ALMA Memo #400
A Proposal of Optimized Configurations for the ALMA
Frederic Boone (Observatoire de Paris)
2002/01/14
Keywords: configurations
A set of optimized configurations is presented. It results from the application of two previous papers dedicated to the design of interferometer arrays in general: the optimization of the locations of the antenna pads is performed using the Antenna Position Optimization software introduced in Boone (2001) and conforming to the analysis developed in Boone (2002). The constraints and the specifications are taken from the recommendations made at the Preliminary Design Review of February 2001.
The feasibility of a design based on an inverse approach is demonstrated. The locations of the pads are determined by the scientific goals translated in terms of target distributions of samples. The method used allows, at the same time, to control the quality of the distribution of samples (shape and mininimum density of samples) and to take into account the constraints and specifications (topography, number of pads, range of resolutions). The computing time required to get a complete array is of about 3 hours on a 1 GHz PC. Rather than a fixed geometrical concept the design can therefore be seen as a numerical solution that can be re-computed for any change in the specifications or constraints.
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