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CONTENTS

Introduction 5 Chapter 1: Research Objectives and Opportunities at the Frontiers 7 of Science and Engineering Mesoscale 1 – 8 From Millimeters to Hundreds of Kilometers Mesoscale 2 – 10 Thousands of Kilometers Microscale 1 – 11 Micrometers to Nanometers Microscale 2 – 14 Subatomic Macroscale 1 – 15 Millions of Kilometers to Thousands of Light Years Macroscale 2 – 16 Millions to Billions of Light Years Multiscale or Scale-Independent Objectives 17

Chapter 2: Major Research Equipment And Facilities 18 Construction Projects (MREFC) I. Status Reports on Facilities under Construction with MREFC Account Funding and 20 MREFC New Starts in the FY 2006 Congressional Budget Request FIRST PRIORITY: 20 Ongoing Projects in FY 2006 Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) 20 EarthScope 22 High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research 23 (HIAPER) IceCube Neutrino Observatory 24 National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) 26 NEES: The George E. Brown Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation 29 Rare Symmetry Violating Processes (RSVP) 31 Scientific Ocean Drilling Vessel (SODV) 32 South Pole Station Modernization Project (SPSM) 33 Terascale Computing Systems (TCS) 34 SECOND PRIORITY: 35 New Starts in FY 2007 and FY 2008 Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) 35 Alaska Region Research Vessel (ARRV) 37 Advanced LIGO (AdvLIGO) 39

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II. Status Report on National Science Board Approved New Starts 42 III. Readiness Stage Projects and Projects Recommended for Advancement to 42 Readiness Stage IV. Projects under Exploration 42 Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) 43 Collaborative Large-scale Engineering Analysis Network for 44 Environmental Research (CLEANER) Coherent X-Ray Light Source 45 Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) 46 Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA) Phase II 47 Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Earth Observing System (GEOS) 48 Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) 49 Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) 50 Petascale Earth System Collaboratory 51 South Pole Future Communication Needs 52 Square Kilometer Array (SKA) 54 Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) 55 V. Glossary of Acronyms 56 VI. References 58 VII. Image Credits 60

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introduction

Successful exploration – whether in with wholly unanticipated metabolic uncharted wilderness or at the frontiers of systems. Sensitive measurements of knowledge – demands commitment, vision, ancient light made at the South Pole daring and ingenuity. But those qualities confirmed the structure of the cosmos alone are not always sufficient. Progress 13.7 billion years ago. And the astonishing also requires the right kind of equipment. revelation that the universe is expanding at an Often new territory is accessible only accelerating rate – apparently propelled by a with new tools; and sometimes even a mysterious entity called “dark energy” – arose seemingly unstoppable rush of discovery directly from NSF’s optical telescope resources. must halt to await novel means of seeing, These and similar advances have altered the manipulating and analyzing natural course of scientific history. The Gregorian dome high above the Arecibo dish in Puerto Rico. phenomena. Identifying and funding the kind of tools that That is why the National Science Foundation will truly transform research in science and (NSF)1 supports not only research and education, engineering is an essential part of the NSF’s but also the physical implements that make mission. As in all NSF endeavors, inquiry both possible. Our investments range from begins with the research communities, which modest laboratory instruments and information alert program staff to the most promising technology (IT) resources to the sorts of world- and exciting topics, and the most important class projects that make up a special category equipment needed to explore them. NSF of NSF funding designated as Major Research then assists the communities in refining Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC). their insights, forming a consensus and focusing on paramount objectives and During the past half-century, unique tools their corresponding hardware requirements. provided by NSF have enabled scores of At that point, if a project clearly offers unprecedented discoveries and remarkable revolutionary potential, it may qualify for innovations. To cite only a very few: further consideration in a rigorous and The first observations of extrasolar planets deliberative process designed to select only the best of the best as candidates for Strong magnetic fields twist and turn and the first evidence for gravitational on the Sun, building up tremendous waves came from our radio telescope substantial program funds or MREFC support. amounts of energy that can be at Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The Nobel Prize- released explosively in what is called a flare, pictured here. winning investigation of ion channels in This process of identification and selection biological cell membranes used the special is, and must be, continuously repeated. X-ray capabilities of an NSF accelerator at Despite the stunning pace of research Cornell University. NSF’s solar observatories progress in the 21st century, the future revealed the first evidence of seismic success of entire fields depends critically activity in the Sun and detected sunspots upon development of new and powerful on the far side of our star – weeks before tools, some of which are described below. they rotated into position to affect space Such projects are increasingly large weather near Earth. and complex, with highly sophisticated IT components, including distributed Seafloor sediment cores retrieved by NSF’s sensor networks and vast data-storage drilling ships have transformed our and transmission capabilities. Costs of understanding of ancient climate and construction now typically extend to tens oceanography, and data recovered from or hundreds of millions of dollars, with ultra-deep submersibles have revealed millions more required for decades of unexpected rift activity in the Earth’s operation and maintenance. crust and exotic “vent communities” A re-entry cone, used to re-enter an So great is the potential effect of these existing drill hole on the ocean floor, starts its journey to the seafloor from the deck of the drillship JOIDES Resolution. 1 A glossary of acronyms is included in the Appendices. 5 To Index Page

expenses that in 1995 Congress created a special, the Director, in their joint report Setting Priorities separate MREFC account to support the acquisition, for Large Research Facility Projects Supported construction and commissioning of major research by the National Science Foundation, define the facilities and equipment. It is intended to prevent process used by the NSF for developing, reviewing, such periodic expenditures from disrupting the approving and prioritizing large-scale research budgets of NSF directorates and threatening NSF’s facility projects. traditional support of “core” research programs, which are funded from the $4 billion Research and The first chapter of this Facility Plan provides an Related Activities (R&RA) account. Typically the overview of those objectives and opportunities, and threshold for MREFC projects is 10 percent of the their intellectual context, as of 2005. The contents annual budget of the proposing directorate or office. derive from workshops, advisory committees, National Research Council (NRC) reports, the But cost is by no means the sole criterion. expertise of visiting and permanent scientific staff Each MREFC candidate project must represent an and unsolicited proposals from the community. outstanding opportunity to enable research and Many NSF directorates also conduct internal innovation, as well as education and broader impacts. priority setting and strategic planning activities that Each should offer the possibility of transformative endeavor to locate the leading edge of research, knowledge and the potential to shift existing anticipate where it might be in the future, and paradigms in scientific understanding, engineering determine the most valuable areas of discovery processes and/or infrastructure technology. and innovation. Moreover, each must serve an urgent contemporary research need that will persist through the often The second chapter describes MREFC facilities lengthy process of planning and development. already in operation or under construction and suggests some of the promising candidates As in any sort of exploration, the horizon keeps moving. identified by the nation’s research communities. Every year new opportunities will arise and new priorities Taken as a whole, the Facility Plan constitutes a will assert themselves. As a result, no roster of potential conceptual snapshot of the science and engineering projects is ever final. Responsible stewardship of community’s views in 2005. It is the first iteration public funds demands that all candidate efforts be of a product that will be revised and updated evaluated and reevaluated constantly in the context regularly as needed. of the latest, most pressing research goals and the most profoundly important unanswered questions. To that end, the National Science Board (NSB) and

The Degree Angular Scale Interferometer (DASI), shown here, operates from the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is designed to measure temperature and polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation over a large range of scales with high sensitivity.

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Research exploration operates at many frontiers simultaneously. One useful way to distinguish them is by physical scale of inquiry. There are fundamental questions to be answered across more than 50 orders of magnitude in space and time, ranging from the subatomic to the cosmic, and from quintillionths of a second to billions of years. Each scale presents special challenges – and special opportunities – for revolutionary facilities and the work they can make possible.

Achieving many important objectives will require a new generation of computing, communication, analysis and information technologies to revolutionize the conduct of science and engineering research and education. These resources, many of which are now in development, are collectively known as “cyberinfrastructure” (CI). They will enable researchers to conduct detailed “experiments” on computer models and to investigate phenomena that are inherently difficult to visualize. Equally important, they will serve one of NSF’s most important and most ambitious goals: to make possible information and resource sharing on a scale unparalleled in human history, including instantaneous access to data repositories, digital libraries and field-specific instruments, as well as tools for collaboration, data management, analysis, visualization and simulation.

In addition, answering many of the most profound questions will often involve combining insights from two or more scales, and from radically different kinds of equipment. For example, progress in cosmology will demand dramatically improved understanding of particle physics, just as a complete understanding of gravity – the dominant force at astronomical distances – will entail reconciling it with quantum mechanics – the rules that govern matter and energy at the very smallest dimensions.

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MESO S C A L E 1 From Millimeters to Hundreds of Kilometers

Although this size range Such efforts will require new kinds of encompasses the familiar world ecological observatories enabling collection and integration of data from a number of in which we live – and in which most different kinds of distributed sensors, both traditional science and engineering work for empirical research and for creation of has been done – it will never exhaust its effective models. The results can profoundly mysteries. Indeed, entire new horizons affect our ability to understand the spread of of research have appeared in the past infectious diseases, quality of water supplies few years thanks to developments made in critical regions, stability of essential possible by the convergence of fresh insight ecosystems, optimal engineering solutions to and powerful new technologies. complex problems and many other issues.

Fundamental questions in a host of ENERGY AND WASTE. mesoscale fields can only be answered What are the essential power sources and satisfactorily using the next generation of industrial processes of the future? To a large tools. A few examples include: extent, 21st-century civilization is still running on 19th-century technologies – most notably, THE BIOSPHERE. combustion of fossil fuels. And humanity is How can we detect, model and predict still practicing a social paradigm unchanged the ways in which coupled natural and in 100,000 years – burying or burning its human systems respond to different copious wastes. Finding alternatives to those kinds of stresses and modifications? situations is one of the most pressing goals Such models must include the consequences facing engineers, chemists and physicists. of the interplay among air, water, land Fuel cells, photovoltaic devices, biologically and biota and predict the effects of produced fuels and superconducting altering one variable (e.g., a particular materials are only in preliminary stages pollutant, precipitation or invasive of development, and they are merely the species) on one or more other variables. first generation of their kind. Fundamental Those effects, it now appears, can be hugely research is needed to improve performance complicated and are frequently nonlinear. and identify new methods of storing and Understanding them will require novel transporting energy. At the same time, collaborations of researchers and collation investigators must devise much more efficient of data taken simultaneously in many ways and benign forms of manufacturing, recycling at many physical and temporal scales. and disposal, while discovering or creating new materials that blur the distinction It will also require researchers to view between organic and inorganic, combining the holistically different kinds of interrelated characteristics of metals, films, polymers and phenomena that have never been regarded ceramics. as systems. For example: How do population trends, land use and industrial and urban INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL DYNAMICS. processes affect hydrological systems and How can we understand the totality and water quality in rivers, lakes and estuaries? complexity of human and organizational How can research about human and social X-ray scattering pattern of a behavior? The integration of vast stretched DuPont fuel cell membrane. behavior at all levels, from small groups computing power, massive data sets, large This project was funded in part with to communities to regions – especially in a grant through NSF’s Experimental response to crises or destabilizing events complex models and new analytical tools Program to Stimulate Competitive will be necessary to enable researchers Research (EPSCoR). – lead to effective engineering approaches to managing these dynamic systems? to comprehend, simulate, visualize and predict such behavior. Among the many outstanding questions: How do organizational

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and collective behaviors differ from the could simultaneously measure brain behavior of the individuals that made up function in large numbers of experimental such collectivities? What forces shape the subjects and/or interacting individuals. various subsystems of societies, such as the Indeed, we may soon be on the verge of economy, the polity and the legal system? characterizing at the neurological level What determines creativity and innovation at how people learn – that is, how the brain the individual and organizational levels? How acquires, organizes and retains knowledge do social and biological factors combine to and skills. shape human preference? How do emotions and cognition combine to influence human The goal is to better understand the choices? How do people, organizations and biological underpinnings of behavior, as social systems respond to sudden shocks and well as the ways in which behavior feeds Researchers have created virtual template extreme events, such as market collapses, back into neural activity. The implications brains that can assist in the study of ethnic violence, floods, earthquakes, of such research for educational theory anatomical brain differences related to tsunamis and terrorist assaults? and practice – as well as potential aging and disease. The variation in color and shape of the spheres indicates the applications to various neural disabilities magnitude and principal directions of the These questions cannot be answered without and other deficits – are extraordinary. anatomical differences across subjects. integrating information collected across a wide range of scales, from individuals and GENETIC AND OTHER DATA SETS. peer groups to regional and ethnic clusters, Across the stupendous spectrum of living and throughout diverse disciplines, from things, what are the most significant psychology and anthropology to economics similarities and differences? One of the and law. Ensuring the statistical validity of most promising ways to answer that question such unprecedented data sets presents a entails the creation of comprehensive separate and equally formidable challenge to genome databases. At present, only a few current understanding. organisms have been fully sequenced, and those sequences are still incompletely SENSORS AND SENSOR SYSTEMS. understood. Furthermore, broader and How can we detect subtle – but potentially faster research is needed to answer basic, crucial – changes in materials or the enduring questions such as: What is the environment, and combine sensor signals minimal biological “tool kit” of living things? into a coherent picture? Numerous scientific What biochemical and physiological and technical problems, from making processes are conserved across kingdoms sense of collisions at a particle accelerator and 3.5 billion years of evolution, and Cantilevers specifically modified for a biochemo- to monitoring the security of facilities to what major forms do variations take? optomechanical chip are illustrated above. The chip tracking alterations in brain waves or blood What genes are responsible for human is currently being developed for high-throughput multiplexed biomolecular analysis. chemistry, require steady progress in two cognitive capabilities? And what are areas: developing ever more sensitive and the origins and development of the ever-smaller sensors, and devising robust human species and the nature of human systems of assembling multiple signals into adaptation processes over the last five to useful information. Those objectives will six million years? require basic research that brings together specialties as diverse as surface chemistry, Moreover, the current successes of genomic microelectronics, biophysics, photonics, research have revealed new opportunities. information theory and mathematics. No counterpart to GenBank, the public DNA sequence database maintained by COGNITIVE AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES. the National Center for Biotechnology How are brain functions at the molecular, Information (NCBI), exists for other kinds of cellular, physiological and neural network biological data (e.g., morphology, anatomy, levels related to human functions such as ecology, behaviors, or ontogenies). Serious memory, learning and decision-making? efforts are needed to systematize the vast Within the past two years, both invasive hoard of biological information. and non-invasive sensing technologies have expanded rapidly. It is now The DNA sequencing process makes it possible to design experiments that possible for researchers to discover the amino-acid sequence in a substance. Shown here is the last step in the process: the end result.

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MESO S C A L E 2 Thousands of Kilometers

Thanks to a growing network of CHEMICAL BALANCE global sensors and data repositories, AND FUNDAMENTAL CYCLES. and a new awareness of relationships and What processes determine the ways in “teleconnections” among disparate variables, which carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and other it is increasingly possible to understand key elements cycle through the Earth’s natural (and anthropogenic) phenomena biological, geological and ocean systems? on a planet-wide scale. Investigators are For example, what factors govern the finally poised to expand understanding and amount of carbon sequestered in seawater predictability of the complex, interactive and biomass, and what are the variables, processes that determine variability in the parameters and limits of those processes? past, present and future states of the Earth. How much buffering, regulating or offsetting These processes control the origin and current chemical action do natural systems offer status of the forms of life on the planet and to increased concentrations of man-made affect the interdependencies of society and compounds, and what are the likely points planetary processes. at which irreversible changes may occur in chemical regimes? GLOBAL ENERGY BUDGET WHOLE-EARTH MODELS AND PLANETARY “METABOLISM.” How can we better understand the links OF BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS. between physical and chemical processes A major gap in large-scale simulations of by focusing on the exchanges of energy global processes to date has been in the within and among the components of the dynamic simulation of biological systems at a Sun-Earth systems, including the oceans and global scale. A major integrated hardware and atmosphere? Among other goals, progress software effort could elucidate some of the is necessary to improve the accuracy and most vexing questions in life sciences, such as: What is the biological “carrying capacity” One of a series of satellite images of the Antarctic projective power of global climate models, Peninsula that recorded the catastrophic break-up and to understand how ocean circulation of the Earth and the effects of different of a massive portion of the Larsen B ice shelf – an variables on it? What is the optimal global area larger than Rhode Island – in 2002. NSF is – and therefore climate – responds to responsible for managing all United States (U.S.) global temperature changes. In addition, spatial allocation of crops and livestock for activities in the Antarctic as a single, integrated comprehending the present and future sustainable production? How do alleles, genes program, making possible research in Antarctica by and genotypes move dynamically through scientists supported by NSF and by certain other state of the planet demands improved and U.S. mission agencies. more detailed understanding of the links populations, organisms and ecosystems? What and feedbacks among physical, chemical, factors will allow us to predict accurately the geological, biological and social systems; occurrence of new species and the imminent how they have evolved; and how they affect extinction of others? the biocomplexity in the environment.

PLANETARY STRUCTURE. How do the shape and composition of Earth’s components change over time, from the inner core to the upper atmosphere? Included here is the detection of motion of the Earth’s surface on the scale of millimeters per year, the deformation resulting from the buildup of stress by tectonic processes that lead to earthquakes, the deformation of volcanoes preceding Image from a numerical simulation of an eruption and the movement of ice sheets idealized wind-driven ocean basin, calculated on massively parallel computers at the San and glaciers. Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC).

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MICROSCALE 1 Micrometers to Nanometers

In recent years, imaging, Finally, research is now approaching another manipulation and testing of objects long-sought goal: To view chemical reactions has become possible at smaller and in fine detail and in small time increments. smaller sizes and time scales, resulting in Just as fast camera shutter speeds can “stop” an explosion of progress across dozens even rapid motion, the advent of lasers with of fields and holding the promise of truly pulses as short as one millionth of a billionth transformational understanding of matter of a second are making it possible to create and energy. With today’s equipment, “slow motion” images of chemical reactions, even students can pick up and move a vastly increasing our understanding of the single atom on a surface. Researchers ways atoms combine or break apart. have learned how tiny modifications in the assembly, composition or placement Continuing fundamental research at the of atoms and molecules produce strikingly micro- and nanoscales will have a major different behaviors that can be customized impact on our comprehension of many for particular effects. One of the most important phenomena. Among them: intriguing and valuable discoveries is the fact that the properties of matter can change dramatically as dimensions MOLECULAR UNDERSTANDING approach a nanometer (one billionth of a OF LIFE PROCESSES. meter, or about 10 atomic diameters). Humanity’s recently acquired ability to investigate fundamental biological functions Numerous devices are already exploiting at the molecular scale has revealed the these characteristics. For example, a marvelous complexity of microscale structure called a “quantum dot” can cellular processes – and in the process hold just one electron, making it a raised a host of truly profound questions, “single electron transistor” hundreds of among them: How do proteins fold and times smaller than those in today’s most bind, producing many of the essential sophisticated microchips. Even mechanical biochemical reactions of life? How do systems such as gears, turbines, levers and membranes work to permit selective entry fluid channels can now be constructed on and exit of molecules and ions, permitting the scale of a few microns (millionths of cells to interact with their surroundings? a meter – or about one-fiftieth the width What are the molecular origins of the of a human hair), enabling investigators emergent behavior that underlies life to create microchips for rapid analysis of processes from heartbeats and circadian blood or genetic material. rhythms to neurological activity? How do biological systems assemble At the same time, miniaturization and themselves? How did the first biologically growing sophistication of “photonic” relevant molecules form and how did devices, which generate and control they organize into self-replicating cells? light just as electronic devices generate How does a single fertilized cell become a multi-cellular organism? And how does a and control electrons, are transforming An artist’s rendition of the inside of a cell. communications and signal processing. common set of genes give rise to a wide Because light moves through matter range of morphologically and ecologically much faster than electrons, and can carry distinct organisms? numerous superimposed datastreams at different wavelengths, photonics research Medical researchers seek to apply those promises spectacular changes in the speed insights to treatments, and engineers of computing and information transfer. require them for innovation in fields such as bioengineering and nanotechnology.

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And biologists need to fill these gaps to pharmaceuticals, new drug delivery understand how organisms operate and systems, more resilient materials and evolve at the most fundamental level. It fabrics, catalysts for industry and much has been understood for many years that faster computer chips, among others. everything in a living cell is connected to everything else, but mapping out the EFFICIENT MANUFACTURING networks has been an extraordinarily AT THE NANOSCALE. difficult task. Understanding gene New kinds of fabrication will require expression, for example, involves widely available instruments, metrics thousands of genes and their products, and positioning equipment that permit many of which combine, cooperate, standardization and dimensional control antagonize and/or collaborate to regulate on a scale much smaller than most the expression of thousands of other existing facilities provide. In order for genes at multiple levels. Modeling this nanoscale manufacturing to become enormously complex system will demand affordable, the National Nanotechnology large amounts of new knowledge that Initiative (NNI) Supplement to FY2004 microscale science promises. Budget calls for “highly capable, low- cost, reliable instrumentation and MOLECULES AND MATERIALS BY DESIGN. internationally accepted standards for the Among its “grand challenges” for measurement of nanoscale phenomena chemistry and chemical engineering, a and for characterization and manipulation recent National Academies (NA) report of nanostructures,” as well as “standard urges researchers to “learn how to reference materials and standardized synthesize and manufacture any new instruments with nanoscale resolution.” substance that can have scientific or practical interest, using compact and safe ELECTRONICS BEYOND SILICON. synthetic schemes and processes with high Since the arrival of the first miniaturized selectivity for the desired product, and integrated circuits more than 30 years with low energy consumption and benign ago, the number of transistors that can environmental effects in the process.” be packed onto a microchip has increased exponentially, doubling approximately That will require knowledge of how to every 18 months. But this progression, design and produce functional molecules, known as “Moore’s Law,” cannot continue devices and systems from first principles, unless individual components are made atom by atom, and will demand the much smaller – and engineers are ability to image and control individual reaching the physical limits of traditional atoms and molecules in three dimensions. semiconductor and metal devices. The next Investigators will have to learn how generation of microprocessors will rely on to design and produce new material molecular-scale electronics. structures, nanoscale devices and system architectures with properties that can Making and controlling such nanostructures be predicted, tailored and tuned before demands entirely new areas of knowledge production. In particular, that effort will and expertise. For example, researchers include the understanding and exploitation will have to create novel architectures to of self-assembly. Part of the challenge will accommodate drastically smaller voltages be finding ways to mimic and modify the and currents, and find ways to make the creation of natural substances as different processing elements synchronize with each as silk and seashells. Part will consist of other directly rather than follow a central creating entirely new compounds and clock, among dozens of other problems. structures that do not occur naturally. And part will combine both into hybrid At the same time, scientists and engineers Electron paths in a nanowire, including materials with specific desired properties. imperfections in the wire, are pictured here. will be struggling to construct useful NSF has been a pioneer among federal “quantum computers” in which a unit of agencies in fostering the development The results will prompt revolutionary of nanoscale science, engineering and information does not exist only in one of two technology. It supports fundamental scientific advances and engineering states (0 or 1, on or off, as in conventional knowledge creation across all disciplinary innovations in areas such as individualized binary computers), but in a “superposition” principles at the nanoscale.

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of multiple states simultaneously. This condition, made possible by the often counterintuitive laws of quantum mechanics, can permit a variety of calculations to be made at once – potentially reducing the timetable for solving certain problems from years to hours. However, the same quantum uncertainty that makes the superposition possible also makes it intensely difficult to keep such a machine in a steady state and to read out information accurately. The obstacles to quantum computing are daunting, and call for the utmost ingenuity in creating new instruments and devices.

NEW STATES AND BEHAVIORS OF MATTER. As recently as 10 years ago, physics recognized only four states of matter: solids, liquids, gases and plasmas. Then researchers devised equipment and techniques that made it possible to create an entirely new state – predicted by theory and called a Bose-Einstein condensate – in which multiple atoms coalesce into a single condition equivalent to one “super atom” at extremely low temperatures. This is only one of the peculiar phenomena that occur in such conditions, along with superconductivity and superfluidity, the flow of fluid without viscosity or resistance. Continuing research in the field of cryogenics, where work is done as close to absolute zero as possible, is expected to prompt the emergence of even more unusual properties.

Inspired by the molecular assembly techniques used in living cells, chemist Chad Mirkin and his colleagues at Northwestern University have created a new class of nanometer-scale building blocks that can spontaneously assemble themselves into ultra- tiny spheres, tubes and curved sheets.

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MICRO S C A L E 2 S u b a t o m i c Over the past 100 years, research the results, in search of new particles and has revealed the structure of processes. Over the next decade, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European the atom, the substructure of its neutrons Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and protons, the existence of antimatter, and is expected to reveal – or possibly rule the behavior of particles that carry three of out – the existence of particles beyond the four fundamental forces. This collected the standard model. But numerous other knowledge, embodied in the consensus theory high-energy devices around the world will of particles and interactions known as the be required to conduct complementary and “standard model,” is one of the grand triumphs confirmatory research. And researchers in the history of science, making predictions will be watching those results closely that can be confirmed by observation to 10 to see if they provide support for decimal places. But it is incomplete. “string theory,” which posits that what we regard as different kinds of particles Among other problems, the standard model are actually simply different vibration does not explain why the elementary modes of infinitesimal string-like entities particles have such a remarkable variety comprising 10, 11 or more dimensions. of masses, nor how the property of mass itself arises. It cannot account for certain At the same time, particle physicists inconsistencies, or “asymmetries,” in the are teaming with astronomers and behavior of particles and their antiparticles. astrophysicists to use the awesome variety So both theorists and experimentalists of extreme conditions detectable in space as are working to expand, refine or replace “laboratory specimens” for new theories of the model. In the process, they are asking matter and force. Many experts now believe the most fundamental questions possible. that any complete revision of the standard Among them: What is the full set of model will have to combine ground-based nature’s building blocks? Have we and astronomical observations into a detected them all, or are there a few comprehensive understanding. – or dozens – more? How many space- time dimensions are there and did they Some of the most interesting emerge from something more fundamental? phenomena, and many of the most Is there a single, unified force that underlies potentially revolutionary theories, span electromagnetism, the weak and strong forces spatial scales from the smallest to the and gravity? If so, how is it described? largest. To cite only two: What is the connection between elementary particles An artistically enhanced picture of particle tracks Some of the answers, if they arrive, and the dark matter and dark energy that in the Big European Bubble Chamber (BEBC). will be found on Earth at high-energy make up 95 percent of the universe? accelerators that smash particles into And how do the properties of individual their antiparticles, creating brief showers atoms and molecules interact to create of very exotic material. Physicists use the properties of bulk materials? exquisitely sensitive detectors to examine

NSF’s contribution to the international LHC project includes the construction of two detectors: the Compact Muon Solenoid and ATLAS, A large Toroidal LHC Apparatus. ATLAS’ tile calorimeter will collect the energy released in the LHC´s proton-proton collisions. Special plastic manufacturing techniques have been adapted to mass produce the ATLAS elements.

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MACROSCALE 1 Millions of Kilometers to Thousands of Light Years In science, new answers always instruments that can discern fine structure bring even newer questions. in the magnetic fields and trajectories of solar plasma, whether in “active regions” That has clearly been the case during the in and around sunspots or within ejected past quarter century, which constitutes material in prominences, flares and a golden age of discovery in astronomy coronal mass ejections. and cosmology. Through powerful tools and ideas, astronomers and physicists OUR GALAXY AND ITS NEIGHBORS. have extended our vision further out It has been decades since the presence in space and our understanding further of “dark matter” – the invisible material back in time. They have also uncovered that makes up most of the mass of the new puzzles, unexplained phenomena universe – was first inferred from the and areas of interest. The list is long, rotation of spiral galaxies. Yet its nature is and begins close to home. still a mystery. Further understanding will combine astrophysical observations with LIVING WITH THE SUN. Earth-based efforts at detection, several A deep understanding of our local star, of which are already under way. Those the Sun, is enormously important for activities, in turn, will have to be tempered many practical reasons – including the need to anticipate solar events by and reconciled with discoveries in and protect against their effects on particle physics from existing and future communications, and to discern the Sun’s accelerators and other facilities. stability and its role in Earth’s climate Millions of miles away, coronal mass ejections from the Sun blast and evolution. Comprehending solar Conversely, it was only a few years ago that billions of tons of plasma into our phenomena will also provide a wealth of astronomers produced the first evidence of magnetosphere with the potential to information about millions of similar stars disturb space systems, power grids planets around stars besides our Sun. Now and communications. in the universe, and particularly about the about 150 are known. But it is still unclear activity and variability of solar-type stars. how planets form, which mechanisms determine their composition, and whether Specific research questions regarding there are habitable analogues to Earth solar/terrestrial connections include: in nearby space. Much higher telescopic What are the processes that cause resolution, and new sensor suites, will be solar variability? What are the mechanisms needed to begin to understand these topics. responsible for powerful solar activity such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections? Different science will be required to explain What is the impact of solar activity many ultrahigh-energy phenomena observed on terrestrial communications and recently, from gamma-ray “bursters” to power systems? What is the connection superenergetic cosmic ray particles whose between solar activity and space weather? method of acceleration is unknown but may What is the origin of the Sun’s 22-year solar indicate new phases of matter. cycle, and why is it manifested in the number and location of sunspots? How does the solar Finally, the sky is full of stars, and there are dynamo work to create the star’s titanic about 100 billion in our galaxy alone. Yet magnetic field? What powers the solar there is still insufficient understanding of corona, which is hundreds of times hotter how stars form, what factors determine their Stars surrounding the South Celestial Pole appear to spin over the Gemini South dome than the surface of the Sun? ultimate qualities, how long they live and in this digital star trail image. Images how they die. There is evidence of stars in our obtained every minute for a period of Answering these questions fully will about four and a half hours were stacked in region of space that are practically as old as Photoshop to create this image. require new and very sophisticated the universe itself. And there may be stellar devices and telescopes, both Earth-based phenomena that we have not yet observed. and space-based. It will also demand

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MACRO S C A L E 2 Millions to Billions of Light Years

Some recent discoveries have it appeared to many observers that the shaken conventional ideas nature’s fundamental interactions were, at last, comprehensible, requiring only some so fundamentally that they are obliging refinements and calibrations. researchers to rethink some of their most familiar notions. For example, our That was by no means the case. Einstein’s understanding of cosmology was challenged Theory of General Relativity revealed less than a decade ago when researchers much about the force of gravity on the produced evidence that the expansion of cosmic scale. But if it is to be part of a truly the universe – known since the early 20th cohesive and complete description of what century and presumed to be relatively shapes the universe, gravity must be made constant – was in fact speeding up. consistent with quantum mechanics, the rules that govern interactions at the smallest What currently undetectable “dark energy” spatial scales. So far, the two theories are could be fuelling that expansion? incompatible. Researchers expect that current What does it mean for the destiny of our and future gravitational wave observatories universe? What are the components of will add abundant insight by detecting space- the 95 percent of the cosmos that is not time perturbations that occur when two made up of ordinary matter? And what neutron stars or two black holes collide. do the new revelations portend for our comprehension of elemental forces? Attempts to reconcile gravity and quantum theory will also have to take place in the Gravity is perhaps the most spectacular context of other large questions about the example. It was the first fundamental force origin and evolution of the cosmos, including: to be understood scientifically, when Newton What was the ”Big Bang” that produced united the heavens and the Earth through his the universe some 13.7 billion years ago? equations. Maxwell’s equations then united Did the cosmos experience a split-second the forces of electricity and magnetism in the period of “inflation” that expanded it? theory of electromagnetism, and a century How and where did the chemical elements later electrodynamics was explained on the form and how has the composition of the quantum scale. The strong and weak forces universe evolved? How did galaxies form were characterized with varying degrees This is an image of the Pelican Nebula, th and how are they evolving? produced by the National Optical Astronomy of success. By the end of the 20 century, Observatories’ (NOAO) survey program, “Deep Imaging Survey of Nearby Star-Forming Clouds.” A faint jet squirts out of the tip of one of the pillars, apparently indicating the presence of an unseen protostar.

An artist’s conception illustrating the history of the cosmos, from the Big Bang and the recombination epoch that created the microwave background, through the formation of galactic superclusters and galaxies themselves. The dramatic flaring at right emphasizes that the universe’s expansion currently is speeding up.

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MULTI-SCALE OR SCALE-INDEPENDENT OBJECTIVES

Finally, some of the most MATHEMATICS. ambitious research objectives How can uncertainty be quantified and controlled? Which mathematical structures transcend scale, and achieving them best describe multiscale phenomena? will have repercussions across numerous How can large datasets be mined for disciplines and dimensions. information? How fast can large numbers be factored? And how can data be archived COMPUTER SCIENCE. so as to be accessible decades from now? What is computable? What are practical realizations of machines composed of How can we best model complexity, self- hardware and software that can correctly organization and “chaotic” or nonlinear implement computable procedures and phenomena? How can patterns of data functions in bounded, practical amounts – including “unvisualizable” situations of time? What are the principles of such as geometries in more than four organization and the structure of dimensions, or sensor data streams from software that will permit increasingly diverse instruments – be assembled large collections of machines to work into shapes and structures that have together effectively on a common explanatory meaning? What rules govern problem? How can collections of complicated natural processes from the machines communicate with each other differentiation of cells and the expression This Ferris wheel-like arrangement represents an elegant solution for effectively? What principles underlie the of genes to the folding of proteins or managing unwieldly amounts of activities of humans (perhaps aided by the self-arrangement of crystalline information. The three-dimensional other machines) in the task of designing nanostructures? What sorts of algorithms interface organizes computer contents by their relationships rather hardware and software? are suitable to test systems – such as than their physical position on a multibillion-transistor computer chips hard drive. The program displays relationships that would not be clear How can interlocking systems, or “networks or 100-billion-neuron human brains in a normal, two-dimensional file of networks,” be made secure, fault-tolerant – whose total possible data routes are tree and could be applied to any sort and robust to the greatest degree possible? astronomically large? of hierarchical database. How can those systems be integrated with social and cultural norms so as to provide What sorts of mathematical forms best the greatest utility to populations in time of achieve different kinds of optimization, from crisis? How can vast databases be organized efficient transportation and manufacturing so that they can be queried rapidly? networks to maximum return on financial portfolios to deployment of armies and What are the limits of artificial intelligence, materiel? How can rare events of interest and how can they be approached to expand be extracted from huge data sets? How can human cognitive capabilities? Can heuristic significant patterns be discerned from the or probabilistic decision schemes be inherent “noise” and stochastic artifacts that maximized in machine intelligence? arise in such large collections? And similarly, What are the possibilities of computerized how can one identify, record and analyze the learning? How can we manage and oversee complicated interplay of numerous covariables the structure of complex computer systems in large systems – whether ecological, social, with millions or billions of components? neurological or geophysical? And how can systems with different This surface illustrates the failed attempt to construct a complete, properly embedded characteristics and/or architectures So profound are the foregoing questions, minimal surface without handles and three communicate – especially in searching for and so uncertain the approaches to ends: No matter what one does, the three patterns in enormously large data sets? answering them, that the requisite ends can not all be simultaneously parallel and will thus eventually intersect. instruments and facilities can barely be imagined in 2005. They will test the limits of science and engineering, and the power of human ingenuity.

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The variety of facilities that are ongoing or requested as new starts includes:

+ single-location, dedicated facilities for observation/experimentation, sometimes with e-capabilities for remote control and/or transfer of data for analysis (e.g., the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), IceCube);

+ single-location, multiple instruments and associated infrastructure providing resources for a variety of research activity of varied but related types (e.g., South Pole Station) to which users travel or send samples or connect electronically;

+ distributed/connected instrumentation taking common sets of data for integrated analysis (e.g., EarthScope);

+ distributed/connected instruments of varied types that provide a suite of user capabilities (e.g., the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES), National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), etc.);

+ mobile research platforms such as the Alaska Region Research Vessel (ARRV).

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The table below, taken from the NSF FY 2006 Congressional Budget Request, summarizes recent, current and projected expenditures from the MREFC account.

MREFC Account1 (Dollars in Millions)

FY 2004 FY 2005 FY 2006 FY 2007 FY 2008 FY 2009 FY 2010 Actual Current Plan Request Estimate Estimate Estimate Estimate ONGOING PROJECTS Atacama Large Millimeter Array 50.70 49.30 49.24 47.89 46.49 37.37 20.91 (ALMA) Construction EarthScope 43.24 46.97 50.62 26.80 High-performance Instrumented 12.54 Airborne Platform for Environmental Research (HIAPER) IceCube Neutrino Observatory 38.36 47.62 50.45 28.65 21.78 11.33 0.95 National Ecological Observatory 12.00 12.00 20.00 Network (NEON) Network for Earthquake Engineering 8.05 Simulation (NEES) Rare Symmetry Violating Processes 14.88 41.78 48.00 30.75 15.00 8.00 (RSVP)3 Scientific Ocean Drilling Vessel 14.88 57.92 42.20 (SODV) South Pole Station 21.03 Terascale Computing Systems (TCS) 10.05 NEW STARTS Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) 13.50 42.00 65.50 66.90 Alaska Region Research Vessel 49.32 32.88 (ARRV) Advanced LIGO (AdvLIGO) 28.48 42.81 46.31 Totals $183.96 $173.65 $250.01 $268.36 $214.38 $192.01 $143.07 Totals may not add due to rounding. Estimates for 2007 and beyond do not reflect policy decisions and are presented for planning purposes only. 1 The FY 2005 total includes $37.13 million carried forward from previous years. This includes $29.87 million for the South Pole Station Modernization (SPSM) project, $115,000 for Polar Support Aircraft upgrades, $34,418 for the South Pole Safety project, and $7.11 million for IceCube. 2 This table does not reflect changes to the priority order, which the National Science Board made at its May 2005 meeting, for the four projects that have not begun to receive MREFC funding. The NSB considers NEON to be a New Start under the MREFC account, and the revised priority order of the New Starts is ARRV, NEON, OOI and AdvLIGO. 3 At the August 2005 meeting of the NSB, NSF recommended and the NSB approved the termination of RSVP. See the RSVP narrative for additional information.

In FY 2004, MREFC funding was provided for three ongoing construction projects: ALMA, EarthScope and IceCube. In addition, the FY 2005 omnibus appropriation bill provided the first increment of funding for two new starts, SODV and the RSVP project. Several other MREFC projects are still under construction, although MREFC funding has concluded. These include HIAPER, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), NEES, SPSM, and the Extensible Terascale Facility (ETF), previously known as TCS. Very detailed information about all of these projects is found in the MREFC and the Facilities Chapters of the NSF FY2006 Budget Request, which is available on the NSF Website at http://www.nsf.gov/about/budget/fy2006/.

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Status Reports on Facilities under Construction with MREFC Account Funding and MREFC New Starts in the FY 2006 Congressional Budget Request1 For many major research facilities there is substantial overlap of the Construction and Operations Stages, with operations beginning well before construction is complete. One example is radio telescopes, for which subsets of the antennas in an array may be used for data collection well before the array has been completed. This overlap is especially true for distributed facilities, when the components in some locations may be fully ready for operations and data collection while those in other locations are in early stages of construction. A good example is EarthScope, for which sensor arrays in some locations will be operational much earlier than in other locations.

All MREFC projects use an internal NSF advisory group called a Project Advisory Team (PAT) during their development and implementation phases. The PATs generally consist of representatives from interested and/or participating directorates and offices, the NSF Deputy for Large Facility Projects (DLFP) and routinely the Office of General Counsel (OGC), the Office of Budget, Finance and Award Management (BFA), and the Office of Legislative and Public Affairs (OLPA).

FIRST PRIORITY: Ongoing Projects in FY 2006

ATACAMA LARGE MILLIMETER ARRAY (ALMA) Originally referred to as the Millimeter side of the project, consisting of the United The ALMA VertexRSI test antenna, one of two Array (MMA) in the United States, this States and Canada, is led by Associated prototypes constructed at the site of the Very Large Array near Socorro, NM. international project will be an aperture- Universities Inc./National Radio Astronomy synthesis radio telescope operating in Observatory (AUI/NRAO). Funding and the wavelength range from 3 to 0.4 mm. execution of the project in Europe is ALMA will be the world’s most sensitive, carried out through the European Southern highest-resolution, millimeter-wavelength Observatory (ESO). Funding of the project telescope, combining sub-arcsecond in Japan is carried out through the National angular resolution with the sensitivity Institutes of Natural Sciences of Japan and of a single antenna nearly 100 meters project execution is the responsibility of the in diameter. The array will provide a National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. testing ground for theories of star birth ALMA instrumentation will push gallium and stellar evolution, galaxy formation arsenide and indium phosphide transistor and evolution and the evolution of the amplifier technology to high frequencies, universe itself. The interferometer will will challenge production of high-density, be located at 5,000-meter altitude near high-speed integrated circuits for San Pedro de Atacama in the Second computational uses, and can be expected Region of Chile, the ALMA host country. to stimulate commercial device and ALMA will also play a central role in the communication technologies development. education and training of U.S. astronomy and engineering students; at least 15 Programmatic management is the percent of ALMA’s approximately 2,000 responsibility of the ALMA Staff Associate yearly users are expected to be students. in the Division of Astronomical Sciences (AST) in the Directorate for Mathematical North America and Europe were equal and Physical Sciences (MPS). AST’s partners in ALMA as originally planned (the external MMA Oversight Committee has baseline ALMA). Japan joined ALMA as a been advising NSF on the project since third major partner in September 2004, and early 1998, and comprises half of the will deliver a number of enhancements to International ALMA Management Advisory the baseline instrument. The North American Committee. Management of the NRAO

1 As in the budget table on the previous page, the categorization and priority order of projects in this section reflect the structure and priority order of the FY 2006 Budget to Congress, and do not reflect the revisions made by the National Science Board at its May 2005 meeting. The NSB considers NEON to be a New Start under the MREFC account, and the revised priority order of the New Starts is ARRV, NEON, OOI and AdvLIGO. 20 To Index Page

effort on ALMA is carried out under cooperative Both the ALMA Science Advisory Committee and the agreement with AUI. NRC’s Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics have indicated that an array with fewer than 64 A $26.0 million, three-year design and antennas will still produce the transformational development phase was originally planned for the results called for in the project’s Level-I science MMA project. However, since the original three-year requirements. Based on the current understanding plan was initiated, the United States entered into a of costs, NSF is reviewing a proposed contract partnership with a European consortium to develop package for the U.S.-funded antennas. A similar ALMA. Because of the expanded managerial and proposal to procure the same antenna design in technical complexity of the ALMA concept, an Europe is now under consideration by ESO. additional year of design and development was supported in FY 2001, at a budget level of $5.99 The project completed rebaselining once the new million. U.S. construction was initiated in FY 2002, Project Management and Control System was in and in Europe in 2003. The U.S. share of ALMA place and fully operational. The entire project is now construction is estimated to be $344.21 million. conducting an in-depth, independent review of the cost, schedule and management parameters of the Significant project events during FY 2004 included: new baseline using an outside group of experts. The NSB has been informed of the antenna procurement + groundbreaking at the site near San Pedro de Atacama situation and of plans to rebaseline the project at its in the second region of Chile in November 2003; October 2004, December 2004 and March 2005 + the completion of all project agreements with the meetings. government of Chile; + the completion of the ALMA construction camp at the The expected operational lifespan of ALMA is at least site of the mid-altitude Operations Support Facility (OSF), 30 years. Early estimates for steady state operational and ongoing progress with road and other site works; costs, which are fully attained in 2012, are about + the establishment by the government of Chile of a $23 million annually. Along with direct operations radio quiet zone centered on the ALMA site; and maintenance support for ALMA, NSF will support + the entry of Japan into an Enhanced ALMA project research performed at the facility, through ongoing in September 2004; research and education programs. The annual support + the receipt and evaluation of bids for the ALMA for such activities is estimated to be about $10 million production antennas. once the facility reaches full operations.

U.S.-funded construction activities are currently Additional information on ALMA can be found in the MREFC scheduled to continue through 2010, with project Chapter of NSF’s FY 2006 Budget Submission to Congress completion and full operation beginning in 2012, (http://www.nsf.gov/about/budget/fy2006/). and with early science scheduled to begin at the end of 2007. However, a thorough reexamination of the project scope, cost and schedule is now under way, and is likely to result in a rebaselining.

Two areas of concern in the project are:

+ The cost of the production antennas will be higher than originally budgeted. This is largely the result of very steep commodity price increases over the past 18 months. The project intends to purchase fewer antennas than originally planned in order to remain as close as possible to the original baseline budget.

+ Delays associated with the antenna procurement process, details of the Japanese involvement, phasing differences in European and U.S. contributions, and a better understanding of integrated project requirements An artist’s conception of ALMA in Compact Configuration. When construction is finished in 2011, generated by the new ALMA project office have ALMA will be the world’s largest and most powerful radio telescope, operating at millimeter and required that a new baseline be established. sub-millimeter wavelengths.

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EARTHSCOPE

The EarthScope Facility is a distributed, coordination of facility construction multi-purpose geophysical instrument and operation, science, education and array that will make major advances outreach and information technology in our knowledge and understanding efforts. of the structure and dynamics of the North American continent. EarthScope Startup activities for Phase 2 drilling at instrumentation is expected to inhabit the San Andreas Fault Observatory at nearly every county within the United Depth (SAFOD) site are under way, with States over the life span of the program. drilling expected to begin on June 1, The principal goal of the project is to 2005. At this time, the projected date enhance the understanding of the structure to intersect the main trace of the San and evolution of the North American Andreas Fault is in mid-July. In April, continent, including earthquakes and 2005, scientists from across the United seismic hazards, magmatic systems States met at the core repository (Texas and volcanic hazards, lithospheric A&M) to examine the core from the dynamics, regional tectonics, continental Phase 1 drilling and to requests samples structure and evolution, fluids in the for scientific investigations. Overall, crust and associated educational aspects. GPS and seismic station equipment EarthScope also seeks to engage science acquisition and installation are slightly and non-science students in geosciences behind schedule. The Plate Boundary discovery through the use of technology in Observatory (PBO) installed the 100th real time or retrospectively with the aim of permanent geodetic station on March integrating research and education. 17, 2005. USArray installed the 75th Transportable Array station in February The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), 2005. Installations continue on schedule. the National Aeronautics and Space Data from EarthScope have already been Administration (NASA), the Department used in earthquake studies, earthquake The complete EarthScope footprint. 1,600 of of Energy (DOE) and the International responses, presentations at professional the transportable sites (moving west to east) Continental Scientific Drilling Programme meetings and in some university and and all 2,400 campaign stations will continue to be deployed after the conclusion of the are funding partners, with USGS and NASA other educational settings. An EarthScope MREFC project. Locations of the campaign expected as operating partners. Project Education and Outreach Manager has stations will be determined through the annual proposal review process; many of these sites partners may also include state and local been hired. FY 2005 highlights to likely will change annually. governments, geological and engineering date also include the use of USArray firms and Canadian and Mexican agencies. seismic data in analyses of the Sumatra- Over 3,000 earth scientists and students Andaman earthquake (one of the largest are expected to use the facility annually. earthquakes ever recorded), completion of Geotechnical and engineering firms directly the first borehole strainmeter installation use data and models, which will be and a very successful national meeting. enabled by EarthScope. Instrumentation The EarthScope project has been firms will collaborate on development for represented at over a dozen professional state-of-the-art seismic systems, down- meetings and conferences through an hole instrumentation and high-precision exhibit booth, presentations and scientific global positioning system (GPS) antenna sessions. designs. U.S.-funded construction activities are The EarthScope Program Director, located scheduled to continue through 2007, in the Earth Sciences Division (EAR) in with project completion and full operation the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO), beginning in 2008. Scientific results provides NSF oversight. The Deep Earth utilizing data collected by the EarthScope Processes Section Head in EAR and the facility have already been presented at PAT, provide other internal oversight. national meetings and in professional Following the recommendations of a publications. The project will undergo a National Academies review of EarthScope, baseline review in the fall of 2005. an EarthScope Science and Education Conceptual planning for the EarthScope Advisory Committee (ESEC) was formed project developed over the past decade. to provide an advisory structure to ensure NSF funded planning, design and

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development since FY 1998, and began facility through ongoing research and education the implementation of a five-year period of programs. The annual support for such acquisition, construction and commissioning in activities is estimated to be about $15 million FY 2003. The total project cost for EarthScope once the facility reaches full operations. implementation is $197.44 million. Additional information on EarthScope can The expected operational lifespan of be found in the MREFC Chapter of NSF’s EarthScope is 15 years after construction FY 2006 Budget Submission to Congress is complete in FY 2007. Along with direct (http://www.nsf.gov/about/budget/fy2006/). operations and maintenance support for the EarthScope Facility, expected to total approximately $24 million by FY 2007, NSF will support research performed utilizing the

HIGH PERFORMANCE INSTRUMENTED AIRBORNE PLATFORM FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH (HIAPER) This project is the acquisition, modification and instrumentation of a high-altitude HIAPER is a research platform with altitude, research aircraft capable of conducting science range and endurance capabilities that at or near the tropopause (approximately enable investigators to perform critical Earth 51,000 feet) with an extensive scientific system science research. With a maximum payload and a flight range in excess of altitude for the aircraft of 51,000 feet, the 6,000 nautical miles. The aircraft will fly ability to carry significant payloads to such between 400 and 500 research flight hours high altitudes enables scientists to conduct each year, with extensive mission-specific important atmospheric studies in and near the outfitting preceding each research campaign. tropopause. The modified aircraft is capable of The remaining time will be devoted to aircraft covering a range of 6,000 nautical miles in a maintenance and technology refreshment of single flight, allowing for such varied missions the platform infrastructure. HIAPER will be a as research flights covering the borders of the national facility, available to the university continental United States, the world’s large community as well as to NSF’s federal ocean basins, and studies of the South Pole partners such as the National Oceanographic environment conducted from South America and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), or New Zealand. The platform will serve the NASA, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) entire geosciences community: atmosphere, and DOE under existing interagency cryosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere. agreements. HIAPER will be based at the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s At NSF a Program Officer in the Atmospheric (NCAR) Research Aviation Facility (RAF) Sciences (ATM) Division in GEO oversees the and Jefferson County Airport in Broomfield, HIAPER project. At NCAR a Project Director Colorado. Deployments of the aircraft will manages the day-to-day activities of HIAPER, occur worldwide. HIAPER was ferried from the and a separate HIAPER Advisory Committee Gulfstream facility to NCAR’s Jefferson County (HAC), consisting of representatives of the facility on March 11, 2005. It is currently university research community, national undergoing infrastructure integration and laboratories, the University Corporation for is scheduled to begin its initial progressive Atmospheric Research (UCAR), NCAR and NSF science mission in late August. provides advice and recommendations to the NCAR Director, to whom the HIAPER Project The HIAPER project officially will conclude this Director reports. year and, as noted above, the aircraft will

transition to progressive science missions to test In late December 2001, UCAR and Gulfstream The HIAPER aircraft backs into the new and evaluate the platform in late summer; full Aircraft Corporation (GAC), a subsidiary of RAF hangar at the Jefferson County operations are anticipated at the beginning of General Dynamics, signed a contract for Airport in Broomfield, CO FY 2006. Numerous requests to use HIAPER the acquisition of a Gulfstream V. The green already have been received. Because the airframe was delivered to Lockheed-Martin in aircraft has been formally accepted, it will no June 2002 for extensive airframe structural longer be reported separately, but as part of modifications to meet science requirements. the activities of the aircraft’s operator, NCAR. By October 2004, all the structural

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HIAPER will serve the atmospheric science community’s research needs for the next several decades.

modifications were completed and the phased developments. NCAR, Gulfstream, aircraft was ferried back to Savannah Lockheed Martin and Savannah Air Center (Gulfstream) for painting and final have executed a superb team effort. infrastructure installations. The painting was completed in December and HIAPER HIAPER’s expected operational lifespan is exited the paint hangar on December 21, 25 years, pending the full integration of 2004 with its final paint scheme. The scientific instrumentation. A steady state of aircraft was ferried to NCAR on March 10, about $5.0 million in operations support 2005, and UCAR accepted the aircraft will occur in FY 2006. Along with direct on behalf on NSF; installation of interior operations and maintenance support infrastructure is in progress. At NCAR the for HIAPER, NSF will support research RAF is currently installing the scientific performed at the facility, through ongoing infrastructure and also working with the research and education programs. The instrument developers on instrument annual support for such activities is integration issues as they arise. Fifteen estimated to be about $10 to $12 million, This is an image of the HIAPER aircraft in flight. research instruments were funded as part once the facility reaches full operations. of the HIAPER MREFC project, and include instruments developed at NCAR, other Additional information on HIAPER can be national laboratories, universities, private found in the Facilities Chapter of NSF’s industry and collaboration between FY 2006 Budget Submission to Congress universities and industry or NCAR. (http://www.nsf.gov/about/budget/ fy2006/). Funds were appropriated by the Congress beginning in FY 2000. The total construction cost for the project is $81.50 million, and the project to date is on schedule and under budget. Funds set aside for contingency are being used to enhance instrumentation and follow on

ICECUBE NEUTRINO OBSERVATORY IceCube will be the world’s first high- detect neutrino-induced, charged reaction energy neutrino observatory and will products produced when a high-energy be located under the ice at the South neutrino interacts in the ice within or near Pole. It represents a new window on the the cubic kilometer fiducial volume. An universe, providing unique data on the array of Digital Optical Modules (DOMs), engines that power active galactic nuclei, each containing a PM and associated the origin of high-energy cosmic rays, electronics, will be distributed uniformly the nature of gamma ray bursters, the from 1.5 km to 2.5 km beneath the activities surrounding supermassive black surface of the South Pole ice cap, a holes, and other violent and energetic depth where the ice is highly transparent astrophysical processes. IceCube and bubble-free. When completed, construction is being carried out by the IceCube will record the energy and arrival IceCube Consortium, led by the University direction of high-energy neutrinos ranging of Wisconsin. Approximately one cubic in energy from 100 GeV (1011 electron kilometer of ice is being instrumented Volts[eV]) to 10 PeV (1016 eV). with photomultiplier (PM) tubes to

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The principal tasks in the IceCube Project training of next generation leaders in are: production of the needed DOMs astrophysics, including undergraduate and associated electronics and cables; students, graduate students and production of an enhanced hot water drill postdoctoral research associates; K- and a DOM deployment system capable 12 teacher scientific/professional of drilling holes for and deploying DOM development, including development of strings in the ice at the Pole; installation of new inquiry-based learning materials; a surface array of air shower detectors to increased diversity in science through both calibrate and eliminate background partnerships with minority institutions; events from the IceCube DOM array; and enhanced public understanding of construction of a data acquisition and science through broadcast media and analysis system; and associated personnel museum exhibits (one is currently under and logistics support. construction). Some of these outcomes will result from separate R&RA grants to IceCube will be the world’s first observatory universities and other organizations for capable of studying the universe with work associated with IceCube, selected high-energy neutrinos. Measurement of following the standard NSF merit review the number, direction, timing and energy process. spectrum of such neutrinos will provide unique insights regarding the dynamics The IceCube Collaboration consists of of active galactic nuclei, the acceleration 12 U.S. institutions and institutions in mechanisms and locations of the sources three other countries: Belgium, Germany of high-energy cosmic rays, the properties and Sweden. DOE, through its Lawrence and dynamics of gamma ray bursters and Berkeley Laboratory, is also participating. the types of processes that take place near The strong project management structure at the event horizon of supermassive black the University of Wisconsin, which includes holes at the centers of galaxies. Many of international participation, provided the these phenomena take place at cosmological framework for the Start-up Project funded distances in regions shielded by matter and in FY 2002 and FY 2003, and the initiation shrouded by radiation. Since neutrinos carry of full construction with FY 2004 funding. no charge and interact very weakly with The University of Wisconsin has in place matter, easily passing through the entire an external Scientific Advisory Committee, Earth, they are unique messenger particles an external Project Advisory Panel and a for understanding the astrophysics of such high-level Board of Directors (including the extreme phenomena and are capable of Chancellor) providing for their oversight of bringing us information about previously the project. IceCube is managed by a Project undiscovered cosmic objects, ones that Director and a Project Manager. Internally, are invisible to existing observatories that NSF has appointed a Project Coordinator record electromagnetic signals or charged to manage and oversee the NSF award. A particles. IceCube data on sources will also comprehensive external baseline review of complement data from existing astrophysical the entire project (including cost, schedule, observatories in the optical, X-ray and technical aspects and management) was gamma ray regions of the electromagnetic carried out in February 2004. There was spectrum, providing new tests of theories of a follow-up external cost review in fall the underlying dynamics of these objects. 2004, and comprehensive annual external reviews are planned for each subsequent IceCube also provides a vehicle for helping spring following the annual deployment to achieve national and NSF education season. This is interspersed with written Pictured in the University of Wisconsin- and outreach goals based on the conduct monthly progress reports and quarterly Madison Physical Sciences Laboratory before being vacuum-sealed, each IceCube digital of visionary science in the exciting South reports, site visits, weekly teleconferences optical module or DOM is very much like Pole environment. These goals include and weekly internal NSF project oversight a small computer. A total of 4,200 DOMs, designed to sample high-energy neutrino broadening the scientific workforce and management meetings. Oversight particles from deep space, are being deployed base in the United States and creating and funding responsibility for IceCube in 70 deep holes in the Antarctic ice. a technologically facile workforce with construction are the responsibility of the (November 2004) strong ties to fundamental research that Office of Polar Programs (OPP); support is the core of a strong economy. Specific for operations, research, education and outcomes will include the education and outreach using IceCube will be shared by

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OPP and MPS as well as other organizations and dependent on weather conditions and the international partners. Antarctic logistics schedule.

The primary IceCube Project tasks carried out The total project cost for IceCube is $271.80 to date are: (1) completion and testing of the million. Of this amount, $242.07 million will be Enhanced Hot Water Drill (EHWD) system for from the United States and $29.70 million will drilling the required deep-ice holes into which the come from foreign contributions. The funding strings of DOMs will be placed; (2) completion history of IceCube includes: $15.0 million and commissioning of the three planned DOM appropriated in FY 2002 for startup activities; production and low temperature (-80oC) testing $24.54 million appropriated in FY 2003 for facilities in the United States, Germany and continuation of startup activities; $41.75 million Sweden; (3) production and testing of the DOMs appropriated in FY 2004 to initiate construction; needed for deployment of four DOM strings and $47.62 million appropriated in FY 2005 for during one austral summer season (November continued construction. The FY 2006 Request 2004 to mid-February 2005); (4) shipping and is $50.45 million for continued construction of assembly of the entire drilling and deployment IceCube. camp at the Pole, including the shipment and A digital optical module (DOM) re-testing at the Pole of the needed DOMs and The expected operational lifespan of IceCube disappears down the first hole drilled for the National Science cables; (5) design, construction and installation is 25 years after construction is complete in Foundation-supported project of the initial data acquisition system at the FY 2010. Operations support is estimated at known as IceCube. When Pole; (6) completion of plans for commissioning $3.5 million for FY 2007 and ramps up to an completed, 4,200 DOMs will be seeded in a cubic kilometer and verification of the initial DOM strings; estimated level of $12 million in FY 2011 and of Antarctic ice, making (7) placement at the Pole of the building that beyond. These estimates are developed for IceCube the world’s largest scientific instrument. (2005) will serve as the IceCube permanent counting planning purposes and are based on current cost house next season (2005/2006); (8) successful profiles. Efforts are underway to further develop drilling of the first deep hole at the Pole and the operating cost estimates; they will be updated deployment of the first IceCube string (60 DOMs), as new information becomes available. NSF will which is now connected to the data acquisition, support activities at U.S. institutions working on fully operational, and functioning well; and more refined and specific data analyses, data (9) successful deployment and operation at interpretation (theory support), and instrumentation the Pole of eight surface cosmic ray air shower upgrades, through ongoing research and detector modules (2 DOMs/module). education programs. The annual support for such activities is estimated at $2.0 million once the U.S.-funded construction activities are scheduled to facility reaches full operations. continue through 2010, with project completion and full operation beginning in 2011. Early science is Additional information on IceCube can be found scheduled to begin at the end of 2007. Projected in the MREFC Chapter of NSF’s FY 2006 Budget IceCube will occupy a volume of one cubic kilometer. Here outyear milestones are based on current project Submission to Congress (http://www.nsf.gov/ we depict one of the strings planning and represent a general outline of about/budget/fy2006/). of optical modules (number and size not to scale). IceTop anticipated activities. These activities are also located at the surface, comprises an array of sensors to detect air showers. It will be NATIONAL ECOLOGICAL OBSERVATORY NETWORK (NEON) used to calibrate IceCube and to conduct research on high- energy cosmic rays. NEON will be a continental-scale research computational, analytical and modeling platform consisting of geographically capabilities, all linked via cutting edge distributed infrastructure, networked via cyberinfrastructure. The suite of technologies state-of-the-art communications. It will allow would include, for example, instrumented researchers to address major ecological eddy flux correlation towers to measure

questions such as: how are the structure ecosystem exchange of CO2, water and trace and function of U.S. ecosystems changing gases; sensor arrays to remotely assess as a result of the effects of climate change photosynthesis; and acoustic sensors for on biogeochemical cycles, and what are animal biodiversity research. Deployed sensor the ecological drivers for the emergence, networks connected to data portals and spread and evolution of infectious disease repositories will permit rapid and widespread organisms? NEON will include laboratory sensing of the environment. NEON will be and field instrumentation, sensor arrays, implemented as a “shared-use” research analytical and archival infrastructure, and platform. Scientists and engineers will use

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NEON to conduct real-time ecological including the Heinz Center, Nature Serve, studies spanning all levels of biological and U.S. Landtrust participate on the NEON organization, across scales ranging from Design Consortium. seconds to geological time, and from microns to thousands of kilometers. NSF NEON-generated information will be programs will support NEON research useful to natural resource industries, such projects and educational activities. Data as forestry and fisheries. In addition, collected using NEON will be publicly the NEON Program Officer participates available. in planning for the U.S. component of the Global Earth Observation System of Two federal agencies – the United States Systems, the Integrated Earth Observation Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest System, which is an interagency activity Service (USFS) and the USGS – are of the National Science and Technology represented on the NEON Advisory Board. Council (NSTC) Committee on Environment Both are also members of various NEON and Natural Resources. NEON’s planning committees along with USDA technological and networking infrastructure Agricultural Research Service (USDA- will be forging new technological frontiers ARS), the Environmental Protection and thus, will require partnerships with Agency (EPA), and DOE. industry for development, deployment and operation. In addition, a NEON Federal Agency Coordinating Committee meets on a The Division of Biological Infrastructure regular basis, and includes representatives (DBI) in the Directorate for Biological from USFS, NASA, NOAA, USGS, EPA, Sciences (BIO) manages NEON. A DOE, USDA-ARS, asa well as the National dedicated Program Officer in consultation Parks Service; the USDA Cooperative with a BIO-NEON committee, which State Research, Education, and Extension includes the Deputy for Large Facility Service; and the U.S. Army Corps of Projects, formulates NEON programmatic Engineers. development (e.g. drafting of program announcements). In addition, a cyber sub- International perspectives are provided committee of the BIO Advisory Committee through two NEON Advisory Board provides external advice about specific members (Environment Canada and programmatic elements. The NEON Program CONABIO1, Mexico), and by the presence of Officer ensures coordination with other NSF the Argentine National Research Council on observatories and networks by serving on planning committees. Private foundations the NSF Environmental Observing Networks

Planning for NEON includes visual rough drafts of sensors and research infrastructure deployed across a forest ecosystem, from the forest canopy to the soil community.

1Comision Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Bioversidad (National Commission for the Understanding and Use of Biodiversity). 27 To Index Page

Task Force (EONTF) and on the PATs for and Project Office was established. several other large facility projects. The Design Consortium appointed the NEON Advisory Board and Design Consortium Recent Planning Activities: The American subcommittees to (1) refine the NEON Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) requirements; (2) develop the facilities organized six community workshops and infrastructure reference design, along between August and September 2004 with the preliminary baseline definition to identify NEON-specific science for networking and informatics, and the questions and requirements based on infrastructure requirements for education, the environmental grand challenges training and outreach; and (3) design the identified in the NRC NEON report governance and management structures. “NEON: Addressing the Nation’s Environmental Challenges,” the Future Activities: In FY 2006, the NEON NSB environment report, and the Design Consortium and Project Office will NRC report “Grand Challenges in finalize the Science Plan and Requirements, Environmental Sciences.” baseline the Networking and Informatics Plan, and review and complete the Fostering Technology and preliminary Project Execution Plan. Cyberinfrastructure Development: Construction activities are scheduled to begin In FY 2004, two workshops were in FY 2007 and continue through 2011. conducted in coordination with the Initial operations could begin as early as Ocean Observatories Initiative, and the 2009 with NEON fully operational in 2012. Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program to define the cross cutting The expected operational lifespan of this needs, challenges, and opportunities project is 30 years after construction is in sensors and cyberinfrastructure. The completed in FY 2011. A steady state workshops addressed emerging issues of $20 million is initially estimated of interoperability among evolving for operations support, anticipated by observing systems, leveraging emerging FY 2011. Along with direct operations technologies and research frontiers, and maintenance support, NSF programs fostering collaboration, and stimulating will support research using NEON. robust technology development. Thousands of researchers will be able to use NEON, tens of thousands of children Award for NEON Design Consortium and may participate in NEON activities through Project Office: In FY 2004, Congress its educational programs, and hundreds instructed NSF to continue planning of thousands of individuals will be able activities for NEON with R&RA funds. to access NEON data, information and Using biotelemetry, animals and large insects can now be tracked on regional to landscape On September 15, 2004, BIO made a research products via the Internet. scales (tens to hundreds of miles). Such two-year, $6.0 million R&RA award to technological abilities can provide information on animal health, movement, and survival that the AIBS to establish a NEON Design Additional information on NEON can be found can be used to predict ecosystem and human Consortium and Project Office for the in the MREFC Chapter of NSF’s FY 2006 health. In the future, NEON will transform our purpose of refining the reference design Budget Submission to Congress (http:// ability to capture this information by providing a networked continental observation platform in light of recommendations in the NRC www.nsf.gov/about/budget/fy2006/). capable of providing rapid information on NEON report and drafting the Project mobile organisms. Execution Plan for NEON.

In FY 2005, NSF requested $12.0 million in the MREFC account and $4.0 million in R&RA to baseline and develop the final design for NEON research infrastructure and begin construction of NEON networking and informatics infrastructure. While the FY 2005 omnibus appropriation did not provide MREFC funding, Congress instructed NSF to continue NEON planning through the R&RA account. In FY 2005 the NEON Design Consortium

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NEES: THE GEORGE E. BROWN JR. NETWORK FOR EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING SIMULATION (NEES) NEES is a national, networked and training strategic plan to develop a simulation resource of 15 geographically broad spectrum of education and human distributed, shared-use next-generation resource development activities with special experimental research equipment sites emphasis on nontraditional users and with teleobservation and teleoperation underrepresented groups. capabilities. NEES provides national resources to advance earthquake engineering research Through the congressionally mandated and education through collaborative and National Earthquake Hazards Reduction integrated experimentation, computation, Program (NEHRP), the Federal Emergency theory, databases and model-based Management Agency (FEMA), the simulation to improve the seismic design National Institute of Standards and and performance of U.S. civil infrastructure Technology (NIST), NSF and the USGS systems. Research equipment includes participate to support research related to shake tables, geotechnical centrifuges, a earthquake hazard mitigation. Connections tsunami wave basin, large-scale laboratory to industry include private engineering experimentation systems, and mobile and consultants and engineering firms permanently installed field equipment. NEES engaging in NEES research or using data equipment is located at academic institutions and models developed through NEES. (or at off-campus field sites) throughout the NEES is leveraging and complementing United States, networked together through its capabilities through connections and a high performance Internet2 CI system. collaborations with large testing facilities NEES completed primary construction on at foreign earthquake-related centers, September 30, 2004, and opened for laboratories and institutions. Through user research and education projects on such partnerships and joint meetings and October 1, 2004. Between FY 2005 and workshops, NEES shares its expertise in FY 2014, NEES will be operated by the testing and cyberinfrastructure, provides non-profit corporation NEES Consortium Inc. specialized training opportunities, and (NEESinc), located in Davis, CA. Through a coordinates access to unique testing cooperative agreement with NSF, NEESinc facilities and the central data repository.

operates the 15 equipment sites and the Currently under construction, the University NEES cyberinfrastructure center; coordinates As a non-profit corporation, NEESinc of California, San Diego’s (UCSD) Large education, outreach and training; and operates under its own governance High Performance Outdoor Shake Table, will result in a one-of-a-kind worldwide seismic develops national and international structure and is overseen by a Board of testing facility, and the world’s first outdoor partnerships. Directors elected from its membership in shake table. This unique facility will enable next-generation seismic experiments to be accordance with its by-laws. Day-to-day conducted on very large structural systems NEES’ broad-based national research operation of NEESinc is overseen by its such as full-scale buildings, and utility/lifeline structures such as electrical sub-stations, with equipment and cyberinfrastructure will headquarters staff led by an Executive no overhead space and lifting constraints. enhance understanding and provide Director. Each equipment site has a facility more comprehensive, complete, director responsible for local day-to-day and accurate models of how civil equipment management, operations infrastructure systems respond to and interface with NEESinc, other NEES earthquake loading (site response, soil- equipment sites, users, and the NEES foundation-structure interaction, tsunami CI center for network coordination. The effects, and structural and nonstructural NEES cyberinfrastructure center maintains response). This will enable the design the telepresence, data, collaborative, of new methods, modeling techniques simulation, and other related services for and technologies for earthquake the entire NEES network. hazard mitigation. NEES also engages engineering, science and other students NSF provides oversight to NEES under a in earthquake engineering discovery cooperative agreement. NEES is reviewed through on-site use of experimental through annual site visits. The NSF facilities, telepresence technology, archival Program Manager for NEES is located in experimental and analytical data, and the Civil and Mechanical Systems (CMS) computational resources with the aim of Division in the Directorate for Engineering integrating research and education. (ENG). NEES has developed an education, outreach

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NEES completed its primary construction annually. Operations estimates for FY activities at the end of FY 2004. About 2007 and beyond are developed strictly $2.7 million in remaining FY 2004 MREFC for planning purposes and are based funds were used to fund construction on current cost profiles. They will be of deferred capabilities for NEES during updated as new information becomes FY 2005. This included four new available. Along with direct operations capabilities for CI system integration and and maintenance support for NEES, NSF new capabilities at 13 equipment sites. The provides support for research performed four new system integration capabilities at NEES equipment sites through ongoing will be completed on September 30, research and education programs. 2005. The deferred capabilities at the The NEES cyberinfrastructure also 13 equipment sites will be completed by provides a platform for the earthquake September 30, 2006. NEES opened for engineering community as well as other user research and education projects on communities to develop new tools for October 1, 2004, under the management shared cyberinfrastructure. In addition, of NEESinc. Commensurate with opening, NSF has initiated an annual research the first round of research awards were program solicitation for research projects made by NSF in September/October that will utilize the NEES experimental 2004 to use the NEES facilities. NEESinc sites, data and computational resources to operates the 15 equipment sites and the comprehensively address major research NEES CI center; coordinates education, questions in earthquake engineering and outreach and training; and develops seismic hazard mitigation. The FY 2005 national and international partnerships. solicitation includes partnerships with the The NEES tsunami wave basin provides a directorates for Computer and Information national resource to calibrate and validate Science and Engineering (CISE) and GEO, tsunami propagation and inundation as well as the Japanese E-Defense shake modeling tools, model inundation patterns table operated by the National Research to understand where the threat is most Institute for Earth Science and Disaster significant, and develop design criteria Prevention. Support for such activities is for coastal community shelters and other estimated at about $9.0 million annually. The tsunami wave basin at Oregon State critical facilities. Researchers at this facility University is the world’s largest and most comprehensive shared-use research participated on a post-tsunami rapid- Additional information on NEES can be found facility for the study of effects of tsunami response reconnaissance team with respect in the Facilities Chapter of NSF’s FY 2006 inundation and storm waves on coastal buildings and lifeline infrastructures. to the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean Budget Submission to Congress (http:// earthquake. www.nsf.gov/about/budget/fy2006/).

NSF received $7.70 million in FY 2000 to initiate construction of NEES. Total MREFC funding for this project was $81.76 million during FY 2000–2004, with an additional $1.10 million provided to the project for one equipment site construction through the Education and Human Resources (EHR) account.

The expected operational lifespan of this project is 10 years, from FY 2005 to FY 2014. NEES operations for FY 2005–FY 2009 were approved by the NSB in May 2004 for up to $106.52 million total, approximately $21.3 million

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RARE SYMMETRY VIOLATING PROCESSES (RSVP)

RSVP was planned as an NSF-funded, Advisory Panel (HEPAP) carry out a university-led project that would use the re-evaluation of the science value of the existing Alternating Gradient Synchrotron two experiments. Based on the results of (AGS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory the baseline review and the HEPAP report, (BNL) at incremental cost to advance the NSF has concluded that continuing the RSVP frontiers of particle physics. Researchers from project would lead to the unacceptable loss almost 30 institutions from the United States, of opportunities in research in elementary- Canada, Switzerland, Italy, Japan and Russia particle physics, other areas of physics, and were involved. The RSVP experiments were across all disciplines in the MPS directorate designed to address two great mysteries: the as well as in the construction of large predominance of matter over antimatter in the facilities across NSF. universe today and the difference between the electron and the muon, the former by studying At the August 2005 meeting of the NSB, NSF matter-antimatter symmetry (CP)-violating recommended and the NSB approved the decays of K-mesons and the latter by searching termination of RSVP.2 for muon-to-electron conversion. By extending current sensitivities for these rare processes by orders of magnitude, RSVP would shed light on the existence of atomic matter in the universe, the nature of dark matter, and could even provide evidence for superstrings.

Planning for RSVP was conducted with NSF support beginning in FY 2001. Significant concept and design work was carried out with DOE support prior to this. Congress appropriated $14.88 million for RSVP in FY 2005. The FY 2006 President’s Budget specifies $41.78 million for RSVP. The activities to date include R&D for the technology needed for the project, simulations of the data expected, and design of major components.

In the fall of 2004, significant cost increases were identified. NSF notified the NSB, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the relevant congressional committees. Subsequently, the project completed a detailed technical, cost and schedule baseline review in the spring of 2005, and NSF convened an independent panel of experts to review it. To complement the baselining activities, NSF requested that the High Energy Physics

2The resolution states “Resolved, that the National Science Board concurs with the End view of a collision of two 30-billion- recommendation that the Rare Symmetry Violating Processes (RSVP) Project be terminated electron-volt gold beams in the Solenoidal Tracker at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider before the start of construction as a result of the significantly increased construction and (STAR) at BNL. The beams travel in opposite operations costs identified during the final stages of planning and the negative impact on the directions at nearly the speed of light before NSF portfolio that would result from proceeding with the project under such circumstances. colliding. The National Science Board notes the significant lost scientific opportunity that will result from this project termination.”

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SCIENTIFIC OCEAN DRILLING VESSEL (SODV)

This project supports the contracting, award is anticipated by September 2005. conversion, outfitting and acceptance trials The SODV Project received $14.88 million in of a deep-sea drilling vessel for long-term FY 2005. Engineering design, science lab use in a new international scientific ocean development and long lead item equipment drilling program. Commercial drillships procurement activities will be the primary are not routinely configured or equipped FY 2005 SODV activities. to meet the requirements of scientific research. The SODV will be prepared for U.S.-funded construction activities are year-round operations and will be capable scheduled to continue through 2007, of operating in all ocean environments. with full operations beginning in The vessel will accommodate a scientific FY 2008. Planning through FY 2004 and technical staff of approximately 50. cost approximately $3.60 million. In The converted drillship will provide the U.S. FY 2005, approximately $5.40 million facility contribution to the Integrated Ocean will be provided to initiate contract Drilling Program (IODP), which began on activity, planning and design. Between October, 1 2003. The IODP is co-led by the FY 2005 and FY 2007, approximately NSF and the Ministry of Education, Culture, $110.0 million of funds from the MREFC Sport, Science and Technology (MEXT) of account will be required for conversion/ Japan. European and Asian nations are also equipping/testing of the drillship. participating in the program. The expected operational lifespan of the SODV is 15 years, once construction is The IODP will recover sediment and complete in FY 2007. A steady state of crustal rock from the seafloor using about $55 million in operations support scientific ocean drilling techniques, and for the IODP is expected to occur beginning place observatories in drillholes to study in FY 2008 as the SODV vessel begins the deep biosphere, the flow of fluids in full operations, but these estimates are sediments and the crust, the processes based on current cost profiles and will and effects of environmental change, and be updated as new information becomes solid Earth cycles and geodynamics. MEXT available. Along with direct operations and will provide a heavy drillship for deep maintenance support for IODP, NSF will drilling objectives of the programs. NSF support research performed at the facility Scientists examine and discuss deep-sea will provide a light drillship and science through ongoing research and education rock cores on an Integrated Ocean Drilling support services for high-resolution studies programs. The annual support for such Program expedition to the western rift flank activities is estimated to be about $31 of the mid-Atlantic Ridge. of environmental and climate change, observatory and biosphere objectives. million.

The project is managed and overseen Additional information on SODV can be by a project manager in the Ocean found in the MREFC Chapter of NSF’s Sciences (OCE) Division in GEO. A FY 2006 Budget Submission to Congress conversion oversight committee has been (http://www.nsf.gov/about/budget/ established to provide technical, financial fy2006/). and scheduling recommendations and advice for the SODV project.

In September 2003, NSF awarded a contract to Joint Oceanographic Institutions, Inc. (JOI) for IODP drilling operations, which included as one task the planning and implementation of the SODV project. JOI has issued an Request for Proposals (RFP) to acquire, upgrade and operate a commercial vessel for scientific ocean drilling, and a contract

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SOUTH POLE STATION MODERNIZATION PROJECT (SPSM)

The SPSM project provides a new station in FY 2008. The current status of the to replace the current U.S. station at project, both schedule and budget, is the South Pole, built 30 years ago and currently under review. currently inadequate in terms of capacity, efficiency and safety. The new station is SPSM has received appropriations totaling an elevated complex with two connected $133.78 million through FY 2004, buildings, supporting 150 people in the exceeding the most recent NSB-approved summer and 50 people in the winter. cost estimate of $133.44 million. Using There are approximately 385 separate the last updated schedule, the estimated subcontractors for supplies and technical total cost of SPSM is $136.96 million. An services. The U.S. Antarctic Program updated project cost and schedule review (USAP) prime support contractor is was completed shortly after the end of the Raytheon Polar Services Company (RPSC). 2004/2005 operating season. No funds are being requested for FY 2006. OPP has the overall management responsibility for SPSM, including Advance funding provided in the project’s development of the basic requirements, early years made possible advance bulk design, procurement and construction. buys of materials, which is ultimately OPP has contracted for procurement and more cost-efficient. However, this project’s construction management for all phases overall outlay is relatively slow due to the of the project, including design reviews unusual logistics and shortened Antarctic of all drawings and specifications; season. As a result, the project has carried conformance of the designs and over fairly significant amounts each year procurements with established since FY 1998, resulting in obligations that standardization criteria; assistance are significantly lower than appropriated in establishing functional interfaces; amounts. transition from the existing to the new facilities; and systems integration. Naval The expected lifespan of the modernized Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific station is 25 years, through 2031. A Division (PACDIV) selects, monitors and steady state of operational support manages architectural and engineering is anticipated at $15 million by FY firms for design, postconstruction 2007, slightly higher than the current services, and construction inspection for operational costs. Operations estimates the project. The project status, including for FY 2007 and beyond are developed cost expenditures and cost projections, is strictly for planning purposes and are Aurora Australis – the Southern lights – over NSF Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. This monitored on a periodic basis by OPP staff based on current cost profiles. They will image shows the atmospheric phenomenon over and the project’s PAT. be updated as new information becomes a wing of the new station that NSF is building. available. Along with direct operations The original estimate for SPSM was and maintenance support for South Pole $127.90 million. NSB approved a change Station, NSF will support science and in project scope, increasing station capacity engineering research through ongoing from 110 to 150 people, as well as a research and education programs. The project schedule extension, increasing the annual support for such activities is cost estimate to $133.44 million (plus currently estimated to be approximately $2.52 million for increased scope; plus $8.0 million. $3.02 million due to weather-induced schedule delays). Weather delays in Additional information on the SPSM, previous years adversely impacted planned including information on appropriations material deliveries resulting in revised and obligations, can be found in the schedules. The estimated projection has MREFC Chapter of NSF’s FY 2006 Budget been for conditional acceptance (i.e., Submission to Congress (http://www. occupation and operations) of the entire nsf.gov/about/budget/fy2006/). station by the end of FY 2007, with demolition/retrograde of the old station and work on punchlist items occurring

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TERASCALE COMPUTING SYSTEMS (TCS)

The NSF Terascale Computing Systems provided technical guidance/advice, project funded the construction of the especially with regard to the integration Extensible Terascale Facility (ETF). ETF, and coordination with other SCI-funded also commonly known as the TeraGrid, program activities; and reviewed and – provides the broad-based academic where required – approved technical science and engineering community with reports and information to be delivered by access to scalable, balanced, terascale the awardees. computing resources, including two 10+ teraflops supercomputing systems (one at With the October 1, 2004, initiation of the National Center for Supercomputing the operations phase of ETF, a new ETF Applications – NCSA – and one scheduled management structure is now in place. to come on line in the spring of 2005 It consists of a single integrative activity, at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing termed the TeraGrid Grid Infrastructure Center – PSC) and over 35 teraflops Group (GIG), and nine coordinated across the ETF. Users also have access to resource provider (RP) activities, one at least 1,000 terabytes (1 petabye) of at each of the nine participating sites. storage at a single site (at the SDSC) and The GIG is designed with a single Project nearly 2 petabytes across the ETF. Using Director, supported by four technical ETF, researchers and educators are able Area Directors, a Program Manager, a to conduct analyses at unprecedented Science Coordinator and an Executive scale, to merge multiple data resources Steering Committee. Each RP participates seamlessly, and to advance discovery at in a TeraGrid-wide Resource Provider the frontiers of science and engineering. Forum and participates in TeraGrid-wide operational structures of the GIG in The principal scientific goal of ETF is to areas such as coordinated operations, provide state-of-the-art cyberinfrastructure allocations and security. All 10 awardees, capabilities that position the nation’s both the GIG and the nine RPs, report researchers and educators to address a directly to a single NSF Program Director. A broad range of state-of-the-art challenges, Cyberinfrastructure User Advisory Committee across all science and engineering fields. (CUAC) is currently being established to ETF’s distributed architecture permits provide input to ETF and NSF’s other shared the seamless integration of large, cyberinfrastructure partners on the needs of managed scientific data archives; high- the broad user community. performance computational resources Photos of the new Cray XT3, “Big Ben,” at the available within ETF can be used to mine, The ETF construction phase was completed Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. analyze, visualize, and perform related on September 30, 2004; ETF resources simulations on these data. ETF’s principal began allocated usage as part of “early educational goal is to provide current operations” in October 2004. Allocations and future generations of scientists and for ETF were included, for example, in the engineers with access to unique, state-of- National Resource Allocation Committee’s the-art cyberinfrastructure that promises September 2004 and March 2005 to advance discovery, learning and allocations. The full operations phase for ETF innovation across all fields. is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2005.

Management and oversight of this project ETF was created through a coordinated is provided by a Program Director in CISE. series of investments as follows: During the construction phase, an external Technical Advisory Panel made periodic + In FY 2000, PSC built TCS with peak site visits to the ETF partner institutions to performance of 6 teraflops. review construction progress and provide + The Distributed Terascale Facility (DTF) technical advice to the Program Director. was initiated in FY 2001 by a partnership The Technical Advisory Panel participated including the NCSA, SDSC, Argonne in resolution of major technical, National Laboratory and the California managerial or scheduling concerns; Institute of Technology (Caltech). Based

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on multiple Linux clusters, DTF linked its programs. Annual support for research and sites through a high-performance “DTF education using the ETF is estimated to be backplane.” about $200 million. + In FY 2002, NSF provided funding to enhance the TCS and DTF and Additional information on the Terascale initiated the creation of the ETF by Computing Systems can be found in extending the “DTF backplane” to the Facilities Chapter of NSF’s FY 2006 TCS and by placing extensible hubs Budget Submission to Congress (http:// in Chicago and Los Angeles that www.nsf.gov/about/budget/fy2006/). permitted further expansion of this new distributed facility. + In FY 2003, NSF made awards to extend the ETF to four additional sites – Indiana University, Purdue University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Via high-speed network connections, the Spallation Neutron Source at ORNL and other unique computational and data resources in Indiana and Texas were integrated into ETF for use by the nation’s research and education communities. This image of the Earth’s magnetic + In FY 2004, PSC received an award to field represents the result of simulations performed on some of acquire a 10-teraflop Cray Red Storm the highest-performance computers capability system that has the potential available to the U.S. academic community. NSF supports these and to be scalable to 150 teraflops. This other computing, information and acquisition constituted the final award networking resources at three of the funded from the MREFC account, TCS. supercomputer centers established by NSF in 1985: NCSA at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; PSC at NSF will support science and engineering Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh; and SDSC research and education enabled by ETF at the University of California, San through ongoing research and education Diego.

SECOND PRIORITY: NEW STARTS IN FY 2007 AND FY 2008

OCEAN OBSERVATORIES INITIATIVE (OOI)

This project will construct an integrated all components of the OOI consists of an observatory network that will provide the array of seafloor junction boxes connected oceanographic research and education to cables running along the seafloor to communities with continuous and interactive individual instruments or instrument clusters. access to the ocean. The OOI will have three Depending upon proximity to the coast and elements: (1) a global-scale array of relocatable other engineering requirements, the junction deep-sea buoys; (2) a regional-scaled cabled box is either terminated by a long, dedicated network consisting of interconnected sites fiber-optic cable to shore, or by a shorter on the seafloor spanning several geological cable to a surface buoy that is capable of and oceanographic features and processes; two-way communications with a shore station. and (3) an expanded network of coastal The observatory infrastructure of the OOI will observatories, developed through new be operated as a shared-use facility with open construction or enhancements to existing community access to data. facilities. The primary infrastructure for

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Scientific problems requiring OOI by a program manager in OCE in GEO. infrastructure are broad in scope and The management structure proposed for encompass nearly every area of ocean the acquisition and implementation phase science. Once established, seafloor of the OOI is based on a structure that observatories will provide Earth, has been successfully used by the Ocean atmospheric and ocean scientists with Drilling Program (ODP). In this structure, unique opportunities to study multiple, management, coordination and oversight interrelated processes over time scales of the OOI will be the responsibility ranging from seconds to decades; of the Executive Director of the Ocean to conduct comparative studies of regional Observatory Project Office established processes and spatial characteristics; through a cooperative agreement with and to map whole-Earth and basin-scale NSF. This Director will be accountable to an structures. This project will establish Executive Steering Committee under which Artist’s rendition of elements of the OOI. facilities to meet the following goals: will be established Scientific and Technical continuous observations at frequencies Advisory Committees. The Executive from seconds to decades; spatial scales Steering and Advisory Committees will draw of measurement from millimeters to their membership from individuals with kilometers; high-power and bandwidth expertise in ocean-observing science and capabilities, as well as two-way data engineering. The design of the OOI network transmission for interactive experimentation; and experiments utilizing OOI infrastructure an ability to operate during storms and will be selected on a peer-reviewed basis. in harsh conditions; an ability to easily This project will be coordinated with the connect sensors, instruments, and imaging IOOS that will support operational mission systems; profiling systems for cycling objectives of agencies such as NOAA, Navy, instruments up and down the water column, NASA, and the Coast Guard. either autonomously or on command; docking stations enabling autonomous Numerous community workshops have underwater vehicles to download data and been held and reports written since recharge batteries; ability to assimilate data 2000. These activities helped to define into models and make three-dimensional the scientific rationale, determine the forecasts of the oceanic environment; technical feasibility and develop initial means for making data available in real implementation plans for the OOI. time to researchers, schools and the public These include two NRC reports, as well over the Internet; and low cost relative to as two reports for each of the three the cost of building and maintaining ships components of the OOI. These planning and manned submersible systems. activities were followed by a large, multi- disciplinary workshop held in January 2004 Scientific discoveries arising from the OOI to develop an initial science plan for the OOI will provide new opportunities for ocean across coastal, regional, and global scales. education and outreach through the In March 2004 a cooperative agreement capabilities for real-time data transmission was awarded to establish the Ocean and, particularly, real-time display of visual Research Interactive Observatory Networks images from the seafloor. Educational (ORION) project office. The primary tasks links will be made with the Digital Library of this office are to identify and facilitate for Earth Science Education (DLESE), and committees for continued refinement of OCE’s Centers for Ocean Science Education the OOI network design; to develop a Excellence (COSEE). In addition, with consensus vision for the OOI organizational the planned establishment of the U.S. structure, governance, and operating plans; Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), to identify and engage all constituencies of there will be an unprecedented need for the ocean science research community in oceanographers skilled in the use and consensus-building activities; and to operate manipulation of large, oceanographic, time- an interactive Web site for communicating series data sets. The facilities comprising the with the ocean science community in OOI will provide the ideal platforms to train regard to OOI activities and planning. The this new generation of oceanographers. project office has established an executive steering committee that provides a direct The project will be managed and overseen link between project office planning and

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the research community and is currently in NSF expects to spend approximately the process of establishing the additional $30 million in concept and development advisory committees that will make up the activities through FY 2005. The total OOI advisory structure. construction cost for OOI is $269.10 million, beginning in FY 2007. Management, Using R&RA funds, the NSF’s Ocean operations and maintenance will be funded Technology and Interdisciplinary Coordination through the R&RA account. (OTIC) program has continued to provide support for proposals whose goals are to The expected operational lifespan of this ensure that infrastructure needed to enable project is 30 years, beginning in FY 2012. OOI experimentation is available for the A steady state of about $50.0 million in implementation phase of the OOI. As part operations support is expected to occur in of this process, an announcement has been or about FY 2012. These estimates are released by NSF to advance interactive developed strictly for planning purposes observing technologies and understanding and are based on current cost profiles. of the coastal benthic boundary layer. To They will be updated as new information accomplish this goal, one or more pilot/ becomes available. Along with direct testbed study sites will be established to operations and maintenance support develop and enhance new technologies for the OOI, NSF will support research needed to investigate coastal processes at performed using this infrastructure through appropriate temporal and spatial scales. ongoing research and education programs. Furthermore, to continue community planning The annual support for such activities is for OOI implementation, detailed conceptual estimated to be about $50 million, once proposals for ocean science research the network is fully implemented. experiments have been solicited through the Ocean Observatories Project Office. These Additional information on OOI can be found proposals will be used to further refine designs in the MREFC Chapter of NSF’s FY 2006 for OOI and to identify specific experimental Budget Submission to Congress (http:// instrumentation needs of the user community. www.nsf.gov/about/budget/fy2006/). A primary goal of this request is to determine The Environmental Sample Processor the nature and cost of ocean observatory (ESP) is an instrument developed to detect science and enabling infrastructure to be multiple microorganisms with molecular constructed though the OOI. probe technology, as well as to perform sample collection, concentration, different analyses, and sample archival. The system U.S.-funded construction activities will also process data and transmit results. The ESP is in a period of transition from are scheduled to continue through prototype and short-term deployments to 2012, with project completion and full development and application of a ‘second generation’ unit by Chris Scholin, Monterey operation beginning in the same year. Bay Aquarium Research Institute. The construction schedule for this project is still under review, and therefore the milestones will likely be revised as the project’s schedule is finalized.

ALASKA REGION RESEARCH VESSEL (ARRV) The ARRV is proposed to replace the As we strive to understand a variety of Research Vessel (R/V) Alpha Helix, which complex regional and global ecosystem and at 39 years is the oldest ship in the national climate issues, the need to conduct research academic research fleet. At present, science at the ice edge and in seasonal ice (up to activities in the Alaskan region are limited three feet thick) has become increasingly by the capabilities of the R/V Alpha Helix, urgent. The ARRV will provide improved which cannot operate in ice or in severe access to the region, enabling further winter weather in the open seas. The ARRV exploration to address critical issues. With will operate in the challenging waters of an operating year of 275-300 days, the the Chukchi, Beaufort and Bering Seas, as ARRV could accommodate upwards of 500 well as the open Gulf of Alaska, coastal scientists and students at sea annually. Southeast Alaska and Prince William Sound.

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Satellite observations have shown the with the community on several occasions, perennial ice in the Arctic thinning at offering opportunities for interactive 9 percent per decade, which will have exchanges to take place between potential major regional and global consequences. vessel users and the naval architects. Research is urgently needed on topics Following minor design adjustments based ranging from climate change, ocean upon these inputs, the design phase circulation, ecosystem studies and was completed in 2004. A meeting of fisheries research to natural hazards and the Oversight Committee and agency cultural anthropology. Most of these representatives held at the Seattle offices cutting-edge science projects require an of the naval architects Glosten Associates oceanographic platform in the Alaska in December 2004 reviewed and accepted region to conduct field research. The the final “contract design” document. This ARRV will also provide a sophisticated document provides the complete list of

Artist’s rendition of the ARRV, an MREFC and larger platform for scientists, specifications and drawings from which a Project that will replace the smaller, aging graduate and undergraduate students to shipyard could make a construction bid. R/V Alpha Helix. participate in complex multidisciplinary The next action will be for NSF to issue a research activities and will train the solicitation for a cooperative agreement next-generation scientists with the latest for the construction and operation of this equipment and technology. Broadband ship. connections capable of relaying data, including high-definition video from The Federal Oceanographic Facilities tools such as remotely operated vehicles Committee (FOFC) continues to endorse capable of exploring under the ice and the the ARRV as the next vessel needed to help ocean depths, will bring research into the renew the aging national academic research K-12 classroom and to the general public. fleet, as it originally stated in its 2001 report “Charting the Future for the National The NSF Coordinator will be the Program Academic Research Fleet: A Long Range Director for Ship Acquisition and Plan for Renewal,” submitted to the National Upgrade Program, Integrative Programs Ocean Research Leadership Council. Section (IPS) in OCE, with other staff in IPS providing program management NSF plans to release a solicitation to build assistance. The Section Head in IPS and and operate the ARRV in FY 2006, and another section member hold the Master’s to initiate vessel construction in FY 2007. Certificate in Project Management U.S.-funded construction activities are through NSF-sponsored training. The scheduled to continue through 2008, awardee will hire a Systems Integration with project completion and full operation Manager to establish and staff an office beginning in 2009. to provide management oversight to the vessel construction phase and to report Recognizing from the outset that the to the NSF Coordinator. In addition, the R/V Alpha Helix was of marginal size University-National Laboratory System and capability for Alaskan waters, (UNOLS) Fleet Improvement Committee, replacement planning has been ongoing an external committee composed of since the 1980s. NSF funded design representatives from the community that studies in 1980 and 1995, but neither meets several times a year, will review was implemented. After community- progress and provide advice regarding derived science mission requirements were vessel construction. developed in 1999, NSF has since funded the concept design, detailed design and Final model tank testing and data analysis model testing for a replacement vessel were successfully completed in 2003. and is prepared to initiate a two-year Results from model testing concluded construction phase. that the current design has excellent sea-keeping and enhanced icebreaking The expected operational service life of capabilities. In addition, acoustic testing the ARRV is 30 years after construction demonstrated that the vessel will have is complete. Ship operations costs are sufficient “quieting” characteristics to estimated to be approximately $6 million support unique fisheries research. Results per year. These estimates are developed from the design studies have been shared strictly for planning purposes and are

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based on current cost profiles. They will Additional information on ARRV can be be updated as new information becomes found in the MREFC Chapter of NSF’s FY available. Along with direct operations and 2006 Budget Submission to Congress maintenance support for the ARRV as part (http://www.nsf.gov/about/budget/ of the Academic Research Fleet (ARF), fy2006/). NSF will support research performed using this infrastructure through ongoing research and education programs. It is anticipated that the ARRV will greatly expand research capabilities in the region, going from a maximum of 160 ship operating days with the R/V Alpha Helix, up to 275-300 days with the ARRV. It is anticipated that the vastly increased capability of the ARRV, both with regard to its ability to accommodate much larger interdisciplinary research teams and greatly enlarged geographical and seasonal ranges, will dramatically increase the number of proposals addressed to NSF for its utilization.

ADVANCED LASER INTERFEROMETER GRAVITATIONAL WAVE OBSERVATORY (ADVLIGO)

AdvLIGO is the upgrade of the Laser LIGO will achieve its objectives as planned Interferometer Gravitational Wave and may detect the first gravitational waves. Observatory (LIGO) that will allow LIGO AdvLIGO will greatly increase the sensitivity to approach the ground-based limit of to ensure the detection of gravitational gravitational-wave detection. LIGO consists waves and to launch the new field of of the world’s most sophisticated optical gravitational-wave astronomy. interferometers, operating at two sites (Hanford, WA and Livingston, LA). Each The LIGO project was planned in two phases interferometer has two 4-km arms at 90 from the very beginning. Phase I would degrees to one another. In addition, the produce a gravitational-wave detector that interferometer at Hanford contains a 2-km would be as sensitive as possible with the interferometer within the same vacuum technology available in the early 1990s enclosure used for the 4-km interferometer. on a platform that could be upgraded These interferometers are designed to to the ultimate sensitivity as the critical measure the changes in arm lengths technologies were further developed. The resulting from the wave-like distortions goal of Phase I was to obtain a year’s worth of space-time caused by the passage of of accumulated data at the design sensitivity gravitational waves. The changes in arm for Phase I (expressed as a dimensionless -21 The MREFC Project AdvLIGO will improve length that can be detected by the present, strain h ~ 10 , the ratio of the change the sensitivity of LIGO by more than Phase I LIGO are a thousand times smaller in arm length to the length of the arm). a factor of 10, which will expand the volume of space LIGO will be able to “see” than the diameter of a proton over the The LIGO Laboratory expects to have by more than 1,000. 4-km arm length. AdvLIGO is expected those data in 2006. The second phase or to be at least 10 times more sensitive. AdvLIGO project will upgrade LIGO to enable The frequency range for which LIGO and attainment of the ultimate sensitivity of an AdvLIGO are designed will be sensitive to Earth-based gravitational-wave observatory, many of the most interesting cataclysmic limited only by the irreducible effects of cosmic phenomena believed to occur in fluctuations in the Earth’s gravitational field. the universe. Furthermore, because LIGO From the outset, the overall LIGO strategy was and AdvLIGO will push the sensitivity to produce a broadband gravitational-wave of gravitational-wave detection orders detector with an unprecedented astronomical of magnitude beyond existing frontiers, reach and then to upgrade the initial facility to the potential for making discoveries of achieve the most sensitive gravitational-wave completely new phenomena is significant. detector possible on Earth.

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The LIGO program has strongly stimulated technology, seismic isolation techniques, the interest in gravitational-wave research ultrastable laser development (new product around the world, producing very vigorous introduced), development of new ultra-fine programs in other countries that provide optics polishing techniques, and optical strong competition. LIGO has pioneered the inspection equipment (new product). field of gravitational-wave measurement, and a timely upgrade is necessary to Active outreach programs have been reap the fruits of this bold initiative. developed at both the Livingston and International partners are contributing Hanford sites. Teams at both sites have significant human and financial resources. provided visual displays, hands-on science exhibits, and fun activities for visiting Einstein’s general theory of relativity students and members of the public. In predicts that cataclysmic processes the last three years, more than an average involving super-dense objects in the of 2,000 students per year have taken universe will produce gravitational radiation advantage of this opportunity. More formal that will travel to Earth. Detection of these programs at the sites include participation gravitational waves is of great importance, in the Research Experience for Teachers An aerial photograph of the LIGO site in both for fundamental physics and for (RET) Program, a set of “scientist- Livingston, LA. astrophysics. And, although the universe teacher-student” research projects in is believed to be filled with gravitational- support of LIGO, and participation in waves from a host of cataclysmic the Summer Undergraduate Research cosmic phenomena, scientists have Fellowships/Research Experience for never detected a gravitational wave and Undergraduates (SURF/REU) programs measured its waveform. for college students. In collaboration with RET participants and networks of local The principal scientific goals of the LIGO – educators, both sites have developed Web- AdvLIGO project are to detect gravitational based resources for teachers that include waves on Earth for the first time and to information on research opportunities develop this capability into gravitational for schools and a set of standards-based wave astronomy – a new window on the classroom activities, lessons and projects universe – through which we can observe related to LIGO science. Well under way is phenomena such as the inspiral and the project to build the Visitor’s Center at coalescence of neutron stars in binary orbit, the Livingston site that will be filled with black hole collisions, unstable dynamics Exploratorium exhibits and will be the focal of newborn neutron stars, supernovae, point for augmenting teacher education a stochastic background from the early at Southern University and other student- universe, and a host of more exotic or teacher activities state-wide through the unanticipated processes. Louisiana Systemic Initiative Program. Outreach coordinators have been hired at LIGO has played a significant role in the each site to augment the existing activities. training of Ph.D. graduates for the country’s New this year is Einstein@home, a World workforce. In addition, LIGO has a diverse Year of Physics project led by a LIGO set of educational activities at its different Scientific Collaboration (LSC) scientist from sites, activities that involve a large number the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee, of undergraduates and outreach activities that allows almost anyone in the world for the public. In 2004 NSF entered into a with a computer to participate in LIGO data cooperative agreement with Caltech and analysis. Southern University/Baton Rouge to build a Visitor’s Center at the Livingston site. LIGO is sponsored by NSF and managed by Caltech under a cooperative agreement. Substantial connections with industry Under the current agreement, NSF oversight have been required for the state-of-the-art is coordinated internally by a dedicated construction and measurements involved LIGO program director in the Physics in the LIGO projects. Some have led Division in MPS, who also participates in to new products. Areas of involvement the PAT. NSF conducts annual scientific include novel vacuum-tube fabrication and technical reviews involving external

40 To Index Page reviewers and participates in meetings of The AdvLIGO upgrade will include the laser, the LSC as well as making site visits to the suspension, seismic isolation, and optical Hanford and Livingston interferometers. subsystems. Advanced detector research During the AdvLIGO construction phase, and development has proceeded to the NSF will continue the activities described point where technology needed for the above and exercise more intensive upgrade is well in hand. In particular the oversight through more frequent reporting development of the laser subsystem has requirements, stepped-up interaction with achieved performance levels essentially the project personnel, scheduled reviews at the final specifications, and part of the and site visits at least twice yearly and AdvLIGO seismic isolation system is already more frequently if need arises. The NSF in operation at the Livingston site where it LIGO program director will work closely has successfully eliminated excess vibration with the LIGO Deputy Director for the from various sources. The LIGO Laboratory AdvLIGO Project who has already been will have spent $40.74 million of R&RA named. Project management techniques funds on advanced R&D for AdvLIGO in the used in the successful completion of the period from FY 2000–2007. U.S.-funded initial LIGO construction will be employed construction and commissioning activities to benefit management of the AdvLIGO are scheduled to continue through FY 2013, construction. with project completion and full operation at both sites beginning in September 2013. All three LIGO interferometers were fully operational by the spring of 2002. The expected operational lifespan of Since then, activity has been divided LIGO is about 20 years. Along with direct between improving the sensitivity operations and maintenance support for of the interferometers and collecting LIGO, NSF supports science and engineering scientific data. Four science runs have research directly related to LIGO activities been performed: S-1, in the period from by members of the LIGO Scientific August 23, 2002, to September 9, 2002, Collaboration from universities through with a sensitivity of about a factor of ongoing research and education programs. 100 from the design goal; S-2, lasting The annual support for such activities is 59 days from February 14, 2003, to estimated to be about $5 million. April 14, 2003, with a sensitivity of about a factor of 10 from the design goal; S-3 In 1997 LIGO founded the LSC to in the period from October 31, 2003, organize the major international groups to January 8, 2004, with a sensitivity doing research that was supportive of of about a factor of 3.5 from the design LIGO. The LSC now has more than 40 goal; and S-4 from February 22, 2005, collaborating institutions with about to March 23, 2005. The improvements 500 participating scientists. The role achieved in S-4 were remarkable. The and membership responsibilities of each addition of the Hydraulic External Pre- participating institution are determined The End Test Mass in the x-arm of the 2k-IFO. (Hanford, WA) Isolation (HEPI) system to the Livingston by a Memorandum of Understanding interferometer to eliminate interference (MOU) between the LIGO Laboratory and from anthropogenic noise sources was the institution. The LSC plays a major totally successful, as indicated in the role in many aspects of the LIGO effort, improvement of the Livingston duty cycle including: R&D for detector improvements, from 21.8 percent in S-3 to 74.5 percent R&D for Advanced LIGO, data analysis in S-4 leading to more than 50 percent and validation of scientific results, triple coincidence observing during the and setting priorities for instrumental run. In addition, during S-4 all three improvements at the LIGO facilities. interferometers improved their sensitivity to within a factor of 2 of design sensitivity. Additional information on AdvLIGO can be found in the MREFC Chapter of NSF’s The LIGO Laboratory submitted a proposal FY 2006 Budget Submission to Congress for AdvLIGO in early 2003. The proposal (http://www.nsf.gov/about/budget/ was reviewed in June 2003 and the project fy2006/). was considered to be ready for construction.

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Status Report on National Science Board Approved New Starts

This category is reserved for NSB-approved new starts that have not yet been included in an NSF Budget Request to Congress. At the time of the writing of this Facility Plan, NSF has requested funding (in FY 2006 or later) for all NSB-approved new starts in the FY 2006 Budget Request to Congress.

Readiness Stage Projects and Projects Recommended for Advancement to Readiness Stage The MREFC panel annually evaluates projects for admission to this category. Candidates are brought forward by the sponsoring directorates and offices when those organizations consider the projects ready for MREFC funding consideration. At the time of the writing of this Facility Plan, there are no projects in the Readiness Stage.

Projects Under Exploration

Many NSF programs, divisions, offices and directorates are exploring and funding the preliminary development of concepts that might eventually evolve into MREFC projects. The following projects, which have been brought to the attention of the MREFC Panel, illustrate both the wide variety of concepts being investigated and the various stages of project development. Some are very embryonic and others well-advanced in their planning. Some may become MREFC candidates and others perhaps not, either because they prove infeasible or because better ways of meeting the scientific objectives come to light in the planning process. This chapter is not meant to provide a comprehensive overview of projects on either the near or distant horizon.

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ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY SOLAR TELESCOPE (ATST)

The main purpose of the ATST will be to NSF has provided $11.0 million for a enable study of magnetohydrodynamic five-year (FY 2001-2005) design and phenomena in the solar photosphere, development phase of the ATST project. chromosphere and corona. Understanding The project conducted an extensive and the role of magnetic fields in the successful conceptual design review in outer regions of the Sun is crucial to August 2003. A set of preliminary and understanding the solar dynamo, solar systems design reviews will be held in variability and solar activity, including early 2005. The project has selected flares and mass ejections which can Haleakala Peak on the island of Maui affect life on earth. As the first new in Hawaii as its primary site, and the large solar telescope constructed in environmental assessment process has nearly 30 years and because of the begun. A construction proposal for the new range of scientifically compelling telescope is currently under review by questions that it can address, the ATST AST. Construction costs that would be is expected to rejuvenate the ground- requested of MREFC are now estimated based solar research community in U.S. at $161.40 million. Annual ATST universities and enable training of the operations costs will be approximately next generation of solar physicists and $11.0 million, about $4.0 million of instrument builders. Strong linkages which will be accommodated by closing will be established with a diverse set existing NSO facilities. Enhanced of collaborating institutions, including university research enabled by ATST universities, industrial partners, NASA would require an additional $3.0 centers and other federally funded million annually from NSF grants. research and development centers The earliest possible start date for (FFRDC). There will also be synergy with construction is FY 2007. planned space missions such as the Solar Dynamics Observer. ATST will contribute to curriculum development and teacher training through ongoing National Solar Observatory (NSO) and NOAO programs, and to public outreach through NSO Visitors Center, Web presence, etc.

Artist’s conception of the ATST.

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COLLABORATIVE LARGE-SCALE ENGINEERING ANALYSIS NETWORK FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH (CLEANER)

CLEANER will contribute to the NSF for environmental protection and Science Objective of integrated research management. The long-term goal is to to understand complex environmental foster adaptive management strategies systems. The main goal of CLEANER is to for large-scale human-dominated provide the physical infrastructure and CI environmental systems. CLEANER will to develop the knowledge base that can provide information (some in real-time) be used to solve large-scale, multifaceted from a series of comparable nationwide environmental problems, especially sites. Theory and computation will be in systems that are heavily impacted used to develop a deep understanding by human activities. CLEANER will be of the interplay among air, water and a distributed collaborative network of land, and how controlling pollutants in interacting sites for large-scale research one compartment affects environmental on human-dominated environmental quality in the other media. systems, comprising a series of interacting field sites, an integrating CI including data and model repositories, and an enabling management infrastructure. CLEANER will support data collection from advanced sensor arrays and analytical tools for data mining, aggregation and visualization. This will lead to predictive multi-scale modeling of dynamic environmental systems and experimentation to improve engineering approaches

Fish Kill at Chautauqua National Wildlife Refuge in Illinois. Pollution at the Kanai Moose Range.

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COHERENT X-RAY LIGHT SOURCE

A coherent X-ray light source will be a coherent X-ray flux. Advanced CI will be transformational facility, impacting many required for optimal performance of either scientific disciplines and enabling new design of instrument (e.g., to provide types of scientific investigations that “smart” control of the phasing of electron cannot be done today. For example, it bunches (ERL), or of the phasing between will impact chemistry by allowing time- electron bunches and laser pulses (XFEL), resolved investigations of the structures or to achieve synchronization of multiple of macromolecules in solution and of lasers at femtosecond time scales for the structural evolution of transition multiple beamlines). Robotic control of states in ultrafast chemical reactions. It experiments would often be required to has the potential to do “crystallography enable efficient data collection, including without crystals” – that is, to enable software-based data reduction with the the determination of structural data for capability of handling data rates of order macromolecules without requiring that they 10 megabytes per second. Data analysis be in crystalline form. This is especially software will confront new challenges valuable for biology, as many important either in concatenating the collection of biomolecules do not form crystals. It will ERL data from billions of individual pulses also provide biologists with the potential or in analyzing data from “Coulomb to image subcellular organelles, yielding explosions” produced by an XFEL. protein locations in the natural state. In addition, the phase contrast at hard X-ray NSF recently awarded $5.15 million energies provides the potential for real- to Cornell to begin construction of a time, high-resolution medical imaging of prototype ERL, with which to address low-contrast tissues. In condensed-matter the many technical issues that must be physics and materials research, a coherent satisfactorily resolved before the potential X-ray light source will enable measurements of a full-scale ERL can be realized. These of microstructure in bulk materials, studies issues include the generation of high of stresses and strains on individual average current high-brightness electron grains, and investigations of structure and beams; acceleration of these beams to dynamics in materials (e.g., by providing a suitable energies without unacceptable picosecond view of melting, recrystallization emittance degradation; and stable and and annealing, and enabling fundamental efficient operation of superconducting investigations of plastic deformation). In linear accelerators at very high gradients. geology and geophysics, a coherent X-ray A full-scale ERL is estimated to cost $300 light source will enable time-resolved million. A full-scale XFEL is expected to experiments on plasticity, rheology, and cost as much as $500 million. phase transitions, as well as allowing studies of matter at high pressures, probing conditions that exist in planetary interiors. This image depicts a schematic diagram of an ERL, which is a source of Two concepts for a coherent X-ray light synchrotron radiation. This source injects electrons at source have been discussed with NSF: up to a 1.3GHz rate into an Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) project superconducting radio frequency (RF), which is at Cornell University and an X-ray Free instrumental in accelerating Electron Laser (XFEL) project at MIT. Both the electrons to their full the ERL and XFEL concepts have been energy of 5 GeV, illustrated by the green balls “surfing” explored in a number of workshops dating on the rest of the RF back several years. Since NSF expects traveling wave in the image. Upon circulating, they to support the construction of at most produce X-ray beams in one coherent X-ray light source, the two undulators, shown by the red rectangles and return to the projects are effectively in competition with linac, decelerating to a low- each other. Either project would provide energy state, ready to be orders of magnitude improvement over directed to a beam dump. existing synchrotron X-ray sources in reduced pulse duration and intensity of

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DEEP UNDERGROUND SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING LABORATORY (DUSEL) DUSEL will be to enable experiments that the next two years, MPS has initiated require the conditions that are achieved a three-phase solicitation process only at extreme depths in the earth (8,000 aimed at identifying: (1) the scientific to 10,000 feet), such as very low rates and engineering case for experiments of background cosmic rays or extremes of that would make up the underground geological temperature (in excess of 120oC) laboratory, as well as the technical and and rock stress. The need for and possible infrastructural requirements of each research programs for an underground experiment; (2) conceptual designs for laboratory have been documented in two specific sites that will accommodate long-range plans (high energy and nuclear as much of the research as possible; physics communities), an NSF sponsored and (3) baseline designs for the workshop, “International Workshop on infrastructure for an underground Neutrinos and Subterranean Science laboratory, including detailed costs 2002,” and two major NRC reports, and time required for the permitting, “Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos” and construction and development of an “Neutrinos and Beyond.” The laboratory initial suite of experiments. Up to will add major new dimensions to the $3 million was provided for proposals U.S. and worldwide research efforts in resulting from solicitations 1 and 2, particle and nuclear physics, astrophysics, and up to three awards totaling up geosciences and engineering. Work in to $1 million each will result from the DUSEL, which will use rare decay solicitation 3. This process is expected processes and collisions of neutrinos to result in the information needed from astrophysical sources with matter in to decide whether NSF will proceed underground detectors, will help unlock the with the project. The actual costs secret of neutrino mass, diagnose the core associated with the development of collapse of a massive star, and perhaps the infrastructure of the laboratory are solve the mystery of the domination in estimated to be about $300 million, the universe of matter over antimatter. and the cost of the initial suite of Studies of life forms that thrive under experiments that would go into the extreme conditions may provide clues to laboratory is also estimated to be the origin and evolution of life on Earth. approximately $300 million.

To support planning for the project for

Located 2,000 feet underground in the Japanese Alps, the SuperKamiokande neutrino detector is composed of thousands of PM tubes, which collect light produced by the interaction of the neutrinos and the ultra-pure water filling the detector. This device has detected neutrino oscillations among atmospherically generated neutrinos, providing evidence that neutrinos have a small but finite mass. It has also detected solar neutrinos, contributing to the understanding of the problematic detection rate of neutrinos from the Sun. 46 To Index Page

EXPANDED VERY LARGE ARRAY (EVLA) PHASE II

The Expanded Very Large Array Phase II maximum sensitivity to extended emission. (EVLA Phase II) would enhance the Combined with the Phase I expansion, capabilities of the most productive radio the array will improve its sensitivity, telescope ever built, the Very Large Array frequency agility and resolution by an (VLA), which is reportedly second only order of magnitude. to the Hubble Space Telescope in total production of resulting publications. The key The preliminary estimates for the Phase scientific inquiries will follow the evolution II expansion cost is $110 million total (in of the universe: tracing the neutral 2004 dollars), with the bulk of the cost hydrogen mass function back in time; (approximately $90 million) consisting observing galaxy and star formation in of siting and construction of the eight the early universe; studying the formation new antennas and the installation of of galaxy clusters; observing the environs last-mile fiber-optic cable. The remainder of active galactic nuclei, including jets; will be used to build the physical using variability of gravitational lensing infrastructure for the new compact array to understand galactic and intergalactic configuration. Included in these costs is dynamics; responding quickly to gamma approximately 15 percent contingency. ray burst events; and observing, with Phase II construction is expected to unprecedented resolution and sensitivity, take approximately seven years from the structure and evolution of our own commencement. Conceptual development, galaxy. The expanded VLA will open a proposal writing, and preliminary design vast “discovery space” that is currently work for Phase II has been funded from inaccessible to any instrument. The Phase II NRAO’s operations budget. NRAO is well expansion will add eight new antennas to under way on CI planning that will allow the array at larger physical spacings (up to acquisition, processing, dissemination and 300 km), will connect inner antennas from archiving of the large data sets. The major the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) to the cyber-requirements for this initiative are EVLA by fiber-optic cables, and will add the vast storage media, advanced search and physical infrastructure to support a new, retrieval technology, rapid data-transfer/ extremely compact array configuration. disk-access technology, and wide-bandwidth The result of the expansion will be an array interconnections. All of these requirements with an order of magnitude improvement in are being addressed in the present Phase sensitivity to both large-scale and small- I deployment and in the Phase II planning scale astrophysical structure. The very process. The Phase II proposal is under compact array configuration will provide review by NSF.

The VLA at sunset.

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GNSS EARTH OBSERVING SYSTEM (GEOS) The GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite the atmosphere are made twice a day at System) Earth Observing System fewer than 700 sites globally, and vast (GEOS) is based on UCAR’s COSMIC areas of the ocean are not sampled at all. (Constellation Observing System for In addition, the GEOS constellation will Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate) provide ocean topography measurements and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s with an accuracy of a few centimeters in (JPL) AMORE (Atmospheric Moisture the vertical with a horizontal resolution of and Ocean Reflection Experiment) less than 25 kilometers. Also, other concepts. A constellation of 12 small geophysical parameters, such as gravity instrumented spacecraft will explore the variation with wavelength 500~1,000 km. global atmosphere, from the surface of will be made by GEOS. the Earth to an altitude of several hundred kilometers, providing unique geoscience It is expected that the development, measurements to study the oceans, construction and launching of these troposphere, stratosphere and ionosphere observing tools will build on existing as an integrated, interacting system. partnerships between NSF and NASA. Using multiple radio frequencies, GEOS The respective communities supported by will provide high-quality, time-continuous these agencies have expertise in design, measurements of temperature, water development, evaluation, data processing vapor, ozone, ocean topography and and distribution, and use of the GEOS surface wind, ionospheric electronic density system. The earliest possible start date for distribution and Earth gravity. This will construction of the satellites is FY 2007. enable significant advances in the following The total budget for this project is scientific disciplines: climate, meteorology, estimated at $425 million based on an atmospheric chemistry, space weather, FY 2007 start date and 2011 launch oceanography, and solid earth structure date. A six-year operating life time for and dynamics. GEOS will provide 12,000 the satellite system is expected, with GPS radio occultation soundings per day eight to 10 years of post-mission data from which 1,600 water vapor profiles analysis and research. per day could be obtained over all parts of the globe. Presently, vertical profiles of

This COSMIC constellation would be the third generation of applications of the radio occultation techniques. 48 To Index Page

INTERFEROMETRIC SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR (INSAR)

This project, which will be led by NASA, will importance of InSAR for providing high- consist of a satellite-based Interferometric spatial-resolution distortion measurements Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) capable to discriminate competing models of fault of measuring surface motions as slight as slip, viscoelastic response and volcanic several millimeters per year, such as during magma movement. A significant fraction of strain accumulation between earthquakes. the Earth’s population lives in or near areas This revolutionary new geodetic tool for the likely to experience earthquakes, volcanic measurement of Earth surface deformation eruptions or the consequences of sea-level will bring a fundamentally new data type to change. Better understanding of these the study of changes of the Earth’s surface: hazards through InSAR-related studies can time series of spatially continuous surface help mitigate the consequences, potentially deformation associated with earthquakes, saving lives and reducing economic impact. volcanoes, ice sheets and glaciers. The The 744 earth science departments principal geographic focus areas include at U.S. universities that grant degrees regions of active tectonics, volcanics and at the bachelor level or above will be glaciation, or approximately 10 percent of empowered to participate in the excitement the area of the Earth. InSAR will achieve of geoscience research and education by these diverse goals through a single type accessing InSAR results on line. of measurement: millimeter-level surface deformation at resolutions of tens of meters InSAR concepts were developed in with worldwide accessibility. For NSF, numerous workshops and proposals over InSAR is the fourth and final component the past decade. Technologically, the of EarthScope. InSAR will be a great project is low-risk with the instrumentation improvement over the European Space and scientific techniques proven. NASA Agency and Canadian Space Agency SAR has provided extensive planning, instruments, which use short wavelengths design, and development funding for and are therefore subject to interference approximately ten years. NSF would be from any ground disturbances. InSAR’s expected to provide approximately $80 mission will provide coverage of the same million toward construction of the satellite area every eight days, providing the large radar and ground down-link data systems. number of frequent observations necessary The earliest possible start for construction to understand the earthquake process. of EarthScope: InSAR is FY 2007. Recent workshops have emphasized the

InSAR illustrates the ground movement as fringes or contours taken from the satellite’s radar picture of the Earth’s surface. The fringes and contours represent identical images taken at various intervals to be compared for differences by a computer to produce this picture. 49 To Index Page

LARGE SYNOPTIC SURVEY TELESCOPE (LSST)

LSST will contribute to the Science heavily into the site-selection process. Objective of Understanding the universe. Downselect to two potential sites will The principal science drivers for the be made in early 2005. A design and LSST are: understanding the physics development proposal is currently under of dark energy via three-dimensional review by AST. Preliminary estimates mass tomography to great distances excluding the cost of the camera are and the detection of moderate redshift approximately $140 million in FY 2007 supernovae; detecting and cataloging dollars. A full-time project manager with small bodies in the solar system, extensive experience in large distributed including potentially hazardous asteroids technical projects was hired in mid-2003, and objects in the outer solar system; and $30 million of private funds has opening the time domain through been raised, with some being used to repeated deep imaging of the accessible mitigate schedule and technical risk by sky, which can reveal transient and early procurement of glass needed for explosive events such as cataclysmic the large reflective optical elements. variable stars, gamma ray bursters and AST funded a three-year detector- the optical counterparts of X-ray flashes; technology development proposal for studies of the distances and motions $1.3 million in FY 2003. NOAO’s annual of a complete, distance-limited sample in-kind contributions to the LSST project of stars in the solar neighborhood; totals approximately $1.2 million. The and measuring of the kinematics and science cases are being developed structure of the galactic halo. The 8.4m by an independent science-working optical telescope will be a special-purpose group and will be critically examined instrument, designed and operated for by NSF over the coming months. The the benefit of the entire astronomical earliest possible start for construction community. The LSST will be a digital of the LSST is FY 2008, which would celestial camera of unprecedented size allow science operations to start in late and capability, collecting and processing 2012. If substantial funding is found nightly nearly 20,000 gigabytes of multi- from private sources or other agencies, color imaging data over its anticipated the construction cost to the NSF could ten-year lifetime. The processing power drop below the MREFC threshold. required to stay abreast of the data The adoption of a competing design stream is approximately 140 teraflops. for a large-aperture survey telescope, Decimation of the data will occur on- PanSTARRS, a project at the University site, but substantial network bandwidth of Hawaii funded by the U.S. Air Force will be required for dissemination of the to fulfill a limited mission using four data products and processed images 2m telescopes, could also drop the cost to be produced nightly. The LSST data below the MREFC threshold. processing systems will produce the deepest, widest-field image of the sky ever taken along with daily catalogs of moving and transient objects.

The site-selection process for LSST has narrowed the choices to four mountaintop sites: Cerros Pachon and Las Campanas in Chile, San Pedro Martir in Baja California, and La Palma in the Canary Islands (Spain). Meteorological conditions and image quality statistics for potential sites are being factored into detailed simulations of the design reference mission. Cyberinfrastructure, in particular the availability or cost of high bandwidth connectivity at a given site, is also of importance and will weigh Artist’s conception of the LSST. 50 To Index Page

PETASCALE EARTH SYSTEM COLLABORATORY

The primary goal of the Petascale Earth will be specialized facilities for visualization System Collaboratory is to enable frontier and for maintaining large data sets. research in which high-end computational All of the primary components of the modeling is the key investigative tool. collaboratory will be located in institutions One of the great intellectual challenges connected by very high-bandwidth links facing science in the early 21st century and united by grid middleware to provide is the task of understanding the wide a virtualized resource for users. The grid range of processes that make up the associated with the Petascale Earth System Earth system and the rich complexity that Collaboratory will be extended to the data results from their interaction. The wide infrastructure of the major environmental range of scales and processes involved observing systems so that data from are challenging to represent in laboratory these systems can be readily integrated experiments and, in most instances, direct with modeling. Such systems are being manipulative experimentation is difficult developed by several vendors both here or impossible. Two trends in Earth system and abroad; for example, as part of the research combine to offer scientists a Defense Advanced Research Projects way past these obstacles. The first is the Agency’s (DARPA) High Productivity accelerating development of new sensors Computing System program. Instead of and observing systems that promise to purchasing one hardware platform, the provide a wealth of data at appropriate purchase of a “performance curve” is time and/or space scales, and the envisioned – that is, a specified level of second is the coming of age of numerical performance, increasing over the duration of experimentation. The collaboratory will the project. The performance-curve approach provide hardware and software that provides flexibility to capitalize on emerging enhances the capability of computational technology as it becomes commercially geoscientists for to visualize and analyze viable. Implemented at NCAR, this technique structure within very large data sets, has proven to be a cost-effective and thereby enabling researchers to analyze efficient method of providing computational the output of very large models. It will also resources to the research community. provide two badly needed computational Community identification of needs is now capabilities that are currently unavailable, mature, and the current estimate of total namely (1) computational facilities which infrastructure costs for this project is $489 can cater to codes requiring large amounts million. Development of a science plan, of cycles and very high-bandwidth, system design document, and budget for the low-latency processor-to-memory and project has been undertaken by geoscience inter-processor communications, and researchers. (2) facilities amenable to codes requiring very large main memory (100-500 TB).

The core facility will include a large disk- farm (eventually multi-petabyte) and off-line storage system to support the use of the system for very large jobs. The disk-farm and the network coupling it to the computational system will have to be customized to match the computational hardware. To facilitate the analysis of very large volumes of model output, a significant part of the storage will be implemented as a smart database rather than a traditional file system. Rounding out the capacity of the system will be five or six satellite facilities providing capabilities Computed charge density for FeO within the Local Density for medium-size computations so that the Approximation, with spherical ions subtracted. The colors represent the spin density, showing the antiferromagnetic core facility can be dedicated to very high- ordering. The strong d-lobes on the ions are apparent, and end computations. Additional components strongly affect elastic and partitioning behavior.

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SOUTH POLE FUTURE COMMUNICATION NEEDS

The goal of the project is to and sophisticated research programs provide modern, broadband digital are successfully implemented; the communications connecting South Pole time required to produce results and Station with the global cyberinfrastructure communicate findings to the research on a 24-hour/seven-day-per-week community is reduced; and greater access basis. Such communications capabilities is provided to instrumentation to expand are desperately needed to support the numbers of researchers benefiting. remote observation, instrument time- Broadband communications also play

The Earth Station behind Palmer Station sharing among multiple investigators, an increasingly important role in the provides a communication link via the 5-meter- remote troubleshooting, periodic health and safety of all station personnel diameter antenna that sees a satellite orbiting software refreshment and continuous through our implementation of modern the equator, allowing people to make phone calls and use the Internet, as well as providing development, timely data transfer telemedicine capabilities. High-resolution the remote station with telemedicine capability. for downstream analysis, and timely digital video transmissions enable remote feedback to experimental configuration radiologists to guide real-time ultrasound and data acquisition protocols to adapt diagnostic procedures administered by to changing experimental conditions local staff. High-resolution digital video and lines of inquiry. At 90ºS latitude, transmissions streamed via Internet-2 South Pole Station is outside the support real-time specialist supervision of range of conventional geosynchronous locally administered clinical procedures satellites. The present communications when necessary. 24-hour/seven-day infrastructure consists of a number of broadband communication capability will geosynchronous satellites in inclined increase current telemedical capabilities, orbits, which, when in sight of the South permit transmission of vital diagnostic Pole Station, provide limited direct information at any time, day or night, communications contact between the and leverage on-site medical staff with continental United States and the station. virtually unlimited access to specialized Line-of-sight connectivity is possible medical expertise in the United States. because those satellites have drifted into Continuous access eliminates the present inclined orbits visible for a few hours at a risk that medical emergencies must time to the South Pole station. wait for limited daily satellite contacts. Enhanced off-site support in medical Current and future science research emergencies is essential for positive programs at South Pole Station involve patient outcomes in such a remote, instrumentation based on sophisticated hostile environment. electronics and computing technology that generate large volumes of data. A conceptual plan for incrementally The benefits of improved communications increasing South Pole communications already experienced by the research capability and coverage has been program are: reduction in cycle-time for developed through user workshops, fielding experimental apparatus and responses to a Request for Information reaching productive data collection, published in the Commerce Business minimization of the limitations imposed Daily, and analysis by NSF, NASA on staffing of wintering crews for and NOAA staff and contractors. The instrument operation, broadening of plan consists of two overlapping participation by senior researchers developmental phases. who would otherwise not be able to physically travel to the instruments, Phase A (up to about 2010): and shortening the time required for + hardware and systems development analysis and publishing of results. The to augment existing satellite service outcomes felt by the research community with 56 kb/s low/medium bandwidth are significant: increasingly challenging Iridium service to achieve 24x7

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coverage (ca. $15 million); be established (up to $250 million); + bring existing, more-capable NASA + develop “pole sitter” satellites positioned and/or existing commercial satellites in solar (not Earth) orbit so as to provide into the constellation to achieve continuous line-of-sight to South Pole bulk data transmission; negotiate to Station. Costs to share development of incorporate NSF/USAP communication this option with NOAA, the Department of requirements in future NASA and Defense (DOD), and private developers commercial communication satellite would be approximately $80 million. design ($5-20 million); + research and possibly implement Other options analyzed or under analysis additional Iridium services. include the use of tethered balloons as relay Implementation will require Earth stations, as well as a series of ground-based station construction and Iridium microwave relay links from South Pole system modifications Investment to Station to Concordia Station. achieve 1.544 Mb/s service would be at least $10 M.

Phase B – Long Term: Strong possibilities include: + install a trans-Antarctic fiber-optic cable connecting South Pole Station over the inland high plateau to the more northern European Concordia Station, where a geosynchronous satellite link to the United States and Europe could

This image of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station encompasses the skiway, science facilities, and a satellite radome. 53 To Index Page

SQUARE KILOMETER ARRAY (SKA) SKA is conceived as the next-generation and development during FY 2005. radio telescope for meter and centimeter The site selection (possibly outside the wavelength astronomy. The U.S. SKA U.S.) has yet to be made. Although the Consortium concept for the instrument international community has a formal consists of 4,400 12-meter-diameter framework for decision-making, the parabolic dish antennas with a core final determination of antenna design concentration in the Southwest and and site selection may be contentious. outlier stations spread throughout the A reasonably accurate cost estimate for continental United States. It will require SKA will require substantial research. major infrastructure development since However, the goal is to keep the total individual array antennas will be sited cost at or below $1 billion, which is to be at many remote locations, requiring shared among the international partners, that signals from some stations be with one-third each from the United Artist’s conception of the SKA. transported by optical fiber over States, Europe and from the rest of the thousands of kilometers. With roughly world. Contributing to cost uncertainty is one square kilometer of collecting the requirement for a massive, special- area, the SKA will be approximately an purpose computer called a correlator order of magnitude more powerful than to combine signals from all antennas current instruments and will provide and form the necessary “visibilities” unprecedented capabilities for discovery needed to generate images of the sky. and analysis of the radio universe. The Such a computer will be affordable superior resolving power, sensitivity, and only if Moore’s law continues apace for image quality will allow fundamental new the next decade or more. Keeping total studies of the formation and early history construction costs below $1 billion is a of stars, galaxies and quasars, with the major challenge, and is the primary focus potential for the discovery of totally new of the technology development program. astrophysical phenomena. Since the focus of SKA design efforts is primarily at universities rather than at a national center, the development of the various technologies necessary for realizing SKA will provide training for students and postdoctoral researchers.

This is a project in the early stages of development, and preliminary design efforts are ongoing in a number of countries. The International SKA Steering Committee (ISSC) has adopted a development plan that calls for convergence on a single design and selection of a site in 2008-2010. The earliest possible start for construction of the SKA is FY 2010, possibly as late as 2015, with construction to be completed around 2020. MPS funded a three-year preliminary design study in 2001 for $1.5 million, and expects to receive a proposal for expanded technology

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THIRTY METER TELESCOPE (TMT) The TMT will be a general-purpose for the primary mirror segments and telescope of unprecedented size, possible alternatives to glass for the operated for the benefit of a broad primary mirror substrate. segment of the astronomical community. It had been assumed that this telescope’s Both the CELT segmented mirror program primary mirror would consist of a (California Extremely Large Telescope) collection of a large number of individual and the Giant Magellan Telescope mirrors, so it was called the Giant (GMT) have established project offices Segmented Mirror Telescope. However, and hired full-time project managers in light of recent design studies, it with extensive experience in large and is not clear what the realization of complex projects. AURA (the Association such an instrument will be and the of Universities for Research in Astronomy), name “Thirty Meter Telescope” is CELT and ESO are actively collaborating now preferred. The TMT would dwarf on site identification and testing, and the existing 8-10m optical/infrared the test data will be shared among the ground-based telescopes, increasing the groups. NOAO’s in-kind contributions to available light grasp nearly ten-fold and, TMT technology development amount to assuming adaptive correction is used approximately $1.5 million per year. CELT to realize the diffraction limit of the has received $35 million from the Moore telescope, the angular resolution by a Foundation for design and development factor of three over the world’s largest of a segmented mirror TMT. A 40-month, telescope. The TMT would utilize major $40 million proposal to support the technological breakthroughs in design two design studies and development of and routine use of adaptive optics to enabling technologies common to both provide extraordinary improvements designs was submitted in the late spring over current capabilities. Two competing of 2004. In addition, starting in FY 2003, designs are currently being pursued: $3 million per year is invested in adaptive (1) a segmented mirror telescope optics technology development aimed at design, which is a similar in concept components (lasers, deformable mirrors) to the Keck 10m telescope, but with a and algorithms needed for the TMT through 30m collecting area; and (2) a smaller the Adaptive Optics (AO) Development (22m) telescope employing seven Program administered by NOAO. 8.4m diameter round primary mirror segments. Both proposed designs will Preliminary estimates for the segmented- require adaptive correction significantly mirror design are in the range $700 million beyond the current state of the art. The to $1 billion; the GMT design would cost largest technical hurdles will be those approximately $500 million. Depending on associated with extreme adaptive optics the final design selection and assuming – achieving the diffraction limit at optical roughly one-half of the construction costs wavelengths. This will require significant would be borne by NSF, the required algorithm development during the design funding will be in the range $200 million and development phase and undoubtedly to $400 million. A down select between will also demand significant processor the two potential designs could occur One concept for the Thirty Meter Telescope. power at the TMT site. Off-site bandwidth in 2008 with the earliest possible start requirements will be large but probably for construction in FY 2010. Assuming not much larger than those of current construction starts in 2010, first light high performance telescopes. The effects would occur in the middle of the next of wind loading on such a large telescope decade. The expected lifetime for TMT is must be modeled and may require the approximately 30 years. use of adaptive structures.

Other technical challenges include the development of durable reflective coatings

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a c r o n y m s

AdvLIGO Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory DTF Distributed Terascale Facility AGS Alternating Gradient Synchrotron DUSEL Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory AIBS American Institute of Biological Sciences EAR Division of Earth Sciences ALMA Atacama Large Millimeter Array EHR Directorate for Education and Human Resources AMORE Atmospheric Moisture and Ocean Reflection Experiment EHWD Enhanced Hot Water Drill AO Adaptive Optics ENG Directorate for Engineering ARF Academic Research Fleet EONTF Environmental Observing Networks Task Force ARRV Alaska Region Research Vessel EPA Environmental Protection Agency AST Division of Astronomical Sciences EP SCoR Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research ATLAS A large Toroidal LHC Apparatus ERL Energy Recovery Linac ATM Division of Atmospheric Sciences ESEC EarthScope Science and Education Advisory Committee ATST Advanced Technology Solar Telescope ESO European Southern Observatory AUI Associated Universities, Inc ESP Environmental Sample Processor AURA Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy ETF Extensible Terascale Facility BEBC Big European Bubble Chamber eV Electron Volts; one billion (“giga”) electon volts is abbreviated GeV, and one trillion (“peta”) is abbreviated PeV. BFA Office of Budget, Finance and Award Management EVLA Expanded Very Large Array BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency BNL Brookhaven National Laboratory FFRDC Federally Funded Research and Development Centers Caltech California Institute for Technology FOFC Federal Oceanographic Facilities Committee CELT California Extremely Large Telescope GAC Gulfstream Aircraft Corporation CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research GenBank The public DNA sequence database maintained by the National CI Cyberinfrastructure Center for Biotechnology Information, part of the National CISE Directorate for Computer and Information Science Library of Medicine. and Engineering GEO Directorate for Geosciences CLEANER Collaborative Large-Scale Engineering Analysis Network For GEOS GNSS Earth Observing System Environmental Research GHz Gigaherz CMS Division of Civil and Mechanical Systems GIG Grid Infrastructure Group CONABIO Comision Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Bioversidad (National Commission for the Understanding and GMT Giant Magellan Telescope Use of Biodiversity) GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System COSEE Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence GPS Global Positioning System COSMIC Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, HAC HIAPER Advisory Committee Ionosphere and Climate HEPAP High Energy Physics Advisory Panel CP Charge Parity HEPI Hydraulic External Pre-Isolation CUAC Cyberinfrastructure User Advisory Committee HIAPER High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Environmental Research DASI Degree Angular Scale Interferometer InSAR Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar DBI Division of Biological Infrastructure IODP Integrated Ocean Drilling Program DLESE Digital Library for Earth Science Education IOOS Integrated Ocean Observing System DLFP Deputy for Large Facility Projects IPS Integrative Programs Section DOD Department of Defense ISSC International SKA (Square Kilometer Array) Steering Committee DOE Department of Energy IT Information Technology DOM or Digital Optical Modules JOI Joint Oceanographic Institutions Inc DOMs

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JOIDES Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling PAT Project Advisory Team JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory PBO Plate Boundary Observatory LHC Large Hadron Collider PM Photomultiplier LIGO Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory PSC Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center LSC LIGO Scientific Collaboration R&R A Research and Related Activities Account Account Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory Distributed Terascale Facility LSST Large Synoptic Survey Telescope R/V Research Vessel Alternating Gradient Synchrotron Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory LTER Long Term Ecological Research RAF Research Aviation Facility American Institute of Biological Sciences Division of Earth Sciences MEXT Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology Atacama Large Millimeter Array Directorate for Education and Human Resources (Japan) RET Research Experience for Teachers Atmospheric Moisture and Ocean Reflection Experiment Enhanced Hot Water Drill MMA Millimeter Array REU Research Experience for Undergraduates Adaptive Optics Directorate for Engineering MOU Memorandum of Understanding RF Radio Frequency Academic Research Fleet Environmental Observing Networks Task Force MPS Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences RFP Request for Proposals Alaska Region Research Vessel Environmental Protection Agency MREFC Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction RP Resource Provider Division of Astronomical Sciences Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research NA National Academies RPSC Raytheon Polar Services Corporation A large Toroidal LHC Apparatus Energy Recovery Linac NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration RSVP Rare Symmetry Violating Processes Division of Atmospheric Sciences EarthScope Science and Education Advisory Committee NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research SAFOD San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth Advanced Technology Solar Telescope European Southern Observatory NCBI National Center for Biotechnology Information, part of the SDSC San Diego Supercomputer Center National Library of Medicine. Associated Universities, Inc Environmental Sample Processor SKA Sqaure Kilometer Array NCSA National Center for Supercomputing Applications Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Extensible Terascale Facility SODV Scientific Ocean Drilling Vessel NEES George E. Brown Network for Earthquake Engineering SPSM South Pole Station Modernization project Big European Bubble Chamber Electron Volts; one billion (“giga”) electon volts is abbreviated Simulation GeV, and one trillion (“peta”) is abbreviated PeV. STAR Solenoidal Tracker at the RHIC (Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider), Office of Budget, Finance and Award Management NEESinc NEES Consortium Inc Expanded Very Large Array located at Brookhaven National Laboratory Directorate for Biological Sciences NEHRP National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program Federal Emergency Management Agency SURF Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships Brookhaven National Laboratory NEON National Ecological Observatory Network Federally Funded Research and Development Centers TCS Terascale Computing Systems California Institute for Technology NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology Federal Oceanographic Facilities Committee TMT Thirty Meter Telescope California Extremely Large Telescope NNI National Nanotechnology Initiative Gulfstream Aircraft Corporation UCAR University Corporation for Atmospheric Research European Organization for Nuclear Research NOA A National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration The public DNA sequence database maintained by the National UCSD University of California, San Diego Cyberinfrastructure NOAO National Optical Astronomy Observatory Center for Biotechnology Information, part of the National UNOLS University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System Directorate for Computer and Information Science Library of Medicine. NRAO National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Engineering U.S. United States Directorate for Geosciences NRC National Research Council Collaborative Large-Scale Engineering Analysis Network For USAP United States Antarctic Program GNSS Earth Observing System NSB National Science Board Environmental Research USDA United States Department of Agriculture Gigaherz NSF National Science Foundation Division of Civil and Mechanical Systems USDA- U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service Grid Infrastructure Group Comision Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la NSO National Solar Observatory ARS Bioversidad (National Commission for the Understanding and Giant Magellan Telescope NSTC National Science and Technology Council USFS United States Forest Service Use of Biodiversity) Global Navigation Satellite System OCE Division of Ocean Sciences USGS United States Geological Survey Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence Global Positioning System ODP Ocean Drilling Program VLA Very Large Array Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, HIAPER Advisory Committee Ionosphere and Climate OGC Office of General Counsel VLBA Very Long Baseline Array High Energy Physics Advisory Panel Charge Parity OLPA Office of Legislative and Public Affairs XFEL X-ray Free Electron Laser Hydraulic External Pre-Isolation Cyberinfrastructure User Advisory Committee OMB Office of Management and Budget High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ONR Office of Naval Research Environmental Research Degree Angular Scale Interferometer OOI Ocean Observatories Initiative Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar Division of Biological Infrastructure OPP Office of Polar Programs Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Digital Library for Earth Science Education ORION Ocean Research Interactive Observatory Networks Integrated Ocean Observing System Deputy for Large Facility Projects ORNL Oak Ridge National Laboratory Integrative Programs Section Department of Defense OSF Operations Support Facility for ALMA International SKA (Square Kilometer Array) Steering Committee Department of Energy OSTP Office of Science and Technology Policy Information Technology Digital Optical Modules OTIC Ocean Technology and Interdisciplinary Coordination program Joint Oceanographic Institutions Inc PACDIV Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific Division

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REFERENCES

1. “Science and Engineering Infrastructure Report for the 21st Century -The Role of the National Science Foundation,” February 8, 2003; NSB-02-190; http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/documents/2002/nsb02190/nsb02190.pdf

2. Priority Setting for Large Facility Projects (NSB-04-96), National Science Board White Paper, May 2004, http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/meetings/2004/may_srprt.doc.

3. “Setting Priorities for Large Research Facility Projects Supported by the National Science Foundation,” a 2004 National Academies report, http://books.nap.edu/catalog/10895.html.

4. “Complex Environmental Systems, Synthesis for Earth, Life, and Society in the 21st Century, A 10-year outlook for the NSF,” NSF Advisory Committee for Environmental Research & Education,” January 2003, www.nsf.gov/geo/ere/ereweb/acere_synthesis_rpt.cfm.

5. “Environmental Cyberinfrastructure Needs for Distributed Sensor Networks,” report from a NSF sponsored workshop, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, August 2003

6. “NSF Geosciences Beyond 2000, Understanding and Predicting Earth’s Environment and Habitability,” Report of NSF Advisory Committee for the Geosciences, 2000. www.nsf.gov/pubs/2000/nsf0028/nsf0028.doc.

7. “NEON: Addressing the Nation’s Environmental Challenges,” a report of the National Research Council, 2003, http://books.nap.edu/catalog/10807.html.

8. “Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences, 2001”, National Research Council, Committee on Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences, National Academies Press, http://books.nap.edu/catalog/9975.html.

9. “Facilities to Empower Geosciences Discovery 2004-2008,” (NSF 03-053), NSF Advisory Committee for Geosciences, 2003, http://www.nsf.gov/geo/facilities/.

10. “A Science Based Case for Large-Scale Simulation,” report of a Department of Energy workshop June 24-25, 2003, http://www.pnl.gov/scales/.

11. “Beyond the Molecular Frontier: Challenges for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering;” Report from NAS Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology, (2003), http://books.nap.edu/catalog/10633.html.

12. “Envisioning the Agenda for Water Resources Research in the Twenty-First Century,” NationalAcademies Press (2001), http://books.nap.edu/catalog/10140.html.

13. “National Nanotechnology Initiative; Research and Development Supporting the Next Industrial Revolution, Supplement to President’s FY 2004 Budget, Oct. 2003,” http://www.nano.gov/html/res/fy04-pdf/fy04-main.html.

14. “Elementary-Particle Physics: Revealing the Secrets of Energy and Matter,” National Academies Press, 1998, http://books.nap.edu/catalog/6045.html.

15. “Physics in a New Era: An Overview,” National Academies Press, 2001, http://books.nap.edu/catalog/10118.html.

16. “The Roadmap for the Revitalization of High-End Computing,” report of a workshop, Computing Research Association, 2003, http://www.cra.org/reports/supercomputing.pdf.

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17. “Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos: Eleven Science Questions for the New Century,” National Academies Press, 2003, http://books.nap.edu/catalog/10079.html.

18. “Materials Science and Technology: Challenges for the Chemical Sciences in the 21st Century,” National Academies Press, 2001, http://books.nap.edu/catalog/10694.html.

19. “Revolutionizing Science and Engineering through Cyberinfrastructure,” Report of the National Science Foundation Blue-Ribbon Advisory Panel on Cyberinfrastructure, 2004, http://www.nsf.gov/cise/sci/reports/toc.jsp.

20. “Understanding the Sun and Solar System Plasmas: Future Directions in Solar and Space Physics,” National Academies Press, 2004, http://books.nap.edu/catalog/11188.html.

21. “The Sun to the Earth -- and Beyond: A Decadal Research Strategy in Solar and Space Physics,” National Academies Press, 2002, http://books.nap.edu/catalog/10477.html.

22. “Strengthening the Linkages Between the Sciences and the Mathematical Sciences,” Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications (CPSMA) National Academies Press, 2000, http://www.nap.edu/books/0309069475/html/.

23. “How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School,” National Academies Press, 2000, http://books.nap.edu/catalog/9853.html.

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IMAGE CREDITS

Introduction Chapter 2: Major Research Equipment And Page 5 Acevedo, Arecibo Observatory, Cornell University Facilities Construction Projects (top) Page 20 National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)/ Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) Page 5 National Solar Observatory (NSO)/Association of (center) Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)/ Page 21 National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)/ National Science Foundation (NSF) Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) and European Southern Observatory Page 5 Ocean Drilling Program, Texas A&M University (bottom) Page 22 EarthScope Page 6 Jon Yamasaki, DASI Winterover Page 23 © 2002 University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. All Rights Reserved Page 24 © 2002 University Corporation for Atmospheric Chapter 1: Research Objectives and Research. All Rights Reserved Opportunities at the Frontiers of Science and Engineering Page 25 Jeff Miller, University of Wisconsin, Madison Page 8 Robert B. Moore and Kenneth A. Mauritz, Page 26 John Jacobsen, courtesy IceCube, University of University of Southern Mississippi (top) Wisconsin, Madison Page 9 Paul Thompson and Arthur Toga, University of Page 26 National Science Foundation (NSF)/University of (top) California, Los Angeles (bottom) Wisconsin and Darwin Rianto, University of Wisconsin Page 9 A. Majumdar, University of California, Berkeley Page 27 © 2005 American Institute of Biological Sciences; (center) graphic by Jason C. Fisher Page 9 Gerald Baber, Virginia Tech Page 28 Steve Maslowski, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (bottom) Page 29 Jacobs School of Engineering, University of Page 10 MODIS images from NASA’s Terra satellite supplied California, San Diego (top) by Dr. Ted Scambos; National Snow and Ice Data Page 30 Kelly James, Oregon State University Center, University of Colorado, Boulder Page 31 Brookhaven National Laboratory Page 10 Jeffrey B. Weiss, University of Colorado, Boulder (bottom) Page 32 Integrated Ocean Drilling Program/ Texas A&M University Page 11 Nicolle Rager Fuller, National Science Foundation (NSF) Page 33 Jonathan Berry, National Science Foundation (NSF) Page 12 Eric J. Heller, Harvard University Page 34 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Page 13 Chad Mirkin, Northwestern University Page 35 Gary Glatzmaier and Darcy E. Ogden, University of Page 14 © CERN California, Santa Cruz; Paul H. Roberts, University Page 15 National Aeronautics and Space Administration of California, Los Angeles (top) (NASA)/European Space Agency (ESA) Page 36 John Orcutt, Scripps Institute of Oceanography Page 15 Gemini Observatory Page 37 © 2003 Monterey Bay Aquarium Research (bottom) Institute (MBARI) Page 16 John Bally, University of Colorado; Bo Reipurth, Page 38 The Glosten Associates, Inc. (top) University of Hawaii; National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO)/Universities for Research in Page 39 Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Astronomy (AURA)/National Science Foundation (NSF) Observatory (LIGO) Page 16 David A. Aguilar, Harvard-Smithsonian Center Page 40 Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave (bottom) for Astrophysics Observatory (LIGO) Page 17 Adam Miezianko, Karen Fung, Zavnura Pingkan, Page 41 Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave (top) Kristopher Rambish Observatory (LIGO) Page 17 Matthias Weber Page 42 Cover image: Ed Seidel, Louisiana State (bottom) (top) University; Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute); visualization by Werner Benger, Zuse Institute Berlin

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Page 42 © 2004 Pixel Perfect Digital, Inc. and its licensors. Page 47 National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)/ (center) All rights reserved. Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI)/National Science Page 42 © 2004 RubberBall. All rights reserved. Foundation (NSF); photographer: Kelly Gatlin (bottom) Page 48 Orbital Page 43 National Solar Observatory (NSO) Page 49 NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Page 44 W.L. French, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Institute of Technology (Caltech) (left) Page 50 Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) Observatory Page 44 Luther Goldman, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Page 51 © Ronald Cohen, Carnegie Institution of Washington (right) Page 52 Kristan Hutchison, National Science Foundation (NSF) Page 45 Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) Page 53 Bill Henriksen, National Science Foundation (NSF) and Laboratory for Elementary-Particle Physics (LEPP), Cornell University Page 54 SETI Institute and University of California, Page 46 Kamioka Observatory, ICRR (Institute for Cosmic Berkeley; Isaac Gary, artist Ray Research), The University of Tokyo Page 55 Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) New Initiatives Office, National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO)

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