Observing proposals for the array are due typically in January, July, and September of each year. Usually you can request all available array configurations in a single proposal (if your science requires it). The Executive Board decides what frequencies ranges and arrays will be offered in each proposal period.

Proposals are reviewed and graded by five referees. Three referees are from institutions in the BIMA consortium, two are outside. The average grade is used to determine if your proposal will get scheduled. After your proposal has been reviewed, you are sent a referee's report by e-mail.

Proposals should be submitted electronically; we will grudgingly accept paper copy only in extreme circumstances. In either case, you MUST prepare your proposal with the LaTeX proposal cover sheet and style file. FAX proposals will not be accepted.

For more details, see the most recent call for proposals and the full proposal submission procedure.

• You should start with the document detailing the array capabilities. It will tell you about array configurations, receiver and system temperatures, the correlator spectrometer, how to calculate map sensitivity, and phase & amplitude calibration. 
  
  
• If you are proposing for the cm-wave receivers, read the document detailing BIMA's 1 cm capabilities.
  
  
• Once you understand the array capabilities, you need to find calibrators. Calfind is a Java applet to help you locate phase and amplitude calibrators near your source. You should try to find a calibrator of sufficient strength within 20 degrees of your source (closer is better). "Sufficient strength" depends on what wavelength you are operating at. At 3mm, S > 1.0 Jy is reasonable for a 3-4 minute observation; at 1mm you would need a calibrator with S > 2.0 Jy. The long baseline configuration, A-array, is a special case that requires a technique of fast-switching between multiple calibrators, and you should consult the calibration section of the array technical description. There are also many Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) Memos about fast-switching.  
  
  
• Another applet, GetHA, will help you determine the optimum hour angle range over which to observe your source (and also how much time per track your project is likely to be allocated). Note that you gain very little signal-to-noise by observing horizon to horizon.  
  
  
• An RMS noise calculation applet lets you use the latest BIMA receiver and system temperatures to estimate the point source sensitivity of your observations. 
  
  
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Page last modified: Thursday, 17-Mar-2016 13:48:30 EDT.