might be useful in manufacturing EM components, the CDL has collaborated with selected vendors to produce 3D printed parts that are currently undergoing test and evaluation.

Figure 4.2.2.2: Examples of 3D printed structures under evaluation at the CDL. (Left) A K-Band waveguide manufactured at Optisys, Inc. (Right) A dielectric block printed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

Preliminary measurements of the printed K-band waveguide have revealed that its loss is ~0.42 dB/ft (at room temperature), compared to 0.152–0.207 dB/ft loss of a standard aluminum waveguide. No change in loss characteristics was notable after temperature cycling the printed waveguide to 20 K. Measurements of the cryogenic loss of this waveguide are ongoing.

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Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and Correlators In FY2020, the digital team continued work on a hardware demonstrator of the SCalable Reconfigurable Modular (SCREAM) architecture for the ngVLA Central Signal Processor. This architecture:

• Is relatively low risk as it is based on SKA design. • Is designed for efficiency under ngVLA requirements. • Is scalable to any observatory size and needs. • Is most efficient for the interferometric mode of operation.

Figure 4.2.3.1: (Left) Pictorial illustration of the SCREAM architecture. (Right) The ngVLA CSP timeline.

During FY2020, hardware/tools for FPGA development were procured for continued development of the SCREAM technology.

The proposed SCREAM prototype under development will consist of two beamforming and channelizing (B&C) nodes with basic functionality and a control/gateway node. These nodes will be implemented on the iWave SoM boards, which have been received and verified, and are on-hand. The DSP blocks for the gateway node were completed, while work is ongoing for the B&C nodes. Interlaken transceivers (up to 150 Gbps) are planned to be used for data I/O from the B&C and the gateway nodes. Python based GUI was implemented (and finalized) for the monitor and control functionality, while work continued on adding the display functionality to the interface code. Figure 4.2.3.2: The small size and cost of the iW-RainboW-G35D board is suitable for continued SCREAM development under work- from-home conditions.

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The ngVLA Central Signal Processor (CSP) effort continued to mature towards the compilation of a SCREAM-based alternative proposal. The reference design was further optimized, potentially saving ~50% of the hardware over the original ngVLA reference design. Two ngVLA electronics memos were published which summarize the proposed changes.

An ALMA correlator sustainability effort was initiated during FY2020. Future spares requirements were comprehensively reviewed and procurement initiated for boards and parts to support the baseline correlator for at least another decade. As this hardware is received, work will continue in FY2021 to consolidate and build spare hardware, some of which is already obsolete. For hardware/articles which are obsolete and no longer available, obsolescence mitigation projects were initiated for a redesign effort. See Section 2.3.1 for further details of this ALMA offsite support work and its scope.

LO Reference and Timing Local Oscillator (LO) reference and timing work was executed in the context of the continuing development of ngVLA designs and concepts, and was carried out extensively with external collaborators (NRC-Penticton, NAOJ-Mitaka, Raytheon Technologies). This work included:

• Making more detailed design concepts for the antenna station based LO and timing so that size, weight, and power envelopes could move forward in concert with other groups working on antenna design and station electronic design. • Developing an ngVLA-specific implementation of a scheme from NRC called “incoherent clocking,” in which the antenna station clocks and digitizers are themselves free running and all phase and timing corrections are applied centrally. This work was presented at the URSI General Assembly in Montreal, Canada. • Collaborating with Raytheon on the study of clock requirements and feasibility of coherent distribution for ~500 km and ~5000 km order of antenna station separations. This effort was started in FY2020 and is expected to continue in FY2021. • Collaborating with NAOJ on distribution of nanosecond timing for ~1000 km antenna station separation. This effort, also initiated in FY2020, is expected to continue in FY2021.

LO Group InP HBT and GaN device based RF power amplifier technology has made significant advances since the FE LO was first designed more than a decade ago. Commercial devices are available up to 100 GHz and these were evaluated in FY2020 in an effort to move away from custom power amplifier MMICs to alleviate the problem of unrepeatable wafers/processes.

In the ALMA LO system, GaN did not seem to be a suitable technology match given its power and heat dissipation requirements. InP HBTs were evaluated and the output power was found to be suitable for LO application up to the desired frequency of 120 GHz and could serve as alternate technology to the existing GaAs custom-MMICs. The sideband noise performance remains to be quantitatively qualified for the InP HBT solution. Further development of amplifier packages is required to comply with the shape, form, and function required to fit into the existing systems. This work is ongoing and is expected to continue into FY2021.

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Figure 4.2.5.1: Output power characterization of a Teledyne InP HBT MMIC up to 120 GHz.

As part of the ALMA Cycle 7 study, investigations were initiated to improve the sideband amplitude noise of the existing ALMA Band 6 Local Oscillator during FY2020, and this work is expected to continue in FY2021 under an approved no-cost schedule extension granted for this study.

Integrated Receiver Development (IRD) The Integrated Receiver Development (IRD) program aims to develop compact, mass-producible, and field-replaceable front-end hardware for the next generation of radio telescope facilities. Specific goals include early digitization as near to the focal point of the telescope as possible, and the relatively seamless integration of analog, digital, and photonic technologies into lightweight, low-overhead front-end modules. The architecture is optimized to exploit the complementarity of integrated construction techniques and digital signal processing (DSP), achieving a level of precision and stability that is unmatched by the current state-of-the-art radio astronomy receivers.

Recent years saw the demonstration of a complete end-to-end W-band dual-polarization receiver system utilizing a wide variety of novel IRD concepts, with 32 Gbps of data being transmitted over 10 km of fiber while performing calibrated sideband-separation in real-time. This year, the goal was to design and implement an SADC Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) drop-in module for the W-band front- end. Problems with the SADC chip prevented this from being accomplished.

While the SADC concept has been proven in FPGA architecture, there were numerous errors on the part of the ASIC vendor/contractor (e.g. a “forgotten” power supply connection, an incorrect voltage level, etc.) The vendor made efforts to correct the on-chip hardware errors by using the process known as FIB editing, however post-editing evaluation did not yield favorable results.

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Figure 4.2.6.1: (Left) Layout of the SADC ASIC chip. The smaller circle indicates the location of a clock input error, while the larger circle shows the erroneous unpowered section. (Right) Photo of the evaluation circuit board, made to test the SADC ASIC functionality.

In August 2020, in collaboration with Mini-Circuits, a Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) Proposal for Transmission Line Reflectionless Filters was submitted to the NSF. A decision is expected in FY2021..

IRD ngVLA Work Design of the ngVLA Band 3 IRD-style module was started in FY2019, and the original plan was to build the module as the first one to incorporate the new SADC ASIC, but since that has not materialized, the IRD team is now working on building a prototype of the analog signal path only. This work will continue into FY2021.

During FY2020, a Teledyne amplifier was evaluated for use in the ngVLA Band 6 (70–116 GHz) and yielded very good small signal performance/results.

In close coordination with the ngVLA management and the NRAO Program Management Department, significant effort was expended in preparing for the second attempt at the SADC ASIC development. The plan is to purchase available silicon-proven IP blocks (e.g. an ADC, a serializer) and work with a physical design contractor to integrate them on to a single chip. The next step is to identify the available IP and obtain budgetary quotes for the same. This effort will continue in FY2021.

Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) HERA is an ongoing CDL development project involving a graduate student and a postdoctoral investigator. The remaining goals of the multi-year work package (scheduled to conclude May 2021) that were addressed in FY2020 included the following.

• Developing a portable antenna beam mapping system based on receiving downlink signals from the OrbComm satellite constellation. This work will consist of miniaturizing the receiving units of the previous version and converting the data acquisition to a software defined radio platform. Initial tests were conducted at the Green Bank field station. The system is to be deployed at the HERA site in South Africa.

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• Development of a novel precision Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-based antenna beam mapping system. This system was evaluated at the University of Virginia test flight facility. Strategies for phase measurements, RFI suppression, and multipath signal mitigation were investigated. In future, operational tests will be conducted at the HERA site in South Africa.

Network for Exploration and Space Science (NESS) This research project involves a graduate student and undergraduate summer student. In FY2020, work continued towards the development of the next generation Cosmic Twilight Polarimeter (CTP), a ground- based instrument that will help refine the polarimetry technique for hydrogen cosmology studies. Upgrades included a correlation receiver, a high-speed digital Back End platform with improved Digital Signal Processing, noise and pilot tone-based calibration, and improved temperature stability of the Front End electronics. This instrument will be deployed in Green Bank for detailed evaluation and sky measurements eventually leading to the prototype for the Dark Ages Polarimeter Pathfinder (DAPPER). The test data will also serve to aid the development of multi-signal pattern recognition algorithms.

Dark Ages Polarimeter Pathfinder (DAPPER) SmallSat Mission Concept Last year, the concept study report for DAPPER was completed and the spacecraft proposed as a Discovery-class mission within NASA. The mission was selected in FY2020 for Technology Readiness Level 6 technology maturation, and the CDL started to engage to develop the radio frequency portion of the science instrument as the first project under the auspices of the new CDL Space Electronics Division. This effort is a collaboration with the University of Colorado at Boulder, NASA Ames Research Center, and the Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, and incorporates significant graduate student and postdoc participation. Detailed Integration & Test (I&T) flow and schedule was completed. A next generation Cosmic Twilight Polarimeter, the DAPPER engineering prototype, is under development.

Advanced Spectrum Monitoring Hardware Using resources received as part of the NSF National Radio Dynamic Zones: Feasibility, Metrology, and Education project, and to support the establishment of an associated National Radio Dynamic Zone (NRDZ), CDL began planning for a new Advanced Spectrum Monitoring Hardware (ASMH) division in the laboratory. The ASMH division will develop novel, custom hardware for monitoring the RF spectrum from ~ 1–100 GHz. Project planning and hiring for the new division will commence in early FY2021. CDL Milestone Summary Of 17 milestone deadlines, nine were completed on time, one was completed early, three were completed late, one is incomplete and will be continued in FY2021, while three were canceled.

Operations

Milestone 4.3.1 – Build and test Band 1 amplifiers: Two delivery milestones (Q2 and Q3) were formally late, primarily due to scheduling induced delays precipitated by the Observatory’s pandemic response. Subsequently, the hardware was built and shipped to NAOJ/ASIAA, to close out this WFO construction project. There was no impact to the end-user since the delayed articles are lifetime spares, to be held for future use. This >1M$ project was slightly over budget (~few k$) with most of the cost overrun attributed to scheduling delays as well as to reengineering precipitated by specification changes introduced after many articles were manufactured in the prior years.

Milestone 4.3.2 – Build and test Band 1 local oscillators: One delivery milestone (Q3) was formally late, primarily due to scheduling induced delays precipitated by the observatory’s pandemic response.

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Subsequently, the hardware was built and shipped to ASIAA. At the time of this writing, the final batch of LO articles has been built and accepted ahead of schedule and is ready to be shipped to ASIAA.

Development

Milestone 4.3.4 – Evaluate upgraded balanced IF amplifiers: Incomplete and proposed to be carried forward to FY2021. The original scope was to install 4–12 GHz superconducting IF hybrids in the balanced amplifier housings produced by Low Noise Factory (LNF) after replacing the original MMICs (whose gain changes after warm-up cycles) with new improved devices and test the amplifiers. New LNF MMICs have yet to be delivered. After the ALMA 2030 roadmap publication, the new IF requirement is to cover 4–16 GHz, or even 4–20 GHz. Revised superconducting IF hybrids for meeting these needs are in the works, while LNF continues to work on stable MMICs. There is also the possibility of making 4–16 GHz balanced amplifiers using Diramics transistors (MIC amplifiers) and the superconducting IF hybrids. Identified remaining work is expected to consume additional 12 months. Of these 12 months, the first six are required for the redesign and fabrication of new wider-bandwidth IF hybrids, as explained in the ALMA development Cycle 7 Band 6v2 study. The remaining period will be used to implement and test the prototype balance IF amplifiers towards the completion of this milestone.

Milestone 4.3.5 – Design, fabrication, and testing of 310 MHz short-backfire antenna: Cancelled. The RF design-work for this feed was completed after some delays, a plywood mockup was built to test form-factor, clearance etc. Wind loading analysis was also performed and feed fabrication drawings completed. GBO eventually decided to halt feed fabrication as the design was considered too big and could damage the antenna structure during emergency stowing. This change of scope/specification eventually led to the cancellation of this milestone. A follow-up modified design is currently in the works.

Milestone 4.3.6 – Design OMT with band gap structure: Cancelled. While the study of band gap structures continued throughout the year, progress on the design of an OMT with band gap structure was hampered by the resignation of the Jansky post-doc leading the effort and because of work slowdown owing to the Observatory’s pandemic response. This milestone was cancelled since the equivalent work is now subsumed into the effort to produce a Band 6v2 OMT design with a new milestone in POP 2021.

Milestone 4.3.8 – Design SADC drop-in for W-band Front End: Proposed to be cancelled. The deliverable scope of this milestone was to build upon the successful ASIC prototype and design a new circuit board as a drop-in replacement in the already proven W-Band IRD module to enable a performance comparison against the current non-ASIC implementation. With the pathway to a working ASIC not clear and a possibility that there might not be a meaningful comparison using the next iteration of the ASIC, as the ASIC requirements continue to evolve, it has been proposed to cancel this milestone.

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5 SCIENCE SUPPORT AND RESEARCH

The Science Support and Research (SSR) department coordinates and manages the efforts to support scientific users of NRAO facilities, seeks to broaden the Observatory’s impact through education and visitor programs for scientists, and supports and oversees the research and scientific productivity of the scientific staff.

SSR is responsible for three major activities serving the community of science users of the NRAO.

• Telescope Time Allocation (TTA) manages the process and tools by which users prepare and submit proposals for use of the VLA, the VLBA, and the GBT. TTA also manages the proposal evaluation and time allocation process. • Science Ready Data Products (SRDP) is a new initiative that will build on the implementation of an automated calibration and imaging pipeline for ALMA, extend the approach to the VLA Sky Survey (VLASS) and ultimately to the bulk of standard VLA observing modes, and thereby facilitate the use of NRAO telescopes by a growing scientific community that extends beyond the radio astronomy domain experts. • Scientific User Support (SUS) is responsible for providing the scientific community with the support necessary to execute successful scientific programs with the VLA and the VLBA.

In addition, SSR provides three Observatory-wide reference services:

• The NRAO Library provides access to journals and reference materials, tracks a range of metrics related to the publication and citation of scientific results based on NRAO telescopes and by NRAO staff, manages financial support to meet page charges associated with such publications, and publishes and maintains access to NRAO memos, reports, and conference papers. • The Historical Archives group curates materials relevant to NRAO activities and other radio astronomy research and development when appropriate. • Statistics and Metrics aggregates data related to the scientific delivery and use of the Observatory for internal use and to report metrics to the NSF, to AUI, and to external review committees.

SSR also supports and oversees the research activities of the NRAO scientific staff, related performance reviews, professional development activities, the Jansky Fellowship postdoctoral program, undergraduate and graduate student programs, and various other scientific activities such as the Jansky Lectureship, scientific meetings, colloquia, and seminars. Telescope Time Allocation The Telescope Time Allocation (TTA) group is responsible for overseeing the process and providing the tools by which proposals for the use of the VLA and the VLBA are prepared, submitted, and peer reviewed; and by which telescope time is allocated. The TTA group also provides these services for the GBT under a Service Level Agreement with the GBO. Proposals are handled through a single, unified process. ALMA proposals are managed separately by the JAO consistent with international agreements. The TTA group is also responsible for ensuring that the necessary documentation in support of all TTA activities and tools is available and up to date and for gathering the requirements for the software tool suite used in support of this process, conveying those requirements to DMS staff for implementation, and testing and validating new releases of these tools.

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In FY2020, the TTA group contributed to the system description of the software requirements of the new TTA Software Suite and participated in the Conceptual Design Review. The new TTA Software Suite is being developed in conjunction with DMS as part of the SRDP program (see Section 5.2).

In FY2019, the NRAO received nine eXtra Large proposals (X-proposals), a new class of proposals requesting more than 1000 hours of time and spanning multiple semesters. In FY2020, a new X-proposal Science Assessment Committee (XSAC) evaluated these X-proposals and made recommendations to the Director. One X-proposal is moving forward and is under evaluation for technical feasibility. Science Ready Data Products The Science Ready Data Products (SRDP) program seeks to increase the impact of the NRAO telescopes via three approaches: (1) remove barriers to the use of NRAO telescopes to encourage a broader user base, (2) curate a rich archive of science quality data images, and (3) perform automated calibration and imaging of data from NRAO telescopes. The three projects constituting the program are Science Ready Archive and Operations, the VLA Sky Survey, and development of a new suite of Telescope Time Allocation tools. The program has made significant progress on all three of its constituent projects despite the effects of the global pandemic.

The Science Ready Archive and Operations (SRAO) project was the original SRDP initiative. NRAO began providing quality assured calibrations for the VLA as part of pilot SRAO operations in FY2019, and allowing user specified imaging of ALMA data in Q2. While these services were fully implemented from the users’ perspective, the supporting infrastructure was not yet at a production level. The transition to full operations of the initial suite of capabilities was delayed until these issues were resolved. Initial capabilities include standard calibration of a subset of VLA observations and re-imaging of ALMA data at a user specified frequency resolution.

Planning and development for the second wave of operations was completed on schedule with heuristics and specification for enhancements and new capabilities delivered to the DMS team. Highlights of new capabilities are the ability for users to specify the desired angular resolution for ALMA imaging, additional supported modes for the VLA Calibration pipeline, and an initial version of the VLA imaging pipeline.

The second project under the SRDP program is to replace the tools supporting the NRAO/GBO proposal and review process. As part of SRDP’s mission to make the NRAO telescopes available to the widest possible user community, the new tools decrease the required knowledge of instrumentation-specific details. This new generation of tools also support dual-anonymous review alleviating the impact of bias throughout the review process. The concept for the new suite of tools was developed in FY2019, and a Conceptual Design Review (CoDR) was originally scheduled for Q1. A new DMS Architect was hired in the summer 2019, and immediately began work on a conceptual architecture to support the tools. In the process, several gaps in the project concept were identified. The CoDR was delayed until April to allow for the gaps to be addressed and the resulting requirements to be incorporated in architecture. Originally planned as an in-person review, the pandemic required that the format be modified to a fully virtual review. The committee recommended that the project advance to the implementation phase, with several helpful recommendations. Due to competing resource demands, the implementation phase has not yet commenced, with a planned kickoff meeting scheduled for Q1 FY2021.

A joint deliverable with New Mexico Operations, the VLA Sky Survey is the third project managed by the SRDP program. The VLASS is the highest resolution all-sky survey ever undertaken at radio wavelengths. The VLA Sky Survey is synoptic, capturing the full sky visible from the VLA (declination > –40 degrees) three times, with each of the three epochs split into two observing periods. Observation of the second epoch of VLASS began ~one month late (26 June) due to delays in the VLA reconfiguration caused by

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COVID-19. Observations are underway and on schedule for completion in early November. Calibration and Quick Look images are being produced and are passing through the quality assurance process, prior to being released to the community. A particular challenge that the team successfully resolved for this epoch was the need to recruit and train several new data analysts while respecting the limitations imposed by the COVID epidemic.

Production of higher fidelity Single Epoch images for the first epoch was delayed due to algorithmic and operational challenges. A continuum imaging pipeline was scheduled for validation in Q1, leading to a revised production schedule Q2. Unfortunately, the pipeline developed in FY2019 did not pass validation. In Q2, the VLASS Imaging Project was initiated, led by the Algorithm, Research, and Development Group (ARDG). The VLASS Imaging Project ran for ~12 weeks, providing a roadmap to an operational pipeline for producing high quality single epoch images. Development of the pipeline and accompanying workflows is underway. A parallel effort to for extensive testing of the imaging recipe is being led by the Scientific Computing Group (SCG) within DMS.

The algorithms required for high fidelity imaging of VLASS data are considerably more computationally expensive than expected, based on the original project estimates. The VLASS project is working closely with the SCG to develop and validate a scalable implementation of the imaging pipeline and identify external computing resources to augment NRAO’s investment. Based on the preliminary results of this initiative, a revised production schedule is being developed in Q4 and will be circulated all relevant stakeholders in Q1 FY2021. Scientific User Support The Scientific User Support (SUS) group provides the scientific community with the support to execute successful scientific programs with the VLA and the VLBA. While the SUS group supports VLA users, the SRDP initiative has a goal to increase that scientific user base beyond traditional radio astronomers. In the longer term, SUS will use the products of the SRDP project to provide the scientific support for users to access, reduce, calibrate, and analyze their data as well as to help the community generate new and innovative ideas for science by fostering cross-disciplinary and cross-field ideas and techniques.

The SUS group continued to play a key role in the ongoing delivery of the VLA Sky Survey (VLASS) which will run until 2024, using ~10% of the VLA observing time. In FY2020, the observations of the second epoch (VLASS 2.1) started, and will be concluded in early FY2021. The corresponding Quick Look images from the data of all executed observing sessions are delivered after they are processed.

The SUS group provides education and outreach services to astronomers who use NRAO facilities, including face-to-face visitor support/data reduction visits, Helpdesk support, Knowledgebase articles, science forums, NRAO Community Day events, science meetings and conferences, science web content and the NRAO User Portal interface, user documentation, workshops and tutorials, online training, and educational material. SUS coordinates with the NAASC, which handles such activities for North American ALMA users, to ensure that NRAO users as a whole benefit from these services.

In FY2020, the SUS group organized the 35th New Mexico Symposium on 21 February in Socorro, NM, and finalized the organization of several Community Day events to inform the community as to the use of our facilities from proposing to observing to data reduction and analysis. These Community Day events were cancelled/postponed due to COVID-19 and imposed travel restrictions. The first of these in FY2020 was to be hosted by the University of Guanajuato in Mexico (10-11 March), the second by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) (31 March–1 April), and the third by the Dominion Radio Astronomical Observatory in Canada (3-4 June 3-4). A fourth community day event

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 62 was planned for September 2020 in the Institute of Radioastronomy (IRA)-Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in Italy. Again, due to COVID-19, this event was also cancelled. The SUS group also organized the 17th Synthesis Imaging Workshop. Initially, this event was planned to be in-person in Socorro, NM, in May 2020. However, due to COVID-19, a virtual event was organized instead for 29 June17 July 2020.

SSR continued to coordinate and oversee the scientific testing and validation of each CASA release, and SUS was in charge of updating the CASAGuides as required based on the scientific functionalities offered in each CASA release. In FY2020, CASA 5.6.2 was released with the new version of the VLA calibration pipeline, and the corresponding CASAGuides that describe and/or utilize the calibration pipeline were updated and posted online. The delivery of CASA v5.7/v6.1 was delayed until Q4. Soon after their formal release, the SUS group started working on updating the CASAGuides.

SUS also supports certain user data and scientific software services, including assistance with manual data reduction, pipeline testing, and requirements definition for a number of projects; e.g., the Antenna Archive Tool/ALMA Science Archive (AAT/ASA) user interface, the integrated science portal, and the integrated helpdesk. SUS staff are responsible for, or contribute to, a range of other VLA data services including scheduling block validation, pipeline data processing, pipeline heuristics development, and the associated quality assurance.

The NRAO Library maintains distributed access to research and reference materials for NRAO staff and the community. Library staff aim to maximize the available resources and new material acquisitions within the operating budget.

The NRAO Library is responsible for the publication, posting, and maintenance of 125 NRAO Memo and Report series, newsletters, publications, and collections of instrument-related documentation. All documents the library hosts are used by the NRAO and the scientific community in the operation and development of, and planning for, NRAO instruments and systems, as well as accountability to NSF. In the coming year, a comprehensive database of all documents will be implemented to support ease of discovery of NRAO documentation which represents the final phase of the decade-long digitization project.

The Library staff support internal and external reporting functions by collecting a variety of data and metrics in coordination with Statistics and Metrics services (see below). This effort includes standard metrics requested monthly, quarterly, or annually. Closely related to the effort to track the impact of NRAO instruments in the literature, the library administers support for publication charges of qualified authors.

In FY2020, the library completed a project to revise or develop all policies pertaining to library operations. In FY2021, the next documentation phase will include process and training manuals for these operations.

The NRAO/AUI Historical Archives seeks out, collects, organizes, preserves, and provides access to the NRAO’s institutional records as well as personal papers of staff, former staff, and others with connections to the NRAO, preserves media materials relating to NRAO history, and conducts oral history interviews. As resources permit, it makes these materials publicly available through both an extensively documented website and through one-on-one contact with internal staff and external individuals and organizations. As the U.S. national facility for radio astronomy, the NRAO/AUI Historical Archives also include materials on the history and development of radio astronomy in the U.S., and its growing reputation has made the NRAO Archives the de facto repository for the history of U.S. radio astronomy.

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In FY2020, the Historical Archives continued to respond to internal and external requests for information; supported visiting researchers and NRAO staff; processed and documented newly received acquisitions; supported the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group on Historical Radio Astronomy’s website; continued to transcribe the Woody Sullivan interviews, and prepared transcriptions for the Web. The Archives completed a year-long transition from older, proprietary search software to established open-source software, providing expanded public access to digitized images in the online catalog. Open Skies: NRAO and Its Impact on U.S. Radio Astronomy (K.I. Kellermann, E.N. Bouton, S.S. Brandt, Springer 2020), which drew heavily on unique materials in the Historical Archives, was published in July 2020.

From March through mid-June 2020, IDOS restrictions halted processing of paper collections and scanning of non-digitized material. Since mid-June, Archives staff has been allowed building access one day/week, so these activities started again, but at a much slower pace. Most requests for information come via email, and some can be answered by accessing digitized materials; requests requiring access to paper were held for response until mid-June, but can now be answered when staff is in the building. Direct access to the Archives is still prohibited to internal and external researchers, making it impossible for some users to continue research requiring access to archival materials.

The NRAO observing metrics database, available to internal staff via a simple web interface, contains data used for contractual reporting to the NSF with consistent information pertaining to the operation of NRAO telescopes: ALMA, VLA, VLBA, as well as the GBT. The database is also used to provide monthly reports to NRAO management. Statistics and Metrics supports the production of NRAO Quarterly and Annual reports. The monthly information is gathered by differing means, from fully automatic to semi- manual. The automation of the routine processes involved in the production of observing metrics continued in FY2020.

Statistics and Metrics continued to support the relatively new Performance Evaluation and Management Reports (PEMR) for NRAO, comprising the ongoing collection and monitoring of a broad suite of metrics across the entire range of Observatory activities to provide an informative snapshot of NRAO performance that is of value to NRAO senior management, the NSF, and other stakeholders.

Scientific Staff and Jansky Fellows A productive and scientifically active staff is a prerequisite for the successful operation of a cutting-edge national observatory. The scientific staff is key to telescope testing, operations, user support, and long- range development and planning, as well as promoting productive scientific exploitation of the Observatory’s capabilities. The NRAO has a world-class staff of ~80 astronomers, computer scientists, and research engineers, recognized internationally for their excellence in telescope design and support, as well as their technical and scientific knowledge and leadership.

The scientific staff is fully integrated into Observatory operations. All staff members have clear functional duties relating to the Observatory’s mission and facilities. Staff members also lead efforts in education of the professional astronomy community, as well as public outreach—fostering a scientifically literate society. A vibrant scientific staff, engaged with the community, is a required element in the full realization of the scientific potential of the NRAO facilities by the astronomical community.

SSR has primary responsibility for the NRAO research environment, and for oversight of the scientific productivity of staff with a research component to their role. SSR oversees the research aspects of all astronomers, computer scientists, and research engineers and is involved in recruitment and other Human Resources issues involving scientific staff. Specific SSR responsibilities include: implementation and

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 64 evolution of scientific staff policy, oversight of funding to support research-related travel and computing needs for scientific staff, annual scientific performance appraisals, scientific staff hiring, and academic promotions. SSR also provides funds to support a scientific visitors program, scientific meetings, the colloquium series at each site, and the Jansky Lectureship which recognizes outstanding contributions to the advancement of radio astronomy.

Dr. Anneila Sargent (California Institute of Technology) gave the 2019 Jansky Lecture in Charlottesville (5 December 2019) and Socorro (21 February 2020). SSR supported the 35th New Mexico Symposium coincident with the February Jansky Lecture. In FY2020, the NRAO hosted, organized, or supported a number of science meetings and workshops.

Event Dates Location 7th VLA Data Reduction 7–18 October 2019 Socorro, NM Workshop Space VLBI 2020: Science and 28–30 January 2020 Charlottesville, VA Technology Futures ngVLA Summer Short Talk Series 25 June–10 September Virtual, 11 weekly 1 hour talks 2020 17th Synthesis Imaging Workshop 29 June–17 July 2020 Virtual, Daily Lectures Compact Objects virtual mini- 14–15 July 2020 Virtual, 2 days, 2 ½ hours each conference Virtual internal Science Series 11 September 2020 Virtual, bi-weekly talk and ongoing discussion

SSR oversees the Jansky Fellows postdoctoral program—NRAO’s long-standing prize research fellowships. This highly competitive program attracts some of the best young scientists and engineers to postdoctoral appointments at an NRAO site, or at external institutions in the U.S. (non-resident Fellows). The NRAO also hosts postdoctoral fellows funded by other institutions, such as Hubble, Einstein, and NSF Fellows.

In FY2020, NRAO recruited five new Jansky Fellows (see below). NRAO will again actively seek to recruit such researchers in the future. SSR will continue to work closely with existing and incoming Jansky Fellows to identify and implement opportunities for professional development while maintaining the focus on excellence in astronomical and related engineering research. Each Jansky Fellow is provided with a substantial research budget for scientific travel, page charges, and computing resources. SSR will facilitate engagement of the Jansky Fellows in the unique opportunities afforded by being involved in a postdoctoral program at a national observatory. In parallel to research mentoring, the NRAO will provide focused training and resources to foster development of non-academic career skills of the Jansky Fellows, including leadership, administrative and project management, communications, and organization. Producing a next generation of scientists practiced in these soft skills is an important new goal for NRAO in the next decade.

During FY2020, NRAO hosted the following Jansky Fellows: • Kazunori Akiyama, MIT-Haystack (September 2017 to September 2020) • Nithyanandan Thyagarajan, NRAO Socorro (September 2017 to September 2020) • Ryan Loomis, NRAO Charlottesville (August 2018 to November 2019) • Lisa Locke, NRAO CDL-Charlottesville (September 2018 to December 2019) • Nolan Denman, NRAO CDL-Charlottesville (January 2019 to April 2020)

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• Kunal Mooley, NRAO Socorro (January 2018 to current) • Brian Svoboda, NRAO Socorro (June 2018 to current) • Dary Ruiz-Rodriguez, NRAO Charlottesville (October 2019 to current) • Craig Anderson, NRAO Socorro (November 2019 to current) • Luis Henry Quiroga-Nuñez, NRAO Socorro/University of New Mexico (March 2020 to current) • Jacob White, NRAO Charlottesville (September 2020 to current) • Dyas Utomo, NRAO Charlottesville (September 2020 to current)

Kim Emig (NRAO Charlottesville), Pallavi Patil (NRAO Socorro), and Bang Nhan (NRAO CDL) will begin their Jansky Fellowships in the Fall/Winter 2020/2021.

Kazunori Akiyama moved to a MIT faculty position, Nithyanandan Thyagarajan to a CSIRO staff position, Ryan Loomis to a NAASC scientific staff position, Lisa Locke to a JPL Deep Space Network staff position, and Nolan Denman to a temporary CDL engineering position, respectively, at the conclusion of their fellowships. Student Programs The Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and NRAO summer student programs, co-op students, undergraduate and graduate student interns, and Reber pre-doctoral fellows, and funds for Student Observing Support, are coordinated by SSR.

Undergraduate Students: The long-running (since 1959) NRAO summer student program continues to be successful. This 12-week program allows students to work under the supervision of NRAO staff members at sites in New Mexico and Virginia (and West Virginia, through the GBO), to carry out original research in astronomy, computing and engineering. In FY2020, the summer student program was run entirely through remote participation, with all students and mentors working from their homes because of the pandemic. Despite this constraint, the program was widely considered a success. There were 36 student participants altogether, including 15 affiliated with Charlottesville, 10 with Socorro, and 11 with Green Bank. Of these students, 14 were funded through the NSF REU program. The other outstanding students, many of whom are not eligible for REU funding (graduating seniors, foreign students, and early career graduate students), are supported by NRAO or GBO operating funds or by external grants to NRAO staff members. A proposal for further NSF funding for the REU program submitted in FY2018 was successful, and fully funds the program for FY2019–2021.

The NRAO also supports a co-op program that enables undergraduate engineering students to gain practical, career-based experience as part of their formal academic education. Students from participating institutions work at NRAO sites for up to two semesters. Under the supervision of NRAO technical staff, co-op students are engaged in R&D on the technological frontier. NRAO supported three co-op appointments this year.

Modest funding is available for undergraduate internships, where promising undergraduate students participated in scientific or engineering activities, supervised by NRAO staff, over a period of weeks to a semester, and new funding has been allocated to support internships at CDL. Six such students were supported this year.

SSR coordinates closely with student programs run by the NRAO Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI), including the National Astronomy Consortium (NAC), Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP), Physics Inspiring the Next Generation (PING), and Socorro Electronics Division’s Laboratory Experience for Undergraduates (SEDLE). Participation in SSR and ODI student

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 66 programs is closely intertwined, and SSR supports the selection of NAC students through the web- based forms and database used for all summer student applications. The summer program supported four NAC students and five PING students this year, and these are included in the total of 36 participants listed above.

Graduate Students: The NRAO is committed to training the next generation of scientists in radio astronomical science, techniques, and technology. Several NRAO programs exist for this purpose. Graduating seniors and first- and second-year graduate students are able to participate in the NRAO summer student program. This gives students experience in radio astronomy research early in their graduate careers, allowing them to incorporate these skills into their thesis research. There were 11 graduate participants in the summer program. The NRAO also awards Reber Pre-doctoral Fellowships to students who have completed institutional requirements for doctoral candidacy, so that only their thesis research remains for them to complete their Ph.D. Such fellows take up residence at one of the NRAO sites, typically for two years, while they complete their research and thesis under the supervision of an NRAO staff member. The NRAO currently supports ten Reber Pre-doctoral Fellows. Four of these were new appointments this year: Krishna Makhija who is working with Rich Bradley at CDL, Tierra Candelaria who is working with Juergen Ott in Socorro, Luca Beale who works with Jen Donovan Meyer at CV-Edgemont Road, and Yiqing Song who works with Aaron Evans at CV-Edgemont Road.

The NRAO also supports many of the 100+ Ph.D. students making use of NRAO telescopes each year. Travel reimbursement, low-cost accommodations, and computing facilities are provided onsite to assist these students. Support is provided for stays lasting several weeks to several months by students to collaborate with NRAO staff scientists as part of their Ph.D. research. These student internships help forge valuable long-term links between the NRAO and the university community.

Student Observing Support: Financial support is available on a competitive basis for students at U.S. universities observing with ALMA, VLA, or VLBA through the Student Observing Support (SOS) program. SOS funding provides a stipend and covers miscellaneous expenses such as computers and travel to conferences to a maximum of $35,000 USD per award. This program is highly valued by the user community.

With no Cycle 8 ALMA observations in the current year, the ALMA SOS funding was redirected to a supplemental call for projects that already had Cycle 6 or Cycle 7 data delivered. The program made 17 awards ($439k total) from 46 applications. VLA/VLBA awards are determined twice per year with the semester proposal deadlines. This year, combining both opportunities, there were 21 applications received and six awards granted, totaling $150k. SSR Milestone Summary Of 38 milestone deadlines, 27 were completed on time.

Telescope Time Allocation – 13 deadlines, all completed on time

SRDP – Five deadlines, two complete

Milestone 5.7.14 – Wave-1 SRDP Operations: Although all user-facing capabilities were deployed early in Q2, software infrastructure delays prevented the transition from pilot to full operations until Q3. Processes to improve effort estimation and schedule prediction have been put in place and are being refined.

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Milestone 5.7.16 – TTA Tools Conceptual Design Review: The transition to a new DMS Architect presented an opportunity for a fresh perspective on the developed concept. In reviewing the material, several gaps or assumptions were discovered. The project opted to correct the omissions, develop a full conceptual architecture, and a more fully developed implementation scheduled. The project presented at the CoDR was significantly more mature than the initial objective for the review. This review was completed satisfactorily 15 April.

Milestone 5.7.17 – VLASS product delivery schedule: This target was moved from Q2 to Q4 when the continuum imaging pipeline failed validation in Q1. An updated project delivery plan was developed in Q4, is being updated based on testing over the summer and will be circulated with all stakeholder groups early in FY2021.

Scientific User Support – Seven deadlines, one complete

Milestone 5.7.19 – Community Day programs finalized: FY2020 events cancelled, moving to online Community Day Events for FY2021, dates in December and January FY2021 are now scheduled.

Milestone 5.7.21 – NM Symposium: 35th New Mexico Symposium held 21 February 2020, in Socorro to coincide with the Jansky Lecture held in Socorro that evening.

Milestone 5.7.22 – CASA Validation: Schedule slip due to late delivery of CASA v5.7/v6. Risk and Mitigation: Offer users existing versions of the CASA software. Validated release 5.7/6.1.

Milestone 5.7.23 – CASA Guides: Schedule slip due to late delivery of CASA v5.7/v6. Risk and Mitigation: Offer users existing versions of the CASA software. Documentation is released with CASA 5.7/6.1.

Milestone 5.7.24 – CASA Validation: The original milestone scope was to validate CASA v6.2. However, a new milestone has been set by DMS to release both v6.2 and v5.8 in Q1 FY2021 (milestone 6.5.24). Since the validation effort is tied to the CASA releases, there is a corresponding SSR milestone for their validation in Q1 FY2021 (5.7.23). Thus, cancellation of this milestone is proposed.

Milestone 5.7.25 – CASA Guides: The original milestone scope was to publish CASAguides for CASA v6.2. However, a new milestone has been set by DMS to release both v6.2 and v5.8 in Q1 FY2021 (6.5.24). Since the CASAguides effort is tied to CASA releases, there is a corresponding SSR milestone for the CASAguides in Q1 FY2021 5.7.24). Thus, cancellation of this milestone is proposed.

Reference Services – One deadline delayed

Milestone 6.7.26 – Development of U.S. Radio Astronomy: Published July 2020.

Scientific Staff and Jansky Fellows – Six deadlines, all complete.

Student Programs – Six deadlines, five complete.

Milestone 6.7.37 – Reber Predoc Selection: Schedule slip in Q2, completed Q3.

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6 DATA MANAGEMENT AND SOFTWARE

The Data Management and Software (DMS) department delivers scientific computing infrastructure, software, and algorithms to support Observatory functions and to develop new capabilities for future needs. The department consists of Scientific Information Systems (SIS), Software Development, the Algorithm Research and Development Group (ARDG), and ngVLA Computing.

The DMS department continued to make key contributions to the NRAO throughout FY2020, with deliveries vital for the production software services provided in support of SRDP. DMS continued to deliver essential parts of the VLASS workflow to operations and started the design of the new TTA tool suite, both in the context of SRDP. New observing capabilities were implemented and supported for ALMA, VLA, and VLBA. Additionally, software development was required as the underlying hardware and software infrastructure goes through some necessary upgrades, such as updates to Python, Java, and the underlying Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating system. Work continued in Common Astronomy Software Applications (CASA) to help prepare it for the future, including the CASA Next Generation Infrastructure (CNGI) and Cube Analysis and Rendering Tool for Astronomy (CARTA) projects. DMS contributed to the ngVLA project, including key portions relevant to the Decadal Survey. A stable computing platform for internal and external users was maintained and expanded as needed. Scientific Information Services The Scientific Information Services (SIS) division is matrixed into the Information Technology (IT)-centric Computing and Information Services (CIS) division (see Section 9). This enables transparent sharing of highly skilled staff for telescope supporting science responsibilities (SIS) under DMS, as well as general IT support duties (CIS) aligned under Facilities and Administration. There are three major functional groups in SIS, described below.

Computing Operations (NAASC, NM): These site-centric groups directly support the day-to-day telescope operations for reliable delivery of data to the archive and the community. They ensure that telescope capability development projects are appropriately staffed, with resources assigned based on commitments and timelines defined within approved Observatory projects and in coordination with local operations support priorities. Projects and milestones for these resources are tracked under the appropriate telescope support sections. Attention is given to the support of the DMS department for infrastructure needed by CASA pipeline development for use by the JAO and Regional Centers as well as VLA and general observer support. Of particular focus in FY2020 was the delivery of an RHEL 7 OS image on the data processing clusters, following the successful workstation deployment in FY2019. To address the storage challenge of the temporary/scratch space associated with the data processing cluster, several petabytes of persistent storage were provisioned to support users and large projects requiring non-archive data to be preserved for extended periods of time without impacting pipeline operations due to storage resource constraints. For the ALMA Archive, the Next Generation Archive System (NGAS) platform code base continued to be upgraded in alignment with the support plan from the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) and issued through regular updates from JAO.

Scientific Computing Group (SCG): This highly skilled group provides technology-driven scientific computing support, and is tasked with delivering the next generation of data processing solutions, working in close cooperation with the DMS software division, telescope operations, and external cyber infrastructure partners. This group is also responsible for hardware and software performance profiling and evaluations, as well as assisting with critical escalations from Operations in the event of systematic performance issues with the production infrastructure. To support VLASS image processing, and to improve processing efficiency for VLA and SRDP pipeline operations, the SCG investigated the use of the HTCondor software stack to manage pipeline executions—in collaboration with the Center for High

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Throughput Computing (CHTC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison—as well as execution of tasks on Amazon Web Services (AWS) with good success. To support the VLASS initiative, additional cluster capacity was purchased in FY2020 to double the available internal computing capacity.

Wide-Area Networking: This science data capacity-driven group is responsible for provisioning the long-haul, high-bandwidth, connectivity needed to uplink the telescopes and then deliver reliable throughput in support of PI access and general data delivery. Operational support for commodity circuits will be handed off to communication services in CIS once a network service has been accepted into production. The project to complete the fiber connectivity of multiple VLBA antenna locations was significantly advanced in FY2020, with all but one of the 10 sites being connected with at least 200 Mbps of bandwidth, and with network hardware installed able to run at 10 Gbps. Upgrade of the tenth site will be completed Q1 FY2021. The purchase of stateful firewall technology in FY2020 supports enabling a Science DMZ processing model, for secure high-speed access to archive data stored within NRAO, while enabling the use of external grid-based computing resource, without a significant performance penalty. System Software ALMA System Software ALMA priorities are set at the JAO in cooperation with the other partners and may change. Many areas of work depend on coordination with JAO resources. NRAO works closely with the JAO and partners to address the highest priorities as efficiently as possible.

ALMA Control Subsystem – Bug fixing: Over the last year, the Control subsystem group has spent ~50% of its time fixing bugs, and this continued in FY2020. Important bugs are fixed at high priority and often patched into the software used for ALMA Operations. Lower priority bugs are scheduled to be fixed at a later time and fixes will become available to ALMA Operations in a planned software update. Some effort is made to keep track of the issues affecting operations so that bugs can be identified, prioritized, and fixed efficiently.

ALMA Control Subsystem – Graphical User Interfaces: The Control Subsystem group maintains graphical user interfaces (GUIs) used by Astronomers on Duty (AoDs), engineers, and array operators. These tools have been becoming outdated in their functionality and technology. The second half of FY2019 saw small improvements in the existing GUIs. Throughout FY2020, improvements were made to the GUIs to take advantage of new features within the Control system and to update interface to use more modern tools and languages.

ALMA Control Subsystem – Infrastructure Upgrades: Significant parts of the ALMA software are facing obsolescence and the ALMA Control Subsystem group is leading the effort in three of these areas.

Java 8 is obsolete and no longer receiving Oracle support or updates. The ALMA Control Subsystem group led the effort to port much of the ALMA online software to Java 11 and has assisted other ALMA software groups in this effort. Support for Java 11 was delivered in Q1; Q2 and Q3 were spent supporting the verification and validation of the software in Java 11.

Python 2 was also facing end-of-life in 2020 and all ALMA software needed to be upgraded to Python 3. This included not just software delivered by the Integrated Computing Team, but software used by operators, engineers, scientists, data reducers, and other groups. The ALMA Control and Correlator Subsystem group have participated in general planning of the transition to Python 3 and began porting efforts in the second half of FY2020.

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The ALMA Common Software (ACS) system is also facing obsolescence. While still usable, many new technologies have been introduced into the system as it can no longer meet the growing software needs. In collaboration with the JAO, the ACS group led the effort to update the Make system to make continuous testing and integration possible and to consolidate the proliferation of new technologies into a coherent package. Work started on this effort in the second half of FY2019 and completed in the first half of FY2020.

ALMA Baseline Correlator Subsystem – Correlator Upgrade Project: Funding for the Correlator Upgrade Project (CUP) was approved in FY2018 and the project successfully passed a Preliminary Design Review (PDR) in Q3 FY2018. Despite the CUP project termination, implementation of the fifth quadrant hardware began at the CDL in FY2020. This allowed for testing of the correlator hardware boards and for the verification of the firmware/software interaction. Similarly, the Hardware- in-the-Loop Simulator (HiLS) project at the OSF began, with the ALMA Baseline Correlator Subsystem contributing to this effort.

Initial tests were planned for Q2 to test the current system with higher data rates to find potential bottlenecks in the software. However, due to the ALMA COVID-19 shutdown, this work was put on hold. After observing restarts, data rate testing will resume, followed by hardware updates. The Correlator Data Processor (CDP) computer network cards and cable will be updated to 10 Gb to allow for the higher data rates. The data rate tests will then be conducted with the new hardware.

ALMA Baseline Correlator Subsystem – 4x4 Correlator Modes: The implementation of the 4x4- bit correlator modes was delivered in FY2019 and will increase quantization efficiency for a subset of the correlator modes. The increase from 88% to 98.8% will be observed after the 3-bit digitizer quantization for those specific correlator modes. The 4x4-bit correlator modes have not yet been validated or commissioned by ALMA Science. Validation in FY2020 was delayed due to available telescope time and the telescope not being operational, and, during the second half of FY2020, owing to COVID.

During Q1 and Q2 FY2021, investigation will identify and correct the issues seen during the two-antenna correlator testing of the 4x4-bit mode. Once the array becomes operational again, one of the first commissioning activities will be to complete the validation of these modes ahead of PI observing. Deployment is expected in Cycle 9.

ALMA Baseline Correlator Subsystem – Improving Efficiency: In May 2016, a workshop was held in Charlottesville, VA on improvements to the baseline correlator. The outcome was a set of six areas in which to improve the correlator sub-array efficiency. Sub-array efficiency is critical to avoid delaying observations. Shorter delays enable more observing per unit time. Minimizing time spent configuring correlator hardware is a key element to address in software.

Parallelization efforts continued, with specific focus on delay command dispatching. This is necessary for improving long baseline reliability. Work continued in FY2020 to improve observing efficiency and start buffering previously computed results in hardware to reduce correlator set-up times. Some of the issues regarding the moving of processes to other components with lighter workloads will require firmware changes and will be implemented based on engineering staff availability.

Investigation into improving subarray reliability, observing with longer sub-scan sequences, and observing with larger sub-arrays was ongoing throughout FY2020 in anticipation of PI science on multiple sub-arrays in future cycles.

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ALMA Baseline Correlator Subsystem – Improving Simulations: Test time on the ALMA telescope is becoming increasingly limited, so the Correlator subsystem group is putting significant effort into improving simulation capabilities. For FY2020, this proceeded along two fronts: reliable support for subarray functionality, and more realistic lag representation. In the first half of FY2020, the Correlator team focused on improving simulation support for subarrays, which is crucial for furthering development of the Correlator's subarray scheduling efficiency improvements. In the second half of FY2020, the focus was on improving the simulated lags presented to the correlator such that integrations are not flagged or blanked by the CDP, and plots viewed on the CorrGUI appear plausible. This effort was not expected to conclude in FY2020, and continues. Initial development and testing will be conducted in North America; eventual collaboration with the Telescope Calibration software group in Europe in future years will be used to hone the effectiveness and accuracy of the simulations.

ALMA Scheduling Subsystem – Improving Observing Efficiency: Work on the scheduling software for FY2020 continued to address the optimization of the Dynamic Scheduling Algorithm (DSACore). Improvements considered include optimizations in queue building, proper antenna configuration selection, improved beam selection and angular resolution, and reducing QA2 failures. Improving efficiency is an on-going process, including many stakeholders, and discussions are ongoing. Agreed improvements will be delivered in future releases.

ALMA Scheduling Subsystem – Technology Improvements: The infrastructure in the scheduling subsystem has improved significantly over the past few years, solving various performance issues. Changes in FY2020 included updating the outdated technology and replacing it with alternative solutions or modern versions.

Much of FY2020 was dedicated to bring the DSACore, which has traditionally been maintained by scientists at the JAO, into the Integrated Computing Team. Software support and maintenance of the DSACore included a preliminary porting to Python 3, defining the interfaces, re-defining the architecture, and refactoring for usability and scalability. This is currently running in a test environment, with delivery planned in FY2021.

Standard Data Model – Performance Updates and Improvements: The Standard Data Model (SDM)—the metadata that describes a given observation—is shared between three major stakeholders: ALMA, the VLA, and CASA. The data model is maintained by the NRAO software group. Requested changes to support the ACA Spectrometer were delivered in Q4.

Other ALMA Software Efforts: The ALMA Control and Scheduling subsystems contributed software development to support the ACA Total Power Spectrometer (TPS). The Control subsystem also delivered improved focus models in the second half of FY2020.

The North America ALMA software groups began the process of cataloging software and technologies that are in danger of obsolescence in preparation of upgrade and risk mitigation plans.

All subsystems also continued to address software maintenance issues such as tracking new versions of the ACS and third-party libraries, and overall code refactoring to make further changes simpler.

VLA System Software The responsibilities of this group involve the system software—primarily monitor and control, but including other operational functions, notably dynamic scheduling. Much of the work involves maintenance, e.g., troubleshooting and bug fixes. In FY2020, support for the OPT was also moved into this group.

The group has spent significant time working with NM Operations to improve system performance in FY2020. Some new capabilities were provided (see Sections 3.1.6 and 3.1.7). Deployments for use during

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PI observing for Semesters 2019B and 2020A occurred in Q2 and Q4, respectively. In addition, software was incrementally made available for commissioning new 2020A and 2020B capabilities.

New or augmented VLA capabilities in FY2020 included the following.

• Support upgrade of production hardware including the Correlator Back End: The computing hardware which supports telescope operations is coming to the end of its service life and has been refreshed. This work was completed in Q2. • Support upgrade of production systems to RHEL 7: Similar to the situation with hardware, the underlying operating system was updated to the most recent release as RHEL 6 has reached the end of support. This was completed in Q2. • Continued investigation of RFI excision in WIDAR: Strategies to reduce the effects of RFI on observations were investigated, led by and in coordination with the scientific staff. The group produced prototype software and supported testing during FY2020. • Support for ACU replacement: Software support for the ACU replacement project was provided to assist in the integration of the new ACUs into the system.

Support was provided as required for major VLA projects including realfast (fast transient detection), VLASS, and ngVLA.

VLBA Support for VLBA commissioning and observing followed the same deployment cycles as the VLA. Section 3.2.5 and 3.2.6 describe VLBA observing capability enhancements and development items.

Support was provided for the Mark 6 deployment for Shared Risk Observing (SRO). The VLBA Versa Module Eurocard (VME) hardware was replaced during FY2018–19 at all sites with a general computer based NoVME solution. Support for NoVME in normal operations at all sites continued into FY2020.

The ability to record at higher data rates was implemented in FY2019. Additional VLBA sites received network bandwidth upgrades to facilitate higher speed data transfers. A network performance monitoring tool was developed and made available for deployment to all sites during FY2020 to help monitor and manage network performance

Software support for new VLBA weather stations was provided during FY2020. Software Development CASA Development of the Common Astronomy Software Applications (CASA) package, the NRAO post- processing software, continued to emphasize support for the VLA and ALMA, unlocking the scientific potential of these world-leading telescopes. During FY2020, NRAO continued to add capabilities and support the evolving understanding of the requirements of these forefront telescopes.

CASA development continued in FY2020 with parallel releases of CASA to support the migration to Python 3. The 5.7/6.1 dual release was delivered, incorporating joint single dish/interferometer imaging, improvements to the VLBI fringefit task, and support for the Python 2.7 5.x and the Python 3.6 6.x series of CASA. This was intended to serve as the basis for ALMA Cycle 8 Pipeline processing, but due to the ALMA COVID-19 shutdown was incorporated into the extended Cycle 7 pipeline update. Optimizations for imaging parallelization and memory consumption were developed and will be delivered in 5.8/6.2 after

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 73 validation testing is completed. During FY2020, CASA continued to work with the SCG to address performance and throughput goals in both the short and long term.

As the new CASA 6.x series is adopted by the user community and pipeline team, the older 5.x series will be retired after the 5.8 release in FY2021. This gives the community over a year from the initial release of CASA 6 to make the migration and is consistent with the timing of Python 2.7 retirement. After the 5.8 release, CASA will continue to develop the 6.x Python 3.6 compatible release series only.

The Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE) continues to add tasks to enable CASA use for VLBI data. CASA’s relatively limited abilities in VLBI and solar processing have been identified as an area to be addressed. A gap analysis and prioritization was done in FY2020 to identify capabilities which need to be included in CASA to better support these communities.

Work on the Cube Analysis and Rendering Tool for Astronomy (CARTA) visualization software continued through the collaboration with ASIAA CASA Development Center (ACDC) and the South African Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA) with the intention of improving the user interface and expanding capabilities. CARTA provided releases in FY2020 as the team worked to complete full functionality. Release 1.3 provided image overlay in World Coordinate System (WCS) groups. Release 1.4 included a multi-panel view and image fitting capability as well as development of an initial scripting interface. This scripting interface will serve as the backbone for interactive clean integration with CASA scheduled for CARTA 2.0 in FY2021.

Additional collaborations are extending CASA use and capabilities. The Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) and Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) supported the use of CASA for reduction of their data products. This included making a staff member available through the NRAO helpdesk to answer questions specific to these telescopes. The international CASA development team, led by NRAO, continued to increase support for single dish data reduction and HPC capabilities working on the integration of those capabilities with the standard reduction pipelines. The team continued to support and develop new imaging and calibration algorithms through a close connection to the NRAO Algorithm Research and Development Group (ARDG).

The CASA Next Generation Infrastructure study is underway to evaluate modern processing frameworks for suitability as a casacore replacement. The CASA team is prototyping a selected framework by developing casacore functionality, new Measurement Set and Image file formats, and scalable parallel processing. A Conceptual Design Review of the Next Generation Infrastructure project was held, with a threefold outcome: (1) continuing prototype development with the goal of demonstrating significant functionality; (2) evaluating the option of continuing development along the existing software path; and (3) creating a high-level plan for Next Generation CASA development, including ngVLA requirements.

CASA Testing To improve the reliability of CASA software development, the CASA team implemented a development approach that included a more formal requirements specification process and additional resources for verification and validation testing. Resources were shifted within the team to support this, and the former Test Group was incorporated into CASA, dedicated to CASA verification.

In Q1, the CASA test framework evolved to handle numeric characterization by returning Python dictionaries of requirement/measurement pairs rather than a simple binary pass/fail, enabling more sophisticated verification of the software. The CASA test execution plan was organized into limited and full verification suites scheduled to execute on-demand and at prescribed steps in the Jira ticket workflow.

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CASA Pipeline The CASA pipeline continued to evolve to support ALMA, VLA operations, and SRDP/VLASS. A major release cycle with three software releases was scheduled in Q1 to support ALMA, VLA Operations and SRDP features (ALMA User Driven Imaging (AUDI) functionality), and VLASS. This release set included improvements to calibration heuristics for faint calibrators and strong atmospheric absorption, and improvements to definition of robust parameters in imaging. A subsequent pipeline update was delivered in Q4 to provide extended Cycle 7 capabilities and to serve as a test release for the ongoing Cycle. The pipeline continued to improve VLASS single epoch calibration and imaging capabilities.

The extended Cycle 7 version of the pipeline introduced the CASA 6 version that included the upgrade to Python 3. The pipeline was upgraded to Python 3 at the same time. A workshop was held to plan this work in Q1 along with priority setting for the cycle.

During FY2020, an update to the pipeline product Quality Assurance (QA) scoring methodology for ALMA Cycle 8 was planned, with a potential later application to VLA. Pipeline worked with the QA scientist on methodologies to update the scoring in the pipeline weblog. The goal is to make the scores better reflect the judgement of the data analysts, leading to clearer, more rapid, and more accurate decisions on the quality of the data products. Implementation of the mechanism to support this was included in the pipeline.

Science Support and Archive (SSA) New Archive: Progress was made on retiring the old archive in FY2019 and continued into FY2020. Much of the software capability was completed by Q3, and infrastructure work was done in Q4. The ingestion of VLBA, legacy VLA, and existing GBT data and minor software changes to support them is scheduled for completion in FY2021. Future Archive development requirements will be primarily driven by the SRDP project.

Observing Support: The OPT, PST, and PHT were updated to support VLA observing, with the PST updated in Q1 and Q3 for the Semester 2020B and Semester 2021A Calls for Proposals, the OPT updated in Q1 and Q3 for Semester 2020A and Semester 2020B observing, and the PHT updated in Q2 and Q4 for the Semester 2020B and Semester 2021A TAC process. See VLA Section 3 for included capabilities.

Science Ready Data Products (SRDP): In Q1, SSA provided the final software for SRDP Wave-1 rollout, in particular the AUDI capability and supported the startup of production operations. The scope of the second delivery was discussed and requirements gathered in Q1. In addition to improving the VLA calibration pipeline based on feedback from the operations team, the project included features such as adjustable spatial resolution in PI-specified ALMA imaging, development of an initial VLA imaging pipeline, and support for ingestion of products from large projects. Implementation of Wave 2 capabilities of SSA items was re-prioritized in favor of delivery of other work, such as VLASS 2.x and Single Epoch imaging, and has be scheduled for FY2021.

The project to re-engineer the TTA tool suite was included in the scope of SRDP. DMS created the architecture and implementation plan for review at the Conceptual Design Review (CoDR). Implementation will begin in early FY2021.

VLASS has also been incorporated into the SRDP scope. DMS worked with the SRDP program and NM Operations to support VLASS development and operations through algorithm development, data processing development in CASA and the Pipeline, workflow management and archiving by SSA, and by providing processing capabilities.

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Algorithm Research and Development

Test and Deploy Infrastructure for Fully Heterogeneous Array Imaging: This R&D task builds on the work done to support antenna pointing offset correction. With further work, infrastructure code to support correction for antenna-to-antenna variations in primary beams for full polarization imaging was implemented, but testing was delayed due to the higher priority of VLASS work in FY2020 and the complexity of the required beam modeling work. Testing is targeted to be complete in Q4 FY2021.

Commission Full-Polarization Primary Beam Modeling Algorithm: This R&D task tested and deployed the algorithm to build a full-polarization model for the antenna primary beams using holographic measurements. This was a pre-requisite for full-Mueller imaging with correction for the effects of antenna primary beams in full polarization. This work was done in collaboration with the MeerKAT group and progressed well. Implementation was complete in Q2, publication by Q3, and integration with AW- Projection code for full-Mueller imaging in Q4.

Commission the Wide-Field Full-Mueller Imaging Algorithm: This R&D task continued commissioning of the full-Mueller imaging algorithm to enable wide-field, wide-band full-Stokes imaging. This effort involved integration of the fully heterogeneous array infrastructure code for antenna pointing corrections and the full-polarization beam modeling code, scientific testing with simulated and real data, and publishing the results of the scientific characterization. Implementation, integration and scientific verification was conducted in FY2020, and is ongoing. Delays stem from related VLASS full polarization work and the beam modeling work mentioned above, and are difficult to anticipate in this sort of R&D work. The full scope of this task is expected to be complete Q3 FY2021.

DMS Milestone Summary Of 45 DMS milestone deadlines, 2 were completed early, 31 were on time, 11 were delayed, and 1 was cancelled.

Milestone 6.6.8 – Completion of VLBA fiber project: One of the ten VLBA sites remains to be connected to high-speed internet service over fiber optic cable. This work should be completed in Q1 FY2021. Installation was delayed due to contract negotiations and COVID restrictions on site access.

Milestone 6.6.11 – ALMA Correlator Data Rate Testing: This milestone requires use of the ALMA telescope for testing. Testing is unable to proceed due to the telescope shutdown for COVID. Testing will resume after the telescope resumes operations and any operational issues are resolved.

Milestone 6.6.13 – Scheduling update: Three factors have combined to drive a change in the schedule: (1) focus on the priority of a significant infrastructure redesign, (2) a gap in staffing and then getting a new staff member trained, and (3) a lack of a pull from users for new software due to the break in ALMA observing. During ALMA planning meetings it was decided that DSACore, which has traditionally been maintained by data science at the JAO, would transition into the Integrated Computing Team. Software support and maintenance of the DSACore included a preliminary porting to Python 3, defining the interfaces, re-defining the architecture, and refactoring for usability and scalability. This is currently running in a test environment, with an initial delivery planned in Q1 FY2021.

Milestone 6.6.25 – CASA 5.7/6.1 Release: Schedule was delayed, primarily from the complexity of refactoring the tclean module to optimize imaging parallelization and memory consumption, and improve supportability. Development was completed, with testing and release in September. Improved testing by

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 76 the CASA team caught significantly more issues than in the past. While the fixes delayed delivery, they should result in a more robust release.

Milestone 6.6.27 – CARTA Release: Work on the Cube Analysis and Rendering Tool for Astronomy (CARTA) visualization software continued through the collaboration with ASIAA CASA Development Center (ACDC) and the South African Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA) with the intention of improving the user interface and expanding capabilities. CARTA yearly planning at the face-to-face meeting last Fall revised the anticipated schedule, lengthening the release cycle by ~30% and expanding the functionality going in to each release. CARTA 1.3 and 1.4 were released in FY2020, with CARTA 1.4 being delayed by the additional planned scope and testing.

Milestone 6.6.28 – CASA NGI CDR: The scope of the review was expanded to go beyond to casacore prototype to a larger review of ngCASA in general, and also made to be a CoDR, given the early stage of the project. The project team continued to work towards the prototype and review, but was not able to close the gap in new scope. The new set of actions is: (1) complete the prototype (Q2 POP goal), (2) evaluate a C++ upgrade option to CASA (Q3), and (3) develop and overall ngCASA delivery plan including requirements from ngVLA.

Milestone 6.6.33 – Archive Retirement: Schedule was delayed by group focus on software delivery for Epoch 2.1 VLASS operations, which also required more resources than planned. The schedule has been broken into three deliverables. The first two, upgrading the AAT/PPI software and updating the infrastructure have been completed. Completing the telescope scope is carried over as a Q4 FY2021 POP goal.

Milestone 6.6.37 – OPT updated for Semester 2020B: Development responsibilities for the OPT were transitioned to the New Mexico Systems group earlier this year. After a review of priorities, it was determined that the needs for 2020B could be met with an August delivery date, and that the change would allow the group to also make progress on some long-standing development requests. OPT Version 1.27.00 was delivered 12 August.

Milestone 6.6.41 – SRDP Wave 2 Software: Implementation of Wave 2 SSA items was re-prioritized in favor of delivery of other SRDP work, such as VLASS 2.1 and Single Epoch imaging, and has been re-scheduled as a set of POP goals for FY2021: CARTA in Q1, Workspaces in Q2, and collection support in Q3.

Milestone 6.6.42 – TTA Tools CoDR Support: This delay resulted from gaps discovered in the initial concept and requirements by the system architect, which need to be resolved prior to moving forward with the Conceptual Architecture. In addition, the Architect requested to include prototyping prior to the CoDR to validate the system architecture. Though delayed, the CoDR was completed successfully.

Milestone 6.6.43 – Fully Heterogeneous Array Imaging: Infrastructure code to support correction for antenna-to-antenna variations in primary beams for Stokes-I imaging was implemented, but testing was delayed due to the higher priority of VLASS work in FY2020 and the complexity of the required beam modeling work. Testing is targeted to be complete in Q4 FY2021. This is included in an FY2021 POP goal.

Milestone 6.5.45 – Commission Wide-Field Full-Mueller Imaging: Implementation, integration and scientific verification was conducted in FY2020, and is actively ongoing. Delays stem from related VLASS full polarization work and the beam modeling work mentioned above, and are difficult to anticipate in this sort of R&D work. The full scope of this task is expected to be complete in Q3 FY2021. This is also an FY2021 POP goal.

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7 PROGRAM MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT

The Program Management Department (PMD) supports each of the NRAO departments in the implementation and continuous improvement of Program Management, Project Management (PM), and Systems Engineering (SE) practices. Support provided by PMD includes implementation of PM/SE processes, tools, and techniques described in the PMD Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and serving as the project manager and/or systems engineer in internal and external WFO projects. PMD supports each NRAO department and site operations, assisting them in accomplishing required reporting, Observatory-wide risk management, interface between budget and CAP departments, and other related activities as requested. PMD support activities include Program Management Operations, Proposal Development, Project Management, and Systems Engineering.

PMD Office Operations PMD continued to enhance its decision support capabilities through the improvement of proposal documents, project reporting and weekly metrics. Analytics derived from PMD systems ensure alignment with NRAO strategic goals and objectives, and any impacts to existing work are understood prior to work initiation. PMD uses these tools to complete the required executive-level reports and will continue to drive these systems to improve performance and obtain better quality results.

PMD staff use SOPs and templates for projects with PMD engagement. A growing library of completed projects with their documentation has helped to establish best practices for future efforts. PMD also provided Observatory-wide training on PM and SE methods. This training included high-quality video and web-learning opportunities, on-site and distance consultant-delivered courses, informal learning sessions, and other training opportunities.

Proposal Development PMD provided support to all departments and sites with proposal development work, including construction/production projects, research and development projects, and others in which PMD involvement was requested. PMD support included leadership, coordination, and assistance in achieving SOP compliance. Deliverables from the proposal phase include a statement of work, budget, risk register, and export control documents. This effort is designed to gain internal alignment and project approval prior to project initiation.

Program Management Activities PMD Headquarters The Headquarters-based PMD staff provided support to Headquarters for planning, executing, monitoring and controlling of projects, change management, and risk management activities. PMD support included leadership, coordination, and assistance in achieving appropriate reporting of Quarterly Status Updates, End of the Year Report, and the Observatory-Wide Risk Register. HQ PMD staff used every opportunity to advance the implementation of PM/SE practices through regular interaction with stakeholders.

New Mexico Operations The New Mexico-based PMD staff provided support to NM Operations for planning, executing, monitoring and controlling and closeout of projects, as well as change management, and risk management activities. PMD support included leadership, coordination, and assistance in achieving appropriate reporting of Quarterly Status Updates, End of the Year Report, and the Observatory-Wide Risk Register.

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NM PMD staff used every opportunity to advance the implementation of PM/SE practices through regular interaction with stakeholders.

Central Development Lab The PMD staff member assigned to support the CDL coordinated, tracked, and reported on POP milestones and risk management activities and continued to provide support for proposal development work including ALMA Development submissions, research and development projects, and WFO. PMD managed CDL development projects, including projects funded through the NA ALMA Development Program. The PMD staff member worked closely with the CDL director to adopt value-added PM/SE practices while coordinating with HQ staff to offer quarterly learning sessions tailored to the R&D environment.

ALMA Development The PMD staff member assigned to support the CDL also manages the ALMA Development Program including managing the solicitation, review, and approval of NA ALMA Development Projects. This process includes the development of the calls for project and study proposal materials on the cycle established by NA ALMA, the collection of proposals, communications to the stakeholders, and any PM/SE activities associated with management of the project and studies once awarded. These projects and studies include those awarded to NRAO and to external organizations. These activities require close collaboration with the North America ALMA director and the NRAO Contracts and Procurement office. The ALMA Development Program Manager also served as the principal PM/SE to NRAO internal development projects and studies.

Project Management/Systems Engineering Activities

NRAO Risk management is a deliberate process of identifying, assessing, and controlling potential risks to the Observatory. Risk refers to any uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive (opportunity) or negative (threat) effect on the Observatory’s objectives. The primary tool used in risk management is the Risk Register; a summary of which has been included in Appendix D.

The process the NRAO uses for Risk Management consists of the following steps:

Risk Identification - Identify and describe risks to the Observatory and add them to Risk Register. Risk Analysis - Assess identified risks for likelihood and consequence (both qualitative and quantitative risks) annotate on Risk Register. Risk Evaluation and Ranking - Evaluate and rank risk magnitude (likelihood and consequence) in the risk register. Risks are ranked as Low, Medium, High. and Very High. Risk Treatment - Risk Response Planning involves development of plans for highly ranked risks to achieve acceptable risk levels. Create risk mitigation strategies, preventive and contingency plans for the highest ranking or most serious risks, and add to the Observatory Risk Register. In the case of positive risks (opportunities), try to increases the likelihood. Monitoring and Review of the risks - Use the Observatory Risk Register to monitor, track, and review.

The PMD is responsible for the active and ongoing management of the Risk Register for the Director’s Office. The ADs of the Observatory meet semiannually to review and update risks and risk mitigation

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 79 strategies. While there is one Observatory-wide risk register, larger projects may also have independent risk registers. High consequence risks for smaller projects may also be held at the Observatory-level risk register.

In order to manage Risk Management PMD staff are required to obtain and maintain PMI project management certification (PMP). PMD staff provide consultation and training in Risk Management to Observatory staff using our Standard Operating Procedures, Work Instruction, and Observatory-wide Risk Register.

In the past six months, the NRAO has retired nine risks (two high, five medium, two low) and added eight new risks (two very high, one high, one medium, and four low). The COVID-19 global pandemic has introduced new risks into the matrix, but they are being treated (mitigated).

Program Management Software Implementation PMD continued to assess the Oracle Prime Project Portfolio Management. NRAO is evaluating this against different modules in JDE (as currently there is no interface with the current JDE implementation) and have decided wait for further implementation until an Enterprise Resource Planning tool has been selected for NRAO.

ALMA OSF Sports Facility PMD supports the Office of Chilean Affairs to manage the construction of the Multicancha sports facility (gymnasium) at the ALMA OSF with two dedicated personnel located in Santiago, Chile. The project is still in the construction stage and had a planned Q1 completion. The project was behind schedule going into the shutdown in response to COVID-19, and the contractor has not been on site to make any further progress. This project is suspended until operations at the ALMA site return to normal.

Science Ready Data Products

SRDP scope expanded in 2019 to include programmatic oversight for two additional initiatives: revisions to the Telescope Time Allocation tools (TTA) and production of VLASS data products. In addition, VLASS has a commitment for in-kind deliverables to CIRADA. PMD provided a project manager for each of these three projects during FY2020 at the 0.7 FTE level to plan, document, monitor PM and SE processes, conduct reviews, meet reporting needs, and perform process audits for each of these related, but separate initiatives. PMD engagement in each of these areas has successfully established and nurtured flexible project planning and systems engineering processes to deliver capability incrementally. The Project Manager will continue to work closely with the SRDP Project Director, Project Scientists, and Operations Managers to align resources matrixed from other departments to realize the goals for all three initiatives.

One of the recommendations from the SRDP Conceptual Design Review was to conduct a project assessment during the Pilot deployment to apply lessons learned in the Wave 1 planning. This assessment was a Q4 FY2019 POP deliverable, which slipped due to delays already described. The delay led to completion of the assessment in Q1, with applied results leading to significant process improvements and documentation updates in Wave 1.

The TTA tools Project Manager conducted activities related to the external Conceptual Design Review (See SSR section 5.2) to assure the review was conducted in accordance with the review process as defined within SRDP, as well as with the PMD SOP on reviews. The review logistics presented a challenge due to COVID constraints, changing from an in-person venue to virtual meetings. Although the benefits NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 80 of face-to-face engagement were lost, the review met its objectives. Review tasks for the Project Manager included close contact and communication with the external review chair, preparation of the document package, tracking the completion of review item discrepancies, compiling a final report, archiving the updated document package, and obtaining approvals needed to close the review. NRAO management decided to postpone further efforts on TTA tools until Q1 FY2021.

VLASS processes established prior to the transition into SRDP were evaluated for efficacy and documentation created or updated where needed. With the process established for assessment and lessons learned under SRDP, the Project Manager conducted a similar review of VLASS processes with the team members in Q4 FY2019. The outcome of this review has resulted in significant improvements, subsequently applied within Epoch 2.1. The VLASS Project Manager also sent monthly reports to CIRADA, meeting their need to track in-kind NRAO contributions. CIRADA also requires an annual financial report, which was sent as planned in Q3. Other CIRADA deliverables as defined in the statement of work were jointly needed for VLASS, which has experienced some setbacks producing Basic Data Products (BDPs) in Single Epoch images. SRDP is working closely with CIRADA to deliver selected deliverables in the near term, to support their immediate development needs.

VLBA Fiber PMD continued to manage the effort to increase the capacity of the VLBA data network to a minimum of 200 Mbps, enabling advanced array-wide diagnostics and initial time-critical observing capability. This represents the first of three phases in a program to integrate fully the VLBA into a real-time network of radio telescopes spanning the globe, while simultaneously reducing operating complexity and improving sustainability of operations. This project was granted a three-year, no-cost extension and to date nine of the ten sites are operational with Los Alamos being the last to be connected. The quality of all nine connected sites meets specifications.

VLBA St. Croix Hurricane Repairs PMD staff supported the VLBA St. Croix Hurricane Repairs efforts in 2020. PMD, in collaboration with VLBA Engineering and CAP, ensured contracts for the steel repairs, antenna painting, and generator installation were completed and that all requirements were satisfied. The project completed on budget and on schedule.

ALMA Band 1 LNAs and Local Oscillators The CDL Project Manager oversaw the production and shipping of Low Noise Amplifiers (LNAs) and Local Oscillators (LOs) to ASIAA for integration into ALMA Band 1. PMD was responsible for overseeing the project schedule and budget, adherence to ALMA product assurance guidelines, generation of test reports, and the submission of status reports to ASIAA/NAOJ and NSF. COVID-19-related delays affected both projects, but they are now complete.

PMD Milestone Summary

Of 40 milestone deadlines, 34 were completed on time.

Headquarters – All completed.

Proposal Development – All completed

PM Activities – All completed. NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 81

PM/SE Activities

Milestone 7.5.10 – PM Software Decision: Postponed until after ERP decision.

Milestone 7.5.11 – PM Software Implementation: Postponed until after ERP decision.

Milestone 7.5.12 – Multicancha Construction Complete: Suspended, being rescheduled.

Milestone 7.5.13 – Multicancha JAO Acceptance Complete: Suspended, being rescheduled.

Milestone 7.5.15 – VLBA Fiber Installation Complete: Delayed, rescheduled.

Milestone 7.5.16 – VLBA Final Fiber Report: Delayed, rescheduled.

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8 EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH

The Education and Public Outreach (EPO) department serves the strategic Observatory goal of broadening public appreciation of and participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM). EPO's four divisions had a busy year highlighting the discoveries, technologies, and careers pioneered and exemplified by the NRAO. There were disruptions caused by the change in work from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but EPO was able to adjust and continue. News and Public Information Press and Image Releases: The news division had a banner year in FY2020 with 43 press products. The variety of press releases included 12 on ALMA discoveries, 7 on VLA discoveries, 2 based on results from joint VLA and ALMA observations, 3 on VLBA discoveries, and 4 on NRAO milestones. In addition to these 27 press releases, EPO distributed 13 announcements highlighting milestones of the Observatory. Three image releases were distributed, one from each Observatory: ALMA, VLA and VLBA.

Feature Stories and Images of the Week: For the last two years, the news group has committed to publishing quarterly stories that are not driven by individual press releases, but an opportunity to explore a topic in more depth. This year, five Feature Stories were published.

Feature Story Title (Publication Date) Radio Jupiter (12/13/2019) NRAO's Central Development Lab: Making the Invisible Visible (4/11/2020) Five Jansky Fellows Look to the Future of Radio Astronomy (6/22/2020) NRAO Science Continues Despite Virus (6/24/2020) The Cold Case of Carbon Monoxide (8/19/2020)

With the redesign of the public website home page, there is an additional opportunity to feature the facilities and the discoveries they make possible with the Image of the Week. This was consistently kept up to date.

Media Outreach: In FY2020, the public information officers committed to several major media events with two audiences in mind: the researchers who use NRAO data to make discoveries and the reporters and science writers who bring those discoveries to the public. Two major science meetings were at the heart of these efforts, the winter American Astronomical Society meeting and the annual Figure 8.1.1 - Image of the week. meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

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AAS Meeting Media Reception: EPO PIOs sponsored a meet-and-greet at the winter AAS meeting in Hawaii with food and beverages. Reporters and writers were welcomed to the reception by the Observatory Director and the audience included representatives from all major initiatives: ALMA, VLA, ngVLA, and VLASS.

AAAS Press Reception co-sponsor: The AAAS Annual Meeting is the number one gathering of science journalists in the U.S. The FY2020 meeting was in Seattle. NRAO reached out to the Northwest Science Writers Association to co-sponsor the event. Signage and credit was given and NRAO representatives were on-hand to mingle with the media.

Figure 8.1.2 - Virtual ngVLA walkthroughs at the winter AAS meeting in Honolulu HI.

Promotional materials: The NRAO Users Committee has noted that many users do not realize the available media relations support. NRAO has included notices in eNews about these services, and also featured them in the exhibit halls of the AAS and AAAS, using the video wall in the exhibit and print materials to introduce press officers and how they could work with the scientists to publicize their discoveries.

Deskside Briefings: Based on the NRAO Director’s travel schedule, meetings with high-impact reporters/journalists were made in Seattle in person at the AAAS, and virtually in New York City once the pandemic curtailed travel.

Communications Training: Dave Finley is a regular guest speaker at the technical communications course at NM Tech. In addition to PIO work with all NRAO presenters at press conferences at the AAS and AAAS meeting, there were three additional training efforts:

• Iris Nijman and Jeff Hellerman from EPO presented a workshop to ALMA Ambassadors in February. This was a poster workshop covering the basics of storytelling and poster design and presentations for professional conferences. • Nijman met with Jeff Mangum and Al Wootten in September to prepare them for possible media enquiries for the now-retracted phosphine detection in the atmosphere of Venus. • Dave Finley worked with the Observatory Director to develop talking points around the increasing number of satellites orbiting the Earth and their impact on our ability to observe. He then conducted a short training for the tour guides and STEAM Ed educators who are fielding these questions in their virtual outreach and tours. Liaison with ALMA Partners: The ALMA PIO participated in the monthly meetings of the ALMA partners to discuss upcoming news releases and possible collaborations. Multimedia Engagement A dedicated, creative team of animators, artists, illustrators, designers, writers, and web developers designed and developed unique multimedia materials, in support of the news and information page, social

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 84 media, and STEAM efforts, as well as creating new products that were distributed through the public- facing website, school programs, and the VLA Visitor Center.

Support of Press Products: To kick off FY2020 is to wrap up calendar 2019, and the multimedia group created a series of posters and videos to celebrate a banner year of discoveries made possible by ALMA. Phil Plait, the popular Bad Astronomer blogger, was contracted to write 60– 90 second scripts and do the voiceover for 10 ALMA videos based on press releases from the calendar year. These videos were then created based on available press release images and B-roll of ALMA and released via social media the last 10 days of 2019 and can be found archived in the public gallery.

In addition to the usual creation of science images and artist impressions created to support press releases, the multimedia group started providing 3D Augmented Reality models for select press releases. Of note are: the 3D model of the extent of the atmosphere of Antares as observed by both the VLA and ALMA; the misaligned protoplanetary rings of a triple star system; and the detection of an exoplanet through astrometric measurements of its star.

These are best explored on a mobile device, and can be found easily using the camera on a smartphone with each of the following QR codes. Figure 8.2.1 - ALMA Top Ten videos

Antares Rings Wobbling Star ALMA videos

Revised/Improved Image Gallery: New workflows have been developed to keep the public-facing gallery populated with the latest images from press releases and other multimedia group projects. The overall gallery is still a challenge to search for particular images, so the organization and tagging of images will be revised in late 2020. Investigate Podcasts Development: With the increased development of videos, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, this was beyond the time capabilities of staff for this year. While it was investigated, it was decided that the Feature Stories, Baseline Videos, and Blogs are the limit of regular features that can be supported.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 85

Hosted Videos: Bill Saxton has taken the lead on the production of these videos. The opening credits were developed by Sophia Dagnello and the scripts are written quarterly by Brian Koberlein. The four created in FY2020 are:

• A Black Hole Eats a Star (11/29/19) • Viewing Active Galaxies (5/12/20 • Measuring the Expanding Universe (8/14/20) • The VLA at 40 (10/5/20)

Now that the workflow is ironed out, these will continue as a regular quarterly feature for the foreseeable future.

NRAO Brand and Style Guide: This is a work Figure 8.2.2 - Intro page for The Baseline in progress. As new projects are developed, like Augmented Reality, they are being added to the scope of the style guide.

Augmented Reality: Augmented reality was developed for press releases, but the first applications of it were for our telescope pages on the public website. Along with the fast facts for each facility, a 3D model of the ALMA 18m dish and the VLA 25m dish were placed on the website. The public can interact with the 3D model, on the computer with a mouse or through the camera of their mobile device, they can bring the model into their room or space with them.

VLA antenna ALMA 18-meter antenna

Virtual Reality: As an additional activity, the multimedia group lead by Sophia Dagnello developed a virtual reality tour of the ngVLA for the NRAO exhibit booth at the winter AAS meeting. Oculus Rift headsets were purchased and a plan was in place to enhance the straightforward landscape tour with additional interactive information so that it could be used at instrumentation and supercomputer conferences. This project moved to the back burner while travel is suspended.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 86

Figure 8.2.3 - Oculus Rift and ngVLA walkthrough

Social Media Programs: Social media platforms are used for unique content and to amplify the distribution of new content on the NRAO public website and press products. Three platforms are maintained: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, each with a different format and audience. This year, a different theme will be explored each month and key outreach days—such as Pi Day, Black Hole Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), and Pulsar Week—will be supported.

A major pivot that happened with social media during the pandemic was a series of Facebook live events. Seven events were hosted by the end of the fiscal year as well as major support of the virtual tours offered by the STEAM Ed staff in lieu of touring visitors at the VLA.

• Dr. Loreto Barcos, ALMA • Dr. Jeff Mangum, Ask an Astronomer • Dr. Amy Kimball, VLASS • Dr. Brett McGuire, Astrochemistry • Dave Finley and VLA Operator • Dave Finley and VLBA Operator • Suzanne Gurton and Tyler Nordgren

Blog: Social media specialist, Nan Janney, has cultivated a variety of guest writers to keep a steady flow of blogs, as well as contributing blogs.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 87

Figure 8.2.4 - Social media blog

Website Maintenance: EPO has maintained the public website through consistent software updates to enhance front end and back end efficiency and security. Industry standards have been deployed for search engine optimization to ensure web outreach efforts are effective and as broad as possible. At the end of the fiscal year, IT transferred the public website to new servers.

STEAM Education and Outreach

Lesson Plan Development: The NRAO public website is rich with new and sometimes interactive content (e.g., colorizing app and interferometry app). The STEAM team worked with the African American Teaching Fellows (AATF) STEAM Education Think Tank in Virginia to create a suite of lesson plans that are available for testing. The testing was derailed by the pandemic but will be picked up in the next academic year. The lessons are available from the NRAO STEAM Ed page that links to the AATF page.

Figure 8.3.1 - Lesson plans

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Sister Cities and Observatories: This NRAO-funded program partners two high school students and a teacher near the VLA in New Mexico with two high school students and a teacher near the ALMA site in northern Chile in a joint cultural/learning exchange, using a scientific experiment as a connecting thread of inquiry. This 10-day exchange seeks to reinforce the school curriculum through STEAM education activities. The emphasis this year will be to expand the shared experiences of the two cohorts leveraging the packaged STEAM Education lesson plans. A commitment and involvement will be required by students and school teachers from New Mexico and the Likan Antai C-30 School in Toconao, Chile. The students and teachers will be responsible for participating in shared research experiences and for being ambassadors in local schools. EPO staff will work with teachers and students to refine their proposed curriculum projects. Travel for the New Mexico cohort was cancelled because of the pandemic.

Outreach Events: Most outreach events have been postponed during the pandemic. Before the shutdown, the STEAM Ed team participated in community events in local Socorro schools including Sarracino STEAM Night, Enchanted Skies Star Party, Festival of the Cranes, and San Antonio Elementary Science Day. The one virtual outreach event was for Project Rousseau, which hosted EPO educators in a classroom Zoom visit.

Figure 8.3.2 - STEAM Ed group

VLA Visitor Experiences: As a team, the STEAM Ed group completed certified interpretive guide training. This is a shift in mindset from specific content-learning goals to creating interpretive experiences at the VLA that are audience centered and mission driven focused. These skills will be applied to the revised virtual tours.

Visitor Center Operations NRAO operates a visitor center at the VLA, west of Magdalena, NM. The site has indoor and outdoor public exhibits, a small auditorium, a gift shop, and monthly tour program. The VLA site was closed to the public from mid-March through CY2020. The VLA served 10,279 visitors, plus 3,756 local and international students and tour groups receive special tours. Of those served, 1390 of those participated in virtual tours during the shutdown.

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Figure 8.3.3 - COVID signage

Marketing: A special 40th Anniversary marketing plan was underway when operations were shut down.

Retail operations: Gift shop sales were on track for FY2020 with $132,114 in total sales before the shutdown. EPO is working on a sustainable model for an online shop to open in 2021 that can be maintained when the visitor center is open to the public again. EPO Milestone Summary Of 31 milestone deadlines, 23 were on time. Five were late, two were cancelled, and one was early.

Milestone 8.5.5 – Establish calendar and contacts for deskside briefings: Late, but now complete.

Milestone 8.5.6 (Q3) – Contact reporter for deskside briefings: Cancelled due to pandemic.

Milestone 8.5.6 (Q4) – Contact reporter for deskside briefings: Canceled due to pandemic.

Milestone 8.5.11 – Complete assignments for hosted video: Late in Q2 and Q3, but now complete.

Milestone 8.5.13 – Complete Branding and Style Guide: Late, but to be completed in FY2021.

Milestone 8.5.14 - Create AR beta application and web plugin: Completed early.

Milestone 8.5.16 – NM Cohort orientation: Reported initially as late, but eventually cancelled due to pandemic.

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9 COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SERVICES

Computing and Information Services (CIS) support staff are matrixed into the DMS department. This ensures transparent sharing of highly skilled Information Services resources for telescope-supporting science responsibilities (tracked under DMS), and general staff IT support duties (tracked under Section 9 CIS within Facilities and Administration). Observatory-Wide Support Common Computing Environments (CCE): The CCE group coordinates and prioritizes NRAO- wide computing projects and initiatives between the sites, facilitated by the annual system administrators’ workshop, bi-weekly meetings, and IT skills improvement via conferences, seminars, and training events. Major CCE objectives for FY2020 were the development and adoption a new Cyber Security roadmap, informed by the updated NSF Major Facilities Guide, and with input from TrustedCI (see below). The Mac platform was be migrated from 10.13 to 10.15 (Catalina) and the Linux platform begin early evaluation of RHEL 8 and the retirement of legacy RHEL 6. The migration of the Microsoft Windows Platform from Windows 7 to Windows 10 was completed for all standard systems.

Communications and Network: Work was undertaken to systematize the NRAO network perimeter security model and improvements proposed to protect key assets from threats identified by the Cyber Security program analysis. To this end, stateful firewalls were purchased for each major site. Additionally, the network team integrated the new office space rented in Albuquerque into the internal NRAO wide area network and security model.

Computing Security: With the hiring of a full-time Cyber Security position in FY2019, the Observatory initiated and completed the review and overhaul of the computer security policies, in addition to an in- depth risk assessment to inform future priorities to mitigate identified risks to the Observatory mission. This allowed for a partnership with the ResearchSOC NSF Center of Excellence, the purchase of site- based firewalls, and the deployment of a vulnerability verification service. The Observatory adopted a network perimeter traffic logging service which is fed to the OmniSOC in real-time for suspicious activity.

CIS deployed a new version of Securing the Human online cyber security awareness training as well as multi-tier staff training for all employees. A new Information Privacy Policy was released to address the concerns raised by General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the handling of users Personally Identifiable Information shared with the Observatory. Finally, CIS mitigated an identified security risk from the compromise of login accounts granted to non-employees by completing an account audit and mandatory password reset.

Web and Application Support: Key web services were upgraded to address performance, bugs, and security concerns as well as to remain current. Good progress was made on the retirement or upgrade of legacy RHEL 6 web servers due to the end-of-support deadline in November 2020. Application access security was evaluated on the Windows platform, but was deemed unnecessary due to management complexity and the satisfactory performance of current administrative access control as well as good anti- virus protection. The Office 356 product suite was evaluated and is now available to staff for their personal systems, but its functionality does not yet surpass the installed Microsoft Office Suite applications. Site Specific Facilities Infrastructure CIS worked closely with DMS and NM Ops to replace aging hardware that supports the VLA correlator. This included the WIDAR Correlator Back End (CBE) cluster computers, and the high-speed network switch that connects the associated real-time systems. CIS began the migration from end-of-life Quadruple

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Data Rate (QDR) InfiniBand to the higher speed EDR and leveraged this technology to improve access to the new persistent storage system that supports the NAASC. In addition, the core network switch was updated in Edgemont Road. Maintenance and Renewal Notice of end-of-support has been received from the vendor of many of NRAO’s standard H-323 based video conference systems used to connect ~30 meeting rooms throughout the Observatory. CIS has replaced the majority of these systems, but halted the upgrade with COVID-19 and the shift away from room-based meetings to desktop centric solutions. The video/audio conference hub was updated, and the Observatory has heavily leveraged cloud conferencing services, expanding to 10 the number of virtual rooms that staff can reserve for themselves. CIS Milestone Summary Of 12 milestone deadlines, 10 were completed on time.

Milestone 9.4.5 – Cyber Security training: The Securing the Human on-line training from SANS was deployed in September, but will not be completed until Q1 FY2021. The delay was due to COVID-19 and updates to the teaching platform.

Milestone 9.4.5 – Video System end-of-life mitigation: The project to upgrade room-based video conference system was cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic and the moratorium on using meeting rooms. It is unclear when, and even if, these resources will be needed again with the shift to desktop based video solutions.

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10 OFFICE OF DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) was established in FY2015 to support NRAO in achieving its core mission goals by increasing staff diversity and inclusion across the Observatory, developing and implementing programs to improve the recruitment, retention and success of under-represented and under-served students and staff members, and fostering a work environment that is inclusive of all individuals. In FY2020, the ODI Director worked closely with HR, EPO, and SSR to develop and maintain programs that affect the NRAO workforce, broader impact efforts, new and ongoing pipeline initiatives, and the internal NRAO culture and climate.

Diversity Council: The Office of Diversity and Inclusion is staffed by the Director of Diversity and Inclusion and RADIAL Project Director, and is advised by the NRAO Diversity Council, comprised of the ADs of HR, SSR, EPO, PMD, NM Ops, CDL, and the OCA. The Council met quarterly, provided advice, and assisted the ODI by supporting and coordinating Observatory-wide efforts to improve and enhance diversity in all aspects of Observatory operations, and facilitates communications between all NRAO departments.

Employee Diversity Group: In acknowledgement that NRAO employees have an important role in advocating for, and supporting, Diversity and Inclusion initiatives and efforts, the ODI supports an Employee Diversity Group (EDG). In FY2020, EDG members met regularly to identify ways to build and support an inclusive culture at the Observatories. In March, when COVID sent the workforce home, the EDG developed and hosted a series of virtual meetings, Employee Connections, designed to provide employees with a place to gather and brainstorm ways to maintain connections, build remote working relationships, and manage the sudden changes and challenges to work/life balance. EDG members represent all NRAO locations: CDL and Headquarters in VA, Socorro and the VLA in NM, and the Office of Chilean Affairs in Santiago, Chile.

Examples of Employee Connections conversations include: ● Parenting during IDOS ● Being alone during quarantine ● Inviting colleagues into your home via Zoom ● Transitioning out of IDOS ● A discussion on anti-racism ● COVID-19 and racial disparities ● Use of “master/slave” terminology in tech ● Back to school, or not? ● News polarization impact on public discourse about race ● It’s OK to not be OK. Figure 10.1: NRAO Employee Diversity Diversity, Cultural, and Community Awareness: A Group members culturally diverse and aware workforce can create an environment of mutual respect and dignity, garnering a reputation as a fair employer in the job market. In FY2020, diversity awareness opportunities were offered across the Observatory utilizing a mixture of outside speakers, online training, discussions focused on diversity issues, and the WeSpeak series, which offers NRAO staff the opportunity to share their interests with others in the Observatory. Diversity and Inclusion awareness is incorporated in supervisor and management training, the NRAO’s on-boarding program, and the Observatory Leadership Cohort. In FY2020, diversity speakers were scheduled as a part of the summer internship experiences for undergraduates.

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In FY2020, education and training related to diversity and inclusion were made available to all members of NRAO staff on a volunteer basis, and included: ● Anti-racism conversations ● News Polarization ● Stress Management in Challenging Times ● Introduction to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion ● Overview of RADIAL ● Overview of Broader Impacts at NRAO ● Tips and Tricks for Student Independence ● Courage, Vulnerability, and Connection in the Workplace.

NRAO continues to focus on education and training related to the importance of a diverse workforce and inclusive environment. In FY2020, ODI and HR introduced a fresh set of online training modules that address current and emerging diversity and inclusion, and HR-related topics. Examples of courses and workshops that have been, and continue to be, offered include: ● Diversity and Inclusion ● Preventing Harassment and Discrimination ● Tools for an Ethical Workplace.

Broader Impacts: In FY2020, ODI collaborated with department and division heads across the Observatory to develop a Broader Impacts (BI) plan that takes advantage of the many opportunities, across a number of disciplines, for broadening the impact of Observatory activities to a wide range of stakeholders. The ngVLA Broader Impacts plan focused on identifying, developing, and tracking the many BI activities available through the ngVLA project.

In FY2020, activities included efforts to better educate and inform Observatory staff about BI efforts, the development of: ● BI Strategy Framework ● BI Toolkit (to include a reporting mechanism) ● Definition of Community for Stakeholder Engagement ● New Mexico Outreach Database. Local and National Programs ODI operates a number of programs that serve national and international constituents. Many of these programs, described below, have similar goals; specifically, to increase the numbers of underrepresented populations in STEM fields that support radio astronomy.

Project RADIAL The project for Radio Astronomy Data Imaging and Analysis Labs (RADIAL) was initiated by the NRAO to address current and future astronomy big data challenges and to cultivate a diverse and globally competitive STEM workforce while doing so. The project is a partnership between NRAO, Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) in the USA and abroad, and the private sector.

RADIAL’s mission is to use radio astronomy as a means to contribute to the development of a diverse STEM workforce with transferable skills relevant for a rapidly changing workplace and society. RADIAL has been designed from the outset as a coordinated network of partners including, but not limited to, the NRAO, a diverse group of minority-serving institutions (MSIs) in the U.S., industry, non- governmental organizations, and international partners in Costa Rica, Honduras, South Africa, and Trinidad and Tobago. RADIAL’s objective is to provide MSIs with computer hardware and data sets to use radio astronomy’s big data problem as the science problem to improve their offering in astronomy NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 94 and data science through the development of a hands-on curriculum, professional development program, and experiential training opportunities.

In FY2020, the initial project design for Project RADIAL, developed via a series of design workshops with RADIAL partner MSIs, was completed, along with the development of proposals to raise funding and support for RADIAL from the private sector. An NSF Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES) planning grant was awarded for FY2021 to establish a project office, develop required strategies and plans, and conduct front-end evaluation. By the end of FY2020, 11 partners were committed to Project RADIAL.

Figure 10.1.1 - RADIAL partners as of September 2020.

National Astronomy Consortium The National Astronomy Consortium (NAC) is a program led by NRAO in collaboration with the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP) and several minority- and majority-serving universities and observatories. The NAC program goal is to build a pipeline of students from under-represented and under-served groups to STEM fields that support full-spectrum astronomy (e.g., science, data management and analysis, and engineering). The NAC uses a cohort model, multiple mentors, professional development, and lifelong career mentoring to increase participation of under-represented groups in astronomy-related careers.

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Figure 10.1.2.1: The National Astronomy Consortium Figure 10.1.2.2 Barriers to STEM for Underrepresented (NAC) program path. Students.

In FY2020, the NAC placed 15 undergraduate students, from community colleges and universities across the country, with trained NRAO mentors, and four additional partner sites (Space Telescope Science Institute, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Michigan State University, and Princeton University). Five of the students were returning NAC alums. Students were recruited from partner MSIs and HBCUs, and through targeted outreach to Hispanic-serving Institutions (HSIs).

This year, in response to COVID, NRAO and the partner sites converted from the typical in-person internship to a virtual summer research and professional development experience.

This virtual summer program replicated many of the NAC program components that have characterized previous summers: research with mentors, (virtual) interaction with other summer students from each research site, and professional development activities. The NAC program took advantage of the opportunities provided by a virtual environment to bring all 15 of the 2020 NAC students together, twice a week, for professional development and cohort-building activities. For the first time, the NAC summer program was led by a NAC alum, Tierra Candelaria, a Ph.D. candidate at New Mexico Tech.

Examples of events and activities offered to the NAC students over the summer include: ● Informal mentoring ● Workshops on mental health issues (e.g., imposter syndrome), technical skills (e.g., python), and professional development (e.g., writing a CV and personal statement) ● Career panel ● Science communication ● Broader Impacts ● Education and Public Outreach (e.g., social media content development; professional presence) ● Cohort-building activities (e.g., “Riddle Night”)

In FY2020, the NAC program offered a 10-week Project Management course, led by a GBO Project Manager, designed to prepare students to take the Project Management Institute (PMI) Certified Associate in Project Management exam. NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 96

Figure 10.1.2.3: The 2020 NAC Student Cohort. Figure 10.1.2.4: NAC Alums meet with 2020 Cohort

NAC Alums: FY2020 marked the eighth year of NAC programming, resulting in 74 active NAC alums. Twenty-eight alums are in graduate school; most of the remaining alums are undergraduates. This year, the NAC program continued to facilitate opportunities for alums to build and maintain peer-mentoring relationships across cohorts. In FY2020, NAC alums organized and facilitated a webinar series for all NAC alums designed to offer a venue for alums to strengthen their peer-network, provide a mechanism for NAC students to report barriers to their success, and offer students emotional-social support and professional development opportunities.

Annual NAC Meeting: The NAC Annual meeting, typically held in September, was moved to October 2020 in response to feedback from students that an early September meeting was too early in the school year. Owing to COVID, the decision was made to convene a virtual meeting to span the period October 11-12 November 2020. New this year was the establishment of an Organizing Committee composed of NAC alums, making the 2020 NAC Annual Meeting entirely organized and facilitated by NAC graduate and undergraduate alums. From August through September, a team of nine graduate student alums, planned the meeting and prepared to facilitate the scheduled Zoom sessions.

Figure 10.1.2.1 - NACtober banner

VA-NC Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation In FY2020, NRAO’s participation in the NSF-awarded Louis Stoke Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) Virginia-North Carolina Alliance resulted in participation by four Alliance students in Project Management training internships. Students completed a PMI online training course, supplemented by weekly tutorials and mentoring by GBO and NRAO mentors, to prepare for the PMI examination for Project Management certification.

NSBP and SACNAS In FY2020, ODI continued to support the NSBP and SACNAS by participating in their respective annual meetings, and recruiting students from both organizations for the NAC program.

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In FY2020, ODI continued planning to host the 2021 NSBP Annual Meeting (postponed to 2022) in Charlottesville, Virginia. The first NSBP/National Society of Hispanic Physicists (NSHP) Student Summit was also planned for Summer 2020, but was postponed due to COVID.

Figure 1.1.4.1: NSBP Board, NSBP students, NRAO representatives, City representatives during site visit for 2021 NSBP Annual Meeting.

URM Student Network Partnerships In FY2020, at the 235th Annual AAS meeting, ODI met with leaders of student programs focused on serving underrepresented minority students with the goal of identifying opportunities for improving Under Represented Minority-focused programs to better serve undergraduate and graduate students of color in STEM. International Partnerships National and International Non-Traditional Exchange (NINE) NINE provides practical skills development opportunities for participants from under-represented minorities or developing countries. Participants complete an intense summer training program at NRAO designed to teach skills relevant to the design, construction and operations of a radio astronomy observatory, as well as project management. Each participant is required, upon returning to their home location, to establish a NINE Hub and take on the role of a NINE trainer in the specific skill/s learned. The anticipated program outcome will be worldwide partnerships with fast-growing radio astronomy communities designed to facilitate the exchange of NINE trainers.

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Figure 10.2.1: Locations of NINE Hubs, September 2020.

In FY2020, resulting from continued collaboration with Astrofisica CentroAmericana y del Caribe (Alpha- Cen), the Universidad Latina de Costa Rica joined the NINE network.

In summer 2020, the NINE training program focused on Machine Learning techniques, using an image dataset from the VLA Sky Survey (VLASS). The NINE participants successfully completed the Certified Associate in Project Management exam through the PMI and designed a Broader Impacts project and a plan for the development of the Alpha-Cen/Universidad Latina de Costa Rica Hub.

The Costa Rica Hub developed and delivered a Spanish-language Introduction to Radio Astronomy course, a Hub website and training repository, and translated the course to English for use by the RADIAL partners and NINE hubs.

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Figure 10.2.2: (L) Introduction to Radio Astronomy course announcement; (top R) Costa Rica Hub Resource Portal; (bottom R) Costa Rica Hub Facebook page.

OCA Collaboration: The ODI supports the efforts of the Office of Chilean Affairs (OCA) in Santiago in the area of diversity and inclusion, and coordinates with the OCA Director and Outreach and Diversity Officer where possible to share resources and expertise.

Chile Research Experience for Undergrads program: In FY2020, ODI supported the Chile REU program, with three undergraduate participants, from areas of Chile typically underrepresented in the Chilean astronomy community, undertaking research mentored by ALMA scientists. ODI sponsored a short science visit to NRAO by a 2019 Chile REU alum to continue research with an NRAO mentor.

ODI Milestone Summary Of 16 milestone deadlines, 15 were completed on time. The Annual NAC meeting was postponed from September 2020 to October 2020.

Milestone 10.3.5 – NAC Annual Meeting: Cancelled, and rescheduled for October 2020 (FY2021), in response to feedback that a September meeting is too early in the academic year for students to travel away from school.

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11 HUMAN RESOURCES

Human Resources (HR) served as a strategic partner across the Observatories and continued its commitment to providing the highest caliber of advice, guidance, and collaboration in the delivery of human resources services. HR continue its leadership role in providing services in support of the Observatories’ vision by promoting the concept that employees are the most valuable resource and will be treated as such. The HR department also continued to act as a catalyst to enable all staff to contribute at optimum levels toward the success of the Observatories.

HR areas of responsibility include workforce management, policy development and administration, training and development, compensation, benefits administration, employment (including recruitment and hiring, diversity), and human resources (including employee relations, Human Resource Information System [HRIS], regulatory compliance, HR oversight of NRAO International Staff in Chile, and support of HR staff in the JAO and OCA). HR works closely with AUI Benefits to align employee benefits offerings to the organizational mission.

Workforce Management The Observatory Workforce Management Plan (WMP) defines the workforce environment, articulates the workforce environment of the future, and outlines planned transition activities necessary to move from the present to the envisioned future. Talent acquisition was a top priority during FY2020 and HR was successful in hiring and onboarding new hires across the sites. Succession planning continued to be an important component of the updated staffing model. The other critical WMP component in which HR focused on was training and skills development. HR continued to create opportunities to ensure that staff had access to training and development opportunities through the Professional Development Fund.

ngVLA Hiring The NRAO has engaged the broad science and technical community in the design of a next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA). Stakeholders across the Observatory created the ngVLA Project Resource Management Plan that included the process to identify, acquire and manage the staffing requirements by ngVLA Integrated Product Ream (IPT) along with a fulfillment prioritization/on-boarding date for new and existing staff. This resource plan included the total number of ngVLA employees by IPT, and the schedule of new employees needed by IPT. In preparation for the initial phase of hiring for ngVLA, two priority positions were approved for hire prior to FY2020—the Recruitment Manager and the Assistant Business Manager. With the immediate addition of the two roles, the hiring process was streamlined and ensured that facilities were well prepared to meet the demand of increased staffing. HR developed new strategies that included cluster hiring and updated and enhanced the Observatory Recruitment Guide and the applicant tracking system.

GBO Workforce Management Plan: NRAO has provided all Human Resources functions for the Green Bank Observatory (GBO), including an onsite full-time human resources manager, and training equivalent to that given to all other AUI observatories. NRAO support included administrative oversight of Compensation, Benefits, Performance Management, Recruiting and Retention, Training and Development, and Employee Relations. This administrative oversight included access to the developed systems and yet to be developed systems that support all of the HR functions such as: Halogen and SABA (Performance Management Tool), JobVite (online applicant tracking system and application portal), Compensation Management Tool, and central HR website information. NRAO also placed the recently hired HRIS Administrator at the Green Bank facility during FY2020.

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An expansion of programming through external funding or grants could grow the workforce, however the estimated upcoming retirement projections could total up to 20% staff over the next four years. Much recruiting will be focused on backfilling and training staff to maintain current programming. Unless a major funding opportunity is introduced, it is likely the staffing numbers will stay consistent.

With the possible retirement of 20% of the workforce, knowledge transfer and recruiting efforts has been necessary for key roles particularly in the area of Electronics Engineering, Software Engineering, and Telescope Operations.

An aggressive hiring strategy has been implemented to fill critical roles and has involved leaning on a multitude of strategies including: Telecommuting agreements, Remote workers, Apprenticeships, Short- term assignments that are assigned to project work, Co-Ops, and the recruitment of early career candidates with a focus on training. GBO has worked with various state agencies, technical trade schools and universities to identify candidates and strategies for these efforts.

Much of the first year of the five year proposal was spent focusing on the hiring strategies put forth. Initially during the development of the original GBO proposal, the Observatory was working with West Virginia state initiatives such as Coalfield Development Corporation to place 5-10 apprentices in the Observatory’s trade operations. During the course of solidifying this partnership, a better option emerged with Robert C. Byrd Institute that included the ability for the Observatory to provide national apprenticeship certifications to participants. GBO placed two apprentices during FY2020.

GBO had a successful application for two WV STEM Vista / AmeriCorps members for FY2020, however due to complications with the pandemic, the program was scaled back by 50%. GBO’s first placement began in September 2020 and carry through until August 2021. During Q3 and Q4 of FY2021, GBO will re-apply to place additional members at the site.

The Observatory worked with Generation WV Impact Fellowships to place Software and Electrical Engineering Fellows beginning with the 2020 placement timescale. Working with Generation allows the Observatory to tap into the robust recruiting program they have established with colleges and universities to place graduates in entry-level fellowships. The benefit to the Observatory is two-fold in that the fellows are introduced to radio astronomy support work, which could possibly foster a long-term interest, and it also establishes a connection with the college and university placement programs. There were no Fellowship placements during FY2020 due to candidate interest and limitations brought about by the pandemic. GBO intends to participate in the Fellowship search again FY2021. An additional program sponsored by Generation Impact called NewForce trains software candidates in short courses. The Observatory placed one of these interns in FY2020 and will explore an additional intern for FY2021. Training and Development The Professional Development Central Pool provided funds and opportunities for staff to complete individual programs addressing specific skills needed to advance in their careers. Staff members continued to apply for funding to take advantage of a variety of trainings and certifications. Managers included professional development goals in employee performance goals and are continuously encouraged to have professional development discussions with their staff.

Developing the next generation of leaders within the Observatory is paramount to its future success. The generational switch in the next 5–10 years could leave the organization with a leadership void as today’s leaders exit the workplace. A continued focus on identifying and preparing the next generation of leaders remains a top HR priority.

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Observatory Leadership Cohort Training The Observatory Leadership Cohort Pilot began in November 2018 and concluded September 2019. This Cohort Pilot was a result of a year-long planning process by HR staff in FY2018. The Cohort concept is the next step for the Observatory succession planning efforts. This program is intended to also serve as a recruiting and retention tool.

Throughout FY2020, the Cohort Pilot participants took part in three face-to-face workshops facilitated by an outside trainer, created individual development plans, and charted a course for a possible career as a leader within the NRAO.

Throughout the year, Cohort members were surveyed for feedback about the program in the form of interviews and structured surveys. This information was used to facilitate and structure future Cohorts within the Observatory that reflect the NRAO’s culture and leadership philosophy. With the pilot concluding in Q4 FY2019, the HR team worked during Q1 to assess the program and plan for the next cohort that started as early as Q4. Timing and course structure were based on feedback from participants in the Cohort Pilot and discussion with Observatory management.

The participants for the Cohort Pilot were selected through the Observatory’s succession planning process. The present Cohort is made up of candidates that responded to an open call for applications, allowing individuals interested in leadership roles to self-identify. Twenty-six applicants submitted their application with ultimately 12 members being selected. Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, the first workshop for the Cohort had to be re-imagined as a virtual session.

How to Travel as an Observatory Employee Training Module Observatory staff travel extensively for business and research opportunities. The generational shift of the staff make-up has introduced new staff to the complex travel policies and reimbursement procedures. In partnership with AUI’s Fiscal Division, Human Resources worked to create educational materials and trainings to better help staff travel safely and effectively during the course of their work. The training module will be used to orient new employees and re-introduce some changed policies to more senior staff. This training module was developed with AUI’s consultation but due to the COVID travel restrictions and possible changes to the AUI travel policy, the training has not yet been offered to staff.

Bullying Prevention Online Training A recent upgrade in the online learning platform used by Human Resources and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, included new online training modules in the area of unconscious bias and bullying in the workplace. Human Resources provided a mandatory online training focusing on Harassment, Discrimination, and Bullying Prevention with 100% participation across all AUI facilities. Compensation The HR Department’s Compensation function analyzes market data and provides program solutions in support of the Observatories’ Total Rewards philosophy.

Enhance Online Marketing Pricing Tool: CompAnalyst (Salary.com) is a trusted third party market pricing resource that has been utilized for many years. In Q1, the implementation of an additional module was finalized and made operational. The new module allowed for additional salary survey results to be loaded into CompAnalyst and matched to our benchmark jobs. The module greatly increased the ease and ability to produce standard and customized reports, assisted with identifying jobs classified below market, and aided in the design and verification of

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 103 pay schedules. In Q1, the implementation of an additional module was finalized and made operational; the enhancement was utilized for the annual benchmarking process.

Variable Pay Plan and Performance Bonus Structure At the request of AUI Corporate and to ensure HR is positioned appropriately to meet total reward goals, the draft framework for a variable pay plan was completed in Q4 FY2019. In Q1, the draft plan was reviewed and finalized for implementation. The goal of the variable pay plan was to create an objective, transparent, and motivating structure focused on obtainment of set corporate and/or strategic goals. The variable pay plan will complement our existing performance evaluation process and be used initially to set incentive bonus payouts for corporate management.

JDE Position Control Module Implementation Compensation assisted the Budget department in designing and launching position control, a system of tracking the workforce based on positions rather than employees. The tracking process created a master list of positions for all the jobs across the Observatories without regard to whether there is an incumbent in a specific job or not. Currently, the master list of positions is captured in Excel and maintained by Human Resources and Budget. In Q3, Compensation and Budget partnered with MIS to research the functionality and feasibility of implementing the JDE Position Control Module. Based on the functionality of the module, a determination was made to move position control into JDE.

Career Pathing Human Resources received feedback from employees and managers regarding a need for better tools to assist with identifying possible career path(s) within the Observatories. In response to this feedback, compensation identified a need to update and revamp the published job summaries to include additional details such as minimum job requirements and designed a layout to better map career paths within job groups. The goal was to provide employees and their managers an online resource that is fully searchable to assist in understanding career progression and development opportunities. The Software Development Division agreed to assist with this project to build out a website to host this information. Benefits NRAO HR worked closely with AUI Benefits to develop benefits programs to attract, recruit, retain, and reward employees. Benefits and HR continuously reviewed and benchmarked available programs for competitiveness and employee engagement. HR assisted with benefits enrollment processes to ensure benefits plans were administered accurately and efficiently.

Electronic Benefit Enrollment During FY2020, AUI Benefits and NRAO HR partnered with the Management Information Systems (MIS) Department to create an electronic module within JDE for new hires to enroll in benefits. HR and MIS were able to design and build an electronic module that has been tested for new hires to electronically enroll in benefits. This module will be introduced to new hires in FY2021. Moving towards electronic enrollments will assist in meeting department objectives for developing efficient and streamlined processes.

Third-Party Vendor Upload Preparation In partnership with Management Information Systems Department (MIS), HR proposed a goal to design and deliver uploads of benefit information to various third party vendors directly from JDE system. The vendor file feeds goal was reviewed, researched, and determined not feasible given the JDE interface compatibility and the HIPAA requirements needed for transmitting sensitive health care information to insurance providers. The file requirements provided by vendors were reviewed in detail and compared to

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 104 programs available through our internal JDE HRIS system and MIS operating programs. While this goal was established to help ease administration and manual data entry, JDE and MIS do not have the necessary programs or resources available to implement this goal at this time. Recruitment/Employment

The Recruitment/Employment function of the HR Department is the first point of contact prospective employees experience with the Observatories. The strategies and tactics deployed in the recruitment and hiring of qualified candidates are key in contributing not only our commitment to diversity but to achieving the overall mission of the Observatories.

The Observatory recruiting team has an established applicant tracking system with JobVite. Although, the software has been working well to funnel applicants to hiring managers, there are added tools within the system that could help us expedite the hiring and onboarding process. Some possible tools and system enhancements include, combining the Authorization to Recruit and the Requisition into the same functional workflow, routing approval through the JobVite channels instead of a shared outside folder, and posting internal only postings to be visible only to staff. HR staff researched these tools and enhancements and identified ways to leverage JobVite to increase efficiencies in the established processes. After the tools and processes were identified, HR implemented and trained approvers and hiring managers on the new method. These enhancements have created greater efficiencies.

While HR continued to train hiring managers on a 1:1 basis, a more in-depth workshop was designed that allowed access to the training material as needed. The workshop covered risks associated with claims of unfair hiring practices, the importance of dispositioning candidates in relation to EEO and Affirmative Action reports, interview etiquette, reference checks, efficiently utilizing the applicant tracking system, etc.

Background Checks and Credit Checks HR worked with AUI Corporate and Hiring Managers to identify positions that require background and credit checks. HR evaluated vendors to provide these services. Information regarding background and credit checks will be included in job postings.

HR Support Climate Survey Results Initiatives HR and Benefits partnered to produce and administer an employee climate survey during the second quarter of FY2019. This survey encompassed diversity and inclusion, leadership, engagement, performance, learning and development and morale. Mercer Consulting was retained to provide technical support and tools to build, release, and compile survey results.

Climate Survey Results Initiatives The survey results showed great improvement in employee engagement compared to the last climate survey conducted in FY2016. Although results in all categories improved, there remains an opportunity to do more to address staff’s knowledge of training, professional development, and stretch-goal assignments across the Observatories. The HR staff met with senior managers in Q4 to engage senior managers in focus groups and identified strategies to better communicate opportunities and create ways to focus on staff development. HR and the focus group addressed the responses related to the perceived tolerance of poor performance. Recommendations were communicated to all staff.

Bi-Weekly Payroll Shift NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 105

Prior to FY2020, exempt staff were paid monthly; non-exempt staff were paid bi-weekly. In Q3 FY2019, the decision was made to transition all staff to a bi-weekly payroll cycle, effective January 2020. Streamlining the payroll processes resulted in significant business and operational advantages for AUI and the Observatories and employees. In addition, elimination of the monthly payroll methodology decreased business risk and complexity. A project team of major stakeholders was formed between HR, MIS, Budget, and AUI Fiscal/Payroll to develop a successful project plan.

HR effort required significant time and coordination across all Observatory HR staff members. Major HR project deliverables included but were not limited to: ensuring the set up and testing of bi-weekly exempt benefit groups, job codes, and deductions, benefits, and accruals (DBAs); updating and communicating policy and procedure guides; and ensuring all impacted employees were successfully transitioned in the JDE system. This project was quite successful and there have been very few issues related to the transition.

HR Support for OCA HR works in conjunction with JAO HR and the OCA to maintain the successful integration of all ALMA staff in Chile and to enhance the International Staff (ISM) experience. Additionally, HR continued to serve on the Human Resources Advisory Group (HRAG) and worked closely with JAO HR to ensure that the balance of North Americans working in Chile continued to improve. The unique nature of ALMA places more HR responsibilities on NRAO than any other ALMA Executive.

The collective bargaining contract between the employees of the Joint ALMA Office and the union expired in May 2020. NRAO HR served on the bargaining strategy committee during the collective bargaining process. Additionally, HR continued to partner with the OCA and the JAO HR Manager to align and improve the employee experiences in Chile.

HR and Benefits worked with the Benefits Broker to evaluate retiree medical options for the Chilean ISMs. Several of the Chilean ISMs have or will spend the majority of their careers working for a U.S. based employer and as a result, they are not eligible to receive retiree benefits from the Chilean government upon retirement. While Brokers continue to research this benefit, the work has been interrupted due to the pandemic. HR Milestone Summary Of 28 milestone deadlines, 22 were completed on time, 1 was cancelled, and 5 were delayed.

Milestone 11.7.5 – Bullying Prevention Online Training: Delayed. Milestone was delayed due to the current vendor being merged with a new company. The training was deployed and completed in Q4.

Milestone 11.7.7 – Finalize Variable Pay Plan: Delayed. At the request of AUI Corporate and to ensure that AUI Corporate remained positioned to meet the total reward goals to attract and retain the highest caliber of staff, the draft framework for a variable pay plan was scheduled to be completed Q1. There were several iterations and analysis conducted to establish a relevant and effective plan for corporate staff. The plan was approved Q2.

Milestone 11.7.10 – Electronic Enrollment: Delayed. During FY2020, AUI Benefits and NRAO HR partnered with the Management Information Systems (MIS) Department to create an electronic module within JDE for new hires to enroll in benefits. HR and MIS were able to design and build an electronic module that has been tested for new hires to electronically enroll in benefits. This module will be introduced to new hires in FY2021. Moving towards electronic enrollments will assist in meeting our department objectives for developing efficient and streamlined processes. Completed Q4.

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Milestone 11.7.11 – Third Party Benefits Vendor Upload Preparation: Cancelled. The vendor file feeds goal were reviewed, researched, and determined not feasible given our JDE interface compatibility and the HIPAA requirements Anthem and Delta require for transmitting sensitive health care information. The file specifications provided by the vendors were reviewed in detail and compared to programs available through our internal JDE HRIS system and MIS operating programs. While this goal was established to help ease administration and manual data entry, JDE and MIS do not have the necessary programs or resources available to implement this goal at this time.

Milestone 11.7.15 – Hiring Manager Training Delivery: Delayed. Training was delayed due to applicant tracking feature enhancements. The enhancements were incorporated into the training. Training is scheduled for Q1 FY2021.

Milestone 11.7.16 – Background and Credit Check: Delayed. AUI developed a policy with language that include all positions would require a background check. The Observatories wanted to pilot specific positions for background and credit checks. NRAO needed to wait for final policy approval before communicating and implementing.

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12 SCIENCE COMMUNICATIONS

The Science Communications Office (SciCom) collaborated with scientific staff and the Director’s Office to communicate NRAO science, vision, accomplishments, and plans to the science community, NRAO/AUI staff, and key external stakeholders, including NRAO advisory committees, and the NSF.

In FY2020, SciCom organized an effective Observatory presence at major science community meetings, such as the semi-annual AAS meetings.

The winter AAS meeting was held 4–8 January 2020 at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu. Four NRAO event proposals were accepted and scheduled: (1) an evening NRAO Town Hall and reception; (2) a Special Session titled Breakthrough Science with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array; and (3) a Special Session titled The Scientific Quest for High Angular Resolution. SciCom also organized and led NRAO participation at this winter AAS in: (a) the four-day Exhibition; (b) the Undergraduate Orientation and Graduate Student Fair that immediately preceded the Opening Reception; (c) the Student Pavilion that was open throughout the meeting; and (d) local EPO events sponsored by AUI and the AAS.

Originally scheduled to be held in Madison, Wisconsin with in-person attendance, the COVID pandemic led to the summer AAS meeting being transitioned to a wholly virtual meeting that took place 1–3 June 2020. SciCom organized and led NRAO participation at the summer 2020 AAS including re-invention of the NRAO physical exhibit set in the virtual world; and representing the NRAO at the Observatory’s virtual exhibit space at the three-day virtual Exhibition. Some long-standing AAS meeting events, such as EPO participation in hands-on demonstrations with large numbers of local students, were necessarily cancelled by the AAS.

A science symposium proposal was organized by the Director’s Office and submitted by SciCom in April 2019 for the 2020 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting (13–17 February 2020, Seattle, Washington). The proposal was accepted in July 2019 and scheduled into the AAAS science program for 15 February 2020, 10:00–11:30 am PST. Titled Detecting Extraterrestrial Technologies and Life, this symposium featured a diverse set of speakers who described how the extraordinary progress in the astronomical discovery and characterization of exoplanets is motivating renewed investment in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence at NASA, in the private sector, and among philanthropic organizations. This symposium also examined how technosignature research and development is rapidly advancing and influencing the astronomy community's exoplanet research strategies and tactics.

SciCom wrote and designed the 2019 NRAO Annual Report in FY2020. This report features calendar year 2019 science highlights from the community and NRAO scientific staff; major accomplishments at NRAO operational facilities; R&D progress for next-generation facilities; community support activities; and public outreach and diversity highlights. This report will be published and distributed online and in hardcopy in Q1 FY2021.

In FY2020, SciCom continued to edit, improve, publish, and expand the subscription base for the Observatory’s monthly electronic newsletter, NRAO eNews, and the periodic electronic announcements series, NRAO Announcements, with 9,500+ subscribers in North America and around the world. SciCom also updated the NRAO Research Facilities brochure prior to the winter 2020 AAS meeting. SciCom Milestone Summary Of four milestone deadlines, two were completed on time. The last FY2020 milestone will reach completion with publication of the FY2019 NRAO Annual Report, which will occur 18 December 2020.

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13 ADMINISTRATION

Activities to control energy use continue at the Edgemont Road Headquarters building leased from the University of Virginia (UVA) and the Domenici Science Operations Center (DSOC) leased from New Mexico Tech. UVA has committed to the replacement of fluorescent lighting in the building with LED fixtures without charge to NRAO. This project was ~63% complete before the interruption by the COVID shutdowns. The NRAO request to UVA for a sidewalk to provide safe access from grounds for UVA students and faculty who visit the building and for employees who use public transportation is included in the project to bring University Central Utilities to the building that begins in October 2020. The project includes removal of the aging boilers and chillers which often require daily maintenance. Management anticipates negotiating a reduction in the building reserve fund monthly payment to cover any increase in rates charged by UVA.

New Mexico Tech took advantage of their COVID shutdown to replace all fluorescent lighting in the DSOC with LED fixtures.

The CDL facility added a new milling machine to the shop area. The addition required the removal, expansion and replacement of several doors to allow installation and remodeling spaces to accommodate the machine. Business Services The response to COVID required the creation of protocols, policies, procedures and signage for all NRAO locations. A general outline was prepared that each location adapted to its unique requirements. A special budget account funded requests for monitors, chairs, and cameras for employees working from home. Property loan forms track equipment supplied for home use.

Meeting Planning fully pivoted from in-person on and off-site events to virtual meetings, webinars, and conferences and completed a seven-week certification course in Digital Events Strategy. The postponed ngVLA Compact Objects and Energetic Phenomena in the Multi-Messenger Era conference scheduled for June in St. Paul MN was supplemented with a virtual mini-conference in July as well as the ngVLA Short Summer Talk Series which occurred over 11 weeks. The NRAO/GBO Internal Science Series launched a bi-weekly talk and discussion series in lieu of their postponed in person event. All other scheduled face-to-face conferences hosted or managed by NRAO were cancelled. In addition, in response to the national diversity events and awareness, the meeting planner assisted the Office of Diversity and Inclusion in a special on- line talk series that featured 21 events as well as facilitated 22 weekly Employee Connection events and a book discussion group.

The Virtual Internal Science Series launched in early October in lieu of holding an in-person NRAO/GBO Science Staff symposium.

Figure 12.1 - VISS logo

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Contracts and Procurement Contracts and Procurement (CAP) staff revised our policies and procedures to include our new risk assessment procedures, open RFP web page, use of the new Subcontract object classification, and foreign collaboration consideration requirements, among several other updates that reflect our compliance with NSF requirements and best practices.

During Fiscal Year 2020, the 3,545 purchase orders awarded totaled approximately $20,700,000.

CAP initiated lease renewals for two VLBA sites that will need renewals in 2021. For the North Liberty, Iowa VLBA site, CAP contacted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and began completing the application for renewal for the review and signature by NSF. For the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) VLBA site, CAP worked with the VLBA Development deputy assistant director to contact the director of the Center for Space and Earth Science at LANL to start their renewal process.

The CAP team has been able to work from home successfully during the COVID-19 shutdown. Most team members were already set up to be capable of working remotely, so only the Buyers needed additional assistance from CIS staff to prepare their computers for a home workstation. Some members of the CAP team now come into the office about once a week, but in general, working remotely has been a smooth transition with no impact on the team’s ability to meet workload requirements.

The VLBA operates at ten sites; NSF owns two sites and the others are leased from eight different entities. Experience has shown that some lease renewals can require protracted interactions with a lessor’s bureaucracy. We have established the practice of beginning negotiations two years in advance of lease expiration, which was done in 2020 for the Los Alamos and North Liberty locations.

Negotiations on Lease Renewals Started: Completed. Environmental Safety, and Security ES&S supports NRAO’s long-term commitment to its environmental protection, safety, and security responsibilities to employees, visitors, and contractors. There are professional technical Safety Officers located in Socorro, NM, and Green Bank, WV. In other areas, ES&S serves in the ngVLA project as the Regulatory Compliance and Permitting Integrated Product Team (IPT) Lead as well as the lead for the safety efforts. In ALMA, ES&S monitors safety performance, advises on development of the ALMA Safety Program, and reviews the plans for environmental protection.

In FY2020, ES&S worked with the NRAO leadership to develop a response for the COVID-19 pandemic. ES&S worked closely with all the Observatory divisions to create policy, protocols, and procedures to protect staff during approximately eight months in FY2019 and continued efforts in FY2021. This established the groundwork to maintain diligence in monitoring work to assure continued operation of the Observatory facilities. The specific program areas includes health screening protocols, work plan requirements to assure safe protocols under COVID restrictions, return to work requirements under Quarantine. These work practices are currently in place and functioning, and will remain through the pandemic resolution.

Security Review Summary Report: A comprehensive security review of the Observatories was commissioned and received. COVID and the demands for creating protocols and work plans for the Observatories interrupted the preparation of a summary report and budget. This goals for the report and budget were canceled.

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Security Enhancement Budget Plan: See above. Management Information Systems Management Information Systems (MIS) completed the Payroll and Electronic TimeKeeping (ETK) modifications for the conversion of all exempt AUI staff members from a Monthly pay cycle to a Bi-Weekly pay cycle during FY2020. This was a priority and complex project with a very successful completion, on schedule with the project plan.

Although delayed from its original scheduled completion in Q3, Employee On-Boarding was implemented successfully in Q4. This tool will assist HR in the On-Boarding and enrollment of new employees in benefits.

During FY2020, MIS completed an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, Oracle J.D. Edwards 9.2 software upgrade for a Tools Release. This occurred in Q3/Q4. This major release improved the Oracle Orchestrator and brought AUI ‘code current’ for the Tools portion of the software.

MIS successfully implemented the J.D. Edwards process flow and data transfers for the third party Fiscal software, Blackline, during FY2020. Blackline software was for the entry, tracking, and processing of Journal Entries in Fiscal with a complete, bi-directional, automatic interface with J.D. Edwards.

MIS participated in various Audits, successful Open Enrollment processing, and had extensive involvement in COVID-19 related items. These include, but are not limited to, implementation of COVID-19 related tracking codes for ETK and Payroll processing.

MIS successfully implemented many other projects during FY2020. Some of these projects were in the annual plan while others developed during the Fiscal Year. These include, but are not limited to, new Overtime calculations for non-exempt employees, improvements to Overtime tracking, improvement to the ETK entry portal, new ETK code structures, AUI Leave Pool process flow, and re-scheduling of retirement contributions.

The impact of COVID-19 on MIS operations was minimal. Although local-based MIS personnel were required to transition to a remote work environment, this transition occurred with minimal interruption to MIS operations and/or MIS projects. Some adjustments and equipment were required for this immediate transition; however all items were successfully addressed. Technology Transfer Office The Cells to Galaxies Imaging Workshop Science Organizing Committee (SOC) postponed the first full event due to the impact of COVID-19. Scheduled for May 2020, the SOC considered attempting to hold a virtual conference in the fall of 2020, but the SOC scientists preferred to hold the first-ever meeting as a face- to-face gathering. The SOC is planning to hold a face-to-face meeting in spring 2021, but this does not look likely, and NRAO will again need to take up consideration of holding the first meeting virtually, rather than postponing again.

The Technology Transfer Office (IT2) was expecting the first demo units of the much-anticipated SADC microchips, which chips are the core of the integrated receivers planned for the ngVLA. The design vendor, however, did not produce a working design, nor functional prototype chips for us. The marketing of the SADC for commercial purposes will therefore be postponed until a working demo is available, which may be 2021 or 2022.

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T2 supported the submission of an NSF PFI-TT proposal in August 2020 for the development of a commercial version of the Transmission Line Reflectionless Filters. Development of the T Line filters is necessary to reach higher frequencies above 20 GHz. The CDL plans to use Mini-Circuits (MC) as a Vendor-Partner in developing these to the point of a commercial product. The project is set to begin in January 2021. To pursue the commercialization of the T Line Filters however, NRAO will need to formalize a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with MC, obtain a Manufacturing Waiver from the NSF, and settle a long-developing dissatisfaction of MC with the royalty rate in the current license agreement.

During FY2020, T2 supported creating cooperative research agreements at the CDL with five industry partners, including Mini-Circuits and Lincoln Labs. At the end of FY2020, a new but small development project is underway to create a milli-Kelvin version of the existing Reflectionless Filters to meet the needs of the quantum computing research and development efforts within industry. Admin Milestone Summary Of 11 milestone deadlines, seven were completed on time.

Milestone 13.6.1 – Certified Meeting Professional examination: With the cancelation of all in person meetings, this goal was pivoted to have the Events Coordinator prepare for and pass the Digital Events Strategist examinations. The exam will be taken in Q1 2021.

Milestone 13.6.5 – Develop security plan: Cancelled. ESS commissioned an Observatory-wide security review. The development and costing of the plan was disrupted by focusing on COVID and the planning it required of the ESS Division. This will be a 2021 POP goal.

Milestone 13.6.6 – Cost security recommendations: Cancelled. See above.

Milestone 13.6.11 – C2G 2020 workshop: The conference was scheduled for May and was cancelled due to COVID.

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14 BUDGET

Information Observatory Risk Management The annual renewal of the insurance program took place timely and with positive financial results for the insurance year beginning 1 December 2019.

In FY2020, the Budget Department convened a process to rebid the AUI/Observatories’ insurance broker relationship. Involving AUI, an RFP was developed and issued; responses were evaluated, and finalist interviews were held. In the end, AUI/NRAO decided to retain Marsh, the incumbent. The NRAO negotiated and formalized a new agreement.

As the COVID-19 situation evolved, the department worked with the insurers to understand potential liabilities, likely insurance responses, and to develop reporting and tracking for significant work-from-home activity which will impact worker’s compensation exposure.

Cost Estimating In October, the senior cost estimator presented the ngVLA conceptual design cost estimate, structure, and methodology to an external review panel. Key assumptions and approaches were validated while gaining some valuable feedback and insights for the next iteration.

As the senior cost estimator departed NRAO in November, a new staff member was hired to fill the role, remotely, in April. In the second half of the year, this staff member focused on learning the estimate and working closely with PMD to develop and refine project controls systems and processes.

Budget Operations The department underwent a reorganization during the year with the addition of a deputy assistant director, a junior business systems analyst, and reallocation of a position to New Mexico Operations in recognition of increased activity due to ngVLA.

With the award of the five-year Green Bank Operations Cooperative Agreement and CSA-N, for the ngVLA, the department set up the charts and budgets for these activities in addition to working on the closeout of CSA-1.

The Budget Department organized the annual budget cycle including loading the budget prepared in the prior year, monitoring that budget through a series of forecasts and monthly financial reports, taking action as required and in collaboration with the departments, and reporting on budget progress at the Quarterly Status Updates. Preparation for FY2021 included initial discussions with NSF at the Spring Budget meeting, the preparation of preliminary budget figures for the departments and facilitating the annual Budget Summit where the senior Observatory management reviews planned actions and marginal resource allocations for the coming year. This led to the preparation of the formal FY2021 budget submitted in the FY2021 POP.

Working closely with HR, Payroll, and MIS, the Budget Department led the process of implementing biweekly payroll for all staff. This successful transition occurred at the end of calendar year 2019.

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Internal Common Costs (ICC) The Budget Department is responsible for creating, documenting, and maintaining the Observatory ICC rates, of which there are presently five. This includes collecting costs and cost descriptions and preparing the annual preliminary and final rate submissions to NSF for review and approval. In FY2020, the FY2019 final rate submissions were prepared as were the FY2020 preliminary and mid-year rates.

NRAO’s management organization decided to change the indirect cost structure effective for FY2020, moving leave into a consolidated benefits pool which will be governed by a Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement. The Budget Department implemented this in-year change in the budget.

Budget Milestone Summary Of 17 milestone deadlines, 15 were completed on time.

Milestone 14.1.6 – NSF Spring Budget meeting: This milestone was delayed due to scheduling issues and took place virtually.

Milestone 14.1.11 – Evaluate JDE Position Control Module: This milestone was delayed due to resource conflicts, but has been completed.

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15 SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT

Site Spectrum Management VLA and VLBA Radio Frequency Interference Mitigation Activities at the VLA site, links to resources for observers, RFI scans of the spectrum, etc. are described at the NRAO science website. Similar resources for the VLBA are online.

The NM Operations Interference Protection Office coordinates spectrum usage for the VLA site by:

(1) Responding to requests for Special Temporary Authority submitted through the NSF from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The requests are analyzed for their potential impact to radio astronomy observing by performing propagation simulations and mapping terrain profiles, calculating the expected power flux density at the array antenna, and comparing the results to internationally recognized detrimental interference thresholds. Negotiations with the active spectrum user are conducted to limit, reduce, or eliminate the potential interference.

(2) Informing external spectrum users at the U.S. Space Command, the tethered aerostat radar system (TARS) sites, and other military and commercial shared-spectrum users of NRAO and Arecibo Observatory planned spectrum usage each month. Jointly used spectrum may then be scheduled on a first- come-first-served basis, by priority, or by prior cooperative agreements.

(3) Monitoring VLA site spectrum conditions using array observations and external monitoring equipment, and reviewing the resulting spectral plots and observer reports to detect new, unknown RF emissions. Detections in spectrum allocated to radio astronomy trigger source identification and technical discussions with the responsible spectrum user. Particularly detrimental emissions in non-radio astronomy spectrum allocations lead to goodwill discussions with the responsible spectrum user with the goal of interference reduction or elimination via technical means.

(4) Performing RF emissions tests on incoming commercial or NRAO-designed equipment and reviewing the results to determine interference potential. Equipment found to exceed the detrimental limits is either rejected, modified, shielded, or submitted for re-design. National and International Spectrum Management National Issues Satellite Coordination: Satellite coordination with SpaceX was handled by NSF’s Electromagnetic Spectrum Management Unit that earlier concluded a private coordination agreement to allow SpaceX to operate their 2018-era satellite constellation compatibly with radio astronomy operations in the 10.6– 10.7 GHz band. This agreement will have to be renegotiated concurrent with SpaceX’s more recent updates to the planned operation of their constellation. A teleconference was hosted by NSF at which SpaceX claimed, using simulations, with no clear technical justification and without answering the technical questions posed by NRAO, that the unwanted emissions of their constellation into the protected radio astronomy band had improved by about a factor ten. The necessity for such a claim becomes clear when it is realized that the previous simulation barely met the required protection criteria with a constellation 3–10 times smaller than those that SpaceX has applied to operate.

OneWeb went bankrupt in March 2020, fired 95% of their staff and disappeared from the coordination effort that NRAO had provoked in FY2019 with a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

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Despite being a U.K. company, OneWeb was brought out of bankruptcy in the U.S. courts and vowed to renew coordination with radio astronomy and to protect optical-infrared astronomy from optical reflection by its satellites. The proposed OneWeb orbit at 1200 km presents a much smaller problem for naked eye astronomy and a much more profound problem for research astronomy because of the prolonged visibility after twilight of satellites at 1200 km.

Non-satellite Issues: Notable FCC activity occurred when a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was released in June 2020 regarding a petition to allow use of 71–76, 81–86, and 92–96 GHz to create an airborne mesh network to promote wireless broadband connectivity on aircraft. The proposed application would perform air-air and air-ground communication using ½-MegaWatt Effective Isotropic Radiated Power on planes, in bands that previously were used for only fixed microwave point-point links on the ground.

This is a highly unfavorable scenario for radio astronomy: airborne transmissions visible from vast distances, readily apparent over telescopes, and in quiet zones previously insulated by geographic separation at those frequencies, in bands adjacent and threatening to the passive band allocation at 86–92 GHz that is a workhorse of millimeter-wave radio astronomy. Yet, the only prior consideration given to protection of radio astronomy was the statement by the prospective operator that all Federal radio astronomy installations would be protected by removing the ground stations from urban areas.

NRAO showed calculations demonstrating the long reach of potential interference from the proposed operations and filed reply comments when a third party suggested that interference was a minor matter that could be signed away by creating Memoranda of Understanding with the NSF to allow radio astronomy to notify the operator whenever it wished to observe in its own bands. The Committee on Radio Frequencies (CORF) also filed and one of its members felt the matter was serious enough to warrant a filing from the AAS, which commented, a rare occurrence.

Spectrum Outreach: The NRAO spectrum manager spoke at Haystack Radio Observatory in December 2019, at AAS 235 in Honolulu in January 2020, and to the Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee and the Astro 2020 Decadal Survey Panel on radio astronomy in March 2020. Four lectures were delivered at the IUCAF Spectrum Management School (see below) in March 2020. That activity was followed by the usual presentation to the spring open meeting of CORF in May 2020.

International Activities World Radio Communication (WRC) Conference-19 took place 28 October–22 November 2019 in Sharm El- Sheik, Egypt. The Sheraton there is highly recommended and who knows, there might be another waiter-tossing contest by retired Ukrainian weightlifters or wrestlers at the bar on the beach sometime. The NRAO spectrum manager conveyed radio astronomy’s views on the WRC-19 Agenda Items through the Scientific Committee on Frequency Allocations for Radio Astronomy and Space Science (IUCAF). The positive outcomes for radio astronomy at WRC-19 were largely those that IUCAF managed to have adopted at the Conference Preparatory Meeting in February 2019 where delegates crafted the default methods to satisfy the WRC-19 Agenda Items. High Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS) will have to coordinate with and protect previously-registered radio astronomy operations, at 15 dB better levels than would otherwise have been the case. The harmonics of maritime mobile operations at 160 MHz were required not to interfere with radio astronomy operations at 327 MHz. This is the first instance where the International Telecommunications Union–Radio Sector (ITU-R) put hard limits at radio astronomy’s preferred levels on the harmonic unwanted emissions of an active service operation. With a boost from Japan, the particularly troublesome Article 4.6 in the Radio Regulations was re-worded in the English version to coincide with the French and so remove troublesome semantics that allowed active services to argue that radio astronomy was not entitled to define its own interference thresholds. A satisfactory

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 116 outcome was gained regarding the nominal protection of radio astronomy operations at 275–450 GHz from land mobile and fixed service operations.

The trend in commercial use of radio spectrum is increasingly unfavorable to radio astronomy. Despite IUCAF opposition, European radio astronomers favored the granting of new privileges and primary allocation status to the notoriously interfering Iridium mobile satellite constellation, in return for unenforceable limits in a footnote to the Table of Frequency Allocations. Within one month after the WRC, Iridium, presented with German evidence that its interference had increased, announced its abandonment of the measures needed to protect radio astronomy and Germany formally protested once more to the FCC.

IUCAF, with strong CRAF and South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) support, held its Fifth International Spectrum Management School in Stellenbosch, South Africa during the week 2–6 March 2020 before COVID-19 closed in. This was the best-attended such school ever with 55 attendees. To encourage attendance, all fees associated with the meeting were waived and travel costs were heavily subsidized for students and older nascent spectrum managers.

ITU-R meetings were much abbreviated in spring 2020 and are being held online through February 2021, but the normal WRC preparation is now underway online.

As Chair of IUCAF, the NRAO spectrum manager arranges IUCAF’s affairs, writing the annual report for URSI Radio Science Bulletin and procuring the annual operating budget from IAU, URSI, and COSPAR.

The last few months have been occupied with preparations for the upcoming workshop (5-9 October 2020) and meeting (early April 2021) on Dark and Quiet Skies for Science and Society. NRAO participated on the Scientific Organizing Committee and led the radio astronomy working group. This effort has produced a report covering all aspects of research astronomy and the enjoyment of the dark night sky, for presentation to the UN Office of Outer Space Affairs’ (UNOOSA) Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) in February, April, and June 2021. This report makes recommendations to constrain light pollution, bio-hazards of over-lighting, optical reflection from non-geostationary satellites and interference to radio astronomy. It will also make recommendations regarding radio frequency satellite operations that transcend the narrow concerns of radio spectrum regulators. Spectrum Management Milestone Summary Of four milestone deadlines, two were completed on time and two could not be completed because the underlying events did not occur.

Milestone 15.3.2 – WP 7D, Geneva: Meeting cancelled due to COVID.

Milestone 15.3.4 – URSI GASS, Rome: Meeting cancelled due to COVID.

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16 DIRECTOR’S OFFICE The NRAO Director’s Office establishes, refines, and disseminates the mission, vision and overall strategic goals of NRAO through a proactive and continuous assessment of needs and priorities of the organization and the scientific community. The Director’s Office plays a major role in formulating and executing national priorities for research in radio astronomy and other areas of astronomy, and strives to grow the radio astronomy community and improve the scientific relevance of radio techniques and observations.

The NRAO Director provided strong leadership to the Observatory’s management team in FY2020, working with the senior staff to ensure that the Observatory’s science mission and operational requirements were translated into the specific plans and deliverables and executed effectively, including appropriate delegation of roles, resources and responsibilities throughout the organization. The Director’s Office nurtured collaboration among NRAO staff, communicating openly with staff at all levels, seeking input, creating an environment of trust across the Observatory, and providing positive feedback in a timely and constructive manner. The Director managed the Observatory on a day-to-day basis, facilitating issue resolution between functional areas and departments, and routinely monitoring organization performance.

The Director and Director’s Office staff prepared for and executed internal and external Observatory reviews and were responsible for the production of appropriate information to all stakeholders in a timely manner, enabling quantitative insight to Observatory performance, including NSF deliverables.

The Director’s Office developed support throughout FY2020 for the NRAO program within the scientific community and with funding agencies, the U.S. Congress, and local, state, federal and non-governmental organizations. The Director’s Office developed and maintained strategic relationships with national and international agencies, partners, governments, industry and other private sector entities, and all other stakeholders or customers relevant to the Observatory.

Working with the AUI Executive and Board, the Director helped develop and implement AUI’s vision for the NRAO scientific mission and organizational management. The Director informed the AUI Board of Trustees about all NRAO strategic and policy issues through regular and appropriate communications, bringing emerging issues forward in a timely fashion.

To continue to facilitate the alignment of AUI Corporate priorities and operational priorities, NRAO performed joint capacity planning for the initiatives which are considered key, reviewing the risks, critical activities and the timing, milestones and resources required. In this way, NRAO increased the mutual understanding of each entity’s needs, clarified direction, and generated consensus and teamwork.

The Director’s Office represented NRAO and the North American science community interests to the ALMA Director’s Council and the ALMA Board in FY2020. The Director’s Office organized the annual NRAO Users Committee and ALMA North American Science Advisory Committee virtual meetings. New Users Committee members were recruited from the community and appointed. Director’s Office personnel met with each of the AUI Board of Trustees and the AUI Executive Committee semi-annually. Milestone Summary Of 17 milestone deadlines, 15 were completed, because two meetings were cancelled.

Milestone 16.2.5 – AUI Board of Trustee Meeting: Meeting cancelled, no Q2 meeting going forward.

Milestone 16.2.5 – AUI Visiting Committee Meeting: Meeting cancelled, moved to every other year.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 118

APPENDIX A: MAJOR MILESTONES COMPLETION MATRIX

Milestone numbers correspond to numbering in FY2020 Program Operating Plan (POP). Full explanations for cancelled milestones are given in each APR section. Full explanations for delayed milestones are presented in previous Quarterly Status Updates (QSU).

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

2.5 NA ALMA Operations Operations 1 Investigate logistics and feasibility for interferometric workshops Completed Completed Completed 2 Review conference applications Completed Completed 3 Special ALMA Session at AAS Winter 2020 meeting Completed 4 Participate and Sponsor ISMS Completed 5 Participate and Execute SISS Completed 6 Coordinate planning and execution for Cycle 8 APR Cancelled Cycle 8 postponed due to COVID. Development 7 FY2021 (Cycle 8) Call for Study Proposals Completed 8 FY2021 (Cycle 8) Study Award Notifications Completed Chile Office Completed Completed 9 Power options for Parque Astronómico Atacama and ALMA Completed

Completed

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 119

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

10 Office lease alternatives for OCA Completed 11 IT involvement in STEM education and diversity programs Completed 12 OCA Digitization of fiscal documents Completed Completed 13 Plan to improve maintainability of AOS technical building Completed Completed 14 Management of FEHV warranty Conditional acceptance, final delayed until Delayed operations restart. Completed 15 Multicancha project – delivery and inauguration Completed Delayed Indefinite suspension. Completed Completed 16 Collective bargaining Completed Completed Completed Completed 17 STEM EPO and D&I Completed Completed 3.3 New Mexico Operations Very Large Array Operations 1 Define VLA GO and SRO capabilities to be offered for Semester 2020B Completed 2 Define VLA GO and SRO capabilities to be offered for Semester 2021A Completed

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 120

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

Update VLA documentation to support 2020B Call for Proposals, perform proposal 3 Completed technical reviews Update VLA documentation to support 2021A Call for Proposals, perform proposal 4 Completed technical reviews Determine baselines and pointing for antennas moving into their D configuration 5 Completed locations Determine baselines and pointing for antennas moving into their C configuration 6 Completed locations Determine baselines and pointing for antennas moving into their B configuration 7 Completed locations 8 Reconfigure from A to D configuration Completed 9 Reconfigure from D to C configuration Completed 10 Reconfigure from C to B configuration Completed 11 Cross-training operators on VLA and VLBA instruments completed Completed VLA technical manager assumes scheduler duties for major maintenance and 12 Delayed Delayed until Q2 FY2021 due to COVID overhauls for the VLA and the VLBA Development 13 Realfast operational with VLASS epoch 2 observing Completed 14 Realfast project complete Delayed No-cost extension 15 eLWA operation expanded to more antennas Completed Maintenance and Renewal 16 WIDAR power system replacement Completed 17 Perform five antenna overhauls during the year Reduced Scope reduced 18 Replace one antenna azimuth bearing during the year Cancelled Cancelled, new FY2021 milestone Perform preventive maintenance on each of two transporters prior to array 19 Completed reconfiguration to D Perform preventive maintenance on each of two transporters prior to array 20 Completed reconfiguration to C

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 121

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

Perform preventive maintenance on each of two transporters prior to array 21 Completed reconfiguration to B Perform preventive maintenance on each of two transporters prior to array 22 Completed reconfiguration to BnA 23 Identify and replace 5000 aging or damaged cross-ties during the course of the year Reduced Scope reduced 24 Identify and replace five antenna intersections during the course of the year Completed Perform preventive maintenance on the next configuration VLA antenna transformers 25 Completed prior to array reconfiguration to D Perform preventive maintenance on the next configuration VLA antenna transformers 26 Completed prior to array reconfiguration to C Perform preventive maintenance on the next configuration VLA antenna transformers 27 Completed prior to array reconfiguration to B Perform preventive maintenance on the next configuration VLA antenna transformers 28 Completed prior to array reconfiguration to BnA 29 Purchase FE test instrumentation (SOIDA) Completed 30 Replace several site heavy vehicles Completed 31 Purchase electrical arm switches Completed 32 Purchase Control Building HVAC compressor Completed 33 Improve site road/parking Completed 34 Purchase ACU upgrade components Completed 35 Purchase track maintenance materials Completed Technical Upgrades and Enhancements 36 P-band polarization observations to SRO Completed 37 YUPPI pulsar observations to GO Completed 38 More smoothing options in correlator Cancelled Scope re-evaluated. Reduced scope and delayed until Q1 FY2021 39 Complete installation of 3 more ACUs Reduced due to COVID 40 Integrate VFD cryogenics system for lab testing Completed

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 122

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

41 Install VFD compressor and refrigerator lines and tanks on antenna Completed 42 Install network switch power conditioning system on all antennas Delayed Delayed until Q2 FY2021 due to COVID Very Long Baseline Array Operations 43 Define VLBA GO and SRO capabilities to be offered for semester 2020B Completed 44 Define VLBA GO and SRO capabilities to be offered for semester 2021A Completed Update VLBA documentation to support 2020B Call for Proposals, perform proposal 45 Completed technical reviews Update VLBA documentation to support 2021A Call for Proposals, perform proposal 46 Completed technical reviews 47 Implement VLBA user help program Completed 48 Evaluate pySCHED Completed 49 Plan for future RFI monitoring Delayed Delayed until Q2 FY2021 due to COVID VLA/VLBA technical managers assume full administration of the JIRA-based 50 Completed maintenance tracking system Development 51 Deliver production proposal for Oryx rollout to all VLBA sites Cancelled Cancelled after project internal review Cancelled and incorporated into FY2021 POP 52 Demonstrate Oryx capabilities in lab Cancelled milestone 53 Initial development of network performance diagnostic tool Completed 54 E-transfer of VLBI data from VLBA sites to DSOC correlator Completed Maintenance and Renewal 55 Major Maintenance Visit #1 Completed 56 Major Maintenance Visit #2 Cancelled Cancelled due to COVID travel restrictions. 57 Cold temperature operating report Completed 58 4 Gbps observing promoted from SRO to GO Completed

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 123

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

59 Y1 promoted from RSRO to SRO Completed 60 Install upgraded VLBA weather station at one site Delayed Delayed until Q2 FY2021 due to COVID 61 Complete installation of E-racks at all VLBA sites Delayed Delayed until Q4 FY2021 due to COVID 62 Finalize design of production E-rack power supply Completed

4.3 Central Development Laboratory

Operations Completed 1 Build and test Band 1 cryogenic amplifiers Completed Completed Completed 2 Build and test ALMA Band 1 local oscillators Completed Development 3 Design Band 6v2 Nb/AlN/Nb SIS mixer Completed 4 Evaluate upgraded balanced IF amplifiers Delayed Rescheduled for FY2021. Change of scope/specification led to the 5 Design, fabrication, and testing of 310 MHz short-backfire antenna Cancelled cancelation of this milestone. Modified design is in the works. Canceled since the equivalent work is now 6 Design OMT with band gap structure Cancelled subsumed into new milestone in POP 2021. 7 Implement polarization processing with W-band Front End Completed Depended on failed ASIC run, so proposed to 8 Design SADC drop-in for W-band Front End Cancelled be canceled in QSU4 4-square. 9 Initiate transmission-line reflectionless filter development with collaborator Completed 10 Deliver 2nd generation CTP Completed Maintenance Renewal, and Warranty Claims 11 VLA/VLBA multichip module support Completed

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 124

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

Completed Completed Completed 5.6 Science Support and Research TAC 1 CfP for Semester 2020B Completed 2 SRP and Tech Review, Semester 2020B Completed 3 CfP for Semester 2021A Completed 4 SRP and Tech Review, Semester 2021A Completed 5 TAC Meeting, Semester 2020A Completed 6 TAC Meeting, Semester 2020B Completed 7 Update SW requirements for TAC 2020A Completed 8 Update SW tools requirements for PST 2020B Completed 9 Update SW requirements for TAC 2020B Completed 10 Update SW tools requirements for PST 2021A Completed 11 Update documentation for CfP 2020B Completed 12 Update documentation for CfP 2021A Completed 13 Extra-large proposal outcomes Completed Science Ready Data Products 14 Wave-1 SRDP operations Completed 15 SRDP Wave-2 capabilities and requirements Completed 16 TTA Tools Conceptual Design Review Completed 17 VLASS product delivery schedule Delayed Rescheduled for FY2021. 18 VLASS Epoch 2.1 Observations begin Completed

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 125

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

Scientific User Support 19 Community Day Event program finalized Completed 20 Synthesis Imaging Workshop Completed 21 NM Symposium Completed 22 CASA validation Completed 23 CASAGuides Completed 24 CASA validation Cancelled Will deliver with new version of CASA. 25 CASAGuides Cancelled Will deliver with new version of CASA. Reference Services 26 NRAO history book published - Development of U.S. radio astronomy Completed Scientific Staff and Jansky Fellows 27 SciStaff performance reviews Completed 28 SciStaff promotion reviews Completed 29 Five-year reviews Completed 30 Jansky Lectureship awarded Completed 31 Jansky Fellows selection completed Completed 32 Jansky Fellows appointments completed Completed Student Programs 33 Summer student selection and offers Completed 34 Student Observing Support selection (VLA) Completed 35 Student Observing Support selection (VLA) Completed 36 Student Observing Support selection (ALMA) Completed 37 Reber predoc selection Completed 38 Reber predoc selection Completed

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 126

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

6.6 Data Management and Software SIS 1 Lustre and Cluster OS upgrades in NM Completed 2 Persistent Storage for NAASC and NM Completed 3 Evaluation of ICRAR NGAS Completed 4 Investigate HTCondor for local VLASS operations Completed 5 Investigate HTCondor for SRDP/VLA pipeline ops Completed 6 Investigate remote VLASS processing on OSG Completed 7 Migrate NM VLASS/SRDP ops to HTCondor Completed 8 Completion of VLBA fiber project Delayed COVID delay, Q1 FY2021 completion. 9 Develop Science DMZ Processing model Completed ALMA Systems Software 10 ALMA Cycle 8 Release Completed 11 ALMA Cycle 9 Pre-Release Completed 12 ALMA Correlator Data Rate Testing Delayed Will resume with ALMA Operations restart. 13 ALMA Scheduling Update Delayed Testing, FY2021 delivery scheduled. 14 Science Data Model Update Completed New Mexico Systems Software 15 VLA/VLBA Observing Support for Semester 2019B Completed 16 VLA/VLBA Observing Support for Semester 2020A Completed 17 VLA/VLBA Commissioning Support for Semester 2020A Completed 18 VLA/VLBA Commissioning Support for Semester 2020B Completed 19 Support hardware/CBE Upgrade Completed 20 Support RHEL Upgrade Completed

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 127

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

21 RFI Excision in WIDAR Completed 22 ACU Software Support Completed 23 VLBA Network Performance Monitoring Tool Completed 24 VLBA Weather Station Support Completed CASA 25 CASA 5.7/6.1 Release Completed 26 CASA VLBI/Solar Gap Analysis Completed 27 CARTA Release Completed 28 CASA NGI CDR Cancelled Rescoped

CASA Testing

29 CASA Testing Redesign Completed CASA Pipeline 30 Pipeline C7/SRDP Release Completed 31 Pipeline C8 Test Release Completed 32 Pipeline Python 3 Planning Completed

Science Support and Archives

33 Archive Retirement Delayed Ongoing, FY2021 POP goal. 34 PST Updated for Semester 2020B Completed 35 PST Updated for Semester 2021A Completed 36 OPT Updated for Semester 2020A Completed 37 OPT Updated for Semester 2020B Completed 38 PHT Updated for Semester 2020B TAC Completed 39 PHT Updated for Semester 2021A TAC Completed

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 128

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

40 SRDP-Wave-1 Completed 41 SRDP-Wave-2 Delayed Ongoing, FY2021 POP goal. 42 TTA Tools CoDR Support Completed Algorithm Research and Development 43 Fully Heterogeneous Array Imaging Delayed Ongoing, FY2021 POP goal. 44 Commission Full-Polarization Primary Beam Modeling Algorithm Completed 45 Commission Wide-Field Full-Mueller Imaging Algorithm Delayed Ongoing, FY2021 POP goal.

7.5 Program Management Department

PMD Operations

Completed Completed 1 HQ PM/SE Project Leadership Completed Completed Completed Completed 2 NM PM/SE Project Leadership Completed Completed Completed Completed 3 CDL PM/SE Project Leadership Completed Completed

Proposal Development

Completed 4 HQ Proposal Development Completed Completed

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 129

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

Completed Completed Completed 5 NM Proposal Development Completed Completed Completed Completed 6 CDL Proposal Development Completed Completed PM Activities Completed 7 HQ Continuing Education Completed Completed 8 NM Continuing Education Completed Completed 9 CDL Continuing Education Completed PM/SE Activities 10 Program Management Software Decision Delayed Postponed until after ERP decision. 11 Program Management Software Implementation Delayed Postponed until after ERP decision. 12 Multicancha Construction Complete Delayed Pending ALMA operations restart. 13 Multicancha JAO Acceptance Complete Delayed Pending ALMA operations restart. 14 SRDP TTA Tool Concept Design Review Completed 15 VLBA Fiber Installation Complete Delayed Delayed, complete FY2021 16 VLBA Fiber Final Report Delayed Delayed, complete FY2021 17 VLBA St. Croix Repairs Complete Completed 18 VLBA St. Croix Repairs Final Report Completed

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 130

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

19 Band 1 LNA Production Complete Completed 8.5 Education and Public Outreach News and Public Information Completed Completed 1 Identify potential image or story to feature Completed Completed 2 Reserve room with AAS Completed 3 Coordinate with AAAS Completed 4 Define promotional materials for Astronomers Completed 5 Establish calendar and contacts for deskside briefings Completed Completed 6 Contact reporter for briefing Cancelled Cancelled due to travel restrictions. Cancelled Cancelled due to travel restrictions. Multimedia Team 7 Define menu of press product image options Completed 8 Determine specifications for Gallery Completed 9 Wireframe of new image gallery interface Completed Completed Completed 10 Identify topic for hosted video Completed Completed Completed 11 Complete assignments for hosted video Completed Completed

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 131

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

Completed 12 Define format and develop procedure for populating style guide Completed 13 Present and Review populated style guide to EPO team Delayed Will be completed in FY2021. 14 Create AR beta application and web plugin Completed STEAM Ed 15 San Pedro Cohort orientation Completed 16 NM Cohort orientation Completed 17 Identify new content for outreach booth Completed 18 Identify National Association for Interpreters workshops for certified trainers Completed 19 VLA 40th Anniversary planning Completed VLA VC Operations 20 Survey advertising options Completed

9.4 Computing and Information Services Observatory-Wide Support 1 Upgrade of Mac platform to Mojave Completed 2 Albuquerque office connectivity Completed 3 Cyber Security risk assessment Completed 4 Security Controls and Log Management Completed 5 Cyber Security training Delayed Complete Q1 FY2021 6 Information Privacy Policy release Completed 7 Non-employee account audit Completed 8 Application Whitelisting Completed 9 Evaluation of MS Office 365 applications Completed Site Specific Facilities Infrastructure

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 132

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

10 VLA CBE and network upgrade Completed 11 Local area network upgrades at the NAASC Completed Maintenance and Renewal Will revisit when conference rooms are used 12 Video System end-of-life mitigation Cancelled again. 10.2 Office of Diversity and Inclusion Local and National Programs Completed Completed 1 Diversity Council quarterly meetings Completed Completed Completed 2 NAC and LSAMP Recruitment Completed 3 Summer programs initiated and completed Completed 4 NAC Annual Meeting completed Delayed Complete Q1 FY2021 5 RADIAL Project Plan and Proposal completed Completed Completed Completed 6 Diversity and Cultural Awareness training offered Completed Completed International Partnerships 7 Chile REU program recruitment completed Completed 8 Chile REU program completed Completed 9 NINE recruitment and completion Completed 11.7 Human Resources

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 133

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

Workforce Management Completed Completed 1 ngVLA Hiring Completed Completed Completed Completed 2 GBO Five-Year Proposal Workforce Management Plan Completed Completed Training and Development 3 Observatory Leadership Cohort Pilot Assessment/Implementation plan Completed 4 How to Travel as an Observatory Employee Training Module Completed 5 Bullying Prevention – Online Training Completed Compensation 6 Enhance Online Marketing Pricing Tool Completed 7 Finalize Variable Pay Plan Completed 8 JDE Position Control Module Implementation Preparation Completed 9 Career Pathing Completed Benefits Completed 10 Electronic enrollment - Non open enrollment benefit entry Completed Completed Completed 11 Third Party Benefits Vendor Upload Preparation Completed

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 134

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

Cancelled Cancelled due to technical issues 12 Work with Aon to research Retiree Medical Plan for Chilean ISMs Completed Recruitment Employment 13 Jobvite Enhancements Completed 14 Hiring Manager Training Design Completed 15 Hiring Manager Training Delivery Delayed Complete Q1 FY2021 16 Background and Credit Check for Specific Positions Completed HR 17 FY2019 Climate Survey Results Initiatives Completed 18 Bi-Weekly Payroll Transition Completed 12.2 Science Communications 1 Redesign NRAO exhibits Completed 2 Publish 2020 Research Facilities brochure Completed 3 Submit AAAS science symposium proposal Cancelled Meeting moved to virtual 4 Publish 2019 NRAO Annual Report Delayed Complete Q1 FY2021 13.6 Administration Administration With the cancellation of all in person meetings, this goal was pivoted to have the Events 1 Certified Meeting Professional examination Delayed Coordinator prepare for and pass the Digital Events Strategist examinations. The exam will be taken in Q1 2021. 2 Updated job descriptions Completed CAP 3 North Liberty VLBA site lease negotiations Completed 4 Los Alamos VLBA site lease negotiations Completed

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 135

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

ESS ESS commissioned an Observatory-wide security review. The development and costing 5 Develop Security Plan Cancelled of the plan was disrupted by focusing on COVID and the planning it required of the ESS Division. FY2021 POP goal. 6 Cost security recommendations Cancelled See line above. MIS 7 Bi-Weekly ETK Entry Enhancements Completed 8 Exempt Staff Transition from Monthly to Bi-Weekly payroll Completed 9 Implement Employee Benefits On-Boarding workflow Completed TTO 10 C2G 2020 planning complete Completed The conference was scheduled for May and 11 C2G 2020 commence workshop Cancelled was cancelled due to COVID.

14.1 Budget

1 Hire Jr. Business Systems Analyst Completed Completed Completed 2 Implement FY2020 Budget Completed Completed 3 Update travel budget guidance Completed 4 Insurance broker rebid process Completed 5 2020 Insurance renewal Completed 6 NSF Spring Budget Meeting Completed 7 FY2021 Budget Process Completed

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 136

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

8 FY2021 Budget Presentation Completed 9 FY2019 ICC Final Rate Submission to AUI Completed 10 FY2021 ICC Preliminary Rate Submission to AUI Completed 11 Evaluate JDE Position Control module Completed 12 Revised budget structure for paid time off Completed 13 PTO budget structure in Control Figures Completed 14 PTO budget structure in POP Charts Completed

15.3 Spectrum Management

1 WRC-19, Sharm El-Sheik Completed 2 WP 7D, Geneva Cancelled Meeting cancelled. 3 Other ITU-R Working Parties Completed 4 URSI GASS, Rome Delayed Postponed to FY2021

16.2 Director’s Office

ALMA Completed 1 ALMA Board Meeting Completed Completed 2 ALMA Director’s Council Completed Corporate Meetings Completed 3 AUI Board of Trustee Meeting Cancelled Meeting cancelled, now twice a year. Completed 4 AUI Executive Committee Meeting Completed

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 137

POP Milestone Final Status Explanation of Schedule Variance Milestone

Completed Completed Completed 5 AUI Visiting Committee Meeting Cancelled Meeting cancelled, now bi-annual. Science Community 6 Appoint new Users Committee Members Completed 7 Users Committee Meeting Completed Management Reviews 8 NSF Annual Program Review Completed Completed 9 All-Hands Meeting Completed

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 138

APPENDIX B: FINANCIAL PLAN COMPLETION MATRIX CSA-V CSA-A CSA-L ICC

NRAO Operations ALMA Operations & Development NRAO Internal Common Costs NRAO Internal Common Costs Total Operations POP Revised YTD Expende POP Revised YTD Expende POP Revised YTD Expende POP Revised YTD Expende POP Revised YTD Expende (000's) Budget Budget Expense d % Budget Budget Expense d % Budget Budget Expense d % Budget Budget Expense d % Budget Budget Expense d % Comments Telescope Operations 10,841 11,822 10,712 90.6% 24,735 23,026 17,590 76.4% 5,257 6,325 5,080 80.3% 110 110 156 142.6% 40,942 41,283 33,538 82% NRAO savings due to COVID delays in completing Maintenance 4,830 5,184 5,267 2,952 3,466 3,199 2,840 2,962 2,844 - - - 10,621 11,612 11,310 projects. ALMA savings due to telescope shutdown and Operations 1,798 1,817 1,540 21,621 19,392 14,276 1,044 1,098 882 - - - 24,463 22,307 16,698 favorable exchange rates. Spectrum Management 3 3 2 ------110 110 156 112 112 158 Infrastructure Mods & Upgrades 1,909 2,499 1,930 - - - 825 1,719 903 - - - 2,734 4,218 2,834 Management 2,302 2,320 1,974 162 168 114 547 546 451 - - - 3,012 3,034 2,539 Development Programs 2,844 2,846 2,679 94.1% 5,703 10,142 1,143 11.3% 0 0 0 484 484 458 94.7% 9,032 13,473 4,281 47% NRAO shortfalls due to ngVLA antenna contract open Business Development - - - - - (1,040) - - - 215 214 204 215 214 (836) commitments. ALMA underspends due to multi-year Technology Development 1,645 1,639 1,724 5,652 9,807 1,928 ------7,297 11,446 3,652 development profile, funds will be spent in out years. R&D Support 1,149 1,158 921 ------1,149 1,158 921 Software Development 51 50 34 - 284 174 ------51 334 208 Management - - - 51 51 80 - - - 269 270 254 320 321 335 Science Operations 7,400 9,086 8,065 88.8% 7,158 7,138 6,881 96.4% 0 0 0 2,841 2,819 2,645 93.8% 7,272 7,849 6,705 92% Science operations high due to additional time worked General Science Support & TAC 1,105 1,105 1,066 7 31 25 ------1,112 1,136 1,090 and late purchases by DMS. Reference 64 64 37 32 27 39 - - - 507 507 476 603 598 552 Broader Impacts 710 995 624 714 1,046 608 - - - 176 176 181 1,600 2,218 1,412 Scientific Staff 743 755 592 496 417 434 - - - 92 92 50 1,331 1,263 1,076 Management - - - 561 590 636 - - - 2,065 2,044 1,939 2,626 2,634 2,574 Scientific User Services 2,536 3,471 3,110 1,477 1,409 1,472 ------4,013 4,880 4,583 Science Software 2,242 2,697 2,637 3,098 2,882 2,679 ------5,340 5,579 5,316 Scientific Information Service - - - 773 736 988 ------773 736 988 Administrative Services 10,624 15,249 9,847 64.6% 8,744 10,912 8,981 82.3% 2,727 2,576 2,733 106.1% 12,978 12,711 11,627 91.5% 20,318 26,964 18,719 92% ALMA ICC savings due to lower overall spend. ALMA Business Services 860 6,145 316 959 981 893 - - 0 8,582 8,613 7,922 10,401 15,739 9,131 facilities spend due to project delays and schedule Facilities 2,087 2,117 2,444 600 2,152 1,408 666 672 758 3,582 3,572 3,428 6,935 8,512 8,038 slippage. Auxiliaries (11) (11) 52 ------(11) (11) 52 Management 386 386 417 308 1,172 550 327 327 255 275 275 277 1,296 2,160 1,499 Compensation Reserve 925 236 - - - - 231 75 - 538 251 - 1,695 563 - NRAO Internal Common Costs 6,376 6,376 6,620 6,877 6,607 6,129 1,502 1,502 1,720 - - - 14,754 14,485 14,469 Depreciation Expense ------Director's Office 2,469 2,920 2,392 81.9% 3,447 3,386 2,975 87.9% 464 563 519 92.1% 2,124 2,365 1,884 79.7% 8,504 9,234 7,771 91% ALMA IDC savings due to lower overall spend. Program Management ------946 942 794 946 942 794 Director's office savings due to open positions and travel Public Outreach 2 2 1 ------2 2 1 stoppage. Communications 196 197 139 172 169 150 - - - 128 130 124 496 495 413 Administration - 451 (1) - 225 - - 99 - 1,051 1,294 967 1,051 2,068 966 AUI IDC & Fee 2,271 2,271 2,252 3,275 2,992 2,825 464 464 519 - - - 6,010 5,727 5,596 Education & Public Outreach 791 803 761 94.9% 762 770 697 90.5% 0 0 0 0 0 0 1,553 1,573 1,459 94% Revenue shortfalls balanced against travel and F2F News and Media Releases 402 411 386 514 526 562 ------916 937 948 outreach stoppage. STEAM Education 320 318 245 141 140 47 ------462 458 291 Digital Learning & Multimedia - - 0 ------0 Visitor Center Operations (55) (51) 23 ------(55) (51) 23 EPO Management 124 124 108 106 104 89 ------230 228 197 ngVLA 0 3,837 3,241 84.5% 0 3,837 3,241 0% Open antenna design contracts account for the balance. TOTAL 34,970 46,563 37,699 81.0% 50,548 55,375 38,266 69.1% 8,448 9,465 8,332 88.0% 18,536 18,488 16,772 90.7% 87,621 100,376 72,472 72.2% NSF AST New Funds & Carryover 34,970 48,866 48,866 53,418 60,305 60,305 3,501 3,888 4,909 91,889 113,059 114,080 Revised revenue higher due to prior year carryover and Telescope Time Sales 4,614 5,009 4,891 4,614 5,009 4,891 additional awards. Other Revenues 2,631 674 333 624 621 18,536 18,487 17,028 21,500 19,111 18,323 NET 0 2,303 11,168 5,501 4,930 22,713 0 56 2,089 0 -1 256 30,382 36,803 64,822

*Fund Source Adjustments included in Director's Office *CSA-F/H in inception to date values

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 139

CSA-N CSA-F CSA-H

ngVLA NRAO Operations NRAO Operations

YTD YTD YTD Comments POP Revised YTD Expende POP Revised YTD Expende POP Revised YTD Expende (000's) Budget Budget Expense d % Budget Budget Expense d % Budget Budget Expense d % Telescope Operations 0 0 0 1,172 1,172 666 56.9% 955 955 863 90.4% Maintenance ------490 490 339 Operations ------Spectrum Management ------Infrastructure Mods & Upgrades - - - 1,172 1,172 666 450 450 512 Management ------15 15 12 Development Programs 3,054 3,054 2,470 80.9% 0 0 0 0 0 0 Business Development ------Technology Development 3,054.03 3,054 2,470.10 ------Open commitments account for some of the underspend. R&D Support ------Software Development ------Management ------Science Operations 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 General Science Support & TAC ------Reference ------Broader Impacts ------Scientific Staff ------Management ------Scientific User Services ------Science Software ------Scientific Information Service ------Administrative Services 714 714 687 96.2% 1,240 1,240 519 41.9% 989 989 1,013 102.5% Business Services - - - 163 163 37 - - - Facilities - - - 809 809 322 799 799 705 CSA-F has multi-year plan to support fiber contracts. Auxiliaries ------Management ------Compensation Reserve ------NRAO Internal Common Costs 714 714 687 268 268 161 190 190 308 Depreciation Expense ------Director's Office 232 232 203 87.5% 88 88 50 56.2% 56 56 100 177.8% Program Management ------Public Outreach ------Communications ------Administration ------AUI IDC & Fee 232 232 203 88 88 50 56 56 100 Education & Public Outreach 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 News and Media Releases ------STEAM Education ------Digital Learning & Multimedia ------Visitor Center Operations ------EPO Management ------TOTAL 4,000 4,000 3,360 84.0% 2,500 2,500 1,235 49.4% 2,000 2,000 1,976 98.8% CSA-H now closed. NSF AST New Funds & Carryover 4,000 4,000 4,000 2,500 2,500 2,500 2,000 2,000 2,000 Telescope Time Sales Other Revenues NET 0 0 640 0 0 1,265 0 0 24

*Fund Source Adjustments included in Director's Office *CSA-F/H in inception to date values NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 140

APPENDIX C: FY2020 ANNUAL OBSERVATORY METRICS

C.1 NRAO Telescope Usage

The following tables and charts provide a detailed accounting of the use of the NRAO telescopes—ALMA, VLA, VLBA, and GBT1—for October 1, 2019 through September 30, 2020. The total available time at each telescope in FY2020 was [366 days * 24 hours/day] = 8,784 hours. NRAO telescope time use is carefully monitored and tracked in the following categories:

• Scheduled: Planned hours of observing time for peer-reviewed science proposals and sponsored projects. 2 o Observing = Actual hours of observing. o Downtime = Hours lost during scheduled observing.

Scheduled hours = [Observing hours + Downtime hours]

• Maintenance: Actual hours of planned service of infrastructure, structure, electronics, and software.

• Test: Actual hours for test observations unrelated to peer-reviewed science proposals.

• Unscheduled: Actual idle hours owing to gaps between observing programs that cannot be scheduled, failed peer-reviewed science observations, and downtime of the entire telescope due to weather.

• Shutdown: Actual shutdown hours, usually for a holiday or major equipment work.

ALMA observing stopped in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The VLA underwent an extended maintenance activity in June to replace the backup power for the WIDAR correlator. In July, the VLA experienced a power outage that resulted in an increase to the unscheduled time.

1 The GBT is included in some metrics to maintain continuity with previous reports. 2 Observing may include non-astronomical observing of sponsored projects. In this appendix, confidential sponsored projects are identified as “Closed” or “Unspecified.” NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 141

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 142

ALMA Observing Hours FY2020 700.0

600.0

500.0

400.0

300.0 Observing Other 200.0

100.0

-

GBT Observing Hours FY2020 700.0

600.0

500.0

Scheduled 400.0 Observing Downtime 300.0 Maintenance Test 200.0 Unscheduled

100.0 Shutdown

-

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 143

VLA Observing Hours FY2020 700.0

600.0

500.0 Scheduled 400.0 Observing Downtime 300.0 Maintenance 200.0 Test Unscheduled 100.0 Shutdown -

VLBA Observing Hours FY2020 700.0

600.0

500.0 Scheduled 400.0 Observing Downtime 300.0 Maintenance 200.0 Test Unscheduled 100.0 Shutdown

-

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 144

C.2 NRAO Telescope Open Skies Usage

The majority of telescope time is competitively awarded by the NRAO for the scientific use of its telescopes on the basis of scientific merit and technical feasibility, and in accordance with the NRAO’s policy of non-discrimination and inclusion. However, a significant amount of telescope time is also awarded to sponsored projects, which are specially funded or approved via Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with the NRAO. The charts indicate the number of hours assigned to competitively awarded time (Open Skies), and to time awarded under sponsorship and MoUs. No VLA sponsored observing took place in FY2020. “Open + USNO” in the VLBA bar of pie chart denotes time sponsored by the USNO but permitted for Open Skies observing.

FY2020 Sponsors

NYUAD New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates SHAO Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, China USNO United States Naval Observatory, USA

VLBA OpenSkies & Sponsors FY2020 1.61 106.88 24.5

667.72 open open + USNO closed 1484.2 NYUAD 1351.21 2238.67 SHAO USNO

Open Skies and Sponsored Observing per Month 300

250

200

150 GBT Sponsored Hours 100 VLA Sponsored

50 VLBA Sponsored

0

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 145

C.3 NRAO Telescope Usage by Principal Investigator

The following table and charts provide a detailed accounting (hours and percentages) of the FY2020 use of ALMA, VLA, VLBA, and GBT by: (a) domestic (U.S.) and foreign-based (non-U.S.) Principal Investigators (PIs); (b) and by the astronomical community, graduate students, and NRAO staff. Only observing hours serviced by the North American (NA) Executive are included for ALMA.

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C.4 NRAO Telescope Usage by Science Category

The following tables and charts provide a detailed accounting of NRAO observing hours for ALMA, GBT, VLA, and VLBA that supported peer-reviewed science in each of the science categories employed by the NRAO proposal evaluation and time allocation process, and in the five categories used by the ALMA process.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 147

% Observing Hours in Science Categories FY2020

100% Star Formation

Solar System, Stars, Planetary Systems 75% Pulsars and Compact Objects Normal Galaxies, Groups, and Clusters Interstellar Medium

50% High Redshift and Source Surveys

Gravitational Waves and Energetic Transients Extragalactic Structure 25% Energetic Transients and Pulsars

Active Galactic Nuclei

0% GBT VLA VLBA ALL

% Observing Hours in Science Categories FY2020

100%

Stellar evolution and the Sun

75% ISM, star formation and astrochemistry

Galaxies and galactic nuclei 50%

Cosmology and the high redshift universe

25% Circumstellar disks, exoplanets and the solar system

0% ALMA

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 148

C.5 NRAO Telescope Usage by PI’s Country and U.S. state

The following figure lists the FY2020 observing hours at NRAO telescopes that were allocated to foreign- based (non-U.S.) PIs by country.

The following figure shows the distribution of the hours by the PI’s U.S. state of residence. This includes Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

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C.6A Observing Proposals Submitted for NRAO Semesters 2020B and 2021A

The following tables and chart describe the community response to the NRAO Calls for Proposals for Semesters 2020B and 2021A. The first table lists the distribution of science categories for the proposals submitted to the GBT, VLA, and VLBA. The second table provides the total number of Regular and Large proposals submitted to GBT, VLA, VLBA, and the Global 3mm VLBI Array (GMVA). Sponsored proposal and dissertation proposal numbers for each telescope are listed immediately underneath this table. Sponsored proposals are allocated observing time outside of the community-based and peer-reviewed NRAO Time Allocation Process. The final table describes the proposal over-subscription pressure (time requested/time available) for each telescope and for all NRAO instruments. The chart illustrates the percentage of 2020B and 2021A proposals that fell in each science category for each telescope and in total.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 150

% Proposals in Science Categories FY2020 (20B and 21A) 100% Star Formation

Solar System, Stars, Planetary Systems 75% Pulsars and Compact Objects

Normal Galaxies, Groups, and Clusters 50% Interstellar Medium High Redshift and Source Surveys Gravitational Waves and 25% Energetic Transients Extragalactic Structure

Active Galactic Nuclei 0% GBT VLA VLBA ALL

C.6B Observing Proposals Submitted for ALMA Cycle 8

The ALMA Cycle 8 Proposal Call was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ALMA proposal metrics are therefore unavailable.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 151

C.8 Archive Data Retrievals

The following table and charts describe the data volume and numbers of files retrieved from the NRAO and North American ALMA Archives in FY2020. Fully processed science data for ALMA is being delivered directly to ALMA observers via a Web server; the sum of archive and web server downloads is shown in the plot blow. Data being observed with the VLA using the WIDAR correlator dominates NRAO data retrieval.

The retrieval volume for the GBT is apparently, but not actually, much lower than the other instruments. This is because most observing data, especially private data, is accessed directly from local disks in Green Bank. Unlike other instruments, the data is not first written to an archive for initial retrieval.

The NRAO archive data downloads for September 2020 were unavailable at the time of reporting and have been excluded.

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 152

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 153

APPENDIX D: RISK REGISTER OVERVIEW

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APPENDIX E: ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

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APPENDIX F: ACRONYMS

Acronym Definition AA Antenna Article AAAS American Association for the Advancement of Science AAB Antenna Assembly Building AAS American Astronomical Society AAT Archive Access Tool AATF African American Teaching Fellows ACDC ASIAA CASA Development Center ACEAP Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassadors Program ACS ALMA Common Software ACU Antenna Control Unit AD Assistant Director ADC Analog-to-Digital Converter ADMIN Administration ADS Astrophysical Data System AGB Asymptotic Giant Branch AGN Active Galactic Nuclei AIN Aluminium Nitride AIP American Institute of Physics AIV Assembly, Integration, and Verification ALMA Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array AMBSI-1 ALMA Monitor and Control Bus Standard Interface 1 ANASAC ALMA North American Science Advisory Committee AoD Astronomer on Duty AOS Array Operations Site (ALMA, Chile) APP ALMA Phasing Project APR Annual Progress Report APS American Physical Society ARC ALMA Regional Center ARCADE Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission ARDG Algorithm Research and Development Group ARO Arizona Radio Observatory ASA ALMA Science Archive ASAC ALMA Science Advisory Committee ASIAA Academia Sinica Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 156

Acronym Definition ASIC Application Specific Integrated Circuit ASKAP Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder ASMH Advanced Spectrum Monitoring Hardware ASPECs ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field ATCA Australia Telescope Compact Array ATI Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation AU Astronomical Unit AUI Associated Universities, Incorporated BC/BS Blue Cross/Blue Shield BDO Binder Dijker Otte, LLP BE Back End BI Broader Impacts BUD Budget BUS Back-Up Structure CANFAR Canadian Advanced Network for Astronomical Research CAP Contracts and Procurement CARTA Cube Analysis and Rendering Tool for Astronomy CASA Common Astronomy Software Applications CBE Correlator Back-End CCA Cold Cartridge Assembly CCE Common Computing Environment CDL Central Development Laboratory CDR Critical Design Review CFR Code of Federal Regulations CHILES COSMOS HI Large. ExtragalacQc Survey CHIME Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment CHTC Center for High Throughput Computing CIRADA Canadian Initiative for Radio Astronomy Data Analysis CIS Computing and Information Services CLOA Central Local Oscillator Article cm Centimeter CMMS Computerized Maintenance and Management System CNC Computer Numerical Control CNGI CASA Next Generation Infrastructure CO Carbon Monoxide CoDR Conceptual Design Review CONICYT Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica

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Acronym Definition CORE Council of Representatives for Engagement CORF Committee on Radio Frequencies COSMOS Cosmic Evolution Survey COSPAR Committee on Space Research CPDS Cartridge Power Distribution System CPM Computing Planning Meeting CRADA Cooperative Research And Development Agreements CRAF Committee on Radio Astronomy Frequencies CS Contact Scientist CSA Cooperative Support Agreement CSIRO Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization CSV Commissioning and Science Validation CTDS casacore Table Data System CTP Cosmic Twilight Polarimeter CTS CCA Test Set CUP ALMA Correlator Upgrade Project CV Charlottesville, VA D&I Diversity & Inclusion DA Data Analyst DAPPER Dark Ages Polarimeter Pathfinder dB Decibel DDT Director's Discretionary Time DECYTI Directorate of Energy, Science, Technology and Innovation DMS Data Management and Software Department DOMT Digital Orthomode Transducer DOORS Dynamic Object Oriented Requirements System DRL Division of Research in Learning DRXA Data Receiver Article DSACore Dynamic Scheduling Algorithm DSHARP Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution program DSN Deep Space Network DSOC Domenici Science Operations Center DSP Digital Signal Processing DTS Data Transmission System DTX Data Transmission articles EBG Electromagnetic Band-Gap EDG Employee Diversity Group

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Acronym Definition EDR Extended Data Rate EHT Event Horizon Telescope EL Elevation EM Electromagnetic EMC Electromagnetic Compatibility EMSS ElectroMagnetic Software and Systems EOC Extension and Optimization of Capabilities EoI Expressions of Interest EPO Education and Public Outreach ER Edgemont Road ERIC VLBI European Research Infrastructure Consortium ERP Enterprise Resource Planning ESS Environment, Safety, and Security ES-T sanitary emergency-telework ESO European Southern Observatory ETK Electronic Time Keeping EU European Union FCC Federal Communications Commission FDM Frequency Domain Multiplexing FE Front End FEHV Front End Handling Vehicle FEMC Front End Monitor and Control FET Field-Effect Transistor FETMS Front End Test and Measurement System FFRDC Federally Funded Research and Development Centers FOW Fiber Optic Wrap FPGA Field-Programmable Gate Array FRB Fast Radio Burst FRM Focus Rotation Mount FTE Full-Time Equivalent FY Fiscal Year (1 October through 30 September) FYST Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope GAO Government Accountability Office GBO Green Bank Observatory Gbps Giga-bits per second GBSE Green Bank Session Editor GBT Green Bank Telescope

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Acronym Definition GDMS General Dynamics Mission Systems GDPR General Data Protection Regulation GHz Gigahertz GMRT Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope GMVA Global 3mm VLBI Array GO General Observing GOALS Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG (Luminous InfraRed Galaxy) Survey GOST General Observing Setup Tool GPS Global Positioning System GPU Graphic Processing Units GRAD-MAP Graduate Resources Advancing Diversity with Maryland Astronomy and Physics GRASP General Reflector Antenna Software Package GRB Gamma Ray Burst GSFC Goddard Space Flight Center GUI Graphical User Interface GW Gravitational Wave HBCU Historically Black Colleges and Universities HEMT High Electron Mobility Transistor HERA Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array HFET Heterojunction Field-Effect Transistor HI Hydrogen HiLS Hardware in the Loop Simulator HPC High Performance Computing HQ Headquarters HR Human Resources HRAG Human Resource Advisory Group HRIS Human Resource Information System High Sensitivity Array HSI Hispanic Serving Institutions HVAC Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Hz Hertz IAU International Astronomical Union ICC Internal Common Cost ICT Integrated Computing Team IDC Indirect Cost IDIA South African Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy IDOS Infectious Disease Operating Status

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Acronym Definition IET Integrated Engineering Team IF Intermediate Frequency IGM Intergalactic Medium INCOSE International Council on Systems Engineering InP Indium Phosphide IPT Integrated Product Team IR Infrared IRD Integrated Receiver Development ISM Interstellar Medium ISM International Staff Member iSOpT Integrated Science Operations Team IT Information Technology ITU-R International Telecommunication Union-Radio (communications sector) Scientific Committee on Frequency Allocations for Radio Astronomy and Space IUCAF Science JAO Joint ALMA Observatory JDE JD Edwards JIVE Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory JVLA Jansky Very Large Array k 1000 K Kelvin kHz kiloHertz km kilometer kpc kiloparsecs KPI Key Performance Indicator KSG Key Science Goal LA Los Alamos LBA Long Baseline Array LIGO Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory LLC Line Length Corrector LMT Large Millimeter Telescope LNA Low Noise Amplifier LNF Low Noise Factory LO Local Oscillator LOBO Low Band Observatory LPR Local Oscillator Photonics Receiver

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 161

Acronym Definition LRP Long Range Plan LRU Line Replaceable Unit LSAMP Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation LSM Local Staff Members LSST Large Synoptic Survey Telescope LWA Long Wavelength Array m meter M Million MA Main Array mas milliacrsecond Mbps Mega-bits per second M&C Monitor and Control mG milliGauss MHz Megahertz MIS Management Information Services MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology MK Mauna Kea mm millimeter MMIC Monolithic Millimeter-wave Integrated Circuit MREFC Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction MS Measurement Sets msec millisecond MSI Minority-Serving Institution MSMRx Millimeter and Submillimeter Receivers MSRI-1 Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure-1 MSV3 Measurement Set Version 3 (CASA) MTBF Mean Time Between Failures MTS Mixer Test Set MTTR Mean Time to Repair µas Micro-arcsecond µJy microJansky Myr Million years NA North American NAASC North American ALMA Science Center NAC National Astronomy Consortium NAIC National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center NAOJ National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 162

Acronym Definition NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration Nb Niobium Nb/AlN/Nb Niobium-Aluminum Nitride NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research NESS Network for Exploration and Space Science NGAS Next Generation Archive Systems ngVLA Next Generation Very Large Array NICRA Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement NINE National and International Non-Traditional Exchange NM New Mexico NRAO National Radio Astronomy Observatory NRC National Research Council NRC-HIA National Research Council of Canada - Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics NRL Naval Research Laboratory NSBP National Society of Black Physicists NSF National Science Foundation NSF-AST National Science Foundation – Division of Astronomical Sciences NTIA National Telecommunications and Information Administration OCA Office of Chilean Affairs ODI Office of Diversity and Inclusion OMT OrthoMode Transducer OPT Observation Preparation Tool OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSF Operations Support Facility (ALMA, Chile) OST Observing Scheduling Tool OT Observing Tool OTFI On The Fly Interferometry OTFM On The Fly Mosaicing P2G Phase 2 Group PAA Parque Astronómico Atacama PanSTARRS Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System PAS Provisional Acceptance on Site pc parsec PCB Printed Circuit Board PDR Preliminary Design Review PEMP Performance Evaluation and Management Plan PEP Performance Evaluation Process

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 163

Acronym Definition PFT Proposal Finder Tool PHT Proposal Handling Tool PI Principal Investigator PING Physics Inspiring the Next Generation PMD Program Management Department PMI Project Management Institute PM/SE Project Manager/Systems Engineer POP Program Operating Plan PPI Pipeline Processing Interface ProVoca Promovamos Vocaciones Científicas PST Proposal Submission Tool PT Pie Town PVCC Piedmont Virginia Community College Q1 Quarter 1 (October – December) Q2 Quarter 2 (January – March) Q3 Quarter 3 (April – June) Q4 Quarter 4 (July – September) QA Quality Assurance QDR Quadruple Data Rate QL QuickLook R&D Research and Development RA Research Associate RADIAL RADIAL – Radio Astronomy Data Imaging and Analysis Labs RAP-NM Radio Astronomy Path to University Physics REU Research Experiences for Undergraduates RF Radio Frequency RFI Radio-Frequency Interference RFP Request for Proposal RHEL Red Hat Enterprise Linux rms radio, millimeter and submillimeter ROP Reference Observing Program RSG Red Supergiants RSRO Resident Shared Risk Observing SAC Science Advisory Council SADC Serial to Analog Digital Converter SAO Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory SAS Sub Array Switch

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 164

Acronym Definition SB Scheduling Block SBA Short Baseline Array SC Saint Croix SCG Science Computing Group SCO Santiago Central Office SCR Silicon Controlled Rectifiers SCREAM Scalable, Reconfigurable, and Modular SDSS Sloan Digital Sky Suvey SEDLE Socorro Electronics Division’s Laboratory Experience for Undergraduates SE Single Epoch SE Systems Engineering SF Star Formation SIS Scientific Information Services SIS Superconductor–Insulator–Superconductor SKA Square Kilometre Array SLA Service Level Agreement SMBH Supermassive Black Hole SOL Standards of Learning SOP Standard Operating Procedure SOS Student Observing Support SPIE International Society for Optics and Photonics SRDP Science Ready Data Products SRO Shared Risk Observing SRP Science Review Panel SSERVI Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute SSR Science Support and Research STEAM Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics STEM Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics STFC Science and Technology Facilities Council submm submillimeter SUS Scientific User Support SW Software SWaP Size, Weight, and Power SysML Systems Modeling Language TAC Time Allocation Committee TARS Tethered Aerostat Radar System TDE Tidal Disruption Events

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 165

Acronym Definition THz TeraHertz TKIP Traveling wave Kinetic Inductance Parametric amplifiers TP Total Power TPS Total Power Spectrometer TRACE Technical, Risk, and Cost Evaluation TTA Telescope Time Allocation TTO Technology Transfer Office TTU Texas Tech University UCAR University Corporation for Atmospheric Research UNAH National Autonomous University of Honduras UNEION UCAR/NCAR Equity and Inclusion UNM University of New Mexico UPS Uninterruptable Power Supply URSI Union Radio Scientifique Internationale U.S. United States of America USNO United States Naval Observatory UV Ultraviolet UVA University of Virginia UVML University of Virginia Microfabrication Laboratory v volt VA Virginia VME Versa Model Eurocard VLA Very Large Array VLASS VLA Sky Survey VLBA Very Long Baseline Array VLBI Very Long Baseline Interferometry VLITE VLA Low Band Ionospheric and Transient Experiment VSAC ngVLA Science Advisory Council VTAC ngVLA Technical Advisory Council WBS Work Breakdown Structure WCA Warm Cartridge Assembly WFH Work From Home WFO Work-For-Others WIDAR Wideband Interferometric Digital ARchitecture WISE Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer WMP Workforce Management Plan WRC World Radio Conference

NRAO | Annual Progress Report FY2020 166

Acronym Definition WV West Virginia WVR Water Vapor Radiometer YIG Yttrium Iron Garnet yr year YUPPI "Y" Ultimate Pulsar Processing Instrument

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