The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array finds itself in the transition into full operations. Previous construction activities are being wrapped up, and regular, repetitive maintenance and upkeep will dominate the daily life, which asks for a consolidation and streamlining of the activities at the observatory. Especially the shifting focus to the high site of the observatory deserves more attention, since assembly, integration and verification activities at the base camp have ceased by now. In parallel, adjustments in the host country's labor legislation for operations at high geographic altitudes demand a review of the way things are done. This talk outlines the underlying operational concepts, lists the limiting constraints, describes the implementation of our reactions to those, and outlines our future intentions, which will be one in a number of steps towards optimization of the productivity of the observatory. The latter is the top level goal, which the Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) has signed up for.

Date Published: 7 August 2014
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 9149, Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems V, 91491C (7 August 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2056517

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9149:
Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems V
Alison B. Peck; Chris R. Benn; Robert L. Seaman, Editor(s)