assess_ms 3.0: ALMA uv coverage assessment tool released
On 12 June 2025, the ALMA uv coverage assessment tool assess_ms version 3.0 (public version) was released. The tool takes as input a set of calibrated MeasurementSets and produces as output various diagnostic plots and texts which enable the user to assess the quality of the uv coverage comparing it with a theoretical expectation. The tool can process 12M, 7M, and mixed array ALMA data. See the documentation for more details.
The tool is one of the results of an ALMA/ESO internal development study on ALMA beam shaping and uv coverage optimization which ran from 2020 to 2024. At the beginning of 2025, additional effort was put into further development of the tool (with contributions from the EMERGE project of the University of Vienna) to produce a version ready for public use.
On 13 June 2025, there was an I-TRAIN session introducing the tool, which was recorded and can be viewed via the webpage.