From the end of June through the beginning of July, it snowed heavily in the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile where ALMA is under construction. Since Chile is situated in the southern hemisphere, it’s the middle of winter there. The Atacama Desert is a very dry region with an annual rainfall of under 100 mm, and heavy snowfall is very rare especially in winter, although the weather can be rather
unsettled in summer.

The ALMA Array Operations Site is located at the Chajnantor plateau (about 5000 m asl) over the snow-covered mountains. After passing the evaluation test, antennas are transported by
the transporter
along the mountain road from the Operations Support Facility (about 2900 m asl) one by one on a day when the weather is fine. [Photographed by Norikazu Mizuno]