My position as “fellow” at ESO includes 50% of my work time dedicated to operations of the ALMA observatory, which in practice sends me to the ALMA observatory “Operations Support Facility” (OSF) about once every month or two. We call these shifts “turnos”, as is the case at Paranal (link to Pascale post). At ALMA, the astronomer’s turno lasts 8 days (Monday to Monday, or Wednesday to Wednesday, typically).
Image: google, ESO
ALMA is located in the Atacama Desert in the north of Chile, about 30 km from the tourist village San Pedro de Atacama. In relation to Paranal (another important ESO site), ALMA is located to the northeast, near to the border with Bolivia. To arrive to ALMA, we fly from Santiago to Calama (an important mining city), and from there we take a charter bus to OSF. Door to door, the trip can take 5-6 hours.
Credit:
ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), W. Garnier (ALMA). Acknowledgment: General Dynamics C4 Systems
ALMA OSF is situated in the hillside at an elevation of 2900 meters above sea level. For reference, the ALMA antennas are located at the “Array Operations Site” (AOS), about 25 km from OSF and at an elevation of 5000 meters. Even though the OSF at 2900 m is much more hospitable than the Chajnantor Plateau at 5000 m, during the first few days at OSF it’s important to drink plenty of water, eat light meals, and try to rest even though sometimes sleeping is disrupted by the lower oxygen content.
The astronomers work in three shifts to cover observations throughout 24 hours per day: morning (6:00-16:00), day (13:00-23:30), and night (22:30-6:30). Typically, we work with one or two astronomers on duty (AoD), along side two antenna operators. Among astronomers, a slight minority are women; and among the antenna operators, only one is a woman. The women in the engineering and computing groups are also a minority. It’s not unusual to spend a week in the control room without many female co-workers. Nonetheless, more females work at the OSF in the groups/roles of administration and hospitality (this is a non-exhaustive list, the point being that there are women at the OSF, but in certain groups they are the minority). It has been important to intentionally make contact with the other women at the ALMA OSF, because otherwise we stay busy and focused only on work, and we lose the possible camaraderie and support of the others outside the control room. For example, I have seen women bring or share toiletries with others who forgot something during the shift.
Now I explain a typical day, i.e. today (a day in October, 2017). During this turno, I have the morning AoD shift.
Credit: Adele Plunkett
6:00 — Arrive to the control room (sala de control), where the night shift astronomers will soon finish at 6:30 am. During this time of “handover", they explain to me the observations of the previous night, including any problems they had with the observations. They show me the current observations, so that ideally when I take their place, the observations continue smoothly.
Credit: Adele Plunkett
8:15 — Around this time, the AoD lead arrives for a daily meeting, and with him/her I share an update about how observations are going. At ALMA, we run projects from a “queue”, or a prioritized list of projects. The projects have been ranked through an annual proposal review process, and given the weather conditions and the array configuration, we choose the highest-ranked projects with sources above a certain elevation. On a given day, we might observe projects for astronomers from all over the world, covering all science categories (link) of the ALMA project.
13:00 — The day shift AoD arrives, and along with the AoD lead, we balance responsibilities for the observations. Sometimes we have to monitor many screens of data and up to 3 separate observations at once. Other times it can be much simpler, and/or we get “in the zone” and can handle the process smoothly. While observations are running, we should monitor the current execution, including weather, antenna status, and signal correlation. Once a project finishes (and while the next one runs), we perform the first stage of a procedure called “quality assurance” (QA), and in case the observation is marked a success, then it passes to the next stage of QA in Santiago, or at an ALMA Regional Center (or node) somewhere in the world.
15:00 — Daily meeting with AoDs, leads, and astronomers in Santiago (via videocon). We communicate the success/unsuccess of observations from the previous 24 hours, discuss any issues that arose, explain tests that were run or need to be run, and we make a plan for the coming 24 hours.
16:00 — My shift is finished. Since the day shift AoD arrived a few hours ago, and we recently had the daily meeting, the handover happens naturally. Some shifts have other miscellaneous activities: interviews from journalists, public tours on the weekend (http://www.almaobservatory.org/en/outreach/alma-observatory-public-visits/), safety courses like how to drive 4x4 in emergency situations. Being an astronomer can incorporate many (interesting and exciting) skills.
PM — What to do in the arid desert, separated from any town or “public” activities, yet with access to internet and an incredible natural playground? Option 1 is to keep the “workflow" momentum, and transition to work on personal research. Working from the site of an extremely advanced telescope, surrounded by experts in all the details, is motivating; it seems that intelligent and technical thoughts are in the air. Option 2 is to disconnect entirely from computer monitors and data. My preference is to spend at least 1 hour outdoors every day, of course with the proper sun protection and water supply. I like to trail run, take a walk towards the canyons and cacti, or borrow a mountain bike to use on the surrounding dirt roads. Here we have privileged access to experience the beauty of the Atacama Desert in our “free time”, I will never forget to be grateful for this. Other exercise options (not outdoors, but still invigorating) include the new swimming pool and updated gym space. Of course, I’ve been enjoying the novelty of finishing my exercise in the new sauna!
Credit: Pablo Carrillo
The new facilities I mentioned are provided by the recently constructed “residencia” (our hotel space). The residencia includes the hotel rooms where we stay, reception, cafeteria (to be opened soon), exercise facilities, laundry, and lounge space. Remember that many ALMA employees work shifts of 8 days on, 6 days off, and repeat. In other words, they spend about half of their lives “living” at ALMA! The idea of the residencia is to enhance the “quality of life” for the workers, and in general I see it working. In the gym or other common spaces, we can cross paths with coworkers outside of “work-mode”.
True, a woman at the gym or in the swimming pool, or running or mountain biking, naturally catches the attention of the others here as something “different”. But, it can also spark conversations with other athletic coworkers, male or female, to find common ground and share experiences. Recent conversations during this shift began: “What race are you training for now?”, “One of the engineers is going biking today, maybe you could join him,” and “One of my coworkers trains for trail runs, he has a race this weekend.” ALMA also organizes twice annual “corridas” (fun runs) on the hilly loop around the facilities. What I learned (after some time trying to secretively do exercises with no one noticing) is that it’s best to do what I enjoy and be myself here. Sometimes being a minority (North American female, there are very few of us here) gives me more freedom, because I don’t have to live up to anyone’s expectations. They don’t know what to expect!
Photo: Pablo Carrillo
18:30 — I try to have an early dinner, so that I can also get to sleep early. There will always be complaints about institutional food, but in my opinion, I appreciate immensely that a team is cooking for me and cleaning my dishes after each meal. The food has evolved over the years to have several choices: salad bar where I can load up as much as I want, a vegetarian option, pasta and/or rice, and typically a few meats (including a fish option). Plus dessert!! My favorite spot is the patio where I can watch the sunset.
20:00-21:00 — When I’m on morning shift, I have to make an effort to get my (preferred) 8 hours of sleep. Otherwise the next day by 4 pm I’ll be dragging. There’s still some time for Netflix, or reading, or some other little hobby before lights out.
