ALMA Regional Centre

Image credits: ESO

The ALMA project is one of the largest ground-based astronomical projects of this time. In order to coordinate such a large, international collaboration, each of the major partners of the ALMA project is responsible for supporting their own users. Each of the partners host their own ALMA Regional Center (ARC) with the responsibility of providing the core scientific support of the ALMA observatory. The European ARC is organized as a coordinated network of ARC-nodes. The central European ARC is located at the European Southern Observatory Headquarters in Garching bei München. (ESO) The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and the National Astronomical Observatory Japan (NAOJ) are responsible for the North American and East Asian counterparts, respectively.

European ARC

Image credits: ESO

The European ARC at ESO carries out the core ('user support') functions and consist of a network of institutes which provide the additional ('science support') functions. The national nodes are located in Bologna (Italy), Bonn/Cologne/Bochum (Germany), IRAM (France and Spain), Leiden (The Netherlands), Onsala (Denmark, Sweden, and Finland), and Manchester (UK).