Commission J (Radio Astronomy) Activity Report

 

Inoue, M. and Kasuga, T.

July 2005---Feb. 2006

 

 

 

1. Meetings and Conferences

1) ALMA Science Working Group Meeting, July 5, NAOJ, Mitaka, Tokyo

Second meeting for establishing core groups for scientific subjects.  This was intended to form scientific teams across multi fields of astronomy in Optical, IR, X-ray, theoretical groups, etc. to prepare international discussion on legacy program of ALMA.

 

2) Workshop on the Galaxy from southern hemisphere, July 21, Nagoya University

Based on the observations by Nanten, discussion of wide aspects was coordinated.  (http://www.jsps.go.jp/j-bilat/core_to_core/)

 

3) Summer School on Interferometry, August 22-25, Mitaka and Nobeyama

To give lectures and experiences on interferometry for beginners like graduated students, astronomers outside of radio astronomy, etc.  Textbook of lectures was available.  (http://vsop.mtk.nao.ac.jp/SS2005/)

 

4) NRO Users Meeting, September 12-14, NRO, Nobeyama

In addition to the way of telescope usage at Nobeyama, progress, results, strategy on radio astronomy, future plans, etc. were discussed.  (http://www.nro.nao.ac.jp/~nroum/index.html)

 

5) VERA Users Meeting, November 1-2, NAOJ, Mitaka

Status on telescope system, data reduction software, results of test observations, etc. was reported, and discussion on observing strategy including collaboration with the university and East Asia VLBI networks, was made.

 

6) East Asia Workshop on Submillimeter Astronomy and Receiver Technologies, Joint Workshop with the 6th Workshop on Submillimeter-Wave Receiver Technologies in Eastern Asia, December 8-10, 2005, Purple Mountain Observatory, CAS, Nanjing, China

 

7) Inaugural joint ALMA Japan-Taiwan (ALMA-JT) scientific workshops, December 15-16, Taipei, Taiwan  (http://alma.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/activities/workshop2005/)

 

8) Open discussion of the advisory committee of NAOJ on Radio Astronomy, December 21, NAOJ, Mitaka

Two subjects, Future plan of ALMA and NRO, and Closing plan of Nobeyama Mm Array, were discussed.

 

9) ALMA-J/ALMA-T Science sub WG on Extra galaxies, January 24 and February 18, NAOJ, Mitaka

 

10) ISAS Workshop on the Interstellar molecules having Deuterium, January 25-26, ISAS, Sagamihara

 

11) Radio Astronomy Consortium Symposium on SKA, February 1-2, NAO, Nobeyama

Brief SKA status was reported, and discussion on the standpoints to join or not to join the SKA project was made.  Many positive interests were expressed.

 

12) East Asia WS on Evolution of Molecular Clouds: Recent Observational and Theoretical Results and Prospects, February 6-8, NAOJ, Mitaka

 

13) ALMA-J/ALMA-T working subgroup on Protoplanetary Disks, February 13, Kobe University, Kobe

 

14) East Asian Young Astronomers Meeting 2006 (EAYAM 2006), February 13-18, Kiyosato, Nagano, Japan  (http://th.nao.ac.jp/~eayam/)

 

15) Symposium on Space researches using VLBI technologies, February 9-10, ISAS, Sagamihara

Issues on Orbital determination with VLBI, Space astrometry, real time VLBI, Orbital determination with GPS and accelerator, New technologies, etc. were discussed.

 

2. Progress and status of projects

1) The 2nd Space VLBI Project VSOP-2 has been approved by ISAS/JAXA.  Final approval will be made early March, and then the project will start since FY2007.

 

3. Future meetings and Conferences

1) ALMA-J/ALMA-T Science WS on the collaboration between ALMA and Subaru, March 2-3, NAOJ, Mitaka

 

2) Workshop on Mm and sub mm receivers, March 6-9, Osaka Prefecture University, Osaka

 

3) Perspective of Submillimeter Astronomy with Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE), March 16-17, NAOJ, Mitaka

 

4. Others

1) The 2nd Meeting of East Asia Core Observatories Association (EACOA), March 7, Tokyo

A number of activities has been made in East Asia region, and the main astronomy observatories in China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan agreed to form the East Asia Core Observatories Association (EACOA) last October.  Collaborations in various fields have been organized in these countries.  In the field of radio astronomy, the East Asia VLBI consortium has been coordinating VLBI observations and is about to discuss collaboration on VSOP-2.  Collaborations on ALMA have been also discussed to coordinate many workshops.