Aerial view of the Operations Support Facility (OSF)

This aerial view shows the ALMA Operations Support Facility (OSF), located at an altitude of 2900 metres in the Atacama Desert in Chile. It is where the offices, laboratories and telescope control room are located, as well as the site where the antennas are assembled and tested by the European, Japanese and North American partners, before being taken to their final destination on the Chajnantor Plateau. In the distance, on the left hand side of the image, the distinctive conical volcano Licancabur dominates the landscape.