p W V Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory • mt* iffS Kitt Peak National Observatory jBHa National Solar Observatory w W US Gemini Project
National Optical Astronomy Observatories i
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Provisional Program Plan FY 2000 i
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Submitted to the National Science Foundation i September 27,1999 I !
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I I I NOAO MISSION
The mission ofNOAO is to enable leading-edge research through the establishment and operation of premier groundbased astronomical researchfacilities, to promote public understanding and support of science, and to advance all aspects of US groundbased I astronomical research.
Contents
1 Introduction
3 New Capabilities
18 Direct Support to Principal Investigators
32 Public and Educational Outreach
36 Technical and Administrative Infrastructure
39 Management and Budget
Appendices A-J
A Milestones FY 2000
B Status of FY 1999 Milestones
C FY 2000 Management Budget
D Scientific Staff Responsibilities and Research Interests
E NOAO Management
F Deferred Facilities Maintenance
G FY 1998 Visitor and Telescope Usage Statistics
H Tenant Facilities at Kitt Peak and CTIO s I NOAO Organizational Chart J NSO 10-Year Funding Profile
NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: Mission & Contents 1 i
i Introduction
This ProgramPlan describes in detail what NOAO proposes to accomplish during FY 2000with funding of $29.7 M, which is the amount proposed in the budget submitted by the President to Congress.
In keeping with thefact thatthis is thefirst plan forthenextmillennium, theprogram andthe format in which it is presented represent a substantial departure from pastplans. The emphasis is on leadership: NOAO is positioning itselfto undertake initiatives in both solar and nighttime astronomy that will ensure that the US continues to be a world leaderin groundbased astronomy. As a consequence, the FY 2000Program Plan places relatively greater emphasis on the development of advanced capabilities and relatively less emphasis on the operation of existing facilities. The goal is to begin to take the first steps toward achieving the ambitious vision laid out in the NOAO Long Range Plan submitted earlier this year.
The fundamental principle that underlies this Program Plan is that the facilities operated by NOAO are an essential component of a national observing system that includes the Gemini telescopes, the independent observatories, and NASA missions. The observing system concept is reflected in our choice of instruments, in new approaches to telescope scheduling, and in our relianceon community partnerships to develop new telescope concepts, data management and data mining tools, and innovative instrumentation.
The implementation of this plan requires new modes of working with the community. Specifically, we are basingour approach to the Advanced SolarTelescope and to the next large groundbased telescope on the model used in the early 1980's for development of mirror technologies for 8-m class telescopes: NOAO will serve as facilitator and coordinator of the overall effort, which will rely primarily on placing study contracts with university groups and industry. NOAO will conduct in-house technical programs only in those areas where we are either best qualified to do the work or where external options are not available.
Initiatives in data management are central to addressing large-scale scientific problems such as the origin and evolution of galaxies and structure. Again we see the techniques for data mining and tools for sophisticated querying of multiple databases being developed in the community, with NOAO providing the structure that ensures common standards, optimization of multiple distributed efforts, and community access to the results.
The instrumentation program presented here is designed to complement what will be available at the independent observatories. The instrumentation for Gemini North and South emphasizes narrow field diffraction-limited imaging and spectroscopy in the near-infrared in order to take advantage of the Gemini design, which is optimized for this type of science. The optical instrumentation for Gemini is complementary to what is available on other US telescopes in each hemisphere.
1 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: Introduction Introduction
We estimate that at least one-third of the NOAO and Gemini instruments—and possibly considerably more depending on our success in finding capable external groups—will be built outside NOAO.
We are also initiating discussions with AXAF and SIRTF concerning "one-stop shopping" for observing time for the SIRTF First Light Survey and Legacy programs and for some selected portion of the AXAF programs—again to realize the advantages of an observing system.
The changing emphasis of the NOAO program will require a change in the administrative structure of NOAO. (The proposed changes are described below in the Management and Budget section.) Specifically, we plan to establish two new project groups. The first group will focus on strategic planning, initiatives, and development. The second will be responsible for supporting science of scale, with emphasis on data pipelining, archiving, and data mining. The FY 2000 spending plans described in this document reflect these changed priorities.
NOAO FY 2000 Spending By Program (Total = $29,649 K) Initiatives Outreach $4,144 $588 K (14%) (2%)
Instrumentation $6,741 K (23%) Support of Pi's $18,176 K (61%)
The FY 2000 program proposed here is divided into two broad components: (1) programs that will provide new capabilities, including initiatives and instrumentation, to the community and (2) programs that support principal investigators and their access to telescopes. These program categories have been broken down in a format similar to a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), and costs have been developed by WBS element. Since these activities draw on the scientific staff, scientific staff costs have been allocated to each activity. Because effective operation of the organization also depends on having a minimally adequate infrastructure in terms of administrative support and
2 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: Introduction Introduction I maintenance of the physical plant, infrastructure costs have been allocated to each of the component programs as well. All these costs have been aggregated in the chart above. (A separate breakdown of "overhead" costs as a discrete expense category is detailed below in the section on Management and Budget.)
In order to keep this plan to a readable length, we describe the major program components briefly, emphasizing key issues and changes in program content relative to last year. Detailed management plans for several projects (e.g., GNIRS and SOLIS) have already been supplied to the NSF, and others are available on request. Similarly, an extensive science justification is prepared before a project is included in the Program Plan, and those justifications can also be made available.
The FY 2000 Plan is organized according to the major program activities carried out at the NOAO observatories:
♦ Initiatives - especially programs to provide new telescopes, instrumentation, or other qualitatively new capabilities to the community.
♦ Development of new instrumentation for existing telescopes
♦ Direct support to principal investigators - primarily the operation of existing telescopes at NSO, CTIO, and KPNO, and such related services as the distribution of IRAF and data from the NSO Digital Library. Included in this category is the US Gemini Program (USGP), which supports US users of the Gemini telescopes, ensures oversight of the US contributions to the Gemini instrumentation program, and provides long range planning for the Gemini project. I ♦ Public and educational outreach
3 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: Introduction I
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' New Capabilities
I In this section, we highlight the new capabilities being FY 2000 New Capabilities by Program Category developed at NOAO. We describe first those projects that (Direct costs =S8.3M) will lead to major new facilities—the category we have Data Mgmt labeled Initiatives. Some of these projects are in the Initiatives $0.19 M $2.9 M planning stages, others are ongoing. In the next section, we (2%) (35%) describe the Instrumentation Program. In the final section, we describe initiatives in the area of Surveys and Data Management. Instruments $5.2 M Initiatives (63%)
The Advanced Solar Telescope (AST) The primarygoal for the National Solar Observatory is the construction of the Advanced Solar Telescope. When coupled to adaptive optics, the AST will be capable of breaking the 0.1 arcsec barrier in the visible and providing the resolution needed to analyze the active magnetic microstructure. Models suggest that manyof the physical processes controlling atmospheric heating and magnetic field stability occur on scales of -70 - 100 km or I ~0.1 arcsec, and that magnetic fibrils move at velocities of -0.5 - 0.7 km s"' and have lifetimes of-20 minutes. Achieving high temporal and spectral resolution simultaneously with the necessary signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio requires a high photon flux, which in turn requires a large aperture telescope (>3 m), even for the Sun. It is highly unlikely that a solar telescope of such a largeaperturewill be deployed in space in the next two decades. In the visible, the AST willcomplement forthcoming missions such as SOLAR-B, which will have an aperture of 0.5 m and will operate over a wider field of view than the AST. Critical diagnostics of the solar magnetic I field in the low chromosphere and the corona reside in the thermal infrared, thereby adding a requirement for an all-reflective telescope and low-scattering optics.
Over the next two years, NSO will work with the solar community to define the scientific requirements for the AST, a facility that was given a very high priority in the recent report on groundbased solar research by the National Research Council (the Parker Committee Report). NSO will establish an AST consortium and work with the consortium to develop a design and establish the technical feasibility of building a telescope that can meet the stringent requirements on image quality. The goal is to submit a proposal to the National Science Foundation in approximately three years.
In FY 2000 NSO will devote a substantial portion of its budget to development of technologies required for an AST. The most critical enabling technology is adaptive optics, which will receive the majority of the funding. (The AO project is described in the section on instrumentation below.) Some of the other technical issues that must be explored include heat management, scattered light properties, cleanliness management of the primary optics, polarization properties, whether to use an on- or off-axis design, and whether the AST should have coronal capabilities. The NSO will also calibrate and employ the Solar Dual Image Motion Monitor (S-DIMM) to measure seeing at NSO/SP and will collaborate with other observatories to identify a suitable site.
4 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: New Capabilities New Capabilities I The Next Big Telescope (NBT) With the dedication of Gemini North and
the imminent completion of Gemini South, GONG+ it is time to begin planning for the next $226 K major groundbased telescope. ESO expects to devote nine people full time to planning for OWL (a 100-m Overwhelmingly Large Telescope) beginning next year. It is believed that Caltech expects to have $1 M Archiving available next year for planning. It is clear $186 K that the US national community must begin AST to make some investment in defining the $146 K scientific requirements for a major new facility and initiating the technical studies NBT needed to ensure that such a facility can be $247 K built with confidence in terms of both cost and budget. FY 2000 Initiatives 1 (Direct costs = Working closely with the staff of the international Gemini project, NOAO has taken $2,875 K) the lead in establishing a steering committee to plan and oversee activities leading to the NBT. (The steering committee members are Roger Angel, Frank Bash, John Casani, Bob Fugate, Jay Gallagher, Matt Mountain, Jim Oschmann, Larry Ramsey, Tom Sebring, Steve Strom, and Sidney Wolff.) A workshop sponsored by AURA will be held in Hyannis, Massachusetts in mid-September 1999 and will be attended by people from both the astronomy community and industry. The goal of the workshop is to identify the key scientific and technical issues that must be I addressed before selecting a design for a very large telescope. We expect to follow up this workshop by placing study contracts with industry and university groups to fund initial concept studies. We will also fund workshops and travel for participants. Specific deliverables after the first year are expected to include:
•A recommendation for the general characteristics of the next facility to be built. •A requirements document for that facility. •A spreadsheet or analogous assessment tool that can be used to analyze the relative performance capabilities of alternate configurations. • The proceedings of a workshop defining science programs/opportunities. • An assessment of competing conceptual approaches for the next facility (e.g. a scaled-up version of the HET, a Keck-like instrument, small segments versus large mirrors; etc.). •A document assessing the critical risk technologies. • A set of presentation materials describing the project.
5 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: New Capabilities New Capabilities
In addition to developing a flowdown from sciencegoalsto top-level requirements and goals, there are a number of major issues where there is as yet no consensus about what should be built. ESO currently plans to proceed directly to a 100-m telescope. The justification for this aperture is that they wish to use natural guide stars for adaptive optics correction, and this large aperture and a substantial field of view are required to have enough natural guide stars. The cost, which is surely in excess of $1 B, is estimated to be only50% more than ESO spenton the VLT The US community is more optimisticabout the use of lasers for adaptive optics, and the most the US federal government has spent on an OIR telescope is a little over $90 M. While we do not yet know what the Decade Survey Committee will recommend, it seems likely that the committee will find it prudent to propose an intermediate facility (25-m or so) as a precursor to any 100-m effort. Such a telescope would be extremely valuable for spectroscopy, particularly in support of NGST, and we are currently exploring optical designs that would make it possible to obtain spectra of thousands of objects simultaneously with this large aperture.
In addition to the question of how to approach adaptive optics, there are a number of other technical issuesthat must be resolved, including the performance of very large structures, the efficient manufacture of glass and optical surfaces, and the control of optical surfaces. There are debates about the merits of parabolic versus spherical mirrors and questions about whether the telescope should be fully steerable. It is necessary not only to resolve these issues and develop the requisite technologies but also to break the current cost curve. If we assume that an 8-m telescope costs $50 M and use the usual scaling law that telescopecosts increase with the 2.5 power of the aperture, then a 100-m telescope would cost in excess of $25 B.
The NBT must be placed at a superb site. The two most likely locations are Mauna Kea, which is already characterized, and northern Chile. Although excellent sites have already been identified in northern Chile (Tololo, La Silla, Pachon, Paranal, Chajnantor), we must identify the most suitable site based on the scientific priorities and technical attributes of the NBT. CTIO began site evaluation in FY 1999 by gathering data from earlier surveys and conducting a preliminary topographical analysis. CTIO also initiated negotiations to let a contact for a detailed cloud and water vapor analysis of the GEOS-8 satellite data, covering the years 1995-1999. The results of this analysis are expected to be available by late FY 2000; we then plan to trim the list of possible sites down to five or six, which will be further reduced to two or three after on-site weather and geological analyses. These remaining sites will be thoroughly tested. As part of the complement of test equipment, we are assembling three Differential Image Motion Monitors (DIMMs), copies of those developed for site testing by ESO. One DIMM will be permanently installed on Tololo, replacing a less capable equivalent; the others will be used at remote sites during the period of intensive site monitoring.
6 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: New Capabilities NEW CAPABILITIES
VISTA A consortium of British universities has obtained funding to build VISTA, a 4-m telescope optimized for optical and infrared imaging surveys. The optical field of view will be 2 degrees at prime focus, and the optical camera will contain 50 CCDs (4096 x 2048 with 0.25 x 0.25 arcsec pixels). The infrared field of view at the Cassegrain will be 1 degree, and the IR camera will contain 9 chips (2048 x 2048) in a sparse array with 0.33 arcsec pixels.
The UK intends to place this telescope in the southern hemisphere and is considering three sites: Paranal, Las Campanas, and Cerro Pachon. The site selection will be based on the value added by the host organization.
This VISTA facility provides the capability that NOAO has long sought in terms of identifying objects to the faint limiting magnitudes that can be reached spectroscopically with Gemini South. However, since the UK is providing total funding (up to $40 M) for this project—in order to strengthen the research programs of the British univer sities in the consortium—it has been made quite clear that the US will not have access to the data unless we are able to make a significant contribution to the project. Since funding for the construction phase is adequate, the US contribution must enhance the project in other ways. Possibilities that NOAO is exploring (in addition to the providing the site) are: (1) speeding up the schedule for construction by providing technical specifications developed by SOAR and possibly the designs for the enclosure and management of on site construction (for this portion of the US contribution, the benefits might accrue preferentially to the members of the SOAR consortium rather than to the US community as a whole); (2) support of some or all of the operations, which are intended to be low cost and automatic but not robotic; and 3) a contribution to the software effort needed to make the large database useful to the community.
More specifically, we see VISTA as an appropriate vehicle for beginning the exploration of data mining issues for astronomical databases. We expect to seek funding that would allow us to work with UK scientists to:
• Structure the archive in a manner conducive to data mining. • Develop structures and protocols for managing/sequencing archive queries. • Develop tools for efficient parsing of databases into multi-dimensional parameter space. • Develop tools for interactive visualization of images and statistical representations of the data, etc.
We expect this effort will initially be led by a member of the community working in partnership with NOAO.
The opportunity to participate in VISTA presents some difficult priority choices for NOAO. Once we have a clear understanding of the scientific benefits to the US
7 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: New Capabilities New Capabilities
community associated with participation in VISTA, as well as the costs that will accrue to NOAO, we will able to decide whether to go ahead with this project. It is also true that VISTA would be the last telescope that we can leverage by underwriting operations; with WIYN, SOAR, and VISTA we would have committed all that is appropriate to long term operations of shared facilities.
The Dark Matter Telescope (DMT) NOAO has joined with Steward and Lowell in exploring the feasibility of constructing an extremely wide-field 8-m class telescope for very deep imaging in the optical and non-thermal near infrared. The field of view would be 3 degrees. NOAO and Steward sponsored a workshop to define the scientific goals, and the major theme that emerged was mapping non-luminous matter in the universe from our solar system out to a redshift of z = 1. The operational mode would be to scan the entire sky every few nights with short exposures (20 to 100 s) and to sum the individual exposures over many years to reach to magnitudes as faint as 29. Such a capability would enable: 1) the discovery of 90 percent of the near-Earth objects to a diameter of 300 m—that is, the objects capable of doing significant damage; 2) the mapping of all the dark matter in a cone to z = 1 through the use of weak lensing; and 3) the exploration of the domain of variable objects in a completely new way.
A paper summarizing the workshop has been prepared under the leadership of Tony Tyson and has been widely circulated. The Dark Matter Telescope was also presented to the OIR panel of the Decade Survey Committee. If the Committee endorses the DMT, NOAO would expect to partner with Steward and Lowell in preparing a proposal for the facility, with NOAO taking the lead in developing the plans for instrumentation and data handling, both of which present very substantial I challenges. The construction of the telescope involves little risk. At that time, we will have to allocate more resources to the DMT than currently shown.
SOLIS SOLIS (Synoptic Optical Long-term Investigations of the Sun) is a project to make optical measurements of processes on the Sun, the study of which requires well calibrated, sustained observations over a long time period. The project was conceived in 1995, submitted to NSF in early 1996, and funded in January 1998. The design and construction phases will require three years, and the 25-year operational phase will start during FY 2001. SOLIS will replace the vacuum telescope on Kitt Peak. The project was descoped, primarily by reducing the capability for coronal observations, when funding fell short of the request. A Science Advisory Group provides expert advice from the user community.
FY 2000 will see the continuation and near completion of major construction, and the development of most of the operational software. The maximum of the present solar cycle is expected to occur in FY 2000 and SOLIS will be ready to observe the high levels of activity that persist for several years after the maximum. NASA's HESSI mission will launch in July 2000 and is counting on SOLIS data as soon as possible.
8 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: New Capabilities New Capabilities
A major activity for SOLIS in FY 2000 is testing and certification of parts received from vendors. Development of calibration techniques using existing NSO facilities will accelerate as the new Data Scientist begins work on SOLIS. Cross calibration of the Integrated Sunlight Spectrometer with existing, similar observing equipment will start during the fall of CY 1999.
SOAR The SOAR project has as its goal the construction of a 4-m class telescope with superb image quality. The telescope is being designed to complement the Blanco 4-m telescope, which offers a wide field of view and has been retrofitted to provide very good image quality (median FWHM - 0.9 arcsec), but whose ultimate performance is limited by the technology with which it was built. The partners in the SOAR project are CNPq - Brazil (the Brazilian federal science funding agency), the University of North Carolina, Michigan State University, and NOAO. The financial contributions of the partners to construction, commissioning, instrumentation, and operations will be such that NOAO and Brazil will each receive 30 percent of the observing time. UNC and MSU will receive approximately 15 percent each, and the remaining 10 percent will be allocated to Chilean astronomers in accord with the agreement under which AURA operates in Chile. The SOAR facility will be located on Cerro Pachon about 300 meters distant from Gemini South. The SOAR site has been leveled and prepared for construction, and the official laying of the first stone occurred on April 17, 1998.
The primary technical challenge of this project is the very tight specification on image quality (0.18 arcsec FWHM system performance). The telescope itself will be 4 m in diameter and will have a 4-inch thick meniscus mirror. There will be active thermal and support systems for the primary and a tip/tilt tertiary. The telescope will have one Nasmyth port that can accommodate Gemini instrumentation and a second Nasmyth that can support at least two optical instruments simultaneously. The initial instrument complement will include optical and infrared imagers, and two optical spectrographs, one with an integral field unit.
The SOAR project team has been established at NOAO headquarters in Tucson and is headed by Tom Sebring, who was project manager for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. The contracts have been let for the primary mirror blank, the active optics system, and the mount. During the next year, we expect to award the dome contract, install the foundation for the enclosure, conduct a critical design review of the active optical system, and transfer the finished blank from Corning to ROSI to begin fabrication. The firing of the blank is currently expected to occur in August, 1999.
A potential concern for this project has been the ability of the partners, particularly Brazil, to meet the payment schedule to complete the project in a timely manner. However, the financial situation in Brazil has now stabilized: Brazil has committed to provide $4 M during FY 1999, has already paid $2 M of this amount, and expects to make future payments at a rate that will allow the project to maintain its
9 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: New Capabilities New Capabilities
original schedule. UNC and NOAO have provided their funds up front, and MSU remains committed to its payment schedule.
GONG+ The GONG project is described later in this document because it is an operating observatory. The GONG cameras are currently equipped with 256 x 256 CCD arrays. The goal of GONG+ is to upgrade the resolution by installing 1024 x 1024 cameras. The first of these new cameras has been integrated into the Tucson station. The new detector has excellent characteristics and provides spatial resolution comparable to the optical system resolution, eliminating the spatial aliasing in the current system and overcoming the inherent problems with the I current rectangular pixels. The higher spatial resolution will provide significantly improved helioseismic resolution in the near-surface regions and extend all aspects of local helioseismology, as well as enable non-helioseismic, diachronic solar measurements, such as continuous magnetograms.
The operation of these higher resolutioncameras will increase the operating costs of the GONG network by $0.25M/year beginning in FY 2001 because of the factor of 16 increase in the data flow, and the subsequentincrease in data storage media and processing. Processing the data will require a further upgrade to the computer system in order to keep pace with the data flow from GONG+ and to exploit its full scientific potential. GONG++ is the term used to refer to this computer upgrade. The runout costs are summarized in the NSO Funding Profile in Appendix J-l. (Only the $1.8 M for basic operations applies to the Program Plan for FY 2000.)
Instrumentation Program Nighttime Instrumentation
A number of nighttime instrumentation projects FY 2000 Instrumentation Program were completed in FY 1999, including: 1) the (Direct costs = $5,181 K) mosaic imager for CTIO; 2) the Hydra multi- fiber spectrograph for CTIO; 3) the mini- Mosaic for WIYN; and 4) the high resolution spectrograph Phoenix. (A table summarizing the FY 2000 nighttime instrumentation plan is included in the section below on Management and Budget.) Here we briefly summarize major instruments.
10 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: New Capabilities New Capabilities
Gemini Instruments In FY 2000, we will initiate the fabrication of GNTRS. In addition to GNTRS, we will be completing the CCD controller for Gemini and speeding up the operation of the IR array controllers to 1 frame per second. We have initiated discussion about adapting Phoenix for use on Gemini South. This instrument is unique. It provides a resolution R = 100,000 and is equipped with a 1024 x 512 ALADDIN array. Because of its compatible approach to design and cooling, with a cold dichroic for optical guiding, the instrument can be easily adapted for use at the Gemini telescopes.
Approximately half of the manpower in the nighttime instrumentation program is devoted to Gemini work. Also, since Gemini pays after milestones are achieved, I NOAO must provide the working capital to achieve each milestone, being reimbursed afterwards. In order to ensure timely progress on GNIRS, we are therefore compelled to reserve nearly all of the capital ($400 K) budgeted for the KPNO/CTIO nighttime instrumentation program for GNIRS, along with the funds we expect to derive from salary recovery for Gemini work ($400 K). We expect to be reimbursed subsequently for this capital by Gemini, and will use it in future years for NOAO instruments.
The recosting of the GNIRS based on the current design is currently in progress, and negotiations with Gemini on the final cost to them remain to be concluded. However, we estimate the total cost to NOAO in fiscal years 2000 - 2002 to be approximately $2.0 M.
We expect to cover most of the manpower costs of completing GNIRS with NOAO funds. This commitment is translated directly into a slowdown of instrumentation programs for the NOAO nighttime telescopes. However, this slowdown would be inevitable even if we were subsequently reimbursed. Based on the earlier experience with GNTRS, we are now pursuing the project with the best people NOAO has rather than with new hires—and therefore these NOAO staff are unavailable for NOAO instrument projects. Since we have no commitments to work on Gemini instruments beyond what is listed in the Management and Budget section below, we are unable to increase the size of the staff permanently to accommodate the extra workload associated with Gemini.
In addition to the work ongoing at NOAO, a number of Gemini instrument projects are in progress elsewhere in the US. The University of Hawaii is completing NIRI, the near-infrared imager. The Mid-IR imager and spectrograph, T-ReCS, is being built at the University of Florida. The Near-IR coronagraph is being funded by NASA, and a contract for conceptual design will be let shortly. A contract for fabrication will be the subject of a subsequent competition in FY 2000. We will also be developing a strategy for involving the US in construction of a multi-object IR spectrograph, which is the next major instrument likely to be built in the US.
11 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: New Capabilities New Capabilities f
IR and OUV Instrumentation Program The largest project currently in progress for the nighttime observatories is construction of a tip/tilt system for imaging at WIYN. In FY 2000, we will complete installation of 512x512 InSb arrays in SQIID, which provides for simulta neous imaging in J,H,K, and L, and commission the instrument at KPNO. Work on detector R&D has been scaled back because we expect to have only a small number of arrays in house for testing and characterization. We are exploring the possibility of taking InSb arrays to 2Kx2K. Given past problems with the photometric and other characteristics of HgCdTe arrays, it seems prudent for the community to have more than one option in IR arrays. However, we will undertake this work only ifoutside supportbecomes available since NOAO has no immediate possibility of being able to afford an instrument that would make use of such an array.
For its own 4-m class telescopes, NOAO plans to emphasize instruments that take advantage of wide fields of view. Gemini offers only a small field of view, and the 4-m telescopes will play an essential role in defining samples and selecting objects to be observed with Gemini. Two candidate instruments are being explored: 1) a wide-field (4Kx4K) IR imager and 2) a wide-field high throughput spectrograph that would be able to obtain spectra of several hundred objects over a 40 arcmin field of view. Both instruments are likely to cost on the order of $4 M—the cost of detectors alone will exceed $1 M for each. Only one of these instruments can be I .: carried to completion within NOAO over the next five years at current budget levels. There are several design issues common to both instruments, and over the next year we plan to carry both the conceptual design and the development of the scientific case to the point where we can make a sound choice between them. We will seek partners for the second.
In addition to the work being carried out in Tucson, CTIO also has resources to support modest instrumentation projects. The primary in-house effort is construction of the SOAR optical imager, which passed its Conceptual Design Review in FY1999. The imager includes an f/15 to f/9 focal reducer, tip-tilt module, and its own rotator. Optics will be ordered at the end of FY 1999 when the telescope optical prescription is fixed. The imager uses a 4Kx4K mini-mosaic of two 2Kx4K CCDs, for which procurement is underway. Like most of the other SOAR instruments, the imager will use a Leach II controller running LabView/Linux in a compact-PCI environment. In FY2000 CTIO will work on hardware and software aspects of the use of these controllers with both optical and IR instruments.
NOAO is continuing to pursue collaborations with US universities in order to offer additional state-of-the-art instrumentation. At present CTIO has arrangements with Rutgers (Fabry-Perot Interferometer, from 1998) and the University of Florida (Mid-IR imager-spectrometer, from 1997). We have just concluded a highly successful three-
12 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: New Capabilities New Capabilities I year collaboration with Lucent Technologies (BTC Mosaic Imager). Two new activities at CTIO in this category are the following:
• Participating in the design of Rutgers Fabry-Perot II during FY2000. With suitable dichroics, this instrument will work at the f/14 tip-tilt focus of the Blanco 4-m, at the f/13.5 1.5-m, and in future on SOAR and Gemini.
• Testing the IR Fabry-Perot module (Univ. of North Carolina-Rice Univ.) with the wide-field IR imager CIRIM during FY2000. CTIO has constructed a filter- wheel for use with this instrument, which is expected to be made available for users shortly after testing.
KPNO has been offering ONIS, an IR spectrograph/imager built at Ohio State, to the community. In FY 2000, we expect to begin testing of FLAMINGOS. This project is being led by Richard Elston (University of Florida) and will produce a wide-field near-IR imager with multi-object spectroscopic capability. The detector will be a 2048 x 2048 HgCdTe with 0.3"/pixel at f/8 on the 4-m telescope. A smaller dewar compartment at the front of the instrument will allow for quick pump down and cooling, enabling daytime changes of custom focal plane masks. Grisms will yield a spectral dispersion of - 2000 through a 0.6" slit. The instrument will be present at KPNO for use at the 2.1-m and 4-m telescopes for a portion of each semester.
NSO Instrumentation FY99 witnessed the following milestones: 1) The third RISE/PSPT telescope, which will operate at NSO/SP, was completed. (The other two telescopes forming the PSPT network are in Hawaii and Italy); 2) Three new high-speed CCD cameras were installed at the Dunn Solar Telescope (DST) for rapid spectral imaging; 3) A spectrograph optimized for the near infrared was tested at the Evans; 4) A dual Fabry-Perot etalon narrow band filter system for visible light was commissioned at the DST; and 5) The ISS for SOLIS was completed in Tucson.
• Adaptive Optics The NSO adaptive optics project is proceeding ahead of schedule. A major milestone in FY 1999 was the successful demonstration of the feasibility of solar adaptive optics. The low order (20Z) adaptive optics system was successfully implemented at the DST and tested during several engineering runs. The AO system delivers highly improved image quality in general and, in good seeing conditions, diffraction-limited images. NSO has begun to exploit the new capability for high resolution imaging and, more importantly, high-resolution spectroscopy/ polarimetry to perform forefront science experiments at the DST.
13 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: New Capabilities New Capabilities
The AO program will now concentrate on achieving the following milestones:
AO Milestones Timing
• Improve performance of low order 20Z AO system FY 1999
• Modify and/or upgrade DST post-focus instrumentation for use with FY 1999-2000 AO
• AO science runs at the DST, shared risk AO observing runs in FY 1999+ collaboration with interested solar community members
• Render 20Z system user friendly and provide system to user FY 2000 community (contingent on funding)
• Begin design and construction of high order (~80Z) AO system FY 1999- (contingent on funding) 2001
• Implement high-order AO at DST ( contingent on funding) and FY 2002+ science experiments
• Perform high-order AO experiments at telescopes of larger aperture FY 2002+ (McMath [IR], Canary Islands) (contingent on funding)
Development of this solar adaptive optics system offers benefits that extend well beyond the Sac Peak DST. It also provides the know-how essential for the implementation of the Advanced Solar Telescope. The prime requirement for the AST is diffraction-limited resolution. The availability of a functioning solar adaptive optics system and the experience gained from its operation are crucial for the successful pursuit of the funding for such a telescope. The Parker Committee report has assigned a very high priority to the AO development and recommended that incremental funding of $1.5M be provided for this effort. Whether the milestones listed above can be achieved depends on the availability of funds to the AO project.
NSO/Kitt Peak Instrumentation • Large-Format Infrared Array and Controller The McMath-Pierce facility is the world's only large solar telescope without an entrance window, thus giving it unique access to the solar infrared spectrum beyond 2.5 urn. NSO has focused its in-house instrumentation program on the 1 - 5 urn region. The McMath-Pierce also carries out observations in the important 12- um region through a collaboration with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
NSO's plan for 1-5 um observations is to take full advantage of NOAO's investment in the ALADDIN array development project. With 16 times as many pixels, higher quantum efficiency, lower read-out noise, and better immunity from electronic interference, a 1K x 1K ALADDIN-based camera will be superior to the current 256 x 256 camera in every respect and will enable new types of scientific observations, such as vector magnetograms of weak field concentrations. The new
14 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: New Capabilities New Capabilities
camera will be used for exploratory imaging and spectroscopy as well as with the existing Near Infrared Magnetographs.
Implementing and demonstrating the scientific value of a fast, large-format infrared camera is an important component of NSO's preparation for an IR- capable Advanced Solar Telescope.
Surveys and Data Management
NOAO has initiated a program to support large-scale FY 2000 Surveys & Data Management surveys on NOAO telescopes. The first set of (Total direct costs = $186 K)
approved survey programs will begin in the 1999B Solar Digital and 2000A semesters, with data from these Library $18 K observations to become publicly available after a short proprietary period. One of the survey programs recommended by the TAC is the NOAO Deep-Wide Survey, a deep optical and near-IR (Bw, R,I,J,H,K) imaging survey of 18 square degrees of the sky with the primary goal of studying the evolution of large- scale structure from z - 1 to z - 4. This survey will also make it possible to investigate the formation and evolution of the red-envelope galaxy population, detect luminous distant star-forming galaxies and quasars, and address many other scientific goals. Information on the progress of the survey is available through the NOAO home page, and we expect to release survey data as it is reduced beginning in FY 2000.
In order to support the NOAO Deep-Wide and other surveys and to make all data from the CCD Mosaic Imager available after a proprietary period, we plan to develop a data reduction pipeline and archiving system. The pipeline for the Mosaic will go into routine use at the start of FY 2000, and all data from this instrument will be archived. It is likely that the archive will be housed at STScI, and negotiations to this end are ongoing.
Archiving Mosaic data is but the tip of the iceberg. The issue of data archiving and mining of terabytes of data is a major issue for astronomy over the coming decade. Ways must be found to carry out this kind of work for a reasonable cost; existing experience with the Sloan survey and with 2MASS is a cautionary tale. NOAO will attempt to make entry to this field as part of their contribution to VISTA with the goal of obtaining access to some or all of the data for the US community. Learning how to cope with the VISTA data would also be a good preparatory step for dealing with the much larger flood of data from the Dark Matter Telescope.
Initially, NOAO will rely on expertise in the community to prepare a suitable proposal for the VISTA program. However, as budgets permit, we will add limited
15 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: New Capabilities New Capabilities
in house staff: a lead scientist, a lead software expert who is familiar with both university and private sector initiatives and with trends in both software and hardware; and a support staff of perhaps three. The model will be one in which NOAO leads and/or coordinates the activities of a distributed community and ensures that developments are widely disseminated with common standards that make the tools easy to use.
NSO already maintains an extensive digital library, which currently contains about 200 GB of solar data distributed over magneticdisks and a CD-ROMjukebox system. The data holdings comprise:
• The entire Kitt Peak Vacuum Telescope (KPVT) synoptic data set of full-disk solar magnetograms and Helium 1083-nm spectroheliograms from 1974 to the present.
• The entire Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) data set of high-resolution spectra and interferograms of solar, stellar, planetary, terrestrial atmospheric, and laboratory sources.
• Recent full-disk solar spectroheliograms in Ca K and H-alpha from the NSO/Sac Peak Evans facility.
All of these NSO data are on-line and accessible through a web-browser user interface to a searchable relational data base system (RDBMS). The URL is http://www.nso.noao. edu/diglib. Most of the work on the solar digital library is funded through external grants.
In FY 2000, we will complete the integration of the GONG helioseismic data set into the NSO Digital Library. We expect to upgrade the storage hardware technology from CD to DVD, increasing the capacity to over 1 TB. We have also submitted three proposals in response to various NSF computing funding opportunities. If funded, we will begin development in three areas:
• The development of a Whole Sun Catalog integrating distributed solar data bases at NSO, SOHO, and in Europe.
• The development of content-based search tools and coherent data packaging to enable use of the Library to formulate and answer complex questions based on the data itself.
• The development of visual tools and a framework of an integrated helioseismic research tool combining data, RDBMS technology, and analysis packages.
SOLIS will have a major impact on the NSO Digital Library. The core science programs will produce data at the rate of over 30 GB per day and are expected to total nearly 100 TB over the 25-year lifetime of the instrument. In addition, it is
16 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: New Capabilities New Capabilities
conceivable that some intensive PI programs could operate the full suite of instruments at their maximum rate, which would produce 240 GB in a single day. These prodigious rates, along with the requirement to allow data access over the Internet within 10 minutes of collection, cannot be handled without substantial hardware upgrades both to the data link connecting Kitt Peak with downtown and the NSO Digital Library.
The data link must have a DS-3 capacity to handle the maximum volume of SOLIS data production, and a proposal has been submitted to the NSF to fund this link. The Digital Library hardware must also be substantially upgraded, and we anticipate installing a mixture of optical disk (probably DVD jukeboxes), magnetic disk (large RAIDs), and high-capacity tape (DLT jukeboxes) systems to at least partially handle the storage of the core science data.
17 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: New Capabilities DirectSupportto Principal Investigators
NOAO Telescopes NOAO provides an array of services to the user FY2000 Telescope Operations by Observatory community.These include access to a varietyof tele (Direct costs =$10,383 K incl. USAF support of NSO/SP) scopes both at NOAO and elsewhere that, taken together, constitute an observing system that allows an attack on a broad range of fundamental scientific questions. One of the strengths of the NOAO program is thatwe take a systems approach to observing. The components of this system include: 1) extensive documentation of the availableequipment so that USGP observers can take full advantage of the capabilities; $325 K 2) reliable operation; 3) thorough calibration of instrument performance; and 4) software with robust algorithms for data reduction. Information is provided to the user community in a variety of formats, including through Web pages and the NOAO Newsletter. Thegoal isto maintain a level playing field for proposers: observing time is awardedon the basisof the qualityof the scientific case and the soundnessof the experimental design, not onthe basis of institutional affiliation orprivileged knowledge.
The suite of facilities offered changes with time. As new facilities come on line with greater capability, older telescopes are closed and, in most cases, transferred to a uni versity or consortium for operation. Forexample, the figure below depicts the planned evolution of NSOfacilities: when SOLIS is completed, the telescopes currently used for monitoring solaractivity (the KittPeakVacuum Telescope andthe Hilltop facility at NSO/SP) will be closed. When the AST is completed, both the Dunn and the McMath- Pierce Solar Telescopes will be closed, or transferredto a university or consortium.
NSO Roadmap 2000 to 2010
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 NSO 2010
KPVT SOLIS 1 r~Hmtop r
18 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Direct Supportto Principal Investigators Direct Supportto Principal Investigators
Nighttime Telescope Operations The suite of telescopes at CTIO and KPNO is being reconfigured and optimized for the purpose of ensuring maximum scientific return from the Gemini and other large telescopes available to the US community and from NASA space missions. The 4-m telescopes operated by NOAO all have wide fields of view (nearly one degree in the case of the WIYN, Blanco, and Mayall, and even larger for VISTA), and these telescopes are ideally suited to the deep imaging required to select samples of objects for analysis with Gemini-class telescopes. Existing all-sky surveys fail by nearly five magnitudes in both the optical and infrared to reach Gemini's spectroscopic limits.
NOAO has begun to support surveys designed to probe the sky to faint limits, and time has already been awarded for five programs that will produce publicly accessible databases. We have also begun negotiations with Chandra and SIRTF to provide joint scheduling for programs that require multi-wavelength observations. The wide-field high throughput spectrograph currently being designed for the Mayall will be ideal for follow-up spectroscopy of AXAF sources since the AXAF imager covers a 16 x 16 arcmin field. Unless or until the Gemini and other large telescopes are equipped with wide-field secondaries and instruments, the 4-m telescopes will continue to provide unique and essential capabilities.
The figure below shows the historical and prospective changes in nighttime facilities. Four telescopes have already been closed at KPNO since 1984, and two more are slated for closure during the next year. One of the 0.4-m telescopes was transferred to Georgia State University, where it is used for photometry and public outreach; the second is in the Kitt Peak Visitor Center. The 0.9-m was transferred to SARA (the Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy); it remains on Kitt Peak and is used mainly for photometry. The Burrell-Schmidt was returned to Case Western Reserve University, which continues to operate the telescope for wide-field CCD imaging in partnership with several other universities. After the 1.3-m was closed, it was made available to 2MASS for testing their cameras and observing protocols. We are currently reviewing proposals from possible new operators. CTIO no longer operates the 0.6-m and 1.0-m telescopes. The 1.0-m was returned to Yale, which is operating it primarily in service mode through a consortium with Ohio State University and Portugal. The NOAO community has access to 10 percent of the observing time on this telescope. Given the current budget constraints and the desire to find some resources for new initiatives, we plan to continue to reduce support for KPNO over the next year. The emphasis at KPNO will be on providing the observations needed to use the Gemini telescopes effectively.
Effective use of Gemini, in our judgment, requires access to the two 4-m class telescopes for precursor and supporting observations. The wide-fields of view enable surveys to select objects for detailed study, as well as obtaining photometric and astrometric calibrations that are required in planning and analyzing Gemini data. There will be other reductions in services at KPNO. In semester 2000A, we will
19 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Direct Support to Principal Investigators I DirectSupportto Principal Investigators
. begin phasing in observer-present operations at WIYN, and we will eliminate staff observers for the queue program in semester 2000B. We will explore alternative methods for supporting interrupt-driven observing programs (e.g. supernovae, gamma-ray bursters) through remote observing. Successful remote observing will require the high band-width link for which we have submitted a proposal to NSF. The semester 1999B observing schedule was constructed with fewer instrument changes and longer observing runs to compensate for a reduction in staffing of about 10 percent, which was implemented during the spring. Electronics maintenance help is not typically available after 8:00 PM. Starting in semester 99B, some astronomers using the 2.1-m will operate the telescope without all-night assistance from observatory staff.
NOAO Telescope Closures & New Facilities 1984-2003
Telescopes 19S4 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2003 KPNO 0.4-m 0.4-m 0.9-m \ * 0.9-m ; 1 J j Burrell Schmidt 1 *
1.3-m : ;•» Coude Feed 2.1-m 4-m WIYN CTIO 0.6-m 1.0-m 0.9-m 1.5-m 4-m SOAR VISTA Gemini North South HET MMT South Pole
In summary, we are committed to operating three telescopes at each of NOAO's sites through at least the next five years. The smaller telescopes at CTIO will be closed when VISTA and SOAR come on line; both VISTA and SOAR can be operated within current funding levels. All of the 4-m class telescopes will continue to operate until their wide fields are replaced with larger aperture survey capabilities, such as the Dark Matter Telescope, or until user demand drops. We will conduct an external review of the scientific merit of continued operation of any nighttime facility for which the oversubscription rate is less than 1.5 for three semesters. We will work
20 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Direct Support to Principal Investigators DirectSupportto Principal Investigators
out a time line for those facilities and for the NBT and the Dark Matter Telescope after the recommendations of the Decade Survey Committee are published.
In addition to operating NOAO facilities, KPNO and CTIO act as host for 20 tele scopes operated by variousconsortia and universities. (KPNO hosts 12 such "tenant" facilities on Kitt Peak; CTIO eight.) A list of these facilities is included in Appendix H. I KPNO Instruments - FY2000 SPECTROSCOPY Detector Mayall 4-m Telescope R-C CCD Spectrograph T2KBCCD CCD Echelle Spectrograph T2KBCCD IR Cryogenic Spectrometer InSb (256x256,0.9-5.5 urn) CryoCam Spectrometer Loral CCD (800x1200) OSU-NOAO Infrared Imaging InSb (512x1024,0.9-2.5 urn) Spectrometer High Resolution IR Spectrometer InSb (256x1024, 0.9-5.5 Urn) (Phoenix) WIYN3.5-m Telescope Hydra + Bench Spectrograph T2KC CCD DensePak(/) T2KC CCD 2.1-m Telescope GoldCam CCD Spectrograph F3KACCD IR Cryogenic Spectrometer InSb (256x256, 0.9-5.5 um) OSU-NOAO Infrared Imaging Spec InSb (512x1024, 0.9-2.5 Um) High Resolution IR Spectrometer InSb (256x1024,0.9-5.5 um) (Phoenix) Coude Feed Telescope Coude CCD Spectrograph F3KBCCD
IMAGING Detector Mayall 4-m Telescope Prime Focus CCD Camera T2KBCCD IR Imager HgCdTe (256x256, 1-2.5 um)
CCD Mosaic 8Kx8K OSU-NOAO Infrared Imaging InSb (512x1024,0.9-2.5 um) Spectrometer WIYN3.5-m Telescope CCD Imager S2KBCCD 2.1-m Telescope CCD Imager T1KACCD IR Imager HgCdTe (256x256, 1-2.5 Um) OSU-NOAO Infrared Imaging InSb (512x1024, 0.9-2.5 Um) Spectrometer
0.9-m Telescope CCD Mosaic 8Kx8K
(1) Available for brighttimeonly (Integrated FieldUnit: 30" x 45" field, 3" fibers, 4" fiber spacing.
21 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Direct Support to Principal Investigators Direct Supportto Principal Investigators
Access to Gemini North, the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, and the MMT DuringFY 2000, the GeminiNorth telescope will go into operation. USGP astronomers have been working with scientific staff of the International Gemini Observatory (IGO) to establish mechanisms for supporting users in the US and the other Gemini partner countries. This support will be provided through an electronic help desk through which USGP astronomers will be able to answer questions from astronomers in the community. NOAO will assign mirror scientists to support each instrument. In addition, work is under way to define the software requirements for reduction of data from the Gemini instruments.
We also expect to begin scheduling observers for 26 nights each on the HET and the MMT during FY 2000 and for five years thereafter.This observing time is the result of NSF funding of facility class instruments for these two telescopes. Access to the HET will be handled in such a way as to make NOAO look to the HET like a single user. That is, proposals for open access on the HET will be received by NOAO on our standard proposal form and reviewed by an NOAO TAC. The successful proposers will be asked to fill out a second form, which is required by the HET queue program, describing their planned observations in detail. NOAO will then forward those forms to the HET and receive the data for distribution to the community. NOAO will also establish a mirror site so that access to HET docu mentation is obtained directly from NOAO. This approach has the advantage that the HET will not have to provide any support beyond that available to their own users. It does mean, however, that NOAO will have to find the resources necessary to provide whatever assistance is required by the community. We do not yet have enough information to estimate how much effort will be required.
Observers at the MMT will go to the telescope and make observations themselves and will be supported at the telescope by MMT and University of Arizona staff. In order to minimize the support burden on MMT staff, only observers with substantial large telescope experience will be allowed to apply.
In FY 1999 we modified the TAC and proposal processing systems to accommodate the much larger number of proposals that we expect to receive when Gemini North, the MMT, and the HET are all available for scheduling. The new system was tested by integrating the application process for KPNO and CTIO; proposals asking for a combination of facilities north and south were accepted for the first time. In order to support proposals for Gemini, tools for estimating exposure times and image quality will be made accessible through the NOAO proposal web site.
Telescope Upgrades at CTIO During FY 2000, installation of the Gemini 8-m telescope will take place on Cerro Pachon, and construction of the SOAR facility will begin. CTIO ETS and scientific resources are contributing significantly to the SOAR project, and we anticipate that our resources will be called upon in support of Gemini commissioning.
22 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Direct Support to Principal Investigators Direct Supportto Principal Investigators
Instrumentation for SOAR and Blanco is being configured as a complementary observing system in support of work with Gemini. Looking further into the future, we are in discussions related to the operation of VISTA, a British 4-m, wide-field, IR and optical imaging telescope that we hope will be located on Cerro Pachon. In addition, we are beginning a site testing program covering the Atacama region of Northern Chile, in order to identify the best location for large OIR telescopes.
• 4-m Thermal Control Improvements A Lab View-based control system, which both controls the primary mirror cooler and also reads the many temperature probes in the 4-m building and on the tele scope, will be tuned to provide the optimal mirror temperature. In the longer term, we will investigate the possibility, with Gemini, of contracting for an observing conditions forecasting service, as used by ESO at La Silla and Paranal. In particular, this service will improve the prediction of mean nighttime temperature, which is essential given the large thermal inertia of the Blanco primary mirror.
We plan to install stick-on aluminum foil on the 4-m dome to provide better nighttime performance than the present TiO paint, which overcools. Tests of the foil adhesiveness are taking place through the winter of 1999.
The present 4-m primary mirror cover, when open, forms a 2-m deep cylindrical enclosure above the mirror which can trap air and thus degrade the seeing. We plan to replace the mirror cover with one that provides a completely clear path in the N-S direction to the level of the primary, copying the design for such a cover that is about to be installed on the Mayall 4-m. Work on this project will commence in late FY 2000.
• Improvements to 4-m Control System and Guiders We are continuing the program to improve the performance and maintainability of the 4-m telescope. Extensive rewiring took place in FY 1999, and further replacement of antiquated electronics will take place as a follow-on from the successful installation of the Delta-Tau servo controllers during FY 1999. Further replacement and rationalization of minor parts of the control system will also take place. In parallel, new guiding software will be commissioned, with interface cards for both analog and digital CCDTV input. This will replace an interim system in use at the 4-m telescope and very old and poorly performing equipment at the 1.5-m and 0.9-m telescopes. This new system will also be used with the f/14 tip-tilt system; this together with the high sensitivity and low-noise EEV CCD and 3:1 focal reducer installed at the end of FY1999 will provide optimal guiding on stars a factor 10 fainter than the initial configuration.
23 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Direct Support to Principal Investigators Direct Supportto Principal Investigators
Telescope Upgrades at KPNO The KPNO engineering group will work on three projects in FY 2000: completion of upgrades to the Mayall 4-meter, ongoing improvements to the WIYN telescope, and performance improvements to the2.1-meter telescope. The last task is motivated by the critical needfor wide-field IR imaging on a 2-meter classtelescope.
• Completion of Current 4-Meter Upgrades The 4-meterActive Primary Support System (4MAPS) was installed during summer shutdown of 1998. Test and engineering runs during semesters 1998B and 1999A were devoted to characterization of the system and debugging the control-level hardware and software. Summer shutdown 1999 will see the installation of the wavefront sensing camera at the Cassegrain port and initial testing of closed-loop operation. The goal is routine operation by early calendar year 2000.
The final phase of thermal controlof the primary mirror—which includes enhancedcold air conditioning and ventilation of the primary—will be initiated during summer shutdown 1999. A new mirror cover will allow freer air flow across the surface during observing, while new ducting will enable both forced air cooling and warm air extraction. A new chiller system will be installed later in FY 2000. The performance requirement of the thermal control systemwas based on an extensiveanalysis of the thermal history of the dome and the primary mirror over the course of a year of operation. The expectation from the combination of thermal conditioning and active mirrorsupport is a median delivered image quality of under 1.0arcsecond, full-width half maximum, an improvement of 20% to 40% in the time required to achieve limiting observations.
• WIYN Upgrades WIYN upgrades for the coming year include replacement of the TV guider hardware to a new mountain-wide standard and installation of a new motor driver for the instrument adapter that will reduce heat-generating power dissipation at the telescope. The WIYN Board also approved the construction of an instrument adaptor for the Cassegrain port. The work will be carried out mainly at the University of Wisconsin. KPNO resources will be needed to provide for the software interface to the telescope control system.
• 2.1-Meter Upgrades The 2.1-mfills an essential scientific and programmatic niche. Not only is the infrared sky virtually uncharted to the limits easily accessible to a 2-m class telescope, but because its focal ratios are identical to the 4-m telescope, the 2.1-m can also be used as a testbed and operational platform for new IR instrumentation. The 2.1-m will therefore provide a working home for expensive new IR instruments, which will be used for wide-field surveys when they are not scheduled on the 4-meter. The use of the 2.1-m will also minimize the impact on the heavily oversubscribed 4-m time during the testing phase. In addition, the
24 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Direct Support to Principal Investigators Direct Supportto Principal Investigators
continuing heavy demand for direct optical imaging must be met at the 2.1-m since the 0.9-m is no longer available except for the Mosaic imager.
The 2.1-m telescope can deliver excellent images, but does not do so consistently. A two-year program of upgrades is being planned to address several of the key limitations to current performance. This project is in the planning phase for initial implementation in the second half of FY 2000. Elements of the project include upgrades to telescope mechanisms, the instrument interface, and the telescope and dome thermal environment. One action will be upgrading the servo control system to conformity with the 4-m architecture, which will allow filtering out oscillations in the RA drive system. A new instrument mounting and guiding interface will allow the use of the wide- field IR imager on the 2.1-m, along with easier mounting of Flamingos and the Goddard multi-mirror IR multi-object spectrograph. A program of dome ventilation and heat reduction will improve the delivered image quality. We may also test the SOAR control system on the 2.1-m.
Other Upgrades A new generation of video digitizing hardware for guiders will be procured and integrated. Y2K testing will include a two-day, mountain-wide simulation in August, and an engineering/shared risk night reserved on all telescopes on January 1, 2000, for final verification. A proposal under consideration is an investigation of data reduction and analysis based on PC+Unix-like architecture, as an alternative to the more expensive Sun Microsystems option currently employed throughout the mountain. The advantage would be the potential cost savings for a given performance level and increased ability for system maintenance.
CTIO Instrumentation Improvements
• New CCD and Camera for Hydra A superb-quality Grade 0 thinned SITe 2Kx4K CCD has been obtained as part of the Mosaic CCD procurement. This CCD will be installed in a special dewar and used with an already built folded Schmidt camera as the detector for Hydra, replacing the present Loral 3K CCD and Air Schmidt cameras. The new camera- CCD combination will allow full use of all the Hydra fibers, have better throughput, and have a factor two lower read noise.
• Blanco 4-m Side Port Infrared Imager (SPH) Design of this true wide field imager—which covers a 10 x 10 arcmin field at the Blanco f/8 focus using a Rockwell 2K HgCdTe array—is expected to pass Critical Design Review in early FY 2000 and subsequently enter the construction phase. The optical design is nearly identical to the University of Florida instrument Flamingos, and optics have been ordered in a joint procurement. SPII will use the
25 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Direct Support to Principal Investigators DirectSupportto Principal Investigators
IR version of the Leach II CCD controller, developmentof which will occur along with the use of the CCD versions of the controller for SOAR instruments.
• Integral Field Unit for the Blanco 4-m Construction of an Integral Field Unit for the 4-m telescope began in FY 1999. This feeds the HydraBenchSpectrograph and can, in principle, be configured in a number of ways to cover a wide range of spectral resolutions. Tests of some of these configurations will take place in FY 2000, with the goal of identifying scientifically interesting modes that will allow us to retire one or both of the Echelle and RC spectrographs, thus reducing instrument change frequency and hence the support burden.
CTIO Telescope and Instrument Combinations FY 2000
Blanco 4-m ,> Hydra Multi-Object Spectrograph + Hydra Camera + SITe2K CCD > R-C Spectrograph + Blue Air Schmidt(BAS) Camera + Loral 3K CCD > Echelle Spectrograph + Blue Air Schmidt(BAS) Camera + Loral 3K CCD > Echelle Spectrograph + Long Cameras + SITe 2K CCD > Prime Focus Camera + Mosaic Imager +8K SITe CCDs > Rutgers Imaging Fabry-Perot + Tek2K CCD > OSIRIS, OSU IRImaging Spectrometer + IK HgCdTe > CTIOIR Imager + 256 HgCdTe(to be replaced by OSIRIS) > CTIO IR Spectrometer + 256 InSb > OSCIR, U. Florida 2-20 micron IR ImagingSpectrometer + 128 SiAs BIB
1.5-m ,> Cass Direct + Tek IK and SITe 2K CCDs > Cass Spectrograph + Loral 1200 x 800 CCD > Bench-MountedEchelle Spectrograph + BME camera + SITe 2K CCD > Rutgers Imaging Fabry-Perot + Tek2K CCD > OSIRIS, OSU IRImaging Spectrometer + IK HgCdTe > CTIO IR Imager + 256 HgCdTe
> ASCAP Photoelectric Photometer
1-m ' > Re-opened in mid 1998 as a consortiumof Yale U., Ohio State U., U. of Lisbon, and NOAO. > Dual channel optical/IR imager ANDYCAM
0.9-m ,> Cass Direct + SITe 2K CCD Curtis Schmidt <> Site 2K CCD (Direct or Prism)
26 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Direct Support to Principal Investigators Direct Supportto Principal Investigators
NSO Telescope Operations and Upgrades The NSO telescope upgrade and instrumentdevelopment program is guided by the scientific and technical imperatives for a new Advanced Solar Telescope (AST). Consequently, telescope and instrument upgrades and operations are reviewed and supported on the basis that they serve as necessary preludes to the AST initiative while concurrently serving the needs of the scientific community.
NSO/Sacramento Peak The adaptive optics project at the Dunn Solar Telescope is showing remarkable progress. The low-order system is now available for all users on a shared-risk basis. Collaborations with the AO group are strongly encouraged. Two Spectral Instruments IK x IK CCD cameras were recently purchased and will be available to users by FY 2000.The site detectors are thinned back-illuminated providing outstanding quantum efficiency. The readout rate is 850kHz with data recorded to DLT, hard disk, or exabyte.The 35 mm film camerasat the Hilltopflare patrol telescope will be replaced with a IK CCD camera, thus givingusers quicker and easier access to data. The live video H-a images available at the NSO Web site will be replaced with a digital image.
A deep-well, high-speed IR Array workingin the 1-5 u range will be obtained and integrated into the existingIR cameracontrollerof the DunnSolar Telescope and the Evans Solar Facility.
The Evans facility provides a 40 cm coronagraph as well as a 30 cm coelostat. The Evans coronagraph is the largest in the United States and the best instrumented in the world. The ESF 40 cm coronagraph is currently used extensively by both NSO staffscientists and visiting astronomers for a wide variety of research projects (e.g., coronal heating, coronal electric fields, chromospheric and coronal magnetic fields, heliospheric structure prediction, and cyclic variation of coronal structure). New instrumentation such as visible and IR coronal polarimeters which will produce more accurate measurements of the magnetic and electric fields of the solar corona are under development using this facility. This new instrumentation will provide core capabilities for the next generation of ground- and space-based coronal telescopes. The Evans also provides full disk spectroheliograms in several bandpasses near the Ca II K-line and Ha.
NSO/Kitt Peak • McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope Facility Upgrades The McMath-PierceSolar Telescope is currently the world's largest solar telescope thatis also all-reflecting. Thus,it is uniquely capable of panchromatic, flux-limiting studies of the Sun.In particular, it is the onlysolartelescope in the world on which investigations in the relatively unexplored infrared domain beyond 2.5 microns are routinely accomplished.
27 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: DirectSupport to PrincipalInvestigators DirectSupportto Principal Investigators
• McMath-Pierce Telescope Control System Upgrades to the telescope control system (TCS) are needed to ensure that the facility remains competitive and maintainable. The upgrades are takingadvantage of existing engineeringexperience within NOAO, as well as experience gained in the SOLIS project. The upgraded TCS will enable accurate pointing, tracking, guiding and scanning of the Main and East Auxiliary telescopes at any coordinate on the solar disk. This capability is particularly needed for collaborative efforts with other ground- and space-based solar telescopes.
• East Auxiliary Upgrade This upgradewill includereplacement and/orrepairof the East Auxiliary heliostat RA and Dec drives, control system upgrades, and the addition of a CCD camera for the telescope. An imagerotatorand an auto-guiding systemwillalso be provided. The E. Auxiliary upgradecostsof approximately $150Kare fundedby NASA as part of their Astrometric Follow-up Studies of Near Earth Asteroids program.
• Seeing Improvements Tests of potential improvements to the telescope seeing are underway. These include the placement of fans at the location of the 1.52-mprimary in order to introduce a laminar air flow over the mirror. It is expected that both mirror heating and turbulence formation immediately above the mirror will be mitigated and, hence, improve the seeing quality. In addition, the heliostat mirror supports and mirror figures are being investigated as potential sources of telescope- induced degradations of the seeing. Ultimately, a wave-front sensor must be installed to achieve an improved understanding of the site seeing characteristics.
• Adaptive Optics Following development of a successful AO system at the Dunn Solar Telescope, testing of an AO system at the McMath-Pierce telescope will commence. In this way, the McMath-Pierce can serve as one possible test-bed for an AO system at a large-aperture telescope.
• NSO Kitt Peak Vacuum Telescope This facility will not be upgraded since it will be replaced by SOLIS.
NSO Instrumentation Upgrades NOAO has committed a science-grade IK x IK Aladdin array to the NSO. With 16 times as many pixels, higher quantum efficiency, lower read-out noise, and better immunity from electronic interference, a IK x IK Aladdin-based camera will be superior to the current 256 x 256 camera in every respect. New frontiers in infrared solar science will be enabled that include high precision vector magnetograms of weak field concentrations. No single instrumental improvement at NSO/Kitt Peak in recent years will have a larger impact on its capabilities than the implementation of the Aladdin arrays. The large-format camera will be used for
28 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Direct Supportto Principal Investigators Direct Supportto Principal Investigators
exploratory imaging and spectroscopy as well as with the Near Infrared Magnetograph (NIM). A Request for Proposal is now being prepared for the acquisition of the camera system controller, dewar, and optics.
NSO Telescope and Instrument Combinations FY 2000 Key: DST = Dunn Solar Tel.; ESF = Evans Solar Facility; HT = Hilltop Tel; KPVT = Kitt Peak Vacuum Tel.
Instrument Telescope Comments/Description
NSO/Sacramento Peak - OPTICAL IMAGING & SPECTROSCOPY Advanced Stokes Polarimeter (ASP) DST Photospheric/chromospheric vector polarimetry, visible, 0.375 arsec/pix Universal Birefringent Filter (UBF) DST Tunablenarrow-band filter, R < 40,000, 4200 - 7000 A UBF-FabryPerot DST Tunable narrow-band filter, R < 250,000, 4200A - 7000A Dual-FabryPerot DST Tunable narrow-band filter; R < 250,000, 4200A- 7000A, high transmission Horizontal Spectrograph DST R< 500,000, 300 ran - 2.5 um Echelle Spectrograph DST R < 2,000,000, 300 nm - 2.5 pm Universal Spectrograph DST/ESF Broad-spectrum, low-order spectrograph, flare studies Littrow Spectrograph ESF R < 1,000,000, 300 nm - 2.5 pm
Various CCD Cameras DST/ESF/HT 380 - 1083 nm, Formats: 256 x 256 to 2K x 2K High Speed Polarimetric Camera DST/ESF 380-1083 nm, IK x IK
Correlation Tracker DST Tip/tilt correction
Low-Order Adaptive Optics DST 20-mode correction 40 cm Coronagraph EST 300 nm - 2.5 pm Full Limb Coronagraph HT Emission line coronagraph
Coronal Photometer ESF Coronal lines: 5303 A, 5694 A, 6374 A Flare Patrol HT H-a and white light full disk images, 1 min. cadence
NSO/Sacramento Peak- IR IMAGING & SPECTROSCOPY Horizontal Spectrograph DST High resolution 2.5 pm spectroscopy/polarimetry R< 300,000 Littrow Spectrograph ESF Corona and disk ,1-2.5 pm spectroscopy/polarimetry IR Dual Fabry Perot VMG DST/ESF Narrow band imaging and vector magnetograph, 1 - 2.5 pm, R< 200,000 NICMOS IR Array 256 x 256 DST/ESF 1 - 2.5 pm Deep-Well, High-Speed Array DST/ESF 1 -5 pm
NSO/Kitt Peak- IR IMAGING & SPECTROSCOPY Vertical Spectrograph McMath-Pierce 0.32-12 pm, R<106 1-m FTS McMath-Pierce 2200A to 18pm, R < 600,000 Near-IR Magnetograph McMath-Pierce Vector magnetograph, 1 - 2.5 pm, R • 180,000
IR Imager McMath-Pierce 1 - 5pm, 256 x 256, 12 Hz, imaging spectroscopy, polarimetry
CCD Cameras McMath-Pierce 380 -1083 nm, 576x384
ZIMPOL II McMath-Pierce 450 - 1100 polarimetry, 5 Hz, 800 x 1200
29 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Direct Support to Principal Investigators DirectSupportto principal investigators
Research by the NOAO Scientific Staff
NOAO owes its success to the sustained and committed Research by NOAO Scientific Staff efforts of its very talented scientific staff. NOAO scien (Direct costs = $2.7 M) tists are directly involved in every aspect of the NOAO as a % of Total NSF Budget ($29.7 M) program. They develop strategic plans for the observa Scientific tory; identify opportunities and prepare the scientific and Research technical justifications for new programs; serve as the 9% links to the external groups with whom we collaborate on joint telescope, instrument, and other projects; and provide oversight to NOAO projects and operations.
NOAO has adopted the philosophy that the size of the scientific staff should be determined by functional responsibilities. Over the past several years, however, the functional responsibilities of the staff have increased while its size has declined (by about 30 percent over the past decade). These increased responsibilities have come about because of new program requirements: 1) support of US involve ment with, and US use of, the Gemini telescopes; 2) development of consortium telescope projects (WIYN and SOAR); 3) leadership of the GONG project; 4) responsibility for several instrumentation projects for Gemini; 5) construction of SOLIS and SOAR; and 6) access to the MMT and HET. Because of the shrinking size of the NOAO technical staff—coupled with the increasing difficulty of recruiting engineering and software personnel in today's tight labor market, as well as NOAO's non-competitive salaries—the scientific staff has had to assume greater direct responsibility for implementing the NOAO program. Besides providing scientific management of all the facilities, with very limited administrative support staff, NOAO scientists are also serving as systems engineers on major instrumentation projects; calibrating and characterizing instrumentation; providing systems administration for scientists' workstations; carrying out the programs needed to improve the image quality at the telescopes; providing real time software for instrumentation; writing users' manuals; assisting visiting astronomers with startups at the telescopes; preparing press releases and other written materials for the media; and performing whatever other services may be required.
The current Program Plan indicates that we wish to embark—indeed, in order to serve the community well into the next century, must embark—on several new initiatives: studies leading to the Next Big Telescope, to the Advanced Solar Telescope, to the Dark Matter Telescope, and to participation in the National Virtual Observatory. A major challenge will be to rebalance the efforts of the scientific staff toward these new programs, while maintaining essential current services, and still providing time for research. We do need to identify key individuals with the expertise required to develop these new programs. As soon as funding permits, we expect
30 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Direct Supportto Principal Investigators DirectSupportto principal investigators
to hire from outside NOAO a scientist to lead the large telescope effort, as well as a scientist to head the instrumentation program, and a scientist with interests in the issues associated with data pipelining, archiving, and mining. Consistent with the emphasis on support of functional responsibilities, we have eliminated the post doctoral program in nighttime astronomy in Tucson. We continue to have post docs at NSO and in Chile, where early exposure to CTIO often helps with later recruitment of scientific staff.
Despite their growing functional responsibilities, the NOAO scientific staff continues to maintain a very high standard of excellence in research. The costs of staff research shown here have been derived from the scientists' own estimates of how much time they spend on research. Direct support of staff research is restricted to funding of travel, page charges, and work stations. Limited secretarial assistance, libraries, and photo labs are also included as part of the support of staff research. Post docs or other research assistance must be provided through external grants, and since the staff cannot seek such support from the NSF, a growing fraction of staff research is dependent on funding from NASA and is directed to space research. Appendix D provides a summary of current staff research interests, functional responsibilities, and plans for FY 2000.
31 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Direct Support to Principal Investigators Public and Educational Outreach
To promote public understanding and support of science and astronomical research, NOAO encourages FY Net Spending for Public Programs public awareness and science education through its (Direct costs= $436 K) active outreach program. The outreach efforts that we Education choose to support with limited resources are selected Outreach because they take advantage of the unique capabilities $ 150K of a national observatory. Our programs particularly emphasize our capacity to obtain new astronomical NSO/SP Visitor data in support of educational efforts at all levels, K-12 Center and beyond. Our programs also take advantage of the $38K educational opportunities offered by the NOAO observing sites, which are attractive visitor destinations.The NOAO outreach program has grown in recent years, and FY 2000 will be a year of evaluation and gradual evolution.
Specific goals for FY 2000 include: • Developing new initiatives in pre-collegeeducation that are highly leveraged through the support of partner organizations. • Consolidating and restructuring outreach programs to make more effective use of the Web. • Refining and streamlining the process for issuing press releases. • Generating a new business plan for visitor center activities on Kitt Peak. • Enlarging the scope and depth of the image library, which is available via the Web
Pre-College Education Programs The NSF-funded Teacher Enhancement Program at NOAO, The Use ofAstronomy in Research Based Science Education (RBSE), has developed a paradigm and tools for implementing authentic research opportunities in middle and high school classrooms. With RBSE in its third year (of four), we are exploring the feasibility of working with other groups, including Hands On Universe and SOFIA, to acquire data and develop data analysis software of mutual interest. We plan to move RBSE away from its current in-residence summer workshop format to an Internet-based "distance learning" program, possibly as a college course suitable for pre-service teachers.
Project ASTRO-Tucson winds down in the near future, with the three years of funding from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific ending with FY 1999. Several possibilities of obtaining sustaining funds are being explored, including three NASA E/PO Education Supplements. Without additional outside funding for the Project ASTRO Coordinator Position, however, we will not be able to continue the annual training workshop.
32 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Public and Educational Outreach Public and Educational outreach
Undergraduate Education All NOAO sites expect to continue hosting undergraduate summer students under support provided by the NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. There are currently eight students at KPNO, seven at NSO (four in Tucson, three at Sac Peak), and four at CTIO. For the first time, supplements were available from the NSF to support teachers' participation in the REU program. NOAO/Tucson will have three teachers, graduates of last year's Teacher Enhancement Program, returning to Tucson to work with staff astronomers.
Approximately four University of Arizona undergraduate students each year are mentored by NOAO staff members as part of the UA/NASA Space Grant Consortium program.
Graduate Education NOAO will continue its program of supporting a large fraction of the US Ph.D. theses in opticalastronomy. In a typical semester, about 25 thesisprograms are assigned time through the competitive review process, and approximately 120 graduate students participate in observing runs. NOAO provides travel support for students conducting thesis research.
Other Instructional Materials Other materials, including brochures describing NOAO and its programs, astronomy career information, and resource lists of astronomy information, are currently under development to expedite the process of answering inquiries for information from the public. We have developed and prioritizeda list of materialsnecessary to answer the most frequently asked questions. When the materialsare completed, packets of standard information will be readily available for a variety of audiences including press, educators, and VIPs. Packets can also be customized from the suite of NOAO materials and those accumulated from other sources, including Harvard-Smithsonian CfA, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Lockheed-Martin, and Science Technologies Inc.
Visitor Center Programs
Kitt Peak The Kitt Peak Visitor Center attracts at least 50,000 visitors per year. (The exact count is extremely uncertain). The new public programs and revenue centers created in recent years have proven successful in partially subsidizing NOAO public outreach activities, and we anticipate that these programs will continue to provide a stable source of revenue to enable additional activities.
In FY 2000 the structure of tours will be improved and refined to provide a more enriching experience for visitors to Kitt Peak. A fee-based automated tour program featuring recorded information via individual headphones will become operational, and an updated, self-guided walking tour brochure will also be developed to include
33 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Public and Educational Outreach Public and educationaloutreach
complete information on the many facilities in use together with points of interest on Kitt Peak.
The Kitt Peak Visitor Center serves as the hub for all visitor activities, providing information and services to tourists on all aspects of the mountain. New exhibits describing the activities of astronomers and the equipment they use at Kitt Peak will be put in place at the Visitor Center. Special emphasis will be given to the WIYN telescope. The gift shop will continue to enhance its selection of tourist- oriented astronomical items, including the profitable lines of Kitt Peak apparel and Tohono O'Odham crafts. A well-established docent program continues to provide support to Visitor Center staff.
The fee-based Nightly Observing and Advanced Observing Programs for individuals and small groups, conducted at the 16-inch Visitor Center telescope, have proven to be highly successful. Participation has run at nearly full capacity for three winter tourist seasons, prompting the development of a more efficient scheduling system. The success of these programs has also motivated the development of fee-based programs for school and community groups.
NOAO continues to be an active participant in the Southwestern Consortium of Observatories for Public Education (SCOPE). Through this partnership, science from the member sites can be shared with over halfa millionpublic visitors. During FY 2000 SCOPE plans to increase this exposure through cooperative advertising of the public outreach opportunities at each participating observatory.
NSO Visitor Center The National Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak hosts approximately 30,000 visitors per year. NSO visits begin at the Sunspot Astronomy & Visitor Center (Visitor Center). The Visitor Center provides all the necessary visitor conveniences including vending machines, a gift shop, host/hostess, and interpretive information. A wide range of new displays are in use at the Visitor Center. These educate the visitor on many topics relating to the science and research at NSO, nearby Apache Point Observatory and astronomy in general. These displays are in the final stages of production and should be completed in FY 2000. In addition to stopping at the Visitor Center, all visitors are encouraged to take guided or self-guided tours of the facilities at NSO.
The Sunspot Astronomy & Visitor Center is virtually self-supporting through revenues from the gift shop. As our product mix and inventory have progressed, our revenues have increased. Currently, revenues from the gift shop are sufficient to pay for all cost of goods sold, supplies and materials required for operation of the Visitor Center and the labor required to operate it. Upon completion of the displays, we will evaluate the possibility of charging an admission fee to the display area which will provide additional revenue to further expand our public and educational outreach.
34 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Public and Educational Outreach public and educationaloutreach
Media Relations NOAO has renewed efforts to distribute press releases and promote the science carried out at observatory facilities. We plan to continue the same strategy: cooperating with other research facilities on joint releases, streamlining our procedures for producing press releases and video materials requested by the media, and selecting stories with high science value and reporting them accurately.
Image Collection The NOAO Image Collection contains more than one thousand images accumulated since the mid-1950s documenting the construction, facilities, and science of NOAO. The collection is used by scientists, writers, and the non technical public. Efforts are underway to streamline the Image Collection, to increase its accessibility, and to decrease the staff time required to maintain the collection and service requests for its contents.
Progress has been made toward developing a Web-based pictorial index of the collection containing thumbnail sketches and brief captions of every available image. Downloadable digital versions of selected images at different resolutions are now available, and requests for hard copies of images (paper or slides) will soon be handled outside NOAO. We are currently working on selecting images, writing captions, developing software for web access, and defining policy for commercial and non-commercial use. The NOAO Image Collection is now fully accessible on line, and the major effort in FY 2000 will be to expand the breadth and depth of the collection. An outstanding virtual tour of Kitt Peak has been developed by one of the RBSE teachers. After review, these materials will be posted on the Web.
NSO Public Web Pages The NSO WWW site contains several public outreach areas. These include a live solar image that is updated once per minute so the public can see how the sun is behaving in Hydrogen-alpha. There is an interactive solar tutorial that provides information about the sun and its processes. There is also an "Ask Mr. Sunspot" area where questions can be asked about the sun and astronomy in general. Answers are posted on the WWW and indexed so visitors can easily look at past answers by subject. A data archive is also available. While intended for scientific research, it is also accessible by the general public and to students doing solar projects.
35 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Public and Educational Outreach Technical and Administrative Infrastructure
In the preceding sections, we have listed the direct costs of developing FY2000 Support Infrastructure new capabilities and providing current Total = $ 5.548K Computer services to users. These programs Networks depend on access to a technical and S774K administrative infrastructure. To the extent consistent with efficiency, this Engineering S838K infrastructure has been centralized in
Tucson in order to achieve economies Admin. of scale. In addition to the cost savings associated with minimizing $2,393K duplication, such centralization allows the associate directors of NOAO to focus their attention on the scientific programs at their sites. The remote sites do have the resources necessary to deal with those administrative matters that are most effectively managed locally. (Organizational charts for all NOAO sites and units are provided in Appendix I.)
Engineering and Computer Services Networks The NOAO technical infrastructure consists of two main elements: engineering infrastructure and computer networks. Engineering and Technical Services (ETS) in Tucson provides certain core services to all of the sites, as well as providing the facilities to support all of the instrumentation and telescope projects being carried out in Tucson. The core services include overall management of the engineering and real-time software projects based in Tucson; an optician to test optics delivered by vendors and to fabricate small optics for all of the sites; a coatings technician, who has also worked on a contract basis to assist Gemini North with coating the 8-m primary; a supervisor for the instrument machine shop; and two administrative assistants who maintain the electronics supply room, drafting supplies, and drawings files, in addition to providing general office support. More limited engineering capabilities are maintained at Sacramento Peak and in La Serena.
We have adopted a distributed computing strategy that calls for a combination of central, shared facilities (provided and maintained in Tucson by CCS) and a variety of desktop facilities including workstations, PCs, and X-terminals (provided and maintained by the individual observatories or departments). Computing systems are networked and linked to the computers at the telescopes and to the worldwide Internet. NOAO distributes information and interacts with our users through the World Wide Web over the Internet. Internal uses of the Web to increase efficiency and share information continue to expand.
There are 386 computers in Arizona—NSO, KPNO, Engineering, IRAF, Administrative Services, etc.—all linked to the network. This inventory includes both UNIX-based machines and PCs. There are 128 computers at NSO/SP and 85 at
36 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Technical and Administrative Infrastructure Technical and Administrative Infrastructure
CTIO. Attacks on the system by external hackers and infiltration by viruses are increasing in frequency and becoming a time-consuming problem. A staff of 6 FTE (3.5 from CCS, 2 from ETS, and 0.5 from KPNO Mountain Electronics) maintains the nearly 400 computers in Arizona. A 1995 benchmark survey of technical organizations showed that the median number of machines per system administrator was 70. The number for NOAO-Tucson is 110 if we include only the 3.5 system administrators in Central Computer Services (CCS). Key goals for CCS in the coming year include the following:
NOAO - Tucson • Establish a 100 Mbps data connection from Tucson headquarters to the Arizona GigaPOP at the University of Arizona.
KPNO-Kitt Peak • Establish a 45 Mbps data connection from Tucson headquarters to Kitt Peak.
CTIO • Install and commission an OC-3 (155 Mbps) fiber/microwave backbone and associated firewalls and routers between La Serena/Cerro Tololo and Cerro Tololo/Cerro Pachon for use by CTIO, Gemini, SOAR, and any future facilities located on either mountain.
AURA-Chile • Change Internet services to the AURA Observatory in Chile from the current 56Kbps satellite link to a terrestrial fiber connection with speed of at least 512Kbps.
NSO • Upgrade NSO Digital Library from CD-ROM drives to DVD-RAM drives.
• Merge GONG DSDS into NSO Digital Library.
• Complete NSO/SP upgrade to a GigaBit backbone and 100Base connections to all rooms.
The installation of the high bandwidth links at all of the sites is dependent on the funding of proposals submitted separately to the NSF.
Administrative Infrastructure Based in Tucson, Central Administrative Services (CAS) serves all NOAO sites. Specifically, CAS provides human resources services for all US hires at all sites, along with payroll, procurement, contracting, accounts payable and receivable, property management, and general accounting for all actions in the US. In addition, this department handles shipping and receiving for Tucson and expedites shipments to Chile. CTIO provides human resources services for Chilean hires, procurement and contracting, accounts payable and receivable, and property management for Chile-based activities. Their system interfaces to the NOAO-Tucson accounting system, which is the accounting system of record, and information is transferred
37 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Technical and Administrative Infrastructure Technical and Administrative Infrastructure
daily. NSO/SP has a limited administrative staff to manage local activities and purchases but relies on Tucson for most services.
In March 1996, Arthur Andersen LLP published a survey of the cost of research among thirty-three selected industry and university participants. The Andersen study defined a category of costs associated with "Central Services or Home Office" support, which included executive administration, legal, accounting, and other centralized activities to the extent that they supported research. The average fraction of the total budget assigned to these costs ranged from 5 percent for universities to 11 percent for industry and 13 percent for federal centers. Andersen noted that the low rate for universities was probably due to the large cost base over which the administrative costs could be spread. In the NOAO budget, the two activities combined—NOAO Director's Office and CAS—providethe equivalentof what the studycalled home officesupport. In the case of NOAO, the percentage of the budget devoted to these two activities is six percent, which is at the low end of the scale as determined by the Andersen study.
Facilities Maintenance Facilities maintenance activities fall into two categories: 1) deferredmaintenance, which is defined as maintenance that must be regularly scheduled at intervals longer than one year in order to prevent deterioration of the physical plant; and 2) routine maintenance, which occurs at intervals of one year or less.
A budget of 2.5 percent of replacement costs for deferred maintenance is commonly considered necessary to avoid plant deterioration. The replacement cost of NOAO facilities at its five sites, excluding the telescopes themselves but including their enclosures, exceeds $100 M, which suggests that an annual investment of at least $2.5 M is required. This level of investment has never been achieved, and the plans for next year, which are listed in Appendix F, total only 30 percent of the appropriate level.
In 1994, we benchmarked routine maintenance for the Tucson headquarters building against 1) the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), which has more than four times the square footage of the NOAO facilities; 2) an average of all types of facilities; and 3) an average of research facilities. NOAO's spending was significantly lower than for these other facilities on a square footage basis, and this was despite the fact that our facility is smaller and that we lose some economies of scale. We have further reduced the budget for routine maintenance since 1994.
The remaining categories of expenditures that make up the full NOAO budget (the Directors' offices, the AURA management fee, and the support of the IRAF group) are discussed in detail in the section on Management and Budget.
38 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Technical and Administrative Infrastructure
Management and Budget
This ProgramPlan presents a transitional budget. We are beginning to phase out some support for current operationsin order to fund the early stages of major projectssuch as the Advanced SolarTelescope (AST), the Next Big Telescope (NBT), and exploration of data management issues, including links to the National Virtual Observatory (NVO).
The NOAO budget is managed by the location where the money is spent, and traditionally, the management budget has been presented as part of the Program Plan. (The management budget is included here as Appendix C.) However, the traditional management budgetdoes not link expenditures to end functions, simply because many of the programs are carried out in more than one location. For example: both north and south are involved in work on the NBT; when Gemini South comes on line, CTIO will become more involved in support of the US users of Gemini; NSO/SP this past year contributed to the SOLIS project, which is primarily being carried out in Tucson; major instrumentation for Gemini, CTIO, and KPNO is built in Tucson. Many similar examples could be cited.
In order to link expenditures to programs, we created a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) dictionary for all of the tasks performed by NOAO; we then amalgamated expenditures for specific programs across all the observatories, including overhead functions. The results are summarized in the following tables and charts.
Table 1 NOAO FY 2000 Spending By Program
(Dollars in Thousands) NSO CTIO Tucson **Tucson Total Nightime Nightime NOAO Gemini Direct Support of Pi's 4,752 5,673 6,415 1,336 18,176
Instrumentation 980 1,782 2,554 1,425 6,741
Initiatives 2,940 580 624 - 4,144
Outreach 53 30 505 - 588
Total 8,725 8,065 10,098 2,761 29,649
** Annual Gemini budget is - $14 M/year. If the partner countries match the US contribution shown here, which is a reasonable estimate, then the total funding for Gemini operations is ~ $19.5 M.
The components of the NOAO program are defined according to categories that are similar to those used by the Astronomy Division at NSF in managing its budget:
• Direct Support of Principal Investigators - analogous to the NSF categories of Solar Astronomy, Stars and Stellar Systems, Extragalactic Research and Cosmology, and the Solar System. In the NOAO program budgets presented here, the category "Direct Support of Principal Investigators" includes the total costs of operating NOAO observatories, support of the in-house research by the
39 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Managementand Budget Management and Budget
scientific staff, and the development of software to NOAO FY2000 Spending ByProgram (Total= $29,649 K) support data acquisition and data reduction;
Instrumentation for NOAO facilities and for Gemini;
Support of Pi's Initiatives - which might be Instrumentation $18,176 K considered the NOAO equivalent $6,741 K (61%) (23%) of the ATI program at NSF;
Education and Public Outreach.
A more detailed breakdown of these program categories is shown in Table 2.
Table 2 NOAO FY 2000 Spending By Program Area
(Dollars in Thousands) NSO CTIO Tucson Tucson Total Nightime: Nightime: NOAO Gemini Support of Pi's Helioseismology 2,198 2,198
Other Solar 2,514 2,514
Stars & Stellar Sys. 40 3,297 3,712 772 7,821 Extragalactic 2,109 2,376 505 4,990
Solar System 267 327 59 653 Instrumentation
NSO 980 980
CTIO 1,782 1,782 GNIRS 1,158 1,158
Other Gemini 267 267
NOAO 2,554 2,554 Initiatives
SOLIS 2,465 2,465
AST 178 178
GONG+ 267 267
Other Solar 30 30
NBT 238 119 357
SOAR 327 59 386
Other 15 446 461
Outreach 53 30 505 - 588
Total 8,725 8,065 10,098 2,761 $29,649
40 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
NOAO FY 2000 Program Spending By Division (Total = $ 29.649K)
Gemini 9% ($2,761 K) CTIO 27% ($8,065K)
Tucson Nighttime 35% (S10.098K) NSO 29% (S8.725K)
The nighttime programin Tucson supports a variety of activities, including operation of the telescopes on Kitt Peak; user support for the US users of Gemini; construction of major instrumentsfor Gemini, CTIO, and KPNO; developmentof software for data acquisition and reduction; outreach;etc. We have separated out expenditures to support Gemini in order to show explicitly what is being spent by NOAO to support Gemini- related activities. The costs listed in the Support ofPrincipal Investigators category for Gemini (Table 2 and pie chart above) include the funds being spent to prepare for support of users as well as the funds used to support the research of the NOAO scientific staff who are providing that user support. The first call for Gemini proposals will be issued in January, 2000.
The changing balance of the nighttime program based in Tucson is illustrated in the following graph which traces the changes in staffingover the past 15years. In 1984, when NOAO was established, essentially the only nighttime program in Tucson was support of Kitt Peak National Observatory, and the staffing level was 175.That figure has dropped to about 75 in FY 2000, or less than half the level of effort in 1984.
Staffing Levels 1984-1999: Tucson Nighttime
200 150 V^»~»~4 KPNO 100 Instr 50 V-a-^^V W vy \|/ \j 0 f-SfrrHfrn (mTriT? \Tf \1/ >!/ \^/ \lf \tf USGP
£> N & _c^ ADP a SS3 .c2>K-o •vSP &\~J N-6$ •S9 ^ *> -*-3.5-m Year
41 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
The total staffing for all nighttime programs is only about 65 percent of what it was in 1984. We have over the years added the Advanced Development Program, which focused on adaptive optics and interferometry and was subsequently eliminated in response to a budget reduction; a program to develop the technology for active support of borosilicate mirrors, which was terminated when the 3.5-m mirror support system was completed and the mirror installed in WIYN; support for major instrumentation for CTIO; and the US Gemini Project Office.
The changing balance of the total NOAO program is shown in the following two pie charts which show the funds spent directly by the NSO and CTIO, with all other activities including central administrative services and maintenance of the Tucson headquarters as well as operation of the nighttime programs in Arizona lumped under "Tucson All." The years chosen for comparison are 1984, when NOAO was established, and 1998, which is the last full year for which we have data on actual expenditures. The fraction of the budget devoted to direct support of NSO is about 75% higher than in 1984. Spending at CTIO has remained nearly constant as a
Spending Allocations 1984
Tucson All 61%
fraction of the total budget, and the spending on all non-solar activities based in Arizona has dropped by 15 percent. Overall, the purchasing power of the NOAO budget has declined by nearly 40 percent since 1984.
Spending by Unit 1998
CTIO% 24%
Tucson All 53% NSO % 23%
42 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
The direct costs of each NOAO program category (Initiatives, Instrumentation, Telescope Operations, and Research by the Scientific Staff) and of the overhead support are shown in Table 3. In this table, we have explicitly itemized the costs associated with the directors' offices (Scientific Management), the operation and maintenance of facilities in La Serena and Tucson, and NOAO administrative services (Support Infrastructure). We have also explicitly shown the software support for data acquisition and data reduction for the nighttime telescopes, as well as the costs associated with maintenance of the IRAF system (Data Management), since questions are often raised about the cost of this effort.
Table 3 NOAO FY 2000 Spending
(Dollars in Thousands) Est. Cost
Initiatives 2,875
Instrumentation 5,181
Telescope Operations 10,383
Research by Scientific Staff 2,670
Public Outreach 436
Scientific Management 1,402
Support Infrastructure 5,548
Data Management 620
Payments to AURA 651
Pay Adjustments (+ 2.0%) 418
(Less Air Force Contribution to Sac Peak) (535)
Total FY 2000 Spending 29,649
The salaries used in this compilation were the current salaries. (The budget of $29.7M requested by the President in his submission to Congress would allow for a 2.0 percent pay increase in FY 2000.) Given that NOAO scientific salaries are about 15 percent below the average of the AURA member institutions and that the salaries for technical staff, particularly software engineers, do not allow us to hire in today's market, some selective increases are mandatory.
Since all of the supporting functions shown in Table 3 exist for the purpose of enabling the scientific program, we have allocated these "overhead" costs, as shown in Tables 1 and 2, in order to estimate the full cost of the science program.
In order to launch the initiatives described in this plan, we will continue to change the program balance. Initially, we will reprogram the efforts of the scientific staff. In order to facilitate this reprogramming, we are closing some telescopes on Kitt Peak and reducing user support at both CTIO and KPNO. The basic philosophy is that the
43 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
users should do what they can for themselves, and that the NOAO scientific staff should focus on those tasks that users cannot easily perform. To this end, we expect to make an investment in better documentation, but then we will expect observers to use it to prepare for observing runs. We also expect to move to larger observing programs, including survey programs, so that we develop a core group of experienced observers who require minimal assistance. We are reducing the number of instrument changes, and hence reducing the requirements for instrument checkout and recalibration by scientific staff. We also plan to obtain at least some instrumentation from the community, probably in return for observing time, thereby reducing the requirement for staff to build instruments. We will maximize the use of scientists outside NOAO to lead TAC committees, instrument definition teams, etc., thereby creating an extended scientific staff.
While scientific staff can lead the definition phase of the initiatives being explored by NOAO, construction of any of the proposed facilities will require new funding.
The following sections describe the planned FY 2000 spending in each program category. It should be stressed that this presentation is primarily helpful as a planning tool. It is neither an accounting tool nor a management tool.
New Capabilities
Initiatives
A number of initiatives have been proposed by GONG+ $226 K NOAO and its collaborators to the panels of the VISTA Decade Survey Committee. While we do not $40 K know what the Survey Committee recommendations will be, we do plan to make modest investments in FY 2000 so that we are prepared to take advantage of their recommendations. To this end, we have set up a Planning and Development office headed by Steve Strom to lead the early planning efforts for NBT the nighttime program. As programs mature and $247 K achieve significant funding, they will be spun off to other divisions of NOAO or to separate NOAO FY 2000 project offices, as was the case with Gemini. Specific initiatives include the AST, Initiatives NBT, the Dark Matter Telescope (DMT), and the National Virtual Observatory (NVO). (Direct costs = Large projects such as the NBT and the AST require staged funding if they are to $2,875 K) be conducted with good control of cost, schedule, and performance. NOAO assumes that it will have to provide funding from within its existing budget to prepare proposals for the conceptual design phase; but Phase A studies for the NBT in particular are likely to cost several million dollars, as was true for the MMA project, and we will seek incremental funding for those studies.
44 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
Development efforts at NSO in FY 2000 will be centered around the AST, a program being led by Steve Keil. Other NOAO staff scientists, particularly Thomas Rimmele, Christoph Keller, lacques Beckers, and Mark Giampapa are helping develop the science rationale and a plan for the AST. There are three major prongs to this effort: 1) development of the science requirements through consultation with the community; 2) construction of site testing equipment; and 3) further demonstration of adaptive optics. The adaptive optics funding is included in the instrumentation portion of the budget.
On the nighttime side, the major emphasis will be on developing the scientific requirements for the NBT and funding some early studies of the key technologies. To guide this effort, NOAO, in collaboration with Gemini has established a steering committee which will be chaired by S. Wolff until a scientist is recruited to head the program. S. Strom will be responsible for developing the scientific case and requirements. In addition to the funding in the FY 2000 Program Plan, we expect to provide up limited support from carryover funds for industrial studies of possible technologies and for community workshops.
Other initiatives include continued work on the SOLIS project; deployment of the higher resolution cameras to the GONG sites; work on the SOAR project, mainly providing scientific input to the instrumentation program and other aspects of the project; an effort to persuade the VISTA team to place the UK survey telescope on Cerro Pachon; further work with Steward on options for the Dark Matter Telescope; and archiving of Mosaic imaging and solar data.
The NSO digital library is funded primarily through external grants. It currently contains about 200 GB of solar data on magnetic disks and a CD-ROM jukebox (http://www.nso.noao.edu/diglib). During the first year of operation, 2,036 non- NOAO users logged in 14,009 times to download 18,243 files. Data currently included are the entire Kitt Peak Vacuum Telescope synoptic data set of full-disk solar magnetograms and helium 10830 spectroheliograms from 1974 to the present, the entire FTS data set of high resolution spectra, and recent spectroheliograms from the Evans facility. In FY 2000, the GONG helioseismic data set will be integrated into the digital library. Proposals to support the addition of more datasets and the development of search and visualization tools have been submitted.
SOLIS will produce data at the rate of over 30 Gb per day and will require both a major expansion of the digital library and an increase in bandwidth between Kitt Peak and Tucson. A proposal submitted to the NSF for the increased bandwidth is pending, and planning to accommodate the addition of the SOLIS data is in progress.
Funds to explore the relationship between NOAO, its data sets, and the National Virtual Observatory have not yet been identified. After we have met with other proponents of this program and identified the required level of resources, we will revise this Program Plan.
45 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
Instrumentation
The telescopes operated by NOAO are no more FY 2000 Instrumentation Program valuable than the instrumentation that is (Direct costs =$5,181K) available at the focal plane. Accordingly, Joint NOAO has placed great emphasis on Nighttime NSO maintaining the funds needed for investment in S2.043K S707K new instrumentation. Unfortunately, the cost of instrumentation has climbed much more sharply than the resources. Sticker shock associated with 8-m class instruments is wide CTIO spread. The same problem applies to solar S1.290K instrumentation, where the investment required to realize the advantages of adaptive optics is much larger than the historical rate of invest ment in solar instruments. Similarly, the emphasis for the 4-m class nighttime telescopes is on taking advantage of their wide fields of view, which are not avail able at the Gemini telescopes. Filling the focal plane with large arrays of detectors and building the physically large instruments required to house those detectors will require approximately twice ($4-5 M) what we have spent on such instruments as Phoenix and the 8K x 8K Mosaic.
Because NOAO does not have the resources to fund instruments at a competitive pace in either the solar or nighttime programs, we will be exploring the possibility of having instruments built in the community in return for some combination of cash and guaranteed observing time. We recognize that any such arrangements will require the approval of AURA.
The instruments currently in progress and the expenditures planned for FY 2000 are shown in the following tables.
Table 4 NSO Instrumentation Program - FY 2000
(Dollars in 1000s) Payroll Non-Payroll Total IR Array Controller 218 80 298
IR at NSO/SP 45 45
Adaptive Optics 285 79 364
Total $548 $159 $707
Table 5 CTIO/KPNO Joint Instrumentation Program - FY 2000
(Dollars in 1000s) Payroll Non-Payroll Total Next generation optical 323 778 1101 spectrograph/wide-field IR imager
WIYN Tip/Tilt 513 513
Flamingos 9 9
SQIID 50 50
Detector, Fiber, Grating R&D 274 50 324
Infrastructure, incl. software 46 46
Total $1,215 $ 828 $ 2,043
46 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
The plan for FY 2000 is to develop conceptual designs both for the wide-field optical spectrograph (NGOS) and for a 4Kx4K IR imager. Based on those studies and costing, one of the instruments will be selected for fabrication in house. We will seek an external group to build the second instrument and will make our studies available to that group. The runout costs are estimated (in the absence of any design) to be $4-5 M, with at least $2 M in capital costs, largely for detectors and controllers. The completion time after the conceptual design review will be at least four years, We are beginning to accumulate the capital that will be required. The location of the large spectrograph or the IR imager will probably be KPNO, since the most recent delivery of major instruments by Tucson went to CTIO (the Mosaic Imager and the Hydra fiber spectrograph). In addition, new imaging and spectroscopic capabilities in the south will be provided by SOAR, and possibly by VISTA, as well as from Phoenix, which will be used on SOAR and Gemini South. Flamingos, SQIID, and WIYN Tip/Tilt are all destined for KPNO. The R&D effort is devoted to characterizing CCDs and InSb arrays, the latter as a follow-on to the Aladdin project. We also continue to work with volume-phase holographic gratings and optical fibers. All the sites benefit from the R&D work.
We expect that the total cost of WIYN Tip/Tilt will be a little over $2 M and that the project will be finished in FY 2001. Flamingos and SQIID will both be commissioned in FY 2000 and made available to users.
The GNIRS is scheduled for delivery in the summer of CY 2002. The estimated total cost, beginning from January 1 when we decided to repackage the instrument, is $3.9 M. Gemini has agreed to pay about $2.9 M of the cost of the GNIRS. The work on the controllers should be finished in FY 2000. We are beginning discussions on the costs of modifying Phoenix for use on Gemini South. We expect to be fully reimbursed (apart from the fact that Gemini does not pay overhead) for this work. NOAO is also responsible for management oversight of all of the Gemini instrument projects being carried out in the US, either at NOAO or elsewhere.
Table 6 Gemini Instrumentation Program- FY 2000
(Dollars in 1000s) Payroll Non-Payroll (Reimburse) Net Cost
GNIRS 925 645 (645) 925
IR Controller 75 10 0 85
CCD Controller 31 (31) —
Phoenix to Gemini 181 (181) —
USGP Management of Gemini 115 16 — 131 instruments in the US
Total $1,327 $671 (857) $1,141
47 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
We expect to place contracts for two Gemini instruments during the next year: an infrared spectrometer, possibly based on a modified Flamingos design, and a near-infrared coronagraph, which is being funded by NASA. We also expect to take the lead in identifying which instruments should be built for Gemini in the future and who in the US should build them. The next large instrument to be built in the US will be a multiple-object IR spectrometer. The instrument definition team will probably be led by someone from outside NOAO.
Table 7
CTIO Instrumentation Program -- FY 2000
(Dollars in 1000s) Payroll Non-payroll Total
Blanco Spectrograph 300 390 690
SOAR Imager 300 300 600
Total $600 $600 $ 1,290
48 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
Telescope Operations The following tables show the expenditures for telescope operations and for direct support FY2000 Telescope Operations byObservatory Direct costs = $10,383 K of users of telescopes accessed through (incl. USAF support of NSO/SP) NOAO. For each telescope currently operated we show first the direct expenditures for telescope maintenance, upgrades, operators, NSO (incl GONG) etc. This is an estimate of the incremental cost $3,030 K of operating each telescope. However, operation requires access to a supporting infrastructure, and we have divided this into two components: 1) scientific and technical infrastructure, including such shared facilities as aluminizing chambers, scientific support of CTIO $3,295 K users before, during, and after observing runs, scientific characterization and calibration of instruments, review of observing proposals, development of software for shared operating systems, etc; and 2) mountain infrastructure, including building maintenance, road maintenance, utilities, operation of kitchens and dormitories, etc. The costs of the shared infrastructure for CTIO and KPNO have been allocated in proportion to the dollars spent in direct support. We have arbitrarily allocated one quarter of the costs of maintenance of the mountain infrastructure on Kitt Peak to the NSO telescopes and three quarters to the KPNO telescopes. What is shown is the net cost to NSF after payments by tenants for their share of mountain services. Some of the technical maintenance staff for the NSO facilities are also budgeted under KPNO in Appendix C, and these costs have been transferred to NSO as well. The total of the costs for shared infrastructure and direct costs is approximately what could be saved by closing a site entirely, although it would take several years to realize those savings since most of our US leases require NSF to return the site to its original condition if we choose to abandon it. An alternative would be to find another operator and, again, several years of lead time would be required to make the transfer.
Note that the proposed support for US users of Gemini is nearly comparable to the support for the scientific and technical infrastructure, which includes user support for a 4-m telescope at either KPNO or CTIO. In the case of Gemini, there is no requirement to support any equipment, as there is at KPNO and CTIO. Also, Gemini North will only be partially operational in FY 2000, and this support level thus appears appropriate. We expect the Gemini support effort to grow when operational handover of Gemini North takes place and when Gemini South comes on line.
In order to support US users of Gemini, we plan to assign either one or two mirror scientists to each Gemini instrument. These scientists will be responsible for
49 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
understanding the operation of the instruments from end-to-end: from planning an observing program to reducing the data. We have also recently visited Hilo to define the interface between the software tools being provided by Gemini and the software, especially for data reduction, that must be developed at NOAO. We are currently estimating the costs of the software that NOAO is expected to provide, and will revise the Program Plan accordingly after we have determined the schedule for this work.
Some of the Gemini partners are planning to station one or two scientists permanently in Hawaii to support users from their countries. Given NOAO's other obligations and small staff, we have not found the resources to station scientists in Hawaii. In any case, according to the international agreement, IGPO is responsible for support of users while they are actually making their observations. We do plan to have the mirror instrument scientists travel to Hawaii for extended visits so that they become thoroughly familiar with the instruments and can provide pre- and post-observing run assistance to US users. If this proves inadequate for Gemini North, then we will reconsider stationing one or more scientists in Hawaii. However, longer-term visits cannot be supported by Gemini until the commission ing team moves south because of lack of space. (In the case of Gemini South, we already have resident staff at CTIO, who will take on some of the responsibility for support of US observers at the Gemini facilities.)
Table 8 KPNO Telescope Operations by Telescope - FY 2000
(Dollars in 1000s) Mayall WIYN 2.1-m Coude 0.9-m Feed
Telescope maintenance, upgrades, 984 441 460 46 84 and operations
Scientific & technical infrastructure 487 341 227 22 41
Mountain infrastructure 291 128 144 13 24
Total KPNO ($3,733) $1,762 $910 $831 $81 $149
Table 9 CTIO Telescope Operations by Telescope - FY 2000
(Dollars in 1000s) Blanco 1.5-m 0.9-m Schmidt
Telescope maintenance, upgrades, 1,107 370 128 165 and operations Scientific & technical infrastructure 478 161 56 72
Mountain infrastructure 474 158 55 71
Total CTIO ($3,295) $ 2,059 $689 $239 $308
50 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
Table 10
USGP Support of US Users of Gemini - FY 2000
(Dollars in Thousands) Gemini
Scientific & technical infrastructure 325
Total Gemini ($325) $325
Table 11 NSO Telescope Operations By Telescope - FY 2000
(Dollars in Thousands) Evans Dunn Hilltop McMath KPVT GONG
Telescope maintenance, 54 160 85 1676 upgrades & operations
Scientific & technical infra 49 142 28 14 structure
Mountain infrastructure 108 314
Transfers from KPNO 232 144
Total NSO ($3, 030) $211 $616 $15 $345 $167 $1,676
Each of these operations budgets has been cut to the minimum sustainable limit. KPNO, in fact, is below sustainable; accordingly, services will be phased out over the next year, with the transition period being supported with funds carried over from FY 1999. (Such a gradual transition is appropriate since we wish to make it possible for users to complete ongoing programs.) Specifically, the 0.9-m and the Coude Feed will be closed by the end of semester 2000 B. The operator at the 2.1-m will be eliminated, and the telescope will be operated by the observers. The primary uses of the 2.1-m will be for infrared imaging surveys with Flamingos and SQIID and for testing new IR instrumentation. The WIYN queue will be eliminated, although remote observing and flexible scheduling may be supported. The goal of these changes is to make it possible to provide the technical and scientific staff needed to support the initiatives and instrumentation program more effectively.
CTIO similarly will make the transition to a three-telescope operation over the next five years, with the goal being that the three telescopes be the Blanco, SOAR, and VISTA facilities. The goal at both nighttime sites is to maintain the capabilities needed to ensure effective and efficient use of the Gemini telescopes.
51 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
Support of Software for Surveys, FY2000 Software Support Archiving, and the NVO (Total = S620K) NOAO plans to develop new observing capabilities from a systems point of view, and
that system includes the software tools required Appl. to reduce the data. Most users leave the Programming S269K mountain sites with the instrumental signature already removed from the data. The reduction software is incorporated into the framework IRAFsystem maintenance provided by IRAF. $177K
In addition to maintaining the IRAF system and providing software for NOAO instruments, three new programs will require substantial software support:
• NOAO recently announced that it will make up to 20 percent of the observing time on the nighttime telescopes available for surveys, provided that the results of those surveys are made available to the community. We plan to assist the groups awarded observing time with the data pipelining and archiving. We also need to make the NOAO Deep-Wide survey available to the community as quickly as possible.
•The Gemini project does not plan to provide software to reduce data from its instruments. A substantial portion of the responsibility for providing such software will fall on NOAO. (The other partners will support archiving and related services that are also not covered by the international Gemini budget.) We are currently scoping the level of effort required at NOAO.
• We are exploring the data management issues associated with broader survey initiatives, including the National Virtual Observatory, VISTA, and the Dark Matter Telescope. Again, we are currently scoping the level of effort that will be required.
During the next year, we will set up a program within NOAO that is focused on the broad suite of data management issues outlined above. Assistance with the ongoing NOAO surveys will be provided by re-prioritizing the efforts of the existing staff. Additional funding in this area will be made available only after we understand better the scope of the work and the priorities relative to other NOAO programs.
52 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
Research by the NOAO Scientific Staff FY 2000 Scientific Staff Research According to self-reporting by the scientific (Direct costs = $2,670 K) staff, the time devoted to research is equivalent to 18.5 FTE. The total scientific staff size is 61 NSO $614K Tucson FTE, including NSF-funded post docs, so the Nighttime staff spends only about 30 percent of their time $1,281 K on research. The remainder of their time is spent on functional responsibilities as described in Appendix D.
"Tucson nighttime" includes staff involved in all aspects of the nighttime program— initiatives such as the NBT and the NVO, the instrumentation program, the USGP, and the operation of KPNO. It is likely that Tucson will continue to have the largest concentration of scientists. It is easier to recruit people to Tucson than to either Sacramento Peak or CTIO. Indeed, CTIO has had unfilled positions for several years. We do not, however, plan to transfer staff from the outlying sites to Tucson but will continue to try to fill vacant positions as they occur in Chile and New Mexico.
NOAO's scientific staff salaries are well below those of the AURA member institutions,and this fact, coupled with the heavy load of functional responsibilities,
!I
NOAO Scientific Salaries vs. Salaries of Comparable Academic Positions
$120,000
Professor Associate Assistant
53 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
makes it difficult to recruit scientific staff of the caliber required by the challenging tasks that lie before us.
The total cost of in-house research at NOAO is slightly less than 10 percent of the total budget. NOAO provides support to the scientific staff in the form of adminis trative assistants (3.9 FTE total for all sites) and maintains scientific libraries and some image lab capability for reproduction of images. The figure for Tucson night time research costs includes the library and photo lab in Tucson, which serve NSO as well as the nighttime program. We also support page charges, travel, and purchase of work stations; the average expenditure per staff member for this direct support is $7000 per year. All other support for staff research must be raised through grant proposals. Since, by NSF policy, proposals cannot be submitted to the Astronomy Division of the NSF, which is the only source of support for groundbased research, staff science programs are increasingly directed toward space research, although the staff continues to use NOAO telescopes to support those programs.
Public Outreach Public outreach programs funded by NOAO fall into two categories: 1) operation of the visitors' Net Spending for Public Outreach (Direct costs = $ 436K) centers at Kitt Peak, Sacramento Peak, and CTIO; and 2) educational programs and media relations. The net direct cost to NOAO of the operation of the visitor center on Kitt Peak is $150 K, primarily to provide staffing seven days per week. In addition, visitor center staff support filming and other visits to Kitt Peak by representatives of the media, along with a volunteer program. The true cost of operating the visitor center is about double this amount, with the difference being recovered through sales in the gift shop and charges for the nightly observing program. In addition, we spend about $88 K annually in facilities maintenance, restroom cleaning, medical assistance for visitors, emergency vehicle repair, etc. The costs listed for CTIO and NSO/SP include only the net direct costs of operation.
NOAO funds a core staff for educational outreach ($150 K)—just enough to oversee the program, prepare external proposals, and respond to inquiries from the media and the general public. We are able to issue press releases when warranted but do not have a full-time person for media relations and have not developed the press contacts that would make it more likely that NOAO stories would be picked up. A task for the future is to develop these contacts and to create an efficient pipeline for publicizing research by the users. In order to create the necessary funding wedge, we plan to develop the Web site over the next year and take other steps to automate requests from the public for information, images, etc. We also plan to introduce self-guided audio tours on Kitt Peak, which we hope will generate revenue while reducing staffing requirements.
54 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
Scientific Management NOAO has five directors: the directors of CTIO, FY2000 Scientific Management (Total = $1,402 K) NSO, KPNO, and the USGP, as well as the overall director of NOAO. The directors' offices include support for each director, administrative NOAO Dir S504K assistants, travel for users committees, and in the case of the NOAO director, for the receptionist at CTIO Dir the main entrance in Tucson; the copy center, $159 K which carries out the bulk copying for all of Tucson; and a budget manager. NSO Dir Fifteen years ago, all of the directors had some time $356 K for research. That is no longer the case. With the USGP Dir $197 K increasing scope of the program, the involvement of partners in nearly all new projects, and the emphasis on rapid evolution of the program, more scientific management is required.
In the future, in order to respond to changing opportunities and to new require ments from the user community, NOAO will require a more flexible and adaptable management structure. Rather than long-lived divisions and observatories, more of the effort will be organized around projects. When particular projects (e.g., the unification of the observing proposal process for the nighttime facilities that was accomplished by SCOPE) are completed, then the group supporting that project will be dissolved and new groups formed to tackle new issues. Most of the leader ship positions at levels other than the NOAO Director, the NSO Director, and possibly the CTIO Director, should be filled from within in order to control staff growth. This strategy will require substantial emphasis on staff development.
Transfers to AURA/NOAO The management fee for AURA is estimated to be $571 K for FY 2000, but negotiations with the NSF are currently in progress. In addition, we are required to provide $80 K to support a program of Gemini Fellows, which makes it possible for young scientists from Argentina, Brazil, and Chile to study in the United States.
FY 2000 Transfers to AURA/NOAO (Total = $640K)
55 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
Support Infrastructure
The successful operation of FY2000 Support Infrastructure observing facilities, construction of Total = $ 5.543 K new telescopes and instruments, and development of software all Sea Level Computer Nets - Facilities depend on a supporting $774 K $1,543 K infrastructure—namely the functions normally counted as overhead. These functions
include: 1) administrative Engineering services, such as budgeting, $838 K
accounting, purchasing, payroll, Admin. human resources, etc; 2) "2393 K maintenance of sea-level facilities in Tucson and La Serena; 3) maintenance of machine shops, electronics and mechanical supply rooms, drafting equipment, and other technical infrastructure; and 4) maintenance of computer networks, which have become essential for every aspect of the program. These infrastructure costs are shown in the following tables.
Maintenance of Sea Level Facilities - FY 2000 (Dollars in 1000s)
La Serena 267
Tucson 1,276
Total $ 1,543
Administrative Services - FY 2000
CTIO 845
Tucson 1395 NSO/SP 153
Total $ 2,393
Engineering Infrastructure - FY 2000
CTIO 121
Tucson 629
NSO/SP 88
Total $838
Computer Networks- FY 2000
CTIO 142
Tucson 490
NSO/SP 142
Total $774
56 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
The Tucson infrastructure supports programs throughout NOAO. This shared infra structure includes the NOAO Director's Office, central administrative services, and maintenance of computer networks and of the buildings in Tucson. The total cost of these functions is $3,665 K. The fraction attributable to the various NOAOprograms can be estimated approximately from the federally-approved overhead rates. These rates are:
•Overhead on staff resident in the Tucson headquarters building: 22%
•General and administrative overhead on funds spent outside downtown Tucson: 8%
The overhead attributable to each of these functions based on the budgets of each activity is then approximately as follows:
Site (Dollars in thousands) Est. Overhead CTIO 591
NSO/SP 182
NSO/Tucson 1,003
KP Mountain - Solar 41
Tucson Nighttime 1,425 KP Mountain - Nighttime 340
All Overhead $ 3,582
This estimated $3,582 K is remarkably close to costs of this shared infrastructure ($3,665 K), given the crudeness of the calculation. The calculation of the true overhead is more complex and depends on the balance between payroll and non- payroll spending in each unit. (We also have a higher overhead rate for engineering staff because of their greater requirements for equipment, space, and other services.) In addition, we have not included here some of the things that are included in the actual calculation of the overhead rates, such as the library in Tucson and the engineering infrastructure, both of which serve multiple programs. The detailed formal calculation, which is performed each year, takes several weeks to complete for all of the sites. However, this approximation averages out these detailed differences fairly accurately, and the results are indicative.
57 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
Using this allocation, we can estimate the total cost of the programs managed by the following units:
Unit/Program $ in 1000s Notes
Observatories
Chile 1,911 + Cost ofinstrumentation built in Tucson
NSO 8,612 Includes GONG & SOLIS KP Mountain Nighttime 4,259 + Cost ofinstrumentation built in Tucson Tucson Nighttime
Scientific Research 1,260
KPNO/CTIO Instrumentation 2,292
Gemini Support/Instruments 2,029
Software/IRAF/Archiving 939
Outreach 459
NBT 183
Tucson Infrastructure
Engineering 767
Library/Photolab 235
Transfers to AURA 651
Subtotal above $ 29,663
Plus 2% Pay Increase 418 (Less USAF funding to NSO/SP) (535) Total Program Costs S 29,546
This total $29,546 K is slightly more than $100 K less than the budget total listed at the beginning of the management section, again largely because of the approximations used to attribute overhead. For the table at the beginning of this section, the numbers above have been scaled—apart from rounding errors—to total the President's request of $29.7 M.
In the listing of costs, we indicate the total expenditures for NSO and for CTIO. We have broken out the expenditures for the non-NSO activities in Tucson to indicate the diversity of the program. The expenditures in Tucson are often identified with the operation of Kitt Peak Mountain for nighttime astronomy. In fact, if the solar activities in Tucson are taken into account, the spending on Kitt Peak staff and support would total less than one third of the expenditures in Tucson.
The costs for the programs are in each case the shared cost—not the incremental cost. If, for example, NSO were to become independent of NOAO, its total cost of operation would likely increase because it would have to provide for the infrastructure that it now shares with other components of the program. Similarly, the totals above do not represent the savings that would be achieved if a program were to be closed, because the costs of the administrative and engineering infrastructure do not scale linearly with the size of the program.
58 jv^^o Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Managementand Budget
Staffing The most critical internal management issuefacing NOAO is recruitment. Unless both the terms of employment and the working environment become more attractive, we will be unable to recruit scientific and technical staffcapable of carryingout the programs that are consistent with the leadership role that the national observatories shouldassume. Key requirements include competitive compensation, commitment by the NSF to a shared vision of the long-term goals of the program, access to modem technologies in hardware and software, and time for staff development and trainingin how to use these new technologies effectively.
While we have made some excellent hires recently, several positions have remained vacant for months to years, despite active recruiting. These include scientific staff positions, especially in Chile, and several lead engineer and software positions throughout the observatory. Approximately half of the engineering staff in Tucson is expected to retire in the next five years. While this presents an opportunity to rebuild the staff, this is an opportunity only if we can recruit successfully. We have already been recruiting for a detector engineer for nearly three years, anticipating the retirement of Al Fowler, but without success. Two mechanical engineering positions have been open for more than a year.
The staff slated for retirement are taking with them critical expertise in such areas as detector development, maintenanceof the large telescopes on Kitt Peak, and software engineering. The technical staff is currently one deep in nearly all critical areas, and we do not have the funds to overlap staff to train the next generation of engineers in those areas where knowledge of the unique systems at NOAO is essential. Because of the lack of depth, the departure of even a single staff member is likely to delay an ongoing program for several months; the WIYN Tip/Tiltproject, for example, has been without a mechanical engineer for about eight months.
Salary is a clear factor in our failure to recruit. The salaries we pay programmers on staff are $15,000to $25,000less than we would haveto pay a new hire with comparable skills and experience and, as a consequence, we have found that we are unable to recruit successfully within the current salary structure. Salaries for engineers at NOAO are also lower than the current market, but by a narrower margin.
In addition to filling vacancies, the new directions identified by NOAO will require that we recruit a small number of key staff with expertise that is not represented on the current staff. High priority recruitments include the following:
59 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Managementand Budget Management and Budget
•A scientist to lead the technical side of the NBT effort; Steve Strom will be responsible for developing the scientific case.
•A scientist to head the instrumentation program, preferably someone with experience in building large infrared instruments.
•A scientist with expertise in the handling of large data sets.
•A computer scientist to work with the community in developing the tools to manage and mine large data sets.
• An engineer for the NBT program.
•A systems engineer for the instrumentation program.
•A programmer to develop software for Gemini instrumentation.
Program Evolution As emphasized in the Long Range Plan, the NOAO program evolves to meet the changing scientific requirements of the community. Old programs and facilities are terminated to make way for new initiatives. The figure listing NOAO telescope closures (see p. 20) shows the evolution in the nighttime telescopes offered to the community and their sizes. Over the past decade NOAO has both built and closed more facilities than in any comparable earlier period in its history.
In order to ensure continued and orderly evolution, NOAO has established sunset clauses for all of the new facilities with which it has become involved, including WIYN, SOAR, and even Gemini. Over the next year, NOAO plans to establish sunset clauses for each of its existing facilities; these sunsets will be linked either to the completion of new facilities or to a decrease in user demand. The idea of the sunset clause is not that operation should be automatically discontinued when the specific date is reached; rather, 18 to 36 months before the deadline there should be a review of the facility to determine whether continued investment in that facility is warranted given its scientific productivity and the other programs that NOAO might pursue. With sufficient lead time, it will be possible for the community to complete ongoing observing programs in a timely manner and to make provision for transfer, if appropriate, of operations to another entity.
The winding down of old programs opens funding wedges for new initiatives. NSO has developed tables (Appendix J) and a figure (p. 18) showing how its programs fit together.
Most of the key elements in the nighttime program are in a much earlier stage of definition than are the solar initiatives, and it would be premature to provide a
60 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
similar diagram until the projects are better defined. Possible key elements in the nighttime program are the NBT, the Dark Matter Telescope, and participation in the National Virtual Observatory. All of these are substantial new programs whose construction (or virtual construction) could not be funded within the current operating budget of NOAO. Contributions to the steady-state operating budgets of these initiatives could, however, be madefrom the current base by phasingout many of the operations at CTIO, KPNO, or even—on a longer time scale—the Gemini telescopes. Operations of VISTA and SOAR will be funded from the existing CTIO budget by phasing out operations of telescopes with apertures less than 4 m.
Organizational Structure NOAO is embarking on a new program with a new set of priorities. It is important to signal this changed direction with a new organizational structure. If we do not, then the staff will continue to give priority to their existing tasks. Accordingly, we have to set up two new programs. One program, led by Steve Strom, will focus on the early stages of initiating new programs such as the NBT and developing the resources needed for those programs. The second program will take the lead in exploring the issues involved in handling large data sets, beginning with support for the surveys being initiated at NOAO but moving on to larger data management challenges such as would be involved with projects like VISTA, the Dark Matter Telescope, and the NVO. It is in the area of data management that we are most short of key personnel and resources.
NOAO as a Granting Agency CTIO and KPNO together award observing time to 350 observing proposals per year. The success rate is currently 50 percent overall, with the lowest rate being for dark time on the 4-m telescopes and Mosaic imaging time on the 0.9-m at Kitt Peak (about 20 percent success rate).
The distribution of proposals by subject matter is:
•Extragalactic Astronomy: 37% •Galactic Astronomy (Stars and Stellar Systems): 58% •Solar System: 5%
NSO awards observing time to an average of 190 proposals per year, and the average success rate is 95%.
If we take $18,176 K as the total amount spent on support of principal investigators, then we are giving 540 grants on an annual basis, each worth $34 K. However, the number of observing proposals accepted underestimates the impact of NOAO support to the community. GONG, for example, currently has 219 official "members" working on 123 distinct programs. There have been 525 data requests
61 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget Management and Budget
and 9.9 Gigabytes of data have been downloaded from the GONG WWW server during the past 12 months.
IRAF Version 2.11 was distributed to 2,000 sites around the world. There are mirror sites in Japan, Germany, and England, and presumably there were additional downloads from those sites to other institutions. In addition, secondary distributions cascade from the first FTP collection by a site (e.g., Steward redistributes IRAF locally without going through NOAO again). Worldwide, therefore, there are several thousand users of the IRAF reduction packages.
The NSO Digital Library last year served 2,036 non-NOAO users.
NOAO provides grants for thesis students and for travel to foreign observatories of about $50,000 per year. In addition, NOAO has awarded the following funds to the community for support of Gemini instrumentation, as shown in the following table.
Gemini Instrument Funds Spent or Committed to Date
Near Infrared Imager(NIRI), Univ. of Hawaii 2,987,175
Mid-IR Imager(MIRI) Study, Univ.of Arizona 35,000
MIRI Study, UC Irvine 45,000
MIRI (now T-ReCS) Fabrication, Univ. of Florida 1,584,817 1
Near Infrared Imager/Coronagraph (NICI) Study, MKIR 107,000
Total to Date 4,758,992
Future Gemini Instruments
NICI Fabrication Contract (Year 2000) 4,100,000
Wide Field IR MOS (Gap Filler) Study (Year 1999) 50,000
Gap Filler Fabrication (Year 2000) 2,450,000
Total Future Instruments 6,600,000
Total Expenditures outside NOAO 11,358,992
62 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Management and Budget
Milestones: FY 2000
Major Initiatives: National Solar Observatory
Advanced Solar Telescope The most important goal for NSO is the construction of an Advanced Solar Telescope (AST), which will achieve high resolution imaging (0.1 arcsec) in the optical on a regular and sustained basis and will also be capable of operating in the thermal infrared. Key activities include developing the science requirements in detail sufficient for conceptual design, evaluating potential sites, and developing adaptive optics and infrared instrumentation. Specific milestones for the AST and related instrumentation programs include the following:
• Develop community support and form an AST consortium. • Work with universities and other agencies to form an AST Board. •Form an AST Science Advisory Group. • Calibrate and employ the Solar Dual Image Motion Monitor (S-DIMM) to measure seeing at NSO/SP and seek partnerships to measure other sites.
Solar Adaptive Optics • Improve performance (e.g., bandwidth) of 20 Zernike AO system. • Implement 20 Z system at the Dunn Solar Telescope (DST) as shared-risk user system. •Adapt and/or upgrade post-focus instrumentation for use with AO. •Schedule AO science runs at DST • Begin design and construction of high order (-80 Z) AO system.
Solar Infrared Program: •Take delivery of controller from commercial firm and carry out acceptance tests for thermal IR camera system at the McMath-Pierce Telescope. • Submit joint proposal with HAO and Hawaii for large format IR camera based on HgCd arrays for the Dunn Solar Telescope.
Major Initiatives: Nighttime Astronomy
The Next Big Telescope (NBT) NOAO will lead community efforts to plan a major telescope for nighttime astronomy which we call the "next big telescope" (NBT). Current focus is on large filled aperture, with the ultimate goal being a 50-m to 100-mdiffraction-limited telescope. Working closely with Gemini project staff, NOAO will establish a National Initiatives Office (NIO), which will initially rely primarily on community-based resources, to define the scientific case and technical challenges for this project. Specifically, we are in the process of establishing an advisory board to plan and oversee activities leading to the next generation of very large telescopes. This advisory board would then put in place activities that would lead to the following deliverables after 12 months.
Appendix A-1 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: Milestones FY 2000 Milestones: FY 2000
•A recommendation for the general characteristics of the next major OIR facility. •A requirements document for that facility. •A spreadsheet or analogous assessment tool that can be used to analyze the relative performance capabilities of alternate configurations. • The proceedings of a workshop defining science programs/opportunities. • An assessment of competing conceptual approaches for the next facility (e.g., a scaled up version of the HET; a Keck-like instrument; small segments versus large mirrors; etc.). •A document assessing the critical risk technologies. •A proposal for the next phase of the project. • Construction of three DIMMs (Differential Image Motion Monitors) as the first phase of a program for evaluating potential sites.
Other Construction Projects NOAO is currently engaged in two major construction projects—SOLIS and SOAR. SOLIS, a facility for long-term investigations of solar activity, is being built by NOAO. The project team for SOAR, a 4-m telescope being built on Cerro Pachon by a consortium of NOAO, Brazil, the University of North Carolina, and Michigan State University, is hosted by NOAO, Tucson. Milestones for these projects are:
SOLIS • Complete mount mechanical and electronics procurement and fabrication. • Complete VSM optics procurement and fabrication. •Begin VSM mechanical and electronics procurement and fabrication. •Complete acceptance of PixelVision cameras. • Begin cross-calibration of ISS instrument. •Complete FDP mechanical and electrical designs. • Complete FDP optics procurement and fabrication. • Begin FDP mechanical and electrical procurement and fabrication. •Complete MCS software development. • Complete ICS software development. • Complete OCS software Phase 1 development. • Complete DHS software Phase 1 development.
SOAR
• Award dome contract.
• Install foundation of enclosure. • Conduct critical design review of active optical system. • Transfer finished blank to ROSI to begin optical fabrication.
Appendix A-2 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: Milestones FY2000 Milestones: FY 2000
Potential Partnership: UK Survey Telescope NOAO has been approached about partnering in VISTA, a 4-mtelescope being builtbythe UK to conduct wide-field optical and infrared imaging surveys from a southern hemisphere site. This telescope is well suited to identifying samples of very faint objects fordetailed study with the Gemini telescopes. If a satisfactory arrangement can be arrived at, the NOAO user community would haveaccess to at leastsomeof the survey data; thisaccess will be dependent onNOAO's providing genuine added value totheproject. TheUKexpects tocontribute upto $40M for the constmction phase and toprovide support for pipeline processing and archiving of the data. Milestones for the VISTA project are to:
•Identify US contributions to the VISTA project significant enough tojustify US access to either observing timeor data, with the goal of US participation being to ensure the effective use of the US share of Gemini time, especially on Gemini South. •Negotiate an MOU with the UK for the VISTA project
OIR Imaging Surveys and Archives NOAO recently initiated a programto commit up to 20 percentof the observing time on the nighttime telescopes for surveys. The primary goal of thisprogram is to provide publicly accessible databases of objects that are at the limit of whatcan be reached spectroscopically with the Gemini and other large telescopes. Existing surveys fail to reach this flux limitby about a factorof 100. The first awards of timehave been made. NOAO responsibilities to the survey program over the next year include the following:
• Complete data processing pipeline and begin routine archiving of NOAO Mosaic Imager data. •Begin the initial group of approved surveys, includingsupport for community outreach and distribution of survey products.
In addition, NOAO will begin to workwith the community to explore the issues of handling and mining massive databases. This issue is being explored in the context of the National Virtual Observatory (NVO), which is beingevaluated by the DecadeSurvey, and is directly relevant to the scientific programs of facilities such as VISTA and the Dark Matter Telescope, a 3-degree imagingsurvey telescope that has been presented for consideration to the Decade Survey Committee.
Telescope Networks for Solar Observations NOAO continues to operate two networks for observations of the Sun: GONG and the PSPT telescopes. The primary task for the Global Oscillation Network Group is deploying the high resolution (lKxlK) cameras; the project that has been defined as GONG+. The Precision Spectrophotometric Telescopes measure changes in the solar irradiance over the surface of the Sun.
Appendix A-3 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: Milestones FY 2000 Milestones: FY 2000
GONG • Operate and maintain the network and coordinate activities with the host sites. • Reduce network data and deliver it to the community. • Continue software development for the GONG+ data acquisition system and data reduction and processing pipeline. • Deploy the GONG+ instrument systems and start GONG+ operations. •Develop analysis software for local helioseismology applications. • Pursue funding for GONG++ data processing.
RISE/PSPT • Operate and maintain RISE/PSPT network. • Submit a proposal to NSF/ATM for maintenance of the PSPT facilities.
The Nighttime Observing System The nighttime telescopes accessed through NOAO, including the Gemini telescopes, constitute an observing system that makes it possible to attack broad scientific problems with facilities optimized for particular types of observational programs. Consistent with this view, the emphasis in the nighttime program is on achieving high levels of performance with the existing 4-m telescopes and taking advantage of their wide fields in order to provide databases and other measurements needed to optimize observing strategies with the Gemini telescopes. Improvements to these telescopes are designed to maintain their imaging and other operating characteristics at modern standards of excellence. Specific milestones for the nighttime telescopes in FY 2000 include the following.
CTIO Blanco 4-m Telescope • Cover dome with stick-on aluminum foil to enhance thermal performance.
KPNO Mayall 4-m Telescope • Achieve routine operation of primary mirror active support system and mirror cooling.
KPNO 2.1-m Telescope • Begin modification of telescope to support wide-field infrared imaging surveys and to serve as test bed for new IR instruments. Specific milestones for FY 2000 are to complete the definition of the project and to begin design of improvements to the RA drive, thermal environment, and focus. • Re-work guider-rotator to accommodate a wider field and heavier load.
Proposal Process During the next year, NOAO will begin offering access to Gemini North, the HET, and the MMT. A milestone for managing this expanded proposal process is to:
Appendix A-4 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: Milestones FY 2000 Milestones: FY 2000
• Complete integration of Gemini tools into proposal web site and develop software to interface to Gemini observation database.
Instrumentation Projects NOAO continues to develop new instrumentation both for Gemini and for its own telescopes. Some of this instrumentation is built in house. An increasing fraction of it is built by outside groups. Tasks scheduled for completion in FY 2000 include:
CTIO Instrumentation •Install high-quality SITe 2Kx4K CCD in a new folded-Schmidt camera for Hydra on the Blanco • Design and begin construction of the Side Port Infrared Imager (SPII), a true wide- field infrared (IR) imager (1-2.5 pm, 10 arcminutes) for the Blanco • Begin work on the construction of an Integral Field Unit (IFU), for use, e.g., with ) the Hydra spectrograph on the Blanco • Complete Preliminary Design Review for the SOAR Optical Imager. • Implement Leach II controllers and instrument control in a Lab View-Linux environment as part of work on the SOAR Optical Imager.
KPNO Instrumentation •Complete fabrication of the WIYN Tip/Tilt Imager • Commission SQIID, a four-channel IR imager, and offer it to the community on a shared-risk basis. • Commission Flamingos, an instrument being provided by Florida State.
Gemini Instrumentation •Complete detailed design of GNIRS and begin fabrication • Begin fabrication phase of Gemini Mid-IR Imager, which is being built at Florida State •Complete design study for Near-IR Coronagraph/Imager and select group to develop a complete design and build the instrument
Appendix A-5 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: Milestones FY 2000
Status of FY 1999 Milestones
This section describes the progress of current projects relative to the milestones established in the FY 1999Program Plan. (FY 1999 milestones appear in italicsbelow.)
SOLIS Complete design work. Startconstruction. Continue acquisition oflong lead time items. Continue development ofsoftware.
SOLIS is making good progress toward its goal of first light in 2001. Major elements now in the final design phase are the mount,the integrated sunlight spectrometer, and the extinction monitor. Except for tolerancing, the optical design of the Vector Spectromagnetograph (VSM)is finished, and the final mechanical design has begun. The lagging elementis the Full DiskPatrol, for which the conceptdesign has been completed; mechanical layout is in progress.
The software design for the SOLIS system is nearly finished, with only the data handling system lagging. Difficultiesin getting some optical and mechanical components from vendors have caused delays. An outside Design Review of the SOLIS project was held in April 1999.Overall, the committee report endorsed the technical approaches that have been adopted, with only a few suggestionsfor changes. These recommendations are being implemented.
Constmction of the Integrated Sunlight Spectrometer components by outside vendors is well underway, with delivery expected by August 1999.Shop drawings for mount components have been prepared and are out for bid now, prior to starting construction.
The major long-lead items are custom CCD cameras for the Vector Spectromagneto graph. A contract was signed with PixelVision: the design is completed but fabrication work on these cameras is about one month behind schedule due to mask fabrication delays. Deliveryof the breadboardcamera is expected early in FY 2000. We are currently focusing on modulators and beamsplitters as items with long delivery times. The design of the software to control the telescopes and mounts (OCS) and instru ments (ICS) is largely finished. The difficult problem of autonomous scheduling is still in design.
SOAR Let contracts for primary mirror, active optics, and telescope mount. Contracts have been let for fabrication of the primary mirror (Corning), for the active optics system (ROSI), and for the mount (RSI). The enclosure design is well advanced (M3), and utilities will be installed before the end of this fiscal year.
Appendix B -1 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Status ofFY 1999 Milestones Statusof FY 1999 Milestones
Advanced Solar Telescope (AST) Complete Phase A study document. Prepare proposalfor AST technology studies. Construct Solar Dual Image Motion Monitor (S-DIMM)for optical site testing. Explore national and international partnership(s). Present AST to NAS/NRC decade astronomy study. A workshop on high-resolution solar astronomy was held at NSO/SP to further define the science requirements for the AST. Discussions were held at this meeting with groups from the US and abroad who are interested in forming national and international partnerships for development of the AST. An AST development plan was drafted and presented to the solar panel of the Decade Astronomy Review. A solar dual image motion monitor (S-DIMM) was constructed for AST site testing. The low order adaptive optics system was completed and demonstrated.
GONG Operate and maintain the network and coordinate activities with host sites. Develop additional softwarefor analysis ofinstrumentfunctions. Reduce networkdata and deliver to the community. Acquire high-resolutioncameras, high-speed memory, and high-density tape drives. Develop data acquisition softwarefor high-resolution camera. Develop analysis pipelinefor high-resolutiondata. The GONG stations continue to operate reliably, with the scientific duty cycle frequently exceeding 90% and the equipment downtime being less than 2%. Thirty- five months of GONG data (three years of nearly continuous images from the six- site network) have been processed and made available to the community.
Production quantities of high-resolution cameras and high-speed memory have been acquired. The purchase of the high-density tape drives has been postponed due to a mid-year budget reduction. The beta version of the data acquisition software system has been delivered and is being tested, evaluated, and optimized. The DMAC group is currently processing full-resolution images from the GONG+ prototype instrument, addressing the topics of instrument characterization, calibration, geometry, cadence, continuous magnetograms, and data compression.
Solar Adaptive Optics Complete construction of20 ZernikeAO system. Integrate 20 Zernike AO system in Sac Peak VTT. Start 20 Zernike tests The solar adaptive optics program at NSO/Sac Peak is on schedule to achieve all major milestones set for FY 1999. The servo loop was closed at the R. B. Dunn Solar Telescope (DST) with the low order (20 Zernike) adaptive optics system using solar granulation and small pores as the wavefront sensing target. This is the first time adaptive optics has been shown to work with solar granulation as the wavefront sensing target. First science data were taken with the AO system in the spring of 1999. Diffraction-limited long-term exposure images as well as first diffraction-limited magnetograms and velocity maps of solar fine structure were produced.
Appendix B - 2 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Status ofFY 1999 Milestones I Statusof FY 1999 Milestones
RISE Operate RISE/PSPT network. 1999 marks thecompletion of theconstmction phase of theRISE/PSPT project. The PSPT network nowconsists of three identical instruments operating in Rome by Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma; the National SolarObservatory/Sacramento Peak; andtheMauna LoaSolarObservatory, Hawaii, bythe High Altitude Observatory (HAO). Daily high-precision photometric solarimages aregenerated from all three sites and the dataareprocessed anddistributed by thePSPT datacenter at HAO. NSO is responsible for operating the NSO/SP site.
NSO Infrared Array and Controller Identify suitable Aladdin array. Initiate controller project. One 4-quadrant array has been reserved for the solar IR camera. An on-site visit identified a commercial source that has produced a fast Aladdin controller. A request for proposals is being prepared.
CTIO CCD Mosaic Imager II Commission with eight scientific-grade CCDsfor usebyvisiting astronomers at CTIO. Project is on schedule for commissioning in July 1999. The instrument and CCDs have been delivered to CTIO. The ArconCCD controllers are finished. Full system integration and testing will commence in late May. Modifications to the Blanco4-m prime focus cageand pedestal are underway. Aftera second engineering run in August, Mosaic II will be available for visitors.
Hydra at CTIO Commission the multi-fiber positioner andspectrograph, alongwith the new corrector andatmospheric dispersion compensating prisms at the R-Cfocus of the Blanco 4-meter. Hydra/CTIO has been successfully commissioned at the R-C focus of the Blanco 4-m telescope and is being scheduled with visiting astronomers. The instrument meets specifications and the first users have been very satisfied with their data. The atmospheric dispersion corrector has recently been tested; it operates as expected. Hydra currently uses a Loral 3K CCD in an Air Schmidt Camera as detector; this combination does not permit full use of all the fibers and has larger than desirable vignetting. A superb quality SITe 2Kx4K has been delivered as part of the Mosaic procurement; this low-noise and high-QE CCD will be installed in a new folded-Schmidt camera in early FY2000.
GNIRS (Gemini Near Infrared Spectrometer) Advance to assembly phase. Assessment determined that system re-packaging was required. Restart review of the re-worked design occurred in July 1999, and the new approach received strong encouragement.
Appendix B - 3 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Status ofFY 1999 Milestones Statusof FY 1999 Milestones
SQIID (Simultaneous Quad Infrared Imager Device)
Commission and deploy with at least 3 ALADDIN arrays and a customized NOAO/Gemini Controller. Low priority and limited resources have delayed this project. Commissioning time has been re-scheduled at KPNO in semester 1999B.
Phoenix Resolve problems with grating. Commission Phoenix at KPNO. Deploy at CTIO. Optical mounting problems were resolved, yielding spatial image quality at design goal and improved spectral resolution. Phoenix will remain at KPNO through Semester 2000A, after which time it will be reworked for use at Gemini South and SOAR.
WIYN Tip/Tilt Imager Pass design reviews and begin fabrication. Preliminary Design Review was passed in March 1999, and project is proceeding to detailed design and fabrication with the endorsement of the WIYN SAC and Board.
HET & MMT Complete MOU with MMT. Receive observing proposalsfor both telescopes. MOUs describing the mechanisms for community access have been signed with both the MMT and the HET. Delays in telescope commissioning have delayed the start of operations for both telescopes. We expect to solicit the first round of proposals from the community in early calendar year 2000.
Gemini Work Packages Integrate Gemini CCDs and controller into Gemini GMOS camera. Complete design phase ofGemini Mid-IR Imager. The GMOS work has slipped because of delays in delivery of CCDs from EEV and because of the resignation of the programmer doing this work. A new schedule that allows a phased delivery of subsystems has been agreed upon with Gemini and the GMOS groups in Canada and the United Kingdom. Work on the Mid-IR Imager is on schedule: a Critical Design Review is scheduled for July.
Proposal Process Modify telescope time requestform to support Gemini, HET, and MMT. Extend proposal process to include HET, MMT, and Gemini North. This work is mostly completed and will be ready to support the first call for proposals for the MMT, the HET, and Gemini North, all in approximately January, 2000.
Appendix B - 4 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Status ofFY 1999 Milestones I Statusof FY 1999 Milestones
Archiving Initiatework to establish archivefor NOAO Mosaic Imagerdata. Various parts of this work have been started, includingthe negotiationof an agreement with STScI to support the storage and distributionof archive data, the development of a data reduction pipeline, and the modification of the Save-the-Bits program to support the capture of all NOAO Mosaic Imager data for the archive.
CTIO Blanco 4-m Telescope Modify prime focus pedestal to accommodate the CCD Mosaic Imager. Upgradef/14 guide cameras. Install newservosystem. Cover dome with aluminum foil to improve thermal performance. Modification of prime focus pedestal is on schedule. The first f/14 guide camera will be completed at the end of FY 1999 or very early FY 2000. A CCD for the second camera will be ordered after performance of the first system is demonstrated. Installation of the new servo system has been completed.
Test patches of aluminum foil were applied to separate surfaces of the dome of the telescope during May and June 1999(Chilean winter months). If the patches survive the winter, the dome will be covered with aluminum foil next (austral) summer 2000.
Proposed KPNO 2.4-m Telescope Design primary mirrorcell and supports. Design secondary mirrorcell and possible tip/tiltcapability. Design tertiary mirrorcell and rotator. Design observatory control software and user interface. Developfacility requirements. NSF chose not to fund this proposal. NOAO will not undertake any additional work on this project.
KPNO Mayall 4-m Telescope Characterizeprimary support system and develop look-up tablesfor mirrorsupport correctionsasfunction oftelescope position. Design and install f/8 wavefront camera. Develop thermal control model and evaluatefeasibility ofsurface heating. The primary mirror active support system has been commissioned, debugged, and characterized. Look-up tables for each focal station will be developed during semester 1999B. Development and installation of the wavefront camera is scheduled for completion during summer shutdown.
Thermal control models were evaluated. Substantial improvement at low cost was predicted for enhanced forced air cooling. Ducting and hardware will be installed during summer shutdown. If tighter tolerances prove necessary, substrate cooling and front surface heating are possible, but require major rework.
Appendix B - 5 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Status ofFY 1999 Milestones
Table I FUNDING BY SOURCE (Amounts in $1,000) ••-I Scientific Staff Operations and FY-2000 FY-1999 FY-1998 and Support Instrumentation Maintenance Budget Budget(a) Expenses ASTRONOMY DIVISION FUNDING
National Solar Observatory Sunspot 616 298 1,478 2,392 2,655 2,485 USAF - Phillips Laboratory (535) (535) (535) (535) 1,784 1,597 \ Tucson 711 437 636 1,994 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (32) (32) (32) (32) Global Oscillations Network Group 1,801 1,801 1,852 2,272 u
SOLIS 1,400 1,400 3,482 847 •^ u Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory 1,869 654 4,824 7,347 7,274 7,236 S
Kitt Peak National Observatory 4,036 4,036 4,540 4,055 • 1 U.S. Gemini Program 435 435 660 454 2 Data Management U Central Computer Services 79 659 738 733 700 Image Reduction and Analysis Facility 35 35 144 277 m Photographic Laboratory and Libraries 254 254 241 248 CTIO/KPNO/Gemini Instrumentation 2,796 2,796 2,043 2,153 KPNO/USPG/lnstrumentation Science Staff 2,500 2,500 4,173 3,476
SOAR 1,600 250
Central Offices Director's Office 525 525 485 473 Indirect Cost and Miscellaneous Credits 1256) (256) (989) (1,419) REU and Gemini Fellowships 80 80 283 189 Public Information and Education 310 310 303 286 Central Administrative Services 1,492 1,492 1,482 1,661 Central Facilites Operations 1,319 1,319 1,244 1,244 Central Engineering and Technical Services 698 698 609 517 Management Fee 571 571 560 547 Total Astronomy Division Funding 5,855 5,585 18,250 29,690 34,801 28,981
OTHER NSF FUNDING Chemistry Division: FTS Project 245 50 ATM Division: Space Weather Project 72 31 ESIE Division: Teacher Enhancement Program 225 81 ATM Division: RISE 32 62 GOALI: KOSI 64 58 ATM Division: SOLIS 150 150 INT Programs: Stellar Astrophysics 14 INT Programs: USA/China Research Project 10
NON-NSF FUNDING 599 8,897 3,514 Total Budget 30,439 44,510 32,777 (a) FY-1999 Program Plan Revision I.Astronomy Division funds consist of $29,147,786 new funds and $5,652,846 carried over from FY-1998. Table la
STAFFING SCHEDULE (In Full Time Equivalents)
FY-2000 FY-1999 FY-1998 Budget Budget(a) Expenses
Astronomy Division Funded 394.Sl 398.42 411.86 Other NSF Division Funded 3.00 2.50 Non-NSF Funded 39.48 35.35
Total Staffing 394.31 440.90 449.71 Table II
SUMMARY OF ASTRONOMY DIVISION FUNDING BY COST CATEGORY (Amounts in $1,000)
CTIO/KPNO/ KPNO/ USGP/ NSO Data Gemini Instrumentation Central FY-2000 FY-1999 FY-1998 Sunspot Tucson GONG SOLIS CTIO KPNO USGP Management Instrumentation Scientific Stafrf SOAR Offices Budget Budget(a) Expenses
Payroll and Benefits 1,911 1,605 1,150 512 5,316 3,447 266 737 2,313 2,300 2,763 22,320 22,762 19,585 Supplies and Service 239 26 412 68 1,271 185 62 243 461 78 810 3,855 6,274 6,441 Utilities and Communications 196 43 367 232 435 1,273 1,298 1,193 Domestic Travel 24 39 28 10 43 42 66 15 13 52 55 387 448 441
Foreign Travel 3 14 80 131 8 36 3 44 15 334 312 368
Equipment 19 100 88 810 219 122 5 29 9 26 90 1,517 3,714 973 Management Fee 571 571 560 547 USAF and NASA Support (535) (32) (557) (567) (567)
Astronomy Division Funding 1,857 1,752 1,801 1,400 7,347 4,036 435 1,027 2,796 2,500 4,739 29,690 34,801 28,981
STAFFING SCHEDULE (In Full Time Equivalents)
Scientists 6.00 7.05 2.00 15.50 2.00 1.00 1.00 23.95 1.32 59.82 61.77 61.67 Engineers/Scientific Programmers 5.00 6.25 8.30 6.00 20.75 14.30 1.00 6.89 13.30 2.50 84.29 84.30 83.05
Administrators and Supervisors 3.00 2.00 1.00 9.00 5.10 1.00 12.90 34.00 34.90 38.15
Clerical Staff 3.75 2.00 0.50 18.50 2.00 1.00 0.25 1.00 1.00 26.75 56.75 56.75 57.19 Technicial Staff 9.00 4.25 5.00 1.00 25.00 18.75 2.75 17.50 9.20 92.45 93.70 101.45 Maintenance and Service Staff 9.00 31.00 22.00 5.00 67.00 67.00 70.35
35.75 19.55 18.30 7.50 119.75 64.15 3.00 11.89 31.80 24.95 0.00 57.67 394.31 398.42 411.86 Table III SCIENTIFIC STAFF AND SUPPORT (Amounts in $1,000)
CTIO/KPNO/ KPNO/ Gemini/ NSO Data Gemini Instrumentation Central FY-2000 FY-1999 FY-1998 Sunspot Tucson GONG SOLIS CTIO KPNO USGP Management Instrumentation Scientific Staff SOAR Offices Budget Budget(a) Expenses
Payroll and Benefits 586 669 1,559 79 2,299 5,192 5,100 4,525 Supplies and Service 14 17 90 78 80 279 526 276 Utilities and Communications 1 1 1 1
Domestic Travel 13 15 6 52 86 104 92 Foreign Travel 3 10 56 44 113 88 104 Equipment 158 26 184 19 75
Astronomy Division Funding 616 711 1,869 79 2,500 80 5,855 5,838 5,073
STAFFING SCHEDULE (In Full Time Equivalents)
Scientists 6.00 6.00 14.50 1.00 23.95 51.45 53.25 53.20 Engineers/Scientific Programmers 0.00 Administrators and Supervisors 0.00 Clerical Staff 0.50 0.50 1.00 2.00 2.00 1.69 Technicial Staff 0.00 1.00 Maintenance and Service Staff 0.00
6.50 6.00 0.00 0.00 15.00 0.00 0.00 1.00 0.00 24.95 0.00 0.00 53.45 55.25 55.89 Table IV
INSTRUMENTATION (Amounts in $1,000)
CTIO/KPNO/ KPNO/ Gemini/ NSO Data Gemini Instrumentation Central FY-2000 FY-1999 FY-1998 Sunspot Tucson GONG SOLIS CTIO KPNO USGP Management Instrumentation Scientific Staff SOAR Offices Budget Budget(a) Expenses
Payroll and Benefits 220 341 512 469 2,313 3,855 4,651 2,871 Supplies and Service 78 7 68 185 461 799 3,040 3,478 Utilities and Communications Domestic Travel 10 13 23 34 47 Foreign Travel 11 34 Equipment 89 810 9 908 3,174 338
Astronomy Division Funding 298 437 1,400 654 2,796 5,585 10,910 6,768
STAFFING SCHEDULE (In Full Time Equivalents)
Scientists 0.00 Engineers/Scientific Programmers 1.00 2.50 6.00 5.75 13.30 28.55 29.55 28.75 Administrators and Supervisors 0.00 1.00 Clerical Staff 0.50 1.00 1.50 1.50 1.50 Technicial Staff 3.00 3.25 1.00 6.00 17.50 30.75 30.75 33.75 Maintenance and Service Staff 0.00
4.00 5.75 0.00 7.50 11.75 0.00 0.00 0.00 31.80 0.00 0.00 0.00 60.80 61.80 65.00 Table V OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE
(Amounts in $1,000)
CTIO/KPNO/ KPNO/ Gemini/ NSO Data Gemini Instrumentation Central FY-2000 FY-1999 FY-1998 Sunspot Tucson GONG SOLIS CTIO KPNO USGP Management Instrumentation ScientificStaff SOAR Offices Budget _Budget(a) Expenses
Payroll and Benefits 1,105 594 1,151 3,287 3,448 265 658 2,763 13,271 13,015 12,192 2,706 2,686 Supplies and Service 147 3 411 997 185 62 243 730 2,778 1,193 Utilities and Communications 196 43 367 232 435 1,273 1,298 55 277 310 301 Domestic Travel 11 23 28 37 42 66 15 Foreign Travel 4 80 75 8 37 3 15 222 211 228 560 Equipment 19 12 88 61 121 5 29 90 425 520 Management Fee 571 571 560 547 (567) USAF and NASA Support (535) (32) 67) (567)
Astronomy Division Funding 943 604 1,801 4,824 4,036 435 948 4,659 18,250 18,053 17,140
STAFFING SCHEDULE (In Full Time Equivalents)
1.32 8.37 8.52 8.47 Scientists 1.05 2.00 1.00 2.00 1.00 54.30 Engineers/Scientific Programmers 4.00 3.75 8.30 15.00 14.30 1.00 6.89 2.50 55.74 54.75 Administrators and Supervisors 3.00 2.00 1.00 9.00 5.10 1.00 12.90 34.00 34.90 37.15 26.75 53.25 53.25 54.00 Clerical Staff 3.25 2.00 18.00 2.00 1.00 0.25 66.70 Technicial Staff 6.00 1.00 5.00 19.00 18.75 2.75 9.20 61.70 62.95 Maintenance and Service Staff 9.00 31.00 22.00 5.00 67.00 67.00 70.35
25.25 7.80 18.30 0.00 93.00 64.15 300 10.89 0.00 0.00 0.00 57.67 280.06 281.37 290.97 Table VI
OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE BY COST CATEGORY (Amounts in $1,000)
CTIO/KPNO/ KPNO/ Gemini/ NSO Data Gemini Instrumentation/ Central FY 2000 FY 1999 FY 1998 Sunspot Tucson GONG SOLIS CTIO KPNO USGP Management Instrumentation Scientific Staff SOAR Offices Budget Budget(a) Expenses
Engineering and Technical Services 289 158 1,121 1,120 698 3,386 3,439 3,252 Telescope Operations 479 259 1,801 957 1,554 5,050 5,336 5,201 Mountain Operations 506 796 1,299 2,601 2,396 2,755 Central Facilities - Tucson/La Serena 892 1,319 2,211 2,131 2,163 U.S. Gemini Program 217 217 445 222 Data Management 948 948 1,066 1,066 Administration (b) 204 219 1,058 63 218 1,761 3,523 2,944 2,215 Public Information and Education 310 310 303 286 Management Fee 571 571 560 547 USAF and NASA Support /~,"iVi (32) (557) (567) (567)
Astronomy Division Funding 943 604 1,801 4,824 4,036 435 948 4,659 18,250 18,053 17,140
STAFFING SCHEDULE (In Full Time Equivalents)
Engineering and Technical Services 4.00 1.80 16.00 14.25 8.50 44.55 44.55 43.50 Telescope Operations 7.00 4.00 18.30 20.00 21.90 71.20 72.51 74.05 Mountain Operations 8.50 23.00 25.00 56.50 56.50 59.10 Central Facilities - Tucson/La Serena 19.00 10.00 29.00 29.00 33.50 U.S. Gemini Program 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 Data Management 10.89 10.89 10.89 10.30 Administration (a) 5.00 2.00 15.00 3.00 2.00 29.85 56.85 56.85 59.39 Public Information and Education 0.75 9.32 10.07 10.07 10.13
25.25 7.80 18.30 0.00 93.00 64.15 3.00 10.89 0.00 0.00 0.00 57.67 280.06 281.37 290.97
(b) Includes all Director's Offices (NOAO, KPNO, CTIO, NSO, USGP), funds held by Directors not yet distributed to specific programs, recruitment, insurance, administrative services, freight to Chile, committee and observer travel support, and indirect cost and miscellaneous credits. Table VII
NON-NSF FUNDED PROGRAMS (Amounts in $1,000)
SQ CTIO/KPNO/ KPNO/ Gemini/ Data Gemini Instrumentation Central FY 2000 FY 1999 FY 1998 Sunspot Tucson GONG SOLIS CTIO KPNO USGP Management Instrumentation Scientific Staff SOAR Offices Budget Budget(a) Expenses
Payroll and Benefits 3,144 1,604 Supplies and Service 535 64 599 5,503 1,726 Utilities and Communications 6 16 Domestic Travel 152 67 Foreign Travel 31 30 Equipment 61 71 Total Non-NSF Funding 535 64 599 8,897 3,514
STAFFING SCHEDULE (In Full Time Equivalents)
Scientists 0.00 23.38 21.25 Engineers/Scientific Programmers 0.00 5.00 5.00 Administrators and Supervisors 0.00 1.00 0.50 Clerical Staff 0.00 Technicial Staff 0.00 10.10 8.60 Maintenance and Service Staff 0.00
0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 39.48 35.35 Scientific Staff Research andService
CTIO Scientific Staff: Research Interests and Service Roles
Jack Baldwin, Astronomer
Areas of Interest QSOs and Active Galactic Nuclei, and the Study of Emission Line Regions in General.
Recent Research Results Baldwin has been recently working with K. Korista (Western Michigan U.) and Gary Ferland (U. of Kentucky) exploring the ramifications of the Locally Optimally-Emitting Cloud model of QSO broad- lined regions. This includes a comparison of the model's predictions to the results of reverberation meas urements. Also, Baldwin is currently working on a study of faint emission lines from the Orion Nebula, in collaboration with K. Verner, D. Verner, and G. Ferland (U. of Kentucky). This uses deep exposures made with the echelle spectrograph on the Blanco Telescope to try to understand the puzzling discrepancy between the heavy element abundances measured from recombination lines and from collisionally excited lines.
Future Research Plans Over the next 1-2 years, Baldwin hopes to finish up the two projects mentioned above, plus extend the study of faint emission lines from nearby nebulae to include additional objects (in collaboration with R. Williams, STScI). Baldwin and collaborators Ferland, Korista, and F. Hamann (U. of Florida) also have HST observing time in the upcoming cycle to study metal abundances in a distant QSO.
Service Baldwin's main service role is to work on the SOAR 4-m telescope project. He serves on SOAR's Scientific Advisory Committee and Instrumentation Committee.
Robert Blum, Assistant Astronomer
Area of Interest The Stellar Content of Galactic Giant HII Regions.
Recent Research Results Blum's work is being carried out primarily in collaboration with Peter Conti (U. of Colorado) and Augusto Damineli (U. of Sao Paulo-IGP). The optically obscured clusters require near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy to elucidate their nature. Massive star clusters have been found at the heart of Giant HII regions previously studied only at radio wavelengths. An emerging spectral classification scheme at 2 microns has allowed Blum and collaborators to identify individual hot stars in these clusters. A better understanding of the mass function in such clusters, the effect and feedback of the stars into the local ISM, and the observational basis for a theory of massive star formation are the main goals of this work. Recent results appear in the February and March 1999 issues of the Astrophysical Journal and the Astronomical Journal.
Service Blum's service to the Observatory consists primarily of visitor support with respect to the infrared spectrometers and imagers. Blum has initiated a collaborative effort with Ohio State University to upgrade one of their instruments with a new large format infrared array (1024 x 1024 HAWAII). The instrument, OSIRIS, brings near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy in the same cryogenic dewar to CTIO's 1.5-m and 4-m telescopes. In particular, multiple imaging scales make OSIRIS an excellent match
Appendix D -1 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff Scientific StaffResearch andService
to the 4-m f/14 tip-tilt system. This project is now in the commissioning phase. The combination of OSIRIS and tip tilt have already produced some of CTIO's best infrared images ever, with stellar images as compact as 0.3 arcseonds (FWHM). Blum has also begun preliminary work in conjunction with Suntzeff and Walker (CTIO) to outline a plan for site testing of locations in northern Chile for future large telescope projects.
Patrice Bouchet, Associate Support Scientist
Areas of Interest Infrared Instrumentation, Adaptive Optics, Dust in Supernovae, SN1987A, Vega-like Disks Around Nearby Main-Sequence Stars.
Recent Research Results Last Observations of Snl987A at 10 microns (in preparation).
"A very cold disk of dust around the GOV star HD207129" (M. Jourdain de Muizon et al.); accepted for publication in A&A, February 1999.
"Incidence and survival of remnant disks around main-sequence stars" (H. Habing et al.); accepted for publication in A&A, March 1999.
Future Research Plans Build and characterize a turbulator in order to improve the tip-tilt system at the Blanco Telescope at CTIO.
Continue the monitoring in the infrared of supernova SN1987A.
Modelization of the dust observed in SN1987A.
Data reduction of the high spatial resolution near-infrared images obtained at the Blanco, through a wavelet deconvolution method with a multiscale maximum entropy algorithm.
Use the University of Florida OSCIR instrument to look for more dust disks around nearby main- sequence stars. Compute models for the observed dust.
Service Contact person for the 2Mass project at CTIO.
Contact person/assistance to visitors for OSCIR.
Member of the CTIO infrared team, which implies set-up of the instruments and assistance to observers.
Responsible for the improvement of the tip-tilt system at the Blanco Telescope.
Appendix D- 2 NOAO ProvisionalProgram Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff Scientific Staff Research and Service
Brooke Gregory, Support Scientist
Area of Interest As a Support Scientist at CTIO, Gregory is an instrument physicist working primarily in the area of development of IR instrumentation and telescope optics.
Recent Research Results Gregory has recently returned from a sabbatical leave at Adaptive Optics Associates in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There he worked on various aspects of wavefronts sensors and other areas of applied optics.
Future Research Plans During this year, Gregory is involved in the design process for the Gemini IR spectrometer being built at NOAO, Tucson. Gregory will also be overseeing the continuing effort to improve the optical performance of the Blanco 4-m Telescope.
On a somewhat longer time scale, Gregory will be helping to plan for the installation of adaptive optics on the SOAR 4.2-m telescope. He will also be designing an upgrade of the CTIO IR spectrometer to be used on the SOAR telescope.
Service Gregory is a manager of the Engineering and Technical Resources Group at CTIO (on leave during his work with the Gemini IR spectrometer project). He also serves as liaison to Gemini in development of a plan for sharing technical resources between Gemini and CTIO supports users of IR instrumentation generally.
Steve Heathcote, Associate Astronomer
Areas of Interest Star Formation, Herbig-Haro Objects, Supernovae, and Novae.
Recent Research Results Heathcote's recent research efforts have concentrated on the study of Herbig-Haro jets using high spatial resolution images and spectra obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. It is now known that stars in the process of formation blow extremely powerful, often highly collimated, winds. The collision of these highly supersonic outflows with gas surrounding the nascent star excites luminous shock waves, which we observe as a Herbig-Haro jet. These jets provide key information about the mechanisms at play in forming a star. In particular, it is possible to measure how much mass the star is losing now and how the rate of mass loss has varied over the last few thousand years. Such jets are also valuable astrophysical laboratories for the study of shock physics and chemistry.
In a recently completed paper, Heathcote and collaborators, B. Reipurth (U. of Colorado) and A. Raga (UNAM), combined HST images with groundbased high-resolution spectroscopy and proper motion measurements to study the structure and kinematics of the HH 80/81 complex (AJ, 116, 1940). Whereas most HH flows are driven by low luminosity stars with masses similar to that of the Sun, the source of the HH 80/81 outflow is a much more luminous, BO type star. As might be expected, this much more power ful source drives a more energetic outflow and contains stronger shocks than in any other Herbig-Haro flow. Because of their large shock velocities and the only moderate density of the pre-shock gas, these shocks are partially adiabatic so that a much larger fraction of the outflow's energy and momentum is
Appendix D - 3 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff Scientific Staff Research and Service
available for dispersing ambient material than is the case for slower outflows containing fully radiative shocks.
In another paper (ApJ, 512, 901) Heathcote with collaborators P. Hartigan (Rice U.), J. Morse, J. Tumlinson (both U. of Colorado) and J. Raymond (CfA) present spectra of the HH47A, the working surface at the tip of an HH jet obtained with the Faint Object Spectrograph aboard HST covering the entire range from 2200-68lOA. These spectra have higher S/N in the UV than any HH object spectra previously obtained and reveal a host of previouslyunobserved lines, in particular due to Fell. These data were compared to theoretical shock models in order to probe physical conditions within the shocks that comprise HH47A.
Future Research Plans During calendar year 1999, Heathcote is on sabbatical at the University of Colorado working with B. Reipurth, J. Morse, and J. Bally. This time will be used to analyze images of four HH jets observed with HST at two different epochs separated by three to five years. The velocities of such jets are so high that motion is detectable over such periods. Thus, these second epoch images will supply crucial information on how the various shock waves move and how their structure and brightness evolve with time. Heathcote will also be analyzing IR images of two HH jets obtained using the NICMOS imager on HST in collabo ration with B. Reipurth (U. of Colorado), M. McCaughrean (MPIfR), and H. Zinnecker (Potsdam). While the optical emission from an HH jet traces the strongest shocks, molecular hydrogen emission in the IR probes the weaker shocks at the periphery of the jet. At IR wavelengths it is also possible to study the sections of the jet closer to the driving source, which is hidden from view in the optical by overlying extinction.
Service Heathcote is responsible for scientific oversight of CTIO's computer system and network and of the CTIO computer programming group. He also supervises the data reduction assistants on Cerro Tololo. During the past four years, Heathcote has been heavily involved in the software side of CTIO's Arcon CCD controllers. He is consequently closely involved with the development of the NOAO CCD mosaic imagers, based on these controllers, the first of which was commissioned during 1997 and the second of which will come into service in mid-1999. Heathcote was also project scientist and manager for a multi- year project to upgrade the drives and control system for the Blanco 4-m Telescope which is now essentially complete. Heathcote is a member of the Advisory Committee on Technical Resources at CTIO.
Donald Hoard, Affiliate Astronomer
Areas of Interest Cataclysmic Variables and Other Interacting Binary Stars, Accretion Disks, Mass Inflows and Outflows, Planetary Nebulae, Pre-Main Sequence Binary Stars, Globular Cluster Systems.
Recent Research Results In collaboration with S. Wachter (CTIO) and J. Kim-Quijano (Towson U., CTIO REU Program), Hoard measured the orbital period of the unusual double-lined cataclysmic variable (CV) Phoenix 1 using time- series photometry obtained from the CTIO 0.9-m and Curtis Schmidt telescopes. Hoard and Wachter had previously confirmed the CV nature (and presence of secondary star features) of this little-studied system with a spectrum obtained from the CTIO 4-m telescope in 1997.
Appendix D - 4 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff Scientific Staff Research and Service
Hoard is continuing his investigation of the SW Sextantis "class" of CVs with an ongoing study of V442 Ophiuchi. Preliminary analysis of existing observations of this system indicate that it is likely to be one of the long-sought low inclination examples of an SW Sex star, bringing the total number of such low inclination candidates to three. (Additionalobservations will be obtained during 1999.)
In collaboration with G. Schmidt (U. of Arizona), P. Szkody (U. of Washington), and others, Hoard has also recently completed work on an extensive, four-year campaign of photometry, spectroscopy, and spectropolarimetry of AR Ursae Majoris, the CV with the strongest-known magnetic field. Hoard's Doppler tomographic analysis of emission lines in the optical spectra of this CV revealed the surprising result that in the strongest-field example known, the magnetic field does not control the accretion flow all the way from the inner Lagrangian point to the white dwarf surface.
Future Research Plans This year, Hoard began working with D. Geisler (Universidad de Concepcion, Chile) on a project to measure the V-H color distributions of globular cluster systems (GCS) of nearby elliptical galaxies from Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 and NICMOS images. These data will be used to determine the metal- licity distribution of the globular clusters. An explanation for the bimodal metallicity distribution often seen in GCS of elliptical galaxies would have important implications for the understanding of galaxy formation.
Hoard is also continuing his research on cataclysmic variables in collaboration with P. Szkody, G. Schmidt, S. Wachter, A. Linnell (U. of Washington), B. Gaensicke (Universitaets-Sternwarte Goettingen, Germany), J. Thorstensen (Dartmouth College), C. Knigge (Columbia U.), and others; on planetary nebulae in collaboration with D. Alves (STScI); and on pre-main sequence binaries in collaboration with S. Wachter and M. Sterzik (ESO). Hoard's upcoming research on CVs will include an ongoing study of the double-lined system Phe 1, an investigation of the possible presence and origin of collimated mass outflows ("jets") in CVs, and analysis of observations of SW Sextantis-type CVs, including time- resolved, groundbased and HST/STIS spectra of DW Ursae Majoris, and time-resolved optical spectra of V442 Oph, WX Arietis, and V1776 Cygni.
In addition, he will undertake searches for optical counterparts of radio pulsars and transient X-ray binary stars (in collaboration with S. Wachter), for low accretion rate "hibernating" CVs (with B. Gaensicke), and for pre-main-sequence binary stars located in star-forming regions (with S. Wachter and M. Sterzik).
Service Hoard is the site director of the National Science Foundation-funded Research Experiences for Under graduates (REU) Program at CTIO. Each year, four astronomy undergraduate students from the US are selected to spend the Chilean summer (January-March) at CTIO. The students work on individual research projects with an adviser from the CTIO scientific staff, as well as participate in their adviser's observing runs. This year, results from all four REU projects were presented at the Chicago AAS meeting.
Hoard is also the CTIO staff contact for photoelectric photometry.
Tom Ingerson, Support Scientist
Areas of Interest Astronomical Instrumentation, Optics, Spectroscopy, Fiber Optics, Electronics, Computer Networking.
Appendix D - 5 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff Scientific Staff Research and Service
Recent Research Results Ingerson is a Support Scientist whose work consists of developing and improving the instruments at CTIO. He is the project manager of the CTIO portion of the "CTIO Hydra" project. This is a joint venture between IPG Tucson and CTIO, which consists of building an improved version of the WIYN Hydra and installing it along with ancillary support facilities at CTIO. During the past year, he also designed an IFU for use with the Hydra Bench Spectrograph.
Future Research Plans During FY 2000, Ingerson plans to conclude the commissioning of CTIO-Hydra and will build and install the IFU unit, which it is hoped will be able to replace most of the functions of the R-C and Echelle spec trographs. During the next year, he will oversee the installation of a 155Mb/s OC-3 link between La Serena, Cerro Tololo, and Cerro Pachon, which is to be funded by a proposal submitted jointly with Gemini that is now under consideration by NSF.
Service Ingerson is Head of the Computer Applications Group. During the past year, he was also Acting Head of CTIO ETS. He is the scientist in charge of the Hydra and Bench-Mounted Echelle Instruments, maintains the CTIO WWW site, and works as a consultant on optical instrumentation for the SOAR project.
Rene Mendez, Astronomer
Areas of Interest Galactic Structure, Kinematics, and Dynamics. Stellar Populations in our Galaxy, The Galactic Bulge, Astrometry.
Mendez' research interests focus on stellar populations studies of our galaxy, galactic structure, and kinematics. To this end, he has developed a galactic structure and kinematic model code that has been used to compare the model predictions to several photometric and kinematic surveys, deriving useful constraints on the luminosity function of the different stellar constituents of our Galaxy.
Recent Research Results Mendez, in collaboration with the ESO-Imaging survey (EIS), has used his starcounts and kinematic model to test various aspects of the survey (completeness and magnitude limits, star-galaxy separation reliability at faint magnitudes, etc.), and to test the overall fit of the stellar-population model to the multi color data produced by the survey toward several lines of sight. The results of these investigations have been presented in several papers submitted to A&A, which are available on the preprint Web servers. The model simulations, when contrasted with the observed catalogues, have been used to compile lists of interesting and "rare" (low-spatial density) objects such as blue-HB field stars, field blue-stragglers, disk and halo white dwarfs, faint M-dwarfs, and red-dwarfs. These candidate objects will be primary targets for spectroscopic follow-up with 8-m class telescopes in order to confirm their true nature and to study their properties in more detail.
Mendez has also collaborated with the Yale astrometry group (PI W. F. van Altena) to produce a cata logue ofabsolute proper-motions and BV photometry for about 60,000 stars covering 720 deg2 toward the SGP in the magnitude range 9LB < 20, and including more than thirty thousand randomly selected stars. This is the first catalogue containing data from the Yale-San Juan Southern Proper Motion Program, which is the Southern counterpart of the Lick program. The catalogue, contents, limitations, and properties appeared in the December issue of the AJ.
Appendix D - 6 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff Scientific Staff Research and Service
A full analysis of the randomly selected stars in the catalogue is about to be finished, and preliminary results were presented at the AAS meeting in Austin. The analysis is performed by comparing the observed color counts and absolute proper motion distributions to the predictions from Mendez' star- counts and kinematic model.
We have modeled the star and color counts concurrently with the kinematic data using a self-consistent approach that derives the mean rotational motion of every galactic component from the respective assumed spatial density law. We find that the color counts are very well matched by the model (as found from previous comparisons of the model to other photometric surveys at low, intermediate, and high galactic latitudes), with the exception of an indication of a scale-height for disk Giants smaller than 250 pc, but still larger than the 150 pc minimum value found in the literature, and a possible systematic error of -0.05 mag in the SPM (photographic) photometry for blue (B-V < +0.5) stars in certain magnitude intervals.
The kinematic model predictions have been compared to the observed proper-motion distributions as a function of magnitude and color. We find that while the observed proper-motion dispersion is compatible with the velocity dispersions adopted in the model and adapted from the literature, the component of the proper-motion along Galactic rotation implies a rather low value for the respective component of the solar peculiar motion (V0 ~ +6 km/s) and a rather large rotational velocity for the LSR of about +270 km/s. These values are, however, in agreement with recent findings derived from the motions measured by the Hipparcos astrometric satellite.
Future Research Plans Mendez is currently collaborating with M. T. Ruiz (U. of Chile) in the analysis of her survey for cool white dwarfs. Mendez' contribution is the development of new methods for determining the luminosity function of proper-motion and magnitude-limited samples. Numerical simulations of the stability of these methods are being carried out using Mendez' starcount and kinematic model.
Additionally, Mendez is involved in a three-year program at CTIO to determine parallaxes for stars in the solar neighborhood. The program will target faint, missing members of the nearby star sample—primarily white, red, and brown dwarfs. The results will allow us to improve the luminosities, colors, and tempera tures for these common galactic constituents; broaden the database used to investigate the luminosity function, mass function, kinematics, and multiplicity of stars in the solar neighborhood; estimate the age of the galactic disk via the white dwarf luminosity function; and provide targets for upcoming extrasolar planetary searches. We predict that 65% of stellar systems within 20 pc remain undiscovered in the region between 5 = -30 and 8 = -90 . Parallaxes for these systems can only be determined from Southern Hemisphere observations.
Mendez will also participate in a larger collaboration including an international team set up and led by Todd Henry (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), Deputy Project Scientist for the NStars (Nearby Stars) Project, a new NASA initiative within the Astrobiology Institute at Ames Research Center (http://nstars.arc.nasa. gov). The collaboration will make extensive use of the 0.9-m and 1.5-m telescopes at CTIO for the next three years (see http://www.noao.edu/scope/surveys/). For this survey, "nearby" is defined as being within 20 parsecs, the horizon of NASA's NStars Project, whose objective is to provide high-quality data for targets that will be observed by future space missions.
Service Mendez devotes more than 50% of his time to various activities in support of the Observatory. He serves as liaison astronomer for the operation of the YALO telescope at CTIO (see NOAO Newsletter No. 55,
Appendix D - 7 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff Scientific Staff Research andService
September 1998, page 17), a new facility running in queue-scheduling mode to which NOAO users have access at the 10% level. His involvement has been in the various aspects of the refurbishment, operation, and oversight of the project, as well as serving as contact point for astronomers wishing to use this facility (proposal submission details, system performance, etc.) and monitoring the quality of the delivered images for NOAO users.
Another important area has been his involvement in the efforts to prevent light-pollution around the observatory and, in general, in the whole IY region. This has meant meeting with various local and central government representatives, business people, and the community at large. Efforts have been concentrated in two main areas: 1) working with the Chilean equivalent of the EPA in the US to produce legislation to protect the quality of the night-sky for astronomical observations, and 2) by directly contacting parties that are, or could be, contributors to light pollution, to offer them advice on how to prevent the harmful effects of light pollution by using proper shielding and illumination techniques.
Finally, public outreach has become more and more important, as local access to the Internet has made people interested in topics related to astronomy and space sciences and the mass media have also become more interested in covering astronomy-related topics. Mendez has given advice on both format and content to several national and regional TV programs devoted to astronomy and related topics. For example, regarding the discovery from CTIO of the young protoplanetary disk around the star HR 4796, Mendez was interviewed by the Hispanic Radio Network, which is based in Washington DC and devoted to Spanish-speaking listeners in both the US and Latin-America, with an estimated audience of several million people across South, Central, and North America. Mendez has also delivered the inaugural lecture for the first-ever basic astronomy course offered at the University of La Serena and several public talks sponsored by the two major local universities in La Serena and Coquimbo. Also, public talks have been given at elementary schools in La Serena and Coquimbo, and Mendez plans to carry these lectures out to other public elementary schools up the Elqui Valley.
Knut Olsen, Research Associate
Areas of Interest Stellar Populations, Galaxy Formation and Evolution, Interaction of Stars with the ISM.
Recent Research Results Using images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's WFPC2 instrument, Olsen and collaborators [Hodge (U. of Washington), Mateo (U. of Michigan), Olszewski (U. of Arizona), and Schommer, Suntzeff, and Walker (CTIO)] produced color-magnitude diagrams of the Large Magellanic Cloud's six inner red globular clusters and their surrounding field star populations. Comparison with Milky Way globular cluster fiducials show that these LMC clusters are as old as the oldest clusters of the Milky Way to within 1 Gyr, indicating that despite its smaller mass, the LMC experienced no delay in forming its first stars. From the perspective of galaxy formation, this result is intriguing because the LMC's old globular clusters show kinematics resembling that of the HI disk, not halo kinematics like that of the Milky Way's globular clusters.
Olsen analyzed the field-star color-magnitude diagrams produced from the same WFPC2 images to derive the star formation history of the LMC. From one field, situated in the LMC disk, he confirmed the star formation history derived from many other WFPC2 LMC fields: a low rate of star formation over the age range 4-15 Gyr with a rise of ~3 times that rate over the past 4 Gyr. The remaining fields, which lie in the LMC bar, were found to exhibit an enhanced star formation rate in the age range 4-8 Gyr when compared to the disk. Olsen interpreted this result to mean that the LMC's inner regions experienced a unique star
Appendix D - 8 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff ScientificStaff ResearchandService
L formation event 4-8 Gyr ago, one not accompanied by significant star formation in the outer disk. The result is important for considering what influences have produced the star formation bursts in the LMC.
The above work comprised Olsen's PhD dissertation, titled "The Formation and Evolution of the Large Magellanic Cloud from Selected Clusters and Star Fields," completed in 1998 at the University of Washington, with Paul Hodge as his advisor.
Olsen supervised summer intern Jeremy Buss (U. of Wisconsin) in a project that investigated propagating star formation in the LMC OB association LH 72. LH 72 lies near the geometrical center of Constellation III, a kpc-sized complex of stars and gas that comprise one of the largest known superbubbles. By assigning spectral classes to 13 O and B stars in LH 72, Buss and Olsen confirm previous work showing that the age range in LH 72, on a scale of 100 pc, spans the proposed expansion age of the entire surrounding superbubble, suggesting that star formation may proceed long after an initial triggering event. They also find continued evidence for propagating star formation on the scale of the association, as the center of star formation activity has drifted by -100 pc over the past 10-15 Myr.
Future Research Plans Together with Jon Holtzman (NMSU), Olsen is seeking to improve constraints on the field star formation history of the LMC. With the CTIO 1.5-m, they have obtained VRIC photometry of an LMC field previ ously observed with HST. In combination, these bands provide a sensitive metallicity indicator with which it is possible to break the age-metallicity degeneracy inherent to color-magnitude diagrams. Uncertain metallicities are a primary source of ambiguity in interpreting HST color-magnitude diagrams of the LMC field. In 1999, Olsen and Holtzman will complete the analysis of the 1.5-m data and pursue deep wide-field photometry with the CTIO 4-m telescope.
Olsen and Buss will continue their investigation of LH 72 by adding UBV photometry, narrow-band H- alpha and H-beta images of the surrounding HII region, and analysis of available data of the HI gas. These data provide the necessary ingredients for characterizing the star formation history and initial mass function of the association, for mapping the distribution of dust and measuring the ultraviolet reddening law, and for exploring the interaction of the stars with the interstellar medium.
Service Olsen is responsible for organizing the scientific colloquia at CTIO. Anyone travelling to CTIO is encouraged to give a talk about their research; they are repaid with the gratitude of the scientific staff and a free dinner. Olsen is on the scientific and local organizing committees for the March 2000 CTIO/ESO/LCO Workshop titled "Stars, Gas, and Dust in Galaxies: Exploring the Bridges." He is also a member of the LOC for the proposed March 2001 IAU Symposium "Extragalactic Star Clusters."
Ron Probst, Associate Support Scientist
Areas of Interest IR Instrumentation, Star Forming Regions, Low Mass Stars and Substellar Objects, Low Order Adaptive Optics.
Recent Research Results Together with M. Rubio (Universidad de Chile) and other collaborators, Probst has been investigating infrared molecularhydrogen emissionin the regionof 30 Doradus and its correlation with young stars and cold molecular gas. The 2.12-micron line of H2, when radiatively excited into fluorescence, cleanly out lines the boundary between ionized and molecular gas at much higher spatial resolution than can be
Appendix D - 9 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff Scientific Staff Research and Service
obtained with mm-wave CO maps. Combining H2 images with other HST and groundbased imagery has shown morphological, and probably physical, relationships with a new generation of very young, high- mass stars being formed on the periphery of the starburst centered on R136. This work is most recently reported in ESO Messenger, No. 93, pg. 38, 1998.
Future Research Plans Probst and his collaborators are following up their H2 imaging and other results with infrared spectros copy. They will establish the nature of embedded young objects (suspect OB stars) and the physical conditions in the associated molecular gas. They may be tracing the actual spatial extent of cold molecu lar clouds, or patterns of illumination by nearby B stars via fluorescence. Alternatively, the H2 2.12-um line may be produced by shock excitation. This has a distinctive spectral signature. Shock excitation coupled with filamentary morphologies may be linked to a suggested second-generation star formation mechanism, compression of molecular material by stellar winds.
Service The bulk of Probst's activities are devoted to Observatory service. He has led the commissioning and upgrading of the Blanco 4-m Telescope IR tip-tilt image stabilization system (a project initiated by R. Elston, now at the University of Florida). He initiated and is Project Scientist for a next-generation IR imager for the Blanco, to be a permanently mounted facility instrument providing 1-2.5 micron capability with a 2K x 2K HgCdTe array. He is Project Scientist on a NASA proposal to build a coronagraphic IR imager for Gemini South (T. Boroson, PI) and has participated extensively in telescope and instrument definition for the SOAR project. He is a CTIO representative to NOAO's science advisory panel on instrumentation, IPAC, and a member of CTIO's internal equivalent, ACTR. He serves on NOAO proposal review panels, one of which he chairs, and is responsible for instrument maintenance and observer support for IR facility instruments at CTIO. He has been liaison with SCOPE during the liaison transition from site-based to centralized proposal handling and database management. Probst does all CTIO telescope scheduling and handles related ongoing matters, such as discretionary time requests. He edits the CTIO portion of the NOAO Newsletter.
Robert A. Schommer, Associate Astronomer
Areas of Interest Stellar Populations, Magellanic Clouds, Galaxy Dynamics, Large-Scale Structure, Cosmology.
Recent Research Results Schommer is a member of the high-z supernova team, which has discovered more than 40 Sne la over the past three years. Current results favor a cosmology with Q. matter = 0.2-0.3 and a significant cosmological constant. Schommer is continuing work with Suntzeff and Phillips (LCO) on the Hubble diagram of Sne la, focusing on calibration issues and the removal of reddening effects. Current determination of the Hubble constant remains in the mid-60s.
Future Research Plans Future work on the old populations of Local Group galaxies will include studies of field populations in the outer regions of the LMC and M33, using photometry, abundances and velocities, with both ground- based and HST data. A study of NGC121, an old cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud, is also in progress. Schommer is currently analyzing velocities for a sample of C stars in the LMC, in an attempt to understand the velocity dispersion profiles and thus the thickness of the LMC for self-lensing. Schommer continues his role in the high-z Sne searches, and plans for additional searches out to z = 1 are underway. Schommer is working with C. Smith, Suntzeff, and Phillips on searches for nearby supernovae, in order to
Appendix D -10 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff Scientific Staff Research andService
understand the range of astrophysical parameters of the explosions and to characterize more completely the scatter in the magnitude-light curve width relation. He is a member of the NOAO Deep Wide Survey Team, and plans to be involved with J.A. Tyson in observations of weak lensing.
Service Schommer's service activities currently include support of the BTC imager on the Blanco 4-m and the soon to be ready Mosaic II camera. He also supports the Rutgers Fabry-Perot imaging spectrograph on the 4-m and 1.5-m telescopes. He shares responsibility for small telescope improvements, primarily for the 0.9-m and 1.5-m. He is the staff contact and coordinator for the MACHO project, which uses time on the CTIO 0.9-m. He has served as CTIO member of several Gemini committees and is currently on the US Gemini Science Advisory Committee. He is also a member of the NOAO Survey TAC and the AURA Future Directions Committee, and has participated in extensive discussions concerning long-range planning for NOAO.
Malcolm Smith, Director, CTIO
Areas of Interest Quasars, Active Galactic Nuclei, Faint Red Objects at High Galactic Latitude.
Recent Research Results and Future Research Plans Smith is completing a number of complementary, collaborative surveys aimed at discovery of quasars at z > 5 and characterization of the quasar luminosity function at such redshifts. This research has the primary goal of clarifying the controversial question of the evolution of the luminosity function of quasars at early epochs in the universe; an estimate of the time which elapsed between the Big Bang and the time when quasars switched on should prove relevant to an understanding of the early formation of galaxies. The search for such objects should also give clues as to their nature and early environments, as well as providing a list of individual, distant objects to be used in subsequent work such as absorption-line, emission-line ratio, and gravitational lensing studies.
This is a long-term project involving quite large and distributed teams doing extensive calibration work, surveys, and data reduction. The surveys with the BTC mosaic CCD camera at the prime focus of the Blanco 4-m Telescope are based on selecting such high-redshift quasars by means of their very red V-I colors and blue I-Z colors. As a recent example of some of this work, Smith, Kennefick (Oxford), Hall (Toronto), Osmer (OSU), Green (NOAO), Monier (OSU), and Conti (OSU) have imaged 40 sq. deg. through B,V,I and Z filters with the aim of detecting faint quasars at z > 5 and I < 22 (as well as gravita tional lenses and z > 0.6 clusters of galaxies). Initial spectroscopy (also taken at the Blanco 4-m) verified the necessity of using z-band data to filter out very late M-stars from the initial BVI-based lists. This imaging provides an unprecedented dataset in terms of magnitude and area coverage for the rare objects they are seeking.
In addition to his work with the NOAO Deep Wide Survey team, Smith plans next to participate with Kennefick et al. in spectroscopic follow-up of candidates for quasars at 5 < z < 6 and I < 22. This will allow quasar selection to M(B) < -24.
Service Smith has multiple service duties as director of CTIO, in addition to serving as the Head of AURA's Observatory in Chile (AURA-O), of which CTIO is one of the majorunits. Recently he has been working primarily on the renewal of CTIO in the context of this international observatory centered around support of the 8-m Gemini South telescope and a set of complementary 4-m telescopes (so far consisting of the
Appendix D-11 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff ScientificStaff Research andService
Blanco and SOAR telescopes). In addition, he has initiated and participated in an extensive program to combat light pollution in Chile. (He is also an invited speaker at IAU Symposium No. 196, "Preserving the Astronomical Sky.") Smith has also launched an effort to study new sites in Northern Chile for future extremely large telescopes. Smith has worked closely with NOAO, Tucson encouraging collaboration in the production of large facility instruments for NOAO telescopes. The most recent detailed external review of all these activities at CTIO is given in the 1998 report by the Observatories' Visiting Committee for NOAO.
R. Chris Smith, Assistant Astronomer
Areas of Interest Supemovae, Supernova Remnants, Interstellar Medium, and the Magellanic Clouds.
Recent Research Results The majority of Smith's research time is invested in leading two large projects, the Magellanic Cloud Emission-Line Survey (MCELS) and the Nearby Galaxies Supernova Search. MCELS is a complete survey of both the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds in the optical emission of Hydrogen (a), Sulfur ([S II]), and Oxygen ([O III]). The survey will provide a complete picture of the ionized component of the interstellar medium and its components, such as planetary nebulae, HII regions, supernova remnants (SNRs), and superbubbles, in the Magellanic Clouds. Smith is working with a group that includes J. Bregman (U. of Michigan), Y.-H. Chu (U. of Illinois), R. Ciardullo (Penn State), G. Jacoby (KPNO), R. Kennicutt (U. of Arizona), F. Winkler (Middlebury College), and others to take advantage of the many areas of interstellar medium research touched by the survey. Specific portions of the MCELS dataset have already been analyzed, leading to publications such as (most recently) "Supernova Remnants in the Magellanic Clouds. II. Supernova Remnant Breakouts from NHL and N86" (Williams et al., 1999, ApJ, 514, 798) and "The Multiphase Medium in the Interstellar Complex N44" (Kim et al., 1998, ApJ, 503, 729).
Together with Lou Strolger (U. of Michigan graduate student) and the CTIO SN Group (including N. Suntzeff and B. Schommer), Smith is also leading the CTIO/LCO Nearby Galaxies Supernova Search (NGSS), a search for relatively nearby supernovae (z<0.1) using the KPNO 0.9-m with the NOAO Mosaic, in order to provide a systematic and statistically complete sample of SNe for detailed study at both optical and infra-red wavelengths. Smith is serving as thesis advisor to Strolger, who will be basing his thesis research on the detailed study of the supernovae discovered in this new NOAO SN search. In the first NGSS campaign, which took place in February/March 1999, a total of nine supernovae were discovered (IAU circ. 7125, 7130, 7135), of which four are being followed with detailed optical photometry and one with additional IR photometry.
Future Research Plans As observations for the MCELS project come to a close, Smith will be focusing efforts on both under taking analysis of the extensive dataset and providing public access to the data. Smith is especially interested in identifying SNRs in the Magellanic Clouds and studying the way these remnants interact with, and shape, the interstellar medium. In addition to these studies of Magellanic Cloud SNRs, Smith will continue to pursue investigations of Galactic remnants, such as his work on RCW 86 (AJ, 1997, 114, 2664).
Together with Strolger, Smith will also be pursuing detailed studies of the SNe discovered in the NGSS project. This search has a planned lifetime of two years, over which Strolger and Smith hope to identify more than 100 Sne for statistical studies and follow some 20 in detail.
Appendix D -12 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff Scientific Staff ResearchandService
Service Smith has recently taken up many of the responsibilities of S. Heathcote while Heathcote is on sabbatical. These duties include oversight of the scientific computing resources at CTIO, acting as staff contact for the optical spectrographs (the R-C Spectrograph and Echelle at the Blanco 4-m and the Cassegrain spectrograph at the CTIO 1.5-m), and acting as scientific staff contact for the Arcon CCD controller. Smith is also responsible for support of the Curtis Schmidt telescope, and he continues to provide the oversight for the CTIO REU program (working with the REU Site Director, Don Hoard) as well as CTIO's other student programs.
Nicholas B. Suntzeff, Astronomer
Areas of Interest Stellar Populations, Globular Clusters, Stellar Chemical Abundances, Galactic Structure, Magellanic Clouds, Supernovae, Large-Scale Structure, Cosmology, Astronomical Site Characterization.
Recent Research Results Suntzeff's major research project continues to be the study of the geometry of the Universe as measured by the distances to Type la supernovae. In 1999, the High-Z Supernova Search Team that he co-founded with Brian Schmidt (PI) of the MSSSO announced its results: the Type la supernovae at z ~ 0.5 are fainter by about 0.2 mag than expected for a universe with no deceleration. The results strongly rule out a flat Q. matter universe and are consistent with a flat Universe comprised of Q = 0.25. This would imply a "dark energy" which has its simplest parameterization as the Cosmological Constant of Einstein. These results imply that the Universe is actually approaching the free expansion state modeled by de Sitter, where the vacuum energy of repulsion has overcome the gravitational attraction of all forms of matter. In astronomical units, the results show that q0 < 0 at the 3-sigma level. An independent group—the Supernova Cosmology Project—has also found a similar faintness in their independent Type la sample.
Such a radical conclusion must be tested in other contexts. The High-Z Supernova Search Team is continuing to refine and test their measurements. Only half the sample has been analyzed. Suntzeff is working with Patrick Woudt (ESO) and the High-Z team to finish the Type la sample from the fourth search campaign (January-March 1998) where HST and groundbased data were obtained for six Type la SNe. In addition, Suntzeff is working with Phillips and other members of the High-Z Team on the measurement of the intrinsic properties and the reddening to individual SNe.
Suntzeff is also continuing to study local Type la supemovae. In the past year he has published papers on SN 1990N, 1991T, and 1998bu in collaboration with M. Phillips (LCO), R. Schommer and R.C. Smith (CTIO), P. Lira (Edinburgh), J. Maza (U. of Chile), M. Hamuy (Arizona), and many others. He will also continue to collaborate on the observation of these and other local supernovae through the HST Supernova Intensive Study (SInS) collaboration of R. Kirshner (CfA), and in particular on SN 1987A.
In stellar astronomy, Suntzeff has been collaborating with R. Schommer (CTIO) and E. Hardy (U. of Chile) to measure the velocity distribution of the carbon stars in the LMC disk. The velocity dispersion of this population is not a simple Gaussian, and there is a blue-shifted kinematical plume that may be able to account for the micro-lensing optical depth towards the LMC as revealed by the MACHO studies. Suntzeff and collaborators are working with A. Gould and D. Graff of Ohio State who are modeling the velocity distributions. Suntzeff continues to collaborate with V Smith (UT El Paso) on detailed abundances of red giant stars. They are studying the chemical abundances of stars in the Q, Cen globular
Appendix D -13 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff Scientific StaffResearch and Service
cluster and field RGB stars in the LMC and SMC. Suntzeff also continues to collaborate with the GSFC GRB team to follow GRB candidates in the Southern Hemisphere.
Future Research Plans The future research plans of Suntzeff are to continue to find and study supernovae to prove—or disprove—the conclusions of the acceleration of the Universe. In 1999, he will collaborate with the High- Z supernova team to find Type la supemovae at higher redshifts. The maximum effect of the cosmological constant with Q.x - 0.75 on the luminosity distance is at about z = 0.8. At higherreshifts, the luminosity distance of the supernovae will no longer be affected by a cosmological constant. Thus, by going to higher redshifts, one will be able to see if the luminosity distance follows a single cosmological parameterization, or if other systematic effects (evolution, dust) are corrupting the interpretation. The group has time at CFHT (J. Tonry, UH) and CTIO in Oct/Nov to find SNe at z = 0.85 to 1.2 to test this hypothesis. The supernovae will be followed at CTIO, Keck, CFHT, VLT, UKIRT, and HST.
Suntzeff will continue to collaborate with Phillips, Hamuy, andMaza on supernovae in the nearby Hubble flow. They are studying both Type la and II in the optical and infrared. In particular, the plateau Type II supemovae will be used to get geometrical distances via the "ExpandingPhotosphere Method."
Suntzeff will also continue in stellar astronomy projects. With V. Smith, he will finish the study of abundances of RGB stars in the LMC and SMC. With Rob Cavallo (GSFC) he will observe stars on the RGB in NGC 6752 to look for the effectsof deep mixing on the lower RGB.
Service Suntzeff will continue in a multi-faceted program of service to CTIO. He is the support astronomer for the Hydra fiber spectrograph and the bench-mounted echelle spectrograph. He will continue to work with M. Boccas to improve the image quality on the smaller telescopes. Suntzeff will continue to serve on the NOAO TAC and the CTIO ACTRcommittees. He is in charge of the CTIO Library. He continues to be in charge of the site monitoring at CTIO—the seeing and basic environmental data collection. With Walker and Blum, he has begun a site survey of Northern Chile for possible sites for a US MAXAT/ELT large telescope project.
Stefanie Wachter, Research Associate
Areas of Interest X-Ray Binaries, X-Ray Transients, Compact Objects, Accretion Disks, Star Forming Regions, Pre-MS Binaries, Multiwavelength Observations.
Recent Research Results Wachter's recent research has focused on the study of low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs), i.e., interacting binary systems in which mass is transferred from a late type star to either a neutron star (NS) or a black hole. X-ray binaries provide one of only two ways to determine the masses of NSs and therefore to constrain the equation of state of nuclear matter. In order to explore the dynamics of the emission regions in LMXBs, Wachter conducted simultaneous optical, IR, and X-ray observations of various LMXBs in collaboration with A. Smale (NASA/GSFC). Wachter is particularly interested in studying the outburst mechanism and decay characteristics of transient X-ray binary systems and, together with C. Bailyn (Yale), obtained optical lightcurves of XI659-298 during its recent outburst.
As part of a continuing study to characterize the optical/IR properties of Atoll and Z sources, Wachter determined the orbital period of the first extragalactic Z source, LMC X-2. This work was carried out
Appendix D-14 NOAOProvisional Program PlanFY 2000: Scientific Staff cientific Staff Research and Service
with J. Greene (Yale), one of the 1999 REU students at CTIO. Follow-up spectroscopic studies to deter mine the radial velocity variations in the system are planned for the future. The LMC provides an accurately known distance and extinction, which are difficult parameters to determine for most Galactic LMXBs. LMC X-2 offers the unique opportunity to study the effects of a low metallicity environment on accretion processes in an LMXB in comparison to Galactic sources.
In collaboration with D. Hoard (CTIO) and J. Kim-Quijano (Towson U., 1999 CTIO REU Program), Wachter is also involved in measuring the orbital period of the unusual double-lined cataclysmic variable (CV) Phoenix 1 using time-series photometry obtained from the CTIO 0.9-m and the Curtis Schmidt telescopes. Hoard and Wachter had previously confirmed the CV nature (and presence of secondary star features) of this little-studied system with a spectrum obtained from the CTIO 4-m telescope in 1997.
Future Research Plans In the future, Wachter will continue to explore the nature of LMXBs. Upcoming campaigns include simultaneous X-ray, optical photometry, and spectroscopy observations of the X-ray burster XI636-536 in collaboration with T. Strohmayer (NASA/GSFC) and D. Hoard (CTIO). The discovery of doppler- shifted X-ray burst oscillations in this source has opened up a new way to determine the radial velocity curve—and therefore the mass—of the compact object.
Wachter will also continue her program of monitoring various poorly studied LMXBs in order to determine their orbital periods. Only few LMXBs have accurately known periods and the information on long-period systems is especially sparse. At the same time, the long-period systems are crucial in constraining population synthesis parameters. The new synoptic monitoring capability provided by the YALO telescope allows, for the first time, for an efficient way to explore the long-term variability of LMXBs.
Wachter's upcoming research will also include various coordinated X-ray and optical observations of LMXBs (with A. Smale), an ongoing study of the double-lined cataclysmic variable Phe 1 (with D. Hoard), a search for optical counterparts of double degenerate systems and radio pulsars (with D. Hoard), and IR observations of persistent and transient LMXBs in order to determine the nature of the mass donor in these systems.
In addition, Wachter will undertake a search for pre-MS binary stars in star forming regions and a study of star formation scenarios through a multi-wavelength study of the star formation process in the nearby small isolated molecular cloud NGC1788 in collaboration with D. Hoard and M. Sterzig (ESO).
Service Wachter is involved in various aspects of data quality monitoring of the YALO telescope project.
Alistair Walker, Assistant Director, Astronomer
Areas of Interest Stellar Populations, Magellanic Clouds, Distance Scale, Stellar Photometry.
Current Research Walker is PI of a Cycle 6 HST program, which will study the oldest Small Magellanic Cloud cluster and two distant field regions, one in each Cloud. Most of the observational data is in hand. Extensive complementary photometry with the Blanco 4-m telescope has been reduced; a 0.25 square degree region
Appendix D -15 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff Scientific StaffResearch andService
of the Large Magellanic Cloud shows that there are almost no stars younger than 5 Gyr and that the older stars may come from multiple populations. Analysis of the several datasets is underway.
With G. Kovacs (Hungary), Walker is collaborating on an analysis of the coefficients obtained from a Fourier decomposition of the light curves of cluster RR Lyrae variables and their calibration in terms of luminosity and metallicity. Most of the observations utilized in the study were collected as part of an extensive campaign of study of southern galactic globular clusters, mostly using the CTIO 0.9-m telescope between 1987-1995.
Walker has continued his study of galactic globular clusters by producing a CMD for the cluster NGC 2808, which has a very extended horizontal branch with multiple clumps. His study of the whole cluster confirms the HB morphology discovered in an earlier HST result for a small central region of the cluster and investigates radial gradients and the binary fraction on the main sequence. With E. Brocato, G. Raimondo (Teramo), and V Castellani (Pisa), Walker has completed a study of the CMD of the cluster NGC 6362. This shows a sloping HB which is found to be fully explained by canonical theory, but there are still details of HB morphology which defy present evolutionary theory.
Walker collaborated in the study (R. Williams, STScI, PI) of the HDF-S by providing deep CTIO 4-m R and I band images of a 15 x 15 arcmin field which included all the regions probed in detail by HST. Comparison with early NICMOS images identified an I-band drop-out, probably an old elliptical galaxy at redshift z ~ 2 (T. Treu, STScI, PI).
Walker prepared a chapter entitled "The Distances of the Magellanic Clouds" for the book Post- Hipparcos Cosmic Candles.
Future Research Plans Walker is PI of a Cycle 8 HST program to test stellar evolutionary theory using the very rich young LMC cluster NGC 1866, by analysis of the color-magnitude diagram and luminosity function, which for the first time will include all the luminous evolved cluster stars. The deep and accurate CMD will allow fitting of a fiducial ZAMS and thus derivation of a precise distance, which will calibrate the luminosities of the many Cepheids in the cluster. The distance to the LMC is now one of the major uncertainties in the cosmic distance scale.
In a project led by W. Gieren (U. of Concepcion, Chile) Walker will participate in a study of the Cepheids in the nearby galaxy NGC 300 by obtaining images with the Mosaic II CCD camera. Follow-up with IR photometry will allow a critical evaluation of the properties of the Cepheids in this favorably-sited galaxy.
Together with H. Smith (Michigan State U.) and E. Brocato, F. Caputo, and V. Castellani (Italy), Walker plans a comprehensive survey of the variable star population of the Carina dwarf galaxy, using the Blanco Telescope with Mosaic Imager and the WFI instrument on the ESO 2.2-m telescope. Comparisons will be made with extensive sets of evolutionary and pulsation models applicable to the wide ranges of metallicity and mass expected, which will both test the models exhaustively and probe in detail the properties of the older stars in Carina.
Service Walker is Assistant Director of CTIO. He is also chair of the Advisory Committee on Technical Resources (ACTR), which oversees the Observatory instmmentation program and telescope operations. Walker directs and coordinates CCD operations and upgrades, and supervises the operation of the CCD laboratory. He is the CTIO project scientist for the Mosaic II Imager and the project scientist for the SOAR Optical Imager project.
Appendix D-16 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff CIENTIFIC STAFF RESEARCH AND SERVICE
Walker is a member of the American Astronomical Society, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and the International Astronomical Union.
Appendix D-17 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff ScientificStaffResearch andService
KPNO Scientific Staff: Research Interests and Service Roles
Michael J. S. Belton, Astronomer
Areas of Interest Solar System Astronomy, Space Exploration.
Recent Research Results Belton and his colleagues on the Galileo Imaging Team have shown from Galileo images, together with independent observations of a possible induced magnetic field and measurements of gravitational moments, that the surface of Europa has been shaped by the presence of a subsurface ocean about 10 km below the surface ice of essentially global extent.
Belton and his colleagues have successfully applied their model of the spin state of P/Halley and their map of the five active areas on the nucleus to satisfy recently published photometry of OH and other species by Schleicher et al. This has yielded the absolute areas of each of these active regions.
Future Research Plans Belton plans to extend his P/Halley work to the determination of dust/gas ratios and gas/water ratios for each of the active areas in the search for chemical inhomogeneity in the comet's nucleus.
Belton's work on the Galileo Mission will focus, in the coming year, on the analysis of data from three close encounters with Io. The main thrust will be to understand the sources of the atmosphere of the satellite.
Service In the past year Belton has served on the NOAO solar system telescope allocation committee and partici pated in the Observatory's REU program.
Belton completed his term as chair of the NASA Keck-IRTF Management and Operations Group; served as a member of NASA's Comet Science Working Group; served as a member of NASA's Planetary Astronomy Management and Operations Working Group; was invited to give the annual Masursky Lecture at the 1999 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference; was invited to give a talk on the Galileo Europa Mission to the European Geophysical Society in 1999; and was invited to contribute a major article to the Microsoft Encarta 2000 on Galileo Mission.
Bruce Bohannan, Project Scientist
Areas of Interest Stellar Evolution; Spectroscopic Studies of Hot, Luminous Stars; Astronomical Instrumentation and Data Reduction.
Recent Research Results Bohannan's research centers on observational studies of the evolution of massive stars. The evolution of these stars is insufficiently understood to account accurately for their contribution to the chemical element evolution and kinetic energy of their parent galaxies. The critical factor is that models are not connected to simple spectral morphology during the most critical stages of stellar evolution, the stages when signifi cant mass is lost over very short time scales. Through direct measurement of basic stellar properties (temperature, gravity, mass, mass loss rate, and surface element abundances), he has sought to define
Appendix D-18 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff CIENTIFIC STAFF RESEARCH AND SERVICE
better the evolutionary path of massive stars and to make connections between various stages of massive stars.
Future Research Plans Investigations of stars in the Galactic Center and in other galaxies similar to those outlined above provide critical diagnostics of stellar evolution because they give clues to the effect of different stellar environ ments on stellar evolution. Such studies require infrared observations because of extreme interstellar absorption (e.g., in the Galactic Center) or severe crowding of stellar images (e.g., other galaxies), research which requires a moderate-resolution IR spectrometer combined with an image compensation system to provide high spatial resolution (e.g., tip-tilt and fast focus). IR diagnostics have been developed with Crowther and analyzed through observations obtained at CTIO and Hillier model atmospheres (Bohannan and Crowther 1999). The next stage is to analyze a set of Of and WN stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, to be followed by observations of stars in the Galactic Center thought to be of similar spectral morphology, and then to undertake a similar study of stars in the nearby spiral galaxy, M 33.
Service Bohannan serves as KPNO Project Scientist with responsibility for oversight and coordination of KPNO Improvement Projects and other activities associated with KPNO engineering projects, including Summer Shutdown. He also provides leadership in NOAO scientific outreach activities, specifically in the dissemination of scientific discoveries based on NOAO facilities.
Charles F. Claver, Assistant Scientist
Areas of Interest Stellar Ages, White Dwarf Structure and Evolution, Initial-Final Mass Relation, Optical Instrumentation.
Recent Research Claver's research has focused mainly on two observational projects addressing stellar ages in the Galaxy. Specifically he has been investigating the necessary age concordance between two different techniques— white dwarf cooling times and main sequence turn-off ages. This is part of an effort to pursue a reliable age estimate for the Galactic disk using white dwarf cooling times and the "cut-off found in the white dwarf luminosity function.
A critical test of stellar ages can be made by estimating the age of the same object using these two differ ent techniques. If there are no significant systematics, then both techniques will be in agreement. The preliminary H-R diagram for field stars in the Galaxy indicate there may be a discrepancy in ages when compared with the age of the disk as estimated from white dwarf cooling times. New models for white dwarf cooling and recent work on the oldest open clusters in the galactic disk support the idea that there is an "age crisis." For example, perhaps the oldest open cluster known, Berkeley 17, is estimated to be 9-12 Gyrs old, where the latest white dwarf cooling models indicate a disk age of 6-9 Gyrs.
Claver has been investigating the nature of this discrepancy by searching old galactic clusters for their white dwarf stars. Observations by Claver, Von Hippel (WIYN), and recently Ritcher et al. of clusters up to 4 Gyr show no real difference between their turn-off ages and the oldest white dwarfs. In collaboration with D. E. Winget (Texas), M. Wood (FIT) and M. Bolte (UC Santa Cruz), Claver is analyzing data on four clusters to estimate their ages from white dwarf cooling times. These clusters are NGC-752 (2-3 Gyrs), IC4651 (2 Gyrs), NGC-3860 (2-4 Gyrs), and M67 (4-5 Gyrs). In addition, they have scheduled time with HST to observe the old open cluster NGC-188.
Appendix D -19 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff Scientific Staff Research andService
As part of his dissertation work at the University of Texas, Claver began the Texas Deep Sky Survey (TDSS). This is a digital survey designed to cover ~ 100 square degrees of sky in 7 photometric colors. The aim of the TDSS is to identify some ~ 600 cool white dwarfs and roughly 1 million galaxies. The white dwarfs identified will be used to explore the nature of white dwarf cooling at low temperatures and how this impacts the age of the Galaxy inferred from white dwarf cooling times. Claver's collaborators at the University of Texas are using the galaxies and galaxy clusters to explore large-scale structure in the Universe.
As part of his work on white dwarfs in open clusters, Claver has found supporting evidence of a complex Initial-Final mass relation between white dwarfs and their progenitors. The results are based on studies by Claver in the Praesepe and Haydes open cluster, which have nearly identical ages, hence progenitor masses, and abundances, but have produced very different white dwarf masses. This implies that there is an additional parameter to the Initial-Final mass relation, perhaps analogous to the globular cluster second parameter problem. Further study is needed to confirm this behavior in the I-F mass relation as described below.
Claver has also recently presented first results from Hydra spectroscopy of white dwarf candidates in the TDSS. These results show for the first time that the photometric selection of cool degenerate stars is possible. At least three objects and a possible fourth from the first field are bona fide degenerates.
Future Research Over the next several observing seasons, Claver plans to continue spectroscopic follow-up observations with WIYN Hydra of his cool white dwarf photometric survey. The cool white dwarfs identified will be used to redefine the cool part of the white dwarf luminosity function (WDLF). These data are important not only for estimating the Galaxy's age, but also for placing an observational constraint on the impor tance of phase separation of a carbon-oxygen mixture in crystallization of white dwarf cores. Phase sepa ration, if it happens, releases additional energy into the white dwarf core, further delaying the cooling process beyond the delay caused by the release of latent heat. The exact nature of white dwarf crystalliza tion causes observable features in the WDLF and has a large effect on the inferred white dwarf cooling ages. He will also work toward increasing the area of his survey in order to increase the detection sensitivity of older-cooler white dwarfs belonging to the Galactic Halo.
Also, Claver plans to extend his work on calibrating the stellar chronology in star clusters to ages older than three billion years. Specifically, in collaboration with D. Winget (U. of Texas), M. Bolte (Lick Obs.), and M. Wood (FIT), he plans to search for and identify the oldest white dwarfs in the clusters NGC-188 and Berkeley-17 in the North and IC-4651 and NGC-3680 in the south using both ground- and space- based telescopes. These clusters will extend the calibration to roughly eight billion years, which is sufficient to constrain the source of the present differences in the Universe's expansion age and its oldest stars. In addition, the southern two clusters bracket the age and turn-off masses where Claver suspects a change in the Initial-Final mass relation. Claver plans to obtain high signal-to-noise spectroscopy of the white dwarfs in these clusters in order to obtain model atmosphere fits, which will allow further assessment of the Initial-Final mass relation.
Service Within the Kitt Peak scientific staff Claver holds the title of Imaging Scientist. As part of his service activities he has begun and continues a coherent comprehensive look at the imaging quality produced by Kitt Peak telescopes with the aim of having all Kitt Peak telescopes deliver the excellent seeing the site is capable of. To this end, Claver has taken on the responsibility of overseeing and maintaining optical alignment of Kitt Peak telescopes, as well as debugging problems when they occur.
Appendix D - 20 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff cientific Staff Research andService
As a member of the 4-m imaging improvement group, Claver is investigating the performance of the 4-m primary support system to determine if and where significant improvements can be made in the delivered image quality of this valuable telescope. Claver's efforts, as project scientist, have resulted in a major improvement project to install an active back support system for the 4-m primary mirror.
Claver has also conducted a study of high frequency image motion at WIYN. This study has shown that high-speed tip-tilt compensation will result in 0.1-0.2 arcsecond improvements in delivered FWHM over moderate fields with the WIYN telescope. The WIYN consortium has approved a project to design, build, and commission a tip-tilt compensating imager with Claver as the NOAO project scientist. The WIYN Tip-TiltModule (WTTM) recently passed its preliminary design review and received the "go" to proceed with project as planned. The WTTM expects first light with an optical imager in the Spring of 2001.
Claver has also served as the NOAO representative for the Adaptive Optics Technology Center proposal being submitted by J. Nelson (Lick Observatory).
Ian Dell'Antonio. Research Associate
Areas of Interest Gravitational Lensing, Clusters of Galaxies, Large-Scale Structure, Peculiar Velocities.
Recent Research Results Dell'Antonio completed a survey of "small" intermediate-redshift clusters using weak gravitational lensing (using CTIO 4-m). The main results of the survey are: 1) these clusters have massive haloes extending out to IMpc, but the mass distribution is truncated beyond this point; 2) significant asymmetry in the mass distribution, indicating lack of dynamical relaxation; and 3) detection of many unrelated mass concentrations, probably previously unknown clusters of galaxies.
He has also mapped the mass distribution in the core of a cluster of galaxies using HST imaging of the arcs, to map the fine-scale mass distribution and the properties of cluster galaxies.
Future Research Plans Dell'Antonio is working on a project involving measuring the gravitational lensing effects of large-scale structure (multi-year project just starting) and will continue working on the mass profile of clusters.
He is measuring the infall velocity onto a nearby sheet of galaxies using the Tully-Fisher relation to disentangle the distances and velocities of galaxies. Also, he is working on the NOAO Deep Wide Survey to measure the lensing signal in that data.
Service Dell'Antonio has been working with the Mosaic team to check out the instrument and, as part of that work, he has been responsible for user startups on Mosaic 4-m.
Richard F. Green. Director, KPNO
Areas of Interest Active Galactic Nuclei, Quasar Absorption-Line Systems, Galaxy Nuclear Dynamics.
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Recent Research Results Sarajedini, Green, et al. published two papers in the Astronomical Journal about the incidence of point- source nuclei in faint galaxies observed in the Hubble Space Telescope Medium Deep Survey. They found that over 16% of galaxies have nuclear point sources, that the majority of hosts are late-type spirals, that the population shows mild density evolution out to z = 0.6 down to M = -14, and that the result is consistent with all present-day spirals hosting active nuclei at one time.
Future Research Plans Green has Instrument Team guaranteed time for the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. He leads an Internal Key Project to perform a census of supermassive black holes in the nuclei of early-type galaxies. He is also a member of the "Nuker" proposal team that won a number of orbits in Cycle 7 to perform a complementary survey. The two teams have coordinated their observing approach and are analyzing the stellar absorption profiles at the calcium triplet to deduce the presence and mass of central black holes.
Green is a member of the science team for the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite, which was launched on June 24, 1999. A major goal of the mission is to trace the evolution of D/H as a function of metallicity, with the aim of determining the primordial value and its cosmological conse quences. In addition, he will work with a subgroup of the team in analyzing a large number of AGN spectra for their intrinsic properties; the objects are observed as D/H probes. In addition, personal orbits will be devoted to observing the brightest high-z BAL quasar, which has shown very high ionization species in spectra with IUE and HST.
Service Deputy Director, NOAO; Director, KPNO; Board of Directors, WIYN Consortium; Gemini Instrument and Operations Forum.
National: AURA/HST 2nd Decade Committee, NASA UV Technology Program Review.
George Jacoby, Astronomer
Areas of Interest Galaxy Distances, Dynamics, and Chemical Compositions, Planetary Nebulae, Local Group Galaxies, Instrumentation.
Recent Research Results Nearby Galaxies Dwarf Galaxies. With T. Armandroff, Jacoby and J. Davies (Johns Hopkins student) have found two new dwarf galaxies in the Local Group: And V, And VI around M31. Previously, there were only three such dwarfs near M31. The first of these, And V, is nearly as faint as any known dwarf galaxy. Both new galaxies were found using the Digital Sky Survey and an innovative digital image processing technique.
Planetary Nebulae in M31. Jacoby and R. Ciardullo (Penn State) have measured the chemical composi tions of 15 planetary nebulae in M31. From these measurements, it is clear that the stars in M31 are derived from a complex history of chemical enrichment because they span a very wide range of compositions, from 20 times lower than the Sun to just slightly higher than the Sun.
Planetary Nebulae in Globular Clusters. Jacoby recently completed a survey for planetary nebulae in the Milky Way globular cluster system. Earlier investigators have failed to find any nebulae, but PN were found in NGC 6441 and Pal 6. The total number of nebulae in the globular cluster system was doubled
Appendix D - 22 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff Scientific Staff Research andService
with the addition of these two. Because the clusters are so poor in planetary nebulae, it seems that the stars must find another path to becoming white dwarfs other than through the PN phase. Since the Sun is only slightly more massive than typical cluster stars (having 85% the mass of the Sun), it is questionable whether the Sun will achieve its promised future of going through a PN phase, as well.
Planetary Nebulae in the Galactic Center. Jacoby and G. Van De Steene have identified 95 candidate planetary nebulae at the center of our Galaxy. They have obtained follow-up spectra for -65 of these to confirm all but a couple as bona fide nebulae. The chemical compositions appear to be similar to those found in M31 by Jacoby and Ciardullo.
Sakurai's Star. Jacoby, O. De Marco, and D. Sawyer (WIYN) have been following the stellar evolution gyrations of Sakurai's star, a former PN central star that has ejected another shell of material and dust. See: IAU Circulars 7065 and 7155 .
Distant Galaxy Systems Stars Between the Galaxies. With R. Ciardullo and J. Feldmeier, Jacoby has been exploring the popula tion of stars between galaxies in the Fornax and Virgo clusters of galaxies. Remarkably, a significant fraction of the stars and light in a cluster come from the regions between galaxies, perhaps as much as 50% of the entire cluster light is not in galaxies.
Future Research Plans Stellar Dynamics Virgo Intracluster PN. We have been using the WIYN observatory and the ESO VLT to obtain velocities of the PN between the galaxies in Virgo. The observation and analysis of planetary nebula motions in galaxies is of growing interest because there is no better way to measure the stellar velocities, especially for these very faint stars in Virgo. The velocities will map out the distribution and quantity of dark matter in the Virgo cluster far better than the galaxies because there are hundreds of thousands of PN and only a few hundred galaxies.
M31. Jacoby, H. Ford, X. Hui, and R. Ciardullo have accumulated velocities for over 800 nebulae in the nearby Andromeda galaxy, and the analysis is underway. Preliminary results show that the bulge of the galaxy is rotationally supported. Also, there are about 10 times fewer stars in the galaxy halo that produce planetary nebulae than initially thought, possibly evidence for either a very low mass or a very old halo. Nevertheless, there seem to be several times more halo PN in M31 than in our own Galaxy.
Galactic Center. The observations of the Galactic center nebulae will help define the motions of stars in the central "bar" of our Galaxy, as well as flagging any nebulae that originated in the halo of our Galaxy but are presently passing near the Galactic nucleus; already, two very fast moving candidates have been identified as possible halo visitors.
Chemical Compositions The Galactic Center. Thus far, only - 12 of the new - 90 PN in the Galactic center have been analyzed to derive their chemical compositions. In most of the remaining cases, it will not be possible to make the measurements because the nebulae are extremely faint, being extinguished by an enormous amount of dust between the Galactic center and the Earth. Thus, each nebula that can be studied is an important one. We are continuing our analysis of the existing spectra.
M31 Nebulae. The PN in M31 generally have chemical compositions that are not as enriched as the Sun, even relatively close to the nucleus of the galaxy. This result is in conflict with estimates from spectra of the combined light from the stars in M31 which suggest that the metallicity of the M31 stars should be
Appendix D - 23 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff ScientificStaffResearch and Service
greater than that of the Sun. Are the differences in derived compositions due to the methodologies (nebula vs stellar)? Is there some physical reason why enriched stars cannot make planetary nebulae that we then can study? These and other explanations have been explored by Jacoby and Ciardullo, but their sample of 15 nebulae is not very exhaustive. Future studies will target many more PN in M31.
The Small Magellanic Cloud. With O. De Marco, Jacoby is planning a significant search campaign for the faintest planetary nebulae in the SMC. The stars in the SMC have very low chemical compositions, nearly one-tenth that of the Sun. Thus, those stars provide an excellent test area for processes that may depend on the metallicities of stars. For example, we will measure the strengths of the winds coming off the PN central stars to see if they are, in fact, weaker than those in our Galaxy.
Dwarf Galaxies. Simulations predict that there should be - 1000 dwarf galaxies in our Local Group. We know of about 20. Have the surveys been so poorly executed that most of those galaxies have not been recovered? With T. Armandroff and J. Chen (summer student), Jacoby will be surveying more and more of the sky to look for the missing dwarfs.
Service Image Reduction and Analysis Facility (IRAF). Jacoby is the project scientist for the IRAF project, setting priorities and giving scientific direction to the project, interfacing between the programmers and the users, NOAO management, and outside organizations interested in the project (STScI, AXAF, EUVE), and is the PI for the Open IRAF initiative being funded by NASA.
CCD Mosaic. Jacoby is one of the project scientists for the CCD Mosaic Camera. In addition, he was the scientist responsible for the new optical correctors recently built for the 4-m and 0.9-m that are required to provide the very wide fields of views (50» and 80» , respectively) needed by the Mosaic.
ADASS Conferences. Jacoby serves as a member of the scientific organizing committees for the annual Astronomical Data Analysis and Software Systems conferences.
IAU Symposia on Planetary Nebulae. Jacoby is a member of IAU Commission 34 (Interstellar Matter) and the Planetary Nebula Working Group. He has been a member of the scientific organizing committees for the Symposia for the past several meetings.
The Spectroscopic Wide-Field Telescope (SWIFT). With A. Dey, J. Najita, S. Barden, and C. Claver, Jacoby has been developing the plans for a new national facility that will be able to collect many thousands of spectra of stars and galaxies in each exposure.
Richard R. Joyce, Support Scientist
Areas of Interest Late-Type Stars; Mass Loss; Infrared Detector and Instrumentation Development.
Recent Research Results In collaboration with P. Green (Harvard) and B. Ali (IPAC), Joyce has obtained K band (2.0-2.45 micron) spectra of selected hot white dwarfs that have been identified as binary candidates on the basis of infrared excesses which suggest a main-sequence companion. The CO and atomic lines will yield the mass and spectral type of the cool companion and lead to better estimates of the fraction of WD stars with main- sequence companions and binary mass ratio distribution. These interesting systems are the progenitors of novae, CVs, symbiotics, and dwarf carbon stars. Recently, he utilized CRSP on the KPNO 2.1-m
Appendix D - 24 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff Scientific Staff Research andService
telescope to obtain spatial/spectral datacubes of Mars during its recent opposition. These data cover the spectral range 2.2-4.8 microns at spectral resolutions - 700-1500. Joyce and others at NASA Goddard were part of a multi-observatory campaign to observe Mars in support of Orbiter observations. The infrared observations will yield information on column densities of atmospheric constituents such as C02, H20, and CH4 and on large-scalesurface mineralogy.
Future Research Plans Future research plans include the use of high-resolution infrared spectroscopy, largely with PHOENIX, for a variety of stellar studies. Three primary factors can dictate the use of infrared spectroscopy as a diagnostic tool: 1) high extinction in the visual may preclude spectroscopy; 2) dynamic events such as mass transfer in binaries may produce visual emission, which confuses the optical spectra; 3) the physical process produces spectral effects only in the infrared. Examples of these follow. The Soft Gamma Repeater 1900+14, which suffers 19 mag of visual extinction, is much more amenable to radial velocity studies in the infrared, and the manifestation of a thin hot dust shell may be apparent only in the CO absorption lines at 2.3 microns. An example of the second category is a collaborative project involving Joyce, K. Hinkle (NOAO), and F. Fekel (Tennesee State U.) to determine orbits of symbiotic stars from their infrared spectra. Orbital determinations from optical spectra have been problematic; the infrared spectrum, on the other hand, is almost completely that of the cool giant, and an unambiguous velocity determination of one of the stellar components is possible. The results would not only confirm that symbiotics are mass-transfer binaries, but, given the constraints on the mass of a white dwarf secondary, could yield accurate masses for cool giants over a range of evolutionary stages. The third category is exemplified by a recently-initiated project involving Joyce, Hinkle, and C. Sneden (U. of Texas) to observe the He I line at 1.083 microns in metal-poor giant stars, which may be considered analogs to the red giants in globular clusters. One such star has been reported in the literature to show a He I feature indicative of a high-speed (> 90 km/s) wind. Since this velocity exceeds theescape velocity from globular clusters, the presence of such high-speed winds from metal-poor field stars would suggest a mass loss mechanism for globular cluster giants that could expel matter from the cluster itselfand plausibly explain the observed low density of the interstellar medium in globular clusters. Results for a number of stars are being prepared for publication.
Service As a Support Scientist, a significant fraction of Joyce's time is spent in providing observing support to visiting observers using the facility instruments CRSP (a low-resolution IR spectrograph), IRIM (IR imager), and PHOENIX (the recently completed high-resolution IR spectrograph), and the IR imaging spectrograph ONIS, which is shared with the MDM Observatory under a cooperative agreement. This includes direct support such as checking out the instruments after installation, providing instruction to observers, training the Kitt Peak mountain staff in technical issues associated with these instruments, off line support in providing advice to prospective observers, and assistance with data reduction.
He is also involved in the concept definition for a next-generation very wide-field IR imager for NOAO and is a co-Project Scientist on the Gemini Near Infrared Spectrograph project. He is responsible for the scheduling of the Kitt Peak telescopes and is overseeing the development of the scheduling portion of the new ALPS++ database. Other service areas include serving on the KPNO Advisory, ALPS++ Definition, and KPNO Safety Committees, and being the editor for the KPNO section of the NOAONewsletter.
Appendix D - 25 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff Scientific Staff Research andService
Roger Lynds, Astronomer
Areas of Interest Galaxy Evolution and Cosmology.
Recent Research Results Lynds has been a minor participant in the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey, primarily involved in investigating the non-linearity ofthe Aladdin In Sb detector used for the near-IR part of the survey.
Lynds has been studying the interacting galaxy NGC 6745, a galaxy in which the interaction has evidently triggered abundant new star formation. HST images delineate the regions of star formation particularly well and provide a first guess as to the geometrical and dynamical nature of the interaction. Lynds and E. O'Neil have observed the galaxy at 21 cm with the VLA C-array and have obtained an HI velocity map which confirms the preliminary model for the interaction. In addition, L-band continuum observations with the VLA B-array have yielded a map of the synchrotron emission, which beautifully traces the distribution of active star-forming regions. In the next VLA observing cycle, Lynds expects to map the region in the C-band with the C-array (at the same resolution) so as to obtain spectral index variations and possibly polarization.
Future Research Plans A long-term investigation concerns photometric population separation for galaxies in the Hubble Deep Fields (north and south) and other HST survey fields. One of the purposes of the study is to document the relative cosmological evolution of star-forming subsystems and evolved populations.
Service Lynds has been an active member of the Observatory Safety Committee and is one of the instrument scientists for the 4-m Prime Focus CCD Camera.
Philip Massey, Astronomer
Areas of Interest Massive Star Evolution, Star Formation, Resolvable Galaxies.
Recent Research Results Massey's research is primarily aimed at understanding the formation and evolution of massive (>10 M0) stars. Since massive stars are responsible for much of the chemical enrichment of the Galaxy (the carbon in your body was all produced within the cores of massive stars), knowledge of massive star formation and evolution is crucial for understanding the chemical enrichment of galaxies, including our own.
Using the best groundbased and spacebased instruments, Massey has been investigating the stellar content of star-forming regions in the Magellanic Clouds, the Milky Way, and the more distant members of the Local Group. His work over the past decade has established that the slope of the Initial Mass Function (IMF) is indistinguishable for massive stars in OB associations of the SMC, LMC, and Milky Way, despite the factor of four difference in the metallicity of these three galaxies.
Furthermore, stars of similarly high mass are found in all three galaxies, establishing that radiation pressure on grains cannot be the limiting factor in how massive a star may form. Recent work by Massey, in collaboration with D. Hunter (Lowell Observatory), extended these studies to the R136 cluster at the heart of the 30 Doradus Nebular in the Large Magellanic Cloud, where they used the Hubble Space Tele-
Appendix D - 26 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff Scientific Staff Research and Service
scope to discover 39 stars of type 03—the hottest, most luminous stars known! The most massive of these stars are in excess of 150 M0, making them the highest mass stars ever discovered. Despite the preponderance of high mass stars, their study finds that the IMF of R136 is completely normal, with a Salpeter (y= -1.3) slope. The number of extremely high mass stars is just what would be predicted by extrapolating the IMF of the intermediate-mass stars. The fact that the IMF slope in R136 is indistinguishable from those of Galactic and Magellanic Cloud OB associations suggests that star formation produces the same distribution of masses over a range of nearly 1000 in stellar density, from that of sparse OB associations to that which is typical of globular clusters. The large number of 03 stars in 30 Doradus is then simply a consequence of its youth (< 1-2 Myr) and its richness, suggesting that the upper mass "cutoff to the IMF seen in OB associations is simply statistical and not physical.
This year Massey's work has focused on continuing to understand the evolution of massive stars as a function of metallicity. He developed a photometric criterion for distinguishing red supergiants (RSGs) in nearby galaxies from red foreground dwarfs seen in projection against these galaxies, and used this to identify RSGs in selected regions of NGC 6822, M 31, and M 33. This work established that there is a clear progression with metallicity in the number of the highest luminosity RSGs, with such stars missing in the higher metallicity systems. A new survey for Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars in M 33 was combined with previous work by Massey to establish the WR populations in these same regions. The results show that there is a very strong correlation in the relative number of RSGs and WRs with metallicity, in the sense that there are proportionally more WRs in high metallicity systems. These results suggest that at high metallicity the mass limit for becoming Wolf-Rayet stars is lower than in lower metallicity systems, as expected from evolutionary theory. Furthermore, this work suggests that all massive stars may pass through an RSG phase on their way to becoming Wolf-Rayet stars.
Future Research Plans Massey is current analyzing data on Magellanic Cloud and Milky Way clusters that contain Wolf-Rayet stars and Luminous Blue Variables in order to determine empirically the mass range that evolves to these objects at different metallicities. He is also working with R. Kudritzki to establish the masses and luminosities of the highest mass Rl 36 stars, using new STIS data from HST.
Service 4-m Telescope Scientist. Massey is responsible for seeing that the Kitt Peak 4-m is used to maximum scientific advantage. His responsibilities include the identification of maintenance problems and software issues and working towards improving the delivered image quality. He also chairs the weekly Kitt Peak work-coordination and communications meeting involving the telescope scientists, Kitt Peak engineering, instrument specialists, facilities, and mountain.
User Personnel Documentation. Massey has written and continues to update the visitor manuals for the CCD data-taking software ICE, the direct imaging (CCD) manual, the low-to-moderate resolution spec troscopy manual, and the operation manuals for the 0.9-m telescope, as well as co-authoring the new Mosaic imaging manual. He also wrote the data reduction guides for crowded field photometry, CCD reductions, and spectroscopic reductions.
WIYN/Hydra Assignment Code. Massey wrote and maintains the software for computing the optimal assignment of fibers to objects with this instrument, and interacts with visitors as needed.
Appendix D - 27 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff Scientific Staff Research andService
Joan Najita, Assistant Astronomer
Areas of Interest Star and Planet Formation, Imaging Fourier Transform Spectroscopy, the Low-Mass End of the Initial Mass Function of Stars, IR Nuclear Spectroscopy of AGN, X-Ray Induced Molecular Chemistry.
Recent Research Results Kinematic Evidence for Disks Around Young High Mass Stars. High-resolution CO overtone spectros copy (with T. Greene and C. Lada) provides critical confirmation of the role of disks in the formation of massive stars. These results demonstrate that high-mass star formation does not require an unusual (grain- free) environment. Instead, high-mass stars may form in much the same way as low-mass stars, via mass accretion through circumstellar disks. Since radiation pressure is relatively unimportant under these circumstances, the high-mass end of the IMF will be independent of metallicity, as is observed.
Dynamics of Planet Formation Environments. The formation of stellar and planetary companions in disks is expected to alter disk structure, creating a "gap" at the orbital distance of the companion. J. Carr, R. Mathieu, and J. Najita have obtained robust, kinematic evidence for this process from the discovery and high-resolution spectroscopic study of 4.7-micron CO fundamental emission from AU binaries, where the line emission arises from residual gas in the gap, which appears bright in contrast against the dark (absent) continuum background. A similar study of systems without known stellar companions is in progress. This is one of the few techniques currently capable of diagnosing ongoing planet formation and observationally determining the formation distances of planets.
The Low-mass End of the IMF. A direct measurement of the low-mass end of the IMF is fundamental to our understanding of the relationship between star, brown dwarf, and planet formation. Young clusters are the ideal environment in which to make this measurement: since cluster members are much brighter due to their youth, it is possible to readily detect and study even objects much below the hydrogen-burning limit. G. Tiede, J. Carr, C. Lada, and J. Najita are using HST/NICMOS filter photometry to measure the depth of the 1.9-micron water band in a young (~ 5Myr old) cluster in order to obtain spectral types and masses for low-mass cluster members. The results of the study will allow them to quantify the cluster IMF down to - 30 Jupiter masses.
Future Research Plans X-Ray Induced Molecular Chemistry. In collaboration with A. Glassgold (NYU), Najita is investigating the chemical structure of disk atmospheres. The expectation is that surface X-ray irradiation is significant in determining the column densities and molecular content in HI and H2 layers.
Infrared Spectroscopy of Planet Formation Environments. Najita will continue ongoing work on probing the dynamics and physical/chemical structure of planet formation environments through high-resolution infrared spectroscopy. This relatively new approach is the only currently viable technique with which to study the physical conditions under which planets are formed.
Service Najita is working on the science cases for an NOAO wide-field IR imager, optical/IR high throughput spectrograph, and an NOAO initiative to build a large aperture, wide-field, highly multiplexed multi- object spectrograph. She is also working with others to develop a continually updated database of hot science results obtained with NOAO facilities.
She serves on the Kitt Peak Science Planning committee and a task force to investigate structure and communications issues for Tucson nighttime astronomy. During the past year, Najita also participated in
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proposal reviews for federally funded astronomy research, refereed several papers for the ApJ, and assisted S. Strom in writing a white paper on the needs of the Star and Planet formation community for the next decade. She is also helping the IRAC/SIRTF GTO team define their star and planet formation science goals.
Stephen T. Ridgway, Astronomer
Areas of Interest Stellar Astronomy, Advanced Instrumentation.
Recent Research Results In collaboration with colleagues from the U. of Paris Meudon Observatory and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Ridgway has deployed the prototype optical fiber detection system FLUOR at the Infrared Optical Telescope Array on Mt. Hopkins. The FLUOR device was developed at KPNO during an earlier phase of this collaboration. With FLUOR, the team has achieved photon-limited accuracy in the measurement of interferometric visibilities, a significant advance in the field of optical interferometry. Recent published science from this facility includes measurement of stellar shells at 4- microns wavelength, more detailed study of stellar surface brightness distributions on high luminosity stars, and analysis of pulsations in mira-type stars.
Future Research Plans NOAO will continue under contract to support the Georgia State U. Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) interferometric array project. Ridgway will continue his role as technical consult ant, with emphasis next year on first light at the telescopes, first interferometric measurements, and scien tific operation. The CHARA Array offers a unique combination of collecting area and angular resolution. When it becomes fully operational, toward the year 2000, it will supply a rich return of fundamental stellar data, including temperatures, diameters, and masses, and it will be a valuable test-bed for the development of interferometric technology.
Service Ridgway provides technical advice to the NOAO/Gemini community on adaptive optics and interferome try. He is a frequent lecturer at NATO summer schools on these topics, and participates in NASA advisory groups on Keck and space interferometry. In collaboration with Francois Roddier (U. of Hawaii), he recently prepared a position paper on interferometry in the next decade for presentation to the Astronomy and Astrophysics Decade Review Committee. He serves on the NOAO Telescope Allocation Committee, on several NASA committees, and is currently a member of the Keck Observatory Science Steering Committee.
Abhijit Saha, Associate Astronomer
Areas of Interest Distance Scale, Cartography of Nearby Galaxies, Stellar Populations, Galactic Structure, Variable Stars, Photometric Techniques.
Recent Research Results Saha is actively involved in the HST-based distance scale programs, particularly in collaboration with Sandage et al., in establishing the absolute peak brightness of type la supernovae, and with the HST key project team. The former group has established Cepheid distances to the host galaxies of seven type la
Appendix D - 29 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff Scientific Staff Research and Service
supemovae. The results of the seventh are in press. This calibration establishes a Hubble constant of - 60 km/s/Mpc with internal uncertainty of 4 km/s/Mpc, modulo recalibration of the Cepheid distance scale and any metallicity effects therein. The latter group has now obtained Cepheid distances to - 20 galaxies. The results from the analysis of the implications on other distance indicators like the Tully-Fisher relation will be presented at the AAS meeting in Chicago (summer 1999) and submitted for publication within two months of this writing. In a parallel groundbased effort, Saha and Hoessel have obtained Cepheid distances to seven nearby galaxies (Local group and out to 7 Mpc), and work is underway on several more. The grand aim of this project is to both map the local Universe and define galaxy groups more precisely, as well as to use such galaxies as 'test particles' to probe the local dynamics and deduce the mass of the Local Group and the gravitational effect of neighboring groups such as the M81 group, CVn group, Ml01 group, and the IC342/Maffei group on the Local Group. Another important function of this study is to enable analysis of the stellar populations in these galaxies from color-magnitude diagrams (obtained from the ground as well as from HST), since such methods rely heavily on independent estimates of the distance. Saha is also involved in such stellar population studies and has contributed photometric techniques and Bayesian analysis methods in collaborations with Skillman, Gallagher, Hoessel, and Tolstoy.
Future Research Plans The HST-based studies to establish the value of the Hubble constant are expected to conclude within the next two years. The current continuation of the SNela calibration project involves HST observations of NGC4527 and NGC3982 in cycles 7 (ongoing) and 8, respectively. The distance mapping project for nearby galaxies is expected to continue as a longer term effort. Saha and Hoessel will also seek to extend the effort to reach southern galaxies, particularly the Sculptor group, and also to monitor long period variables among the supergiants in some of these nearby galaxies.
Saha plans to return to the problem of understanding the halos of large galaxies, with a two-pronged approach: 1) in collaboration with Olszewski and Monet, he is searching for RR Lyrae stars in several halo fields from plate material obtained in the past on Schmidt telescopes (this will expand the sample of RR Lyraes that have been used to probe the halo of the Galaxy for density distribution and kinemat ics/dynamics), and 2) to mine the HST image archive for observations in the M31 halo, which provide the only chance of studying a complete in-situ sample of stars in the halo of a large galaxy, where photometric methods should reveal much of the age and metallicity structures.
Service Saha is serving as the telescope scientist for WIYN. He is also the NOAO representative on the WIYN Science Advisory Committee (SAC), and a member of the WIYN board. In the role of telescope scientist, he is participating in the tip-tilt imaging project on WIYN, and in testing and commissioning the mini- mosaic CCD camera, which will cover a wider imaging field at the high spatial resolution that the excellent seeing at WIYN demands. He is actively pursuing several areas of general improvement in tele scope performance, including damping the oscillations of the secondary mirror support structure, implementation of the auto-correction of focus drifts using real-time Shack-Hartmann measurements, and investigating the optimal parameters for the guider software. He is also in charge of the imaging camera on the 2.1-m telescope.
Saha is actively participating in the queue observing experiment with the WIYN telescope. This effort is geared to optimizing the scientific return from a telescope that has a special purpose instrument (Hydra), and one that gets exceptionally good seeing often enough that it can be counted upon to happen some of the time. Queued observing also enables many synoptic programs, which would be very awkward or even impossible to carry out with classical scheduling methods. Saha aims to systematize the experience from
Appendix D - 30 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff Scientific Staff Research andService
this exercise and construct a system that is capable of supporting larger groundbased queues that optimize such special purpose utilization.
Saha is also on the (NASA) Science Oversight Committee for the HST Wide Field Camera 3, which is scheduled to replace WFPC2 in 2003.
Appendix D - 31 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff SCIENTIFIC STAFF RESEARCH AND SERVICE
USGP/SCOPE: Research Interests and Service Roles
Todd Boroson, Director, Astronomer
Areas of Interest AGN Emission Lines, AGN Host Galaxies and Environments, Stellar Populations, Optical Instrumentation.
Recent Research Results Together with Salzer (Wesleyan), Gronwall (Wesleyan), Thuan (Virginia), Moody (BYU), Izotov (Kiev), and Kniazev (Special Astrophysical Obs.), Boroson has continued his work on samples of nearby emis sion line galaxies (KISS, the KPNO International Spectroscopic Survey). This long-term objective prism survey with the Burrell Schmidt has yielded several hundred galaxy candidates with [O III] emission and over one thousand galaxy candidates with H-alpha emission over 100 square degrees out to a redshift of one-tenth. The discovery technique produces relatively complete sampling of the luminosity function of such objects out to substantial distances, so the survey is well suited for studying both the luminosity function and the space distribution of these objects. Slit and multi-fiber spectra of these candidates are now being obtained in order to identify objects of particular interest, including low luminosity objects with near-primordial abundances.
Boroson has begun a new imaging study of QSO host galaxies using the WIYN telescope. The intent is to study a complete sample of objects (approximately 30) by obtaining high spatial resolution images in two line-free bands in order to study morphology, luminosity, and color of the underlying stellar populations. Observations of a few objects have so far been obtained.
Future Research Plans Boroson expects to continue his study of QSO host galaxies by completing the planned observations of the sample and beginning measurements of the properties of the galaxies. The global properties of the galaxies will be interpreted in a statistical fashion together with the spectral properties of the active nucleus in order to understand the relationship between the large-scale environment of the AGN and its observed "behavior." In particular, relationships among radio properties, nuclear luminosity, strength of forbidden lines, shape of broad lines, strength of Fe II emission, and the host galaxy properties will be explored.
Service Boroson's major service duties are associated with his position as US Gemini Project Scientist, Director of the Science Operations division (SCOPE) of NOAO, and associate director of NOAO. These duties include heading the office that has scientific and technical liaison responsibilities for the US community's participation in the international Gemini project, as well as participating with the other national project scientists as the Gemini project scientist team. As the head of SCOPE, Boroson has provided oversight and leadership for the expanded roles of this division, including the "before and after" activities for all the telescopes to which NOAO provides access. These activities range from proposal and TAC process support, and support of astronomers preparing proposals or observing programs, to data reduction, archives, and scientific outreach. In addition, Boroson serves on the Committee for Astronomy and Astrophysics, a National Research Council subcommittee of the Board on Physics and Astronomy and the Space Studies Board, and on the Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee.
Appendix D- 32 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff SCIENTIFIC STAFF RESEARCH AND SERVICE
David S. De Young, Astronomer
Areas of Interest Active Galaxies, Galaxy Clusters, Galaxy Evolution, Radio Sources, Hydrodynamics.
Recent Research Results Much of De Young's research in recent years has revolved around the common theme of astrophysical outflows and their interaction with the environment. This is a basic problem in nonlinear physics, many aspects of which are poorly understood or not understood at all. This is especially true for highly super sonic and relativistic outflows for which there is little or no experimental data. For these flows, the only accessible laboratory often lies in distant galaxies, where the interpretation of the data is often ambiguous. Nonetheless, such outflows can reveal characteristics of a large variety of astronomical objects, from protostellar jets and HH to starbursts in galaxies and the creation of megaparsec scale radio sources—the largest single coherent objects in the Universe.
DeYoung's recent focus has been on the nature of the boundary between the outflow and the environment, for it is here that the momentum and energy are transferred from the flow to the ambient medium, and it is this interaction that can reveal the characteristics of the outflow and hence constrain the nature of the object giving rise to it. Some of the recent results of this work have been an analytic description for the evolution of large-scale structures seen in such boundaries and a model for the evolution of compact radio sources into large classical double sources that is consistent with observations from the parsec to the 100 kiloparsec scale. In a related study, De Young has investigated the fate of graphite grains in the environ ment of the high speed outflows associated with extragalactic jets. Such grains are thought to give rise to the polarized optical emission observed to lie along the axis of the radio emission (the "alignment effect") by scattering the UV continuum arising in the nuclear region of the AGN. An analysis of the evolution of grain populations in this environment shows that the grains will almost always be destroyed by the shock and hot gas associated with the passage of the hypersonic jet; hence, an initial grain population cannot readily act as a scattering medium to give rise to the polarized emission. A possible alternative is in-situ grain production after the shock passage; this could arise from supemovae explosions in a population of young stars whose birth was triggered by the compressive action of the shock associated with the jet.
Future Research Plans Galaxy Evolution. In collaboration with C. Norman (STScI), De Young is investigating the fate of hot, metal-rich gas that is injected into galactic halos by OB associations and supernova remnants. It has been widely conjectured, but never demonstrated, that this debris causes the halo gas to cool and condense into clouds which then settle back into the galactic disk. Testing this model requires accurate modeling of the thermal instability in three dimensions in its non-linear phase. The basic computational tools are now in place, and detailed calculations are commencing. In a related project with T. Heckman (Johns Hopkins U.) and C. Martin (STScI), an extended study of mass loss from dwarf galaxies due to starburst activity is being initiated. The issue is that of possible recollapse of an inflated ISM in the galaxy versus complete dispersal of the ISM due to energy injection from the starburst event, and the object is to reproduce the observed low metallicities in these objects together with their observed stellar populations.
More recent collaborations have been initiated with M. Corbin (U. of Arizona) in modeling the wind- torus interface in BAL QSO's to see if mass entrainment from the torus into the wind can reproduce the emission line signatures, and with J. Bally (U. of Colorado) in modeling the time variations of collimated outflows from young stellar objects. The latter study involves the modulation of outflows with radiative cooling coupled with observations of HH objects in order to constrain the basic mechanisms that regulate the outflow itself. De Young is also working on a book, entitled The Physics of Extragalactic Radio Sources, to be published by the University of Chicago Press.
Appendix D - 33 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff SCIENTIFIC STAFF RESEARCH AND SERVICE
Service De Young's service activities to NOAO include acting as Coordinating Chairman of all the NOAO tele scope time allocations for nighttime astronomy, including both CTIO and KPNO. In the future this will also include allocation of time on the MMT and Hobby-Eberly telescopes, as well as the two Gemini 8-m telescopes in both hemispheres. In addition De Young serves as Chair of two of the seven allocation committees and is a member of the Merging TAC. De Young is also Director of the NOAO Outreach Program that includes the areas of Educational Outreach, Press and Media Relations, Public Outreach, and the KPNO Visitor Center.
Other service activities include membership on the NOAO IPAC Committee, membership on the NOAO Management Committee, supervisor of the NOAO Tucson library, member or chairman of ad hoc KPNO Personnel and Post Doctoral Selection Committees, Chairman of the AURA Strategic Planning Committee, and membership on various ad hoc NOAO committees. De Young is carrying out numerical modeling of airflows associated with possible sites for the Advanced Solar Telescope of the National Solar Observatory, and he is initiating preliminary studies for similar modeling of possible sites in north- em Chile. De Young also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Aspen Center for Physics and is the coordinator of the NOAO membership in the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure.
Buell T. Jannuzi, Assistant Astronomer
Areas of Interest Observational Cosmology, Quasar Absorption Line Systems, Active Galaxies, Instrumentation for Surveys.
Recent Research Results Jannuzi's current research activities are mainly in two areas: 1) studies of the properties of the inter- galactic medium and the gaseous content of the Universe as probes of the formation and evolution of structure in the Universe, and 2) studies of galaxies and large-scale structure at redshifts between one and three as traced by the distribution of individual, groups, and clusters of galaxies. He also continues to be involved in studies of various classes of active galaxies and other projects.
Lyman-alpha absorbers are observable from redshifts of zero to over four, spanning most of the age of the Universe. Understanding how they relate to large-scale structures at low redshift will facilitate using studies of absorbers to understand the formation and evolution of structure in the Universe. Jannuzi is currently the coordinator of the Quasar Absorption Line Key Project Team, a group of researchers that used the Faint Object Spectrograph of the Hubble Space Telescope to obtain ultra-violet spectra of quasars during the first four cycles of HST operations. The large and homogeneous catalogue of low red- shift absorbers that resulted from this work is being used for a wide variety of studies. Recent results include evidence for clustering of some low redshift Lyman-alpha absorbers near metal line systems (Jannuzi 1998, in Proceedings of the 13th IAP Astrophysics Colloquium: Structure and Evolution of the Intergalactic Medium From QSO Absorption Line Systems, edited by P. Petitjean and S. Chariot, Editions Frontier: Paris, p. 93) and for a change in the nature of the evolution of the number of these systems as a function of redshift from near the beginning of the Universe (z = 4.5) to the present (z = 0). Jannuzi is also leading a team which is mapping the distribution of galaxies in the fields of the same quasars observed as part of the Key Project. The comparison of absorbers and galaxies can be extended to higher redshifts with the new generation of large groundbased telescopes, including the Gemini 8-m telescopes.
Appendix D - 34 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff SCIENTIFIC STAFF RESEARCH AND SERVICE
Jannuzi, together with A. Dey, is Co-PI of the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey, a deep optical (Bw,R,I) and near-infrared (J,H,K) imaging survey that will sample the sky in two 9 square degree patches. The survey is designed to: 1) investigate the existence and evolution of large-scale structures at redshifts z > 1 as sampled by a diverse set of objects, and 2) provide the astronomical community a sensitive multicolor database of objects from which samples may be selected for the study of other interesting problems and for follow-up with the Gemini telescopes. Further details and survey status updates can be found on the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey Web page. The optical imaging portion of the survey should be completed in the year 2000, with the IR imaging being completed roughly one year later.
Jannuzi has approved programs with HST, AXAF, and NOAO telescopes to continue similar studies of the nature of AGNs and quasar absorption line systems.
Service Jannuzi is a member of the scientific staff of SCOPE, a division of NOAO that includes the US Gemini Project office. Jannuzi is responsible for NOAO's user support for the US observers using the Gemini telescopes. He also serves as the instrument scientist for all of KPNO's low-to-moderate resolution spectrographs. These include the R-C spectrograph and the Cryogenic camera used on the 4-m and the GoldCam spectrograph used on the 2.1-m (for more information see the Low-to-Moderate Resolution Optical Spectroscopy Manual for Kitt Peak, available off of the NOAO Web page). Jannuzi is the project scientist for an upgrade of the camera and detector of the GoldCam spectrograph. Since 1997 Jannuzi has served as the coordinator for the NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program held each summer at KPNO. Jannuzi serves on numerous national and international committees including the US Gemini Scientific Advisory Committee, the Gemini Science Committee, the SIRTF Users Panel, and the KPNO Time Allocation Committee. Jannuzi also is involved with other members of the NOAO staff in the preliminary development of a new high throughput spectrograph and a wide-field IR imager. He is also a member of NOAO's Instrument Projects Advisory Committee (IPAC).
Tod R. Lauer, Associate Astronomer
Areas of Interest Cosmology, Large-Scale Structure of the Universe, Structure and Formation of Galaxies, Nuclear Properties of Galaxies, Stellar Populations, Image Processing.
Recent Research Results With M. Postman (STScI), Lauer has measured the l-band galaxy-galaxy correlation function from a large (16 square degree) survey. This work significantly improves knowledge of the correlation function down to faint limiting magnitudes and helps to constrain how structure within the universe evolved since z = 1. They also produced a catalog of galaxies from the same survey, which will allow them to observe how the cluster-cluster correlation function evolves.
Future Research Plans The major work that Lauer is undertakingnow is completion of the Lauer, Postman, and Strauss survey of nearby brightest cluster galaxies to look for an end to the large bulk flow inferred from the earlier survey. They are also starting to obtain cluster redshifts from a deep l-band survey to measure the cluster-cluster correlation function.
Service Lauer's major present service activity is developing the NOAO Mosaic Archive. This will be a prototype archive that will make all NOAO Mosaic images available to the astronomical community. A key part of
Appendix D - 35 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff ScientificStaffResearch andService
the archive is developing a pipeline to enable automatic reduction and characterization of the entire Mosaic datastream. He also continues to edit the NOAO Newsletter, run the colloquium and science lunch series, and chair the postdoctoral fellow selection committee.
Catherine A. Pilachowski, Astronomer
Areas of Interest Stellar Seismology, Stellar Compositions, Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis, Origin of the Elements in the Milky Way.
Recent Research Results Pilachowski, in collaboration with C. Sneden and R. P. Kraft, is continuing to investigate abundance variations in globular clusters. Their previous work in M13 established the role of in situ proton-capture nucleosynthesis in the abundances of neon, sodium, magnesium, and aluminum in stars on the giant branch. Their work continues with observations of sodium abundances in M3, Ml5, and M92 from WIYN Hydra data. Observations of fainter giants in M13 will be used to investigate whether the sodium variations arise at the first dredge-up at the base of the giant branch.
Pilachowski, in collaboration with T. Armandroff, D. Burris, J. Cowan, H. Roe, and C. Sneden, is investi gating the origin of heavy elements in the early Milky Way. Their results suggest that the weak s-process played an important role in the first phases of galactic nucleosynthesis, and that the strong s-process contributions from intermediate mass stars began to appear at [Fe/H] = -2.75. Their data also confirm the r-process origin of barium and the lanthanides at metallicities below [Fe/H] = -2.75.
Future Research Plans Pilachowski, in collaboration with A. Quillen, is investigating the role of falling evaporative bodies in the dynamical evolution of solar systems, using observations from the WIYN telescope of the Ca II K line in young A-type stars in clusters.
Valenti and Pilachowski, in collaboration with B. Chaboyer and NSO solar astronomers, are attempting to detect acoustic oscillations in solar-type stars using HST.
Saha and Pilachowski are conducting Baade-Wesselink analyses of an ensemble of RR Lyrae variables in the globular cluster M3, using data from the WIYN and the 0.9-m telescopes.
Service Pilachowski serves as Project Scientist for the development of the NOAO proposal system to accept, process, evaluate, and forward proposals for telescope time at Gemini, at NOAO facilities at KPNO and CTIO, and for community access time at the Hobby-Eberly Telescope and the upgraded 6.5-m Multiple Mirror Telescope.
Pilachowski is also involved with numerous educational outreach projects and serves on the local ASP/Project Astro Coalition. She assists students interested in gaining research experience in astronomy and participates with the University of Arizona's Women in Science and Engineering Program. Pilachowski continues to serve as a member of and Secretary to the WIYN Consortium Board of Directors, and she serves on the Council of the American Astronomical Society.
Appendix D - 36 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff I cientific Staff Research andService
Stephen Strom, Astronomer
Areas of Interest Formation of Stars and Planetary Systems.
Recent Research Results A photometric and spectroscopic survey of the young clusterNGC 2264 provides insight into the duration of the disk accretion phase and the early angular momentum evolution of solar-type stars. Our analysis suggests that accretion disks survive around stars at least as old as 10 Myr, and that stars surrounded by accretion disks appear to rotate more slowly than their counterparts which are no longer surrounded by such disks.
Co-investigators are Russell Makidon (STSCI), A. Birmingham (Amherst College), L. Hillenbrand (Cal Tech), and M. Adams (UT Austin).
Future Research Plans Strom plans to continue investigations along two paths: 1) quantifying the lifetime of the disk accretion phase based on deep optical and infrared surveys of star-forming regions, and 2) understanding the rela tionship between initial molecular cloud conditions and the emerging distribution of stellar masses from studies of nearby star-forming regions.
Service Strom is Chair of the SIRTF Users Panel, Benefits Panel, and Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee. A Member of the AASC "cross-panel" for National Observatories and AASC "cross-panel" for Surveys, and Senior Advisor for the Large MillimeterTelescope project.
At NOAO/AURA, Strom is a Member of the AURA Future Directions Committee, Chair of the Survey TAC, and Liaison with Gemini to assess software needs for Gemini instruments.
Appendix D - 37 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff Scientific Staff Research andService
I Instrumentation Division Scientific Staff: Research Interests and Service Roles
Taft Armandroff, Associate Astronomer
Areas of Interest Stellar Populations in the Galaxy and Nearby Galaxies, Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies, The Local Group and Nearby Groups of Galaxies, Globular Clusters.
Recent Research Results Armandroff has been studying the dwarf spheroidal companions to M31. Most recently, he has under taken a new survey for dwarf companions near M31 in collaboration with Jacoby (NOAO) and Davies (JHU). The search is based on a digital filtering technique applied to 1550 square degrees of the second Palomar Sky Survey and revealed And V, a new dwarf spheroidal companion to M31. And V resolves into stars easily in follow-up 4-m V- and l-band images, from which a distance of 810 ± 45 kpc has been deduced using the tip-of-the-red-giant-branch method. Within the uncertainties, this distance is identical to the Population II distances for M31 and, combined with a projected separation of 112 kpc, provides strong support for a physical association between the two galaxies. There is no emission from And V detected in H alpha, 1.4 GHz radio continuum, or IRAS bandpasses, and there is no young population seen in the color-magnitude diagram that might suggest that And V is an irregular. Thus, the classification as a new dwarf spheroidal member of the Local Group seems secure. With an extinction-corrected central surface brightness of 25.2 V mag per square arcsec, a mean metal abundance of [Fe/H] = -1.5, and no evidence for upper AGB stars, And V resembles And I and III. A second new M31 dwarf spheroidal, And VI, has been found as part of this survey, and a paper describing its discovery and properties has been submitted.
Future Research Plans Studyingthe properties of dwarf spheroidal galaxies as a function of environment represents a significant portion of Armandroff's research agenda for the coming year. Work is currently underway on detailed studies of the M31 dwarf spheroidal companions And II and III using HST/WFPC2 and WITN CCD imaging to construct color-magnitude diagrams that reach below the horizontal branch. HST observations of And V and VI are expected shortly. From these data, Armandroff hopes to learn whether these four galaxies resemble their Galactic counterparts as much as And I does.
Service Armandroff serves as project scientist for the NOAO optical/UV instrumentation program. In this capacity, he coordinates all optical instrumentation development efforts and serves as a member of the Instrument Projects Advisory Committee (IPAC). Armandroff is a member of the team developing and commissioning the 8K x 8K CCD Mosaic Imagers for KPNO and CTIO, and a 4K x 4K MiniMosaic Imager for the WIYN Telescope. Armandroff participates in the group overseeing construction of a tip/tilt imager for WIYN. He also serves on the Kitt Peak Science Planning Committee.
Samuel C. Barden, Scientist
Areas of Interest Stellar Physics and Dynamics, Binary Stars, Spectroscopic Instrumentation.
Recent Research Results Barden has focused his research on the evaluation of a new type of diffraction grating technology through an NSF-funded research grant. The gratings (volume-phase holographic) diffract light from modulations
Appendix D - 38 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff ScientificStaff Research andService
in the refractive index of the grating material rather than by surface modulations as in classical gratings. These new gratings have the potential for higher diffraction efficiencies than classical gratings, along with many other benefits. Eight gratings are currently being fabricated by Kaiser Optical Systems, Inc. (KOSI), Barden's collaborators in the grant, and are being evaluated at NOAO by Barden and J. Williams (a student hired by the grant). A 1200 line grating shows peak efficiency of 87% and a "complex" grating (actually two gratings in the same structure) shows a peak efficiency of 93% for one of the grating components. This study has helped spawn a new generation of spectrograph design. Many astronomical observatories (NOAO, AAO, Magellan, SOAR, ESO) are currently investigating spectrograph concepts that will utilize these novel gratings.
Future Research Plans Barden will continue to focus on evaluation of this new grating technology and on spectrograph designs that exploit their unique characteristics. Presentations on VPH technology will or have been given at several following meetings:
Reports to the NSF will be written. Barden is also writing numerous papers for submission to a variety of journals. A series of three to four papers on VPH technology will be written for the PASP to serve as a tutorial on this technology for the astronomical community. The Australian collaboration is also likely to produce a paper discussing some of the instrumental design issues related to this technology. Barden and his collaborators at KOSI will also likely publish a more theoretical paper in some optical journal based upon what was learned from the NSF study.
Service Hydra/CTIO. Barden served as co-project scientist with N. Suntzeff (CTIO) in the production of a multi- fiber positioner, Hydra/CTIO, which was based upon the same concept as Hydra/WIYN. He supervised and participated in the fiber cable construction and assembly, and in laboratory testing and evaluation of the robotic fiber positioner. Barden resided in Chile for the three-month commissioning period in early FY 1999. The instrument was successfully commissioned and is now available for scientific use.
Gemini CCD Controllers. Barden is project scientist for the Gemini CCD controllers.
US Community Liaison for Gemini Optical Instruments. Barden serves as the US Community liaison for the optical instruments being fabricated for the Gemini telescopes. In this role, he attends and participates in the design reviews for both GMOS and HROS. He is expected to assist at some level in the integration and testing of these instruments, as well as in the on-telescope commissioning.
Barden spent two weeks at the Anglo-Australian Observatory as a consultant for the development of a successful proposal to the AAO board to initiate a conceptual design study for a spectrograph based upon volume-phase holographic gratings. The instrument is called AAO Tunable Littrow Astronomical Spectrograph (ATLAS). It is being designed for the 4-meter AAT.
High Efficiency Spectrograph. Barden is leading the development of a wide-field, high efficiency spectrograph for the KPNO 4-meter based volume-phase holographic gratings. This instrument will be an imaging spectrograph with slitlets covering up to the full 40 arc-minute field of the telescope.
Committees. Barden currently serves on the Kitt Peak Science Planning Committee, which provides counsel to the KPNO director. His role with the Gemini CCD controllers also involves him in the Gemini Optical Instruments Science Working Group. In addition, he recently served on the international advisory committee for the conference on Imaging the Universe in Three Dimensions recently held in Walnut Creek, California.
Appendix D- 39 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff Scientific Staff Research and Service
Barden was also the recipient of the 1998 Muhlmann Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for his development of the Hydra multi-object instrument.
Jonathan Elias, Astronomer
Areas of Interest Star Formation and Evolution, Magellanic Clouds, Infrared Instrumentation.
Recent Research Results Elias's most recent research project has been an investigation of stellar mass loss in the Magellanic Clouds. In the later stages of their evolution, stars become red giants and lose mass. As material flows out from the star, it cools and dust forms. The dust is detectable at infrared wavelengths (if there is enough of it); it will also hide the star itself from view. The abundance of dust in the circumstellar material and the rate and velocity of mass loss may all depend on the abundance of heavy elements in the star losing mass, but it is not known in which ways. In order to see what actually happens, it is necessary to compare observations of stars with different heavy element abundances. As stars in the Magellanic Clouds have lower abundances than similar stars in the Galaxy, and since these galaxies are close enough for individual stars to be readily observable, they provide a useful basis for comparison.
Future Research Plans Elias's work to date shows that the data are consistent with the hypothesis that only the amount of dust depends on the heavy element abundance and that the two are directly proportional, while the overall mass loss rate is insensitive to abundance variations. Other workers suggest, though, that mass loss rates should be lower in stars with lower heavy element abundances. Few Magellanic Cloud mass-losing stars have been identified, especially in the Small Magellanic Cloud, so the evidence does not strongly favor one hypothesis over the other. Elias has obtained 1-15 micron data from the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) and from CTIO on selected regions of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The new data will provide much larger samples of mass-losing stars than have been available up to now and should settle the issue. The ISO data will be correlated with visible-wavelength and near-infrared data in order to obtain a fuller picture of the stars' properties.
A second project is being conducted jointly with D. Geisler and several other collaborators. This is a project to investigate the metal abundance distribution in the rich globular cluster systems surrounding giant elliptical galaxies. The metal abundance distributions in these systems are, in principle, diagnostic of the history of the host galaxies and should, therefore, help understand their evolution. However, most such systems are too distant to permit direct spectroscopic measurements, so the metallicities must be inferred from a surrogate index. The V-H color is sensitive to metallicity and relatively insensitive to other parameters, such as age. This particular color is well-suited to measurements with HST. The collaborators have been assigned HST time to observe the globular cluster systems around five distant giant ellipticals. In addition, M31 globular clusters have been observed from the ground in order to improve the calibration of the V-H color.
Service Elias's service during the last year has been primarily as project scientist for the Gemini Near-Infrared Spectrometer (GNIRS).
Appendix D - 40 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff SCIENTIFIC STAFF RESEARCH AND SERVICE
Kenneth H. Hinkle, Associate Support Scientist
Areas of Interest Circumstellar and Interstellar Matter, Molecular Spectroscopy, Peculiar Stars, Instrumentation.
Recent Research Results Over the past year, Hinkle has worked extensively on the high-resolution infrared spectrograph Phoenix. The project is scheduled for completion in 1999. During the commissioning phase of this instrument, observations have been completed on a few projects. With co-investigators B. McCall (U. of Chicago), T. Oka (U. of Chicago), and T. Geballe (Gemini), Hinkle has collaborated to measure the abundance of the H3+ ion in the interstellar medium. H3+ is formed as cosmic rays ionize molecular hydrogen. H3+ then reacts via a proton hop route to produce the wide variety of complex molecules observed by radio astronomers. H3+ is not easy to detect due to its symmetry and reactivity, and the nature of the spectrum. The first reported detection of H3+ in the diffuse interstellarmedium was based in part on Phoenix spectra. A second publication reports on H3+ in the diffuse interstellar medium along the line of sight to the Galactic Center and Cygnus OB2 No. 12. With N. Ryde, B. Gustafsson, and collaborators at Uppsala Astronomical Observatory (Uppsala, Sweden), Hinkle used Phoenix to map circumstellar emission in the infrared CO fundamental lines. A first paper on observations of resonant scattered CO emission near alpha Ori and R Leo has been submitted. Hinkle, in collaboration with P. Bernath (Waterloo) and R. Ram (U. of Arizona), has made a first effort at applying Phoenix to laboratory spectroscopy. A crygenic spectrograph has the advantage that it can record a laboratory spectrum very rapidly. As a result, it has applications in the study of unstable sources or in time-varying phenomena. First results have been published. Hinkle has also continued his work on variable stars, publishing with T. Lebzelter and J. Hron (U. of Vienna) a paper on the kinematics of short period, metal poor Mira variables. He has also continued his work with L. Wallace (KPNO) and W. Livingston (NSO) on standard stars with an atlas of the solar photospheric spectrum in the 3570-7405 A region (NSO Technical Report No. 98-001) and with Wallace, P. Bernath, and H. Li (Waterloo) with a paper on MgH in the solar spectrum.
Future Research Plans Hinkle has a diverse research program, involving infrared spectroscopy with Phoenix and other instru ments, as well as visual spectroscopy and infrared imaging. In the next year Hinkle will be continuing his work on circumstellar and interstellar chemistry. This research is concerned with the infrared detection of symmetric organic molecules. A search for interstellar methane in oxygen rich environments is being done with M. Kress (NASA Ames). Work on H3+ and CH3+ will continue with B. McCall and T. Oka (U. of Chicago). Hinkle and collaborators B. Hrivnak (Valparaiso) and S. Kwok (Calgary) have obtained Phoenix spectra of CO in the circumstellar shells of post-AGB proto-planetary nebulae transition stars. These data are now being reduced and should provide insight into the fast wind phase of planetary nebulae. Hinkle, R. Joyce (NOAO), and D. Lambert and V. Smith (U. of Texas) are continuing their observations of Sakurai's star and FG Sge. Both of these stars are believed to be undergoing a final post- AGB helium shell flash. Changes in the infrared spectra of both stars have occurred over the past few years. The infrared data will be used to probe the response of the circumstellar environment of these stars to the helium shell flash.
With L. Wallace (NOAO) and J. Valenti (NOAO), Hinkle is investigating rotation, magnetic field, and temperature determinations from high-resolution K band spectra of M dwarfs. For four years Hinkle, F. Fekel (Tennesee State), and R. Joyce (NOAO) have been periodically observing the infrared spectra of a group of late-type binary stars, including symbiotic systems, using the Coude Feed telescope. The detector is a HgCdTe array mounted in a dewar (NICMAS) on loan from M. Skrutskie (U. of Massachusetts). Accurate orbits are being measured from these data since only the infrared spectrum of the cool star is observed with no contribution from hot components (star and accretion disk) in these
Appendix D - 41 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff Scientific Staff Research and Service
systems. The observation phase of this programis ending in 1999, and they anticipate publishing a series of papers on the orbits. Hinkle, in a collaboration with L. Wallace, J. Valenti, and D. Harmer, is produc ing a high-resolution, high signal-to-noise atlas of the Arcturus spectrumin the visual. With R. Joyce and R. Probst (NOAO), Hinkle has undertaken infrared imaging of obscured stars in the LMC. The project is measuring the range of bolometric magnitude covered by obscured LMC stars in order to understand the mass loss process producing these objects.
Service Hinkle's service activities include being project scientist for the Phoenix spectrograph. This project started in 1991 and has accounted for nearly full-time effort by Hinkle since then. Hinkle has assumed a large amount of the management for the Phoenix project. In the next year Hinkle will be completing the documentation and improving the user interface as well as supporting user runs. The Phoenix project is a major observatory contribution to the community. Phoenix now allows high-resolution (R = 70,000) spectroscopy in the 1-5 micron infrared to much fainter limiting magnitudes than previously possible. Plans for Phoenix include installation on Gemini South in 2001. Hinkle will be the contact person in planning the installation on Gemini. Planning for this will start in 1999. Hinkle also maintains FTS spectra dating back to 1976 in an archive. Spectra are available upon request. While these spectra are only for bright objects, they are broad band and hence are still useful in planning observations. Hinkle is also the 2.1-m telescope scientist. In the past year he oversaw the installation of a seeing monitor on the 2.1-m. He has been active in improving maintenance at this facility, including painting and aluminizing. He is also developing a plan for modest improvements to this facility. Hinkle has also been active in planning for the wide-field infrared imager for Kitt Peak. He is a member of the KPNO science planning group.
K. Michael Merrill, Associate Support Scientist
Areas of Interest Star Formation, Young Stellar Objects, Interstellar Medium, Circumstellar Envelopes, Infrared Instmmentation, Array Technology, Data Acquisition and Reduction.
Recent Research Results L. Hillenbrand, S. Strom, and colleagues, including Merrill, have combined optical spectroscopy and photometric analysis of 1600 stars in order to investigate the evidencefor, and properties of, circumstellar disks. Using the measured near-infrared continuum excess as a primary disk diagnostic, they estimate the frequency of circumstellar disks and discuss the evidence for trends in the disk frequency with stellar mass (over the mass range < 0.1-50 Msun), stellar age (over the age range < 0.1-2 Myr), and projected cluster radius (over the radial range0-3 pc). They find that the fraction of stars retainingtheir inner (< 0.1 AU) circumstellar disks to the present time is at least 55%. There is no trend in the disk fraction with stellar age, at least not over the limitedage range of the cluster. More massive stars are less likely to have disks, consistent with a scenario in which the evolutionary time scales are more rapid for disks surrounding more massive stars than for disks surrounding less massive stars. They also find that the disk frequency begins to decrease toward the lowest masses, although objects of all masses (including those that appear to be substellar) can have disks. The disk frequency increases toward the cluster center. Following several lines of reasoning, the authors postulate that a large fraction of the disks associated with stars in the ONCare accretion disks. The observed trends with stellarage, stellarmass, and projected cluster radius in the disk frequency may, in fact, be driven primarily by trends in the disk accretion properties.
Observations of NGC6334 using SPIREX/ABU from the South Pole last season reached unprecedented levels of sensitivity within the 3-4 micron region. In conjunction with J. Jackson and colleagues (Boston
Appendix D- 42 NOAO ProvisionalProgram Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff ScientificStaffResearch and Service
U.) and I. Gatley (RIT), Merrill will be reporting on observations of diffuse 3.2-micron particulate emission and Brackett Alpha emission from ionized gas, which together track the UV flux within the region, and L band observations of the stellar content of the cloud. In combination with prior observations at JHK and long wavelengths, this study promises to shed new light on the star formation process and the early evolution of stars and their attendant circumstellar disks.
Future Research Plans The cosmic interface between "stellar systems engineering" and "practical astrophysics," which conspire to produce a continual supply of new stars, has been the object of continued fascination to astronomers for many decades with each new discovery somehow whetting the appetite for more. Following the SQIID upgrade, Merrill will resume the pioneering study of regions of active star formation which has awaited extension to a significantly wider field of view (4x area) and higher sensitivity (20x) with high relative stability. The unprecedented ability to survey large regions with absolutely registered JHK(L) imaging will give renewed impetus to systematic studies of the more global aspects of the star formation process, which had heretofore been stalled by the complexity of the observations and the attendant data reduction required to adequately sample the full luminosity range over a FOV measured in tens of arcminutes in the presence of heavy, patchy extinction. Statistically significant star counts, with derived mass and luminosity functions, and the detailed distribution of the attendant gas and dust will all be amenable to careful study for regions of star formation covering a wide range in distance, total mass, and age.
Using observations from SPIREX/ABU at the South Pole, Merrill will explore the spatial distribution of the 3.28-micron emission within the galactic center region to establish the excitation mechanism for the molecular hydrogen emission from the neutral material within the 80 arcsec diameter circum-nuclear ring surrounding the central engine of our galaxy. Within diverse environments, UV excited fluorescent H2 emission has been found to be intimately associated with 3.28-micron emission. Off-band observations at L would provide a sensitive search for the IR counterpart of central engine itself, Sgr A*.
Service As Infrared Imaging Scientist at KPNO, Merrill oversees the IR imagers and attendant visitor support at KPNO, including instrument setups and observer checkouts, and is a point of contact on performance issues for both proposers and the TAC during the proposal cycle. On assignment to ETS, he oversees NOAO (non-Gemini) IR instrumentation efforts and the IR R&D lab within ETS. He is project scientist for the KPNO SQIID upgrade to 512 x 512 InSb, which should see active service in the 2000A semester. As package scientist for the Gemini/NOAO Array Controller project and responsible scientist for the Aladdin InSb 1024 x 1024 IR array R&D effort, Merrill plays a significant role in developing the deploying state-of-the-art IR detection capability to the wider community. As the scientist responsible for user support of IR data reductions, he advises observers, programs and supports data reduction scripts, and interacts with the IRAF programming group to improve and extend IR specific capabilities within IRAF. In support of the opportunity for community observations at 3-5 microns from SPIREX/ABU at the South Pole, Merrill has been actively involved in data quality assessment, established the data pipeline in conjunction with colleagues at RIT, served on the TAC, and will oversee the execution of observations on behalf of SCOPE. He has been an active participant in outreach activities within the local schools (including teaching classes and coaching Science Olympiad teams), at scientific meetings, and providing images on request for assorted publications and for advocacy of community-wide efforts such as SIRTF and SOFIA. Merrill actively supported the AURA team effort on SOFIA (running observing simulations) and the STScI NICMOS team (detector characterization and analysis).
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Travis Rector, Outreach Astronomer
Areas of Interest Blazars, Active Galaxies, Novae in Local Group Galaxies, Gamma Ray Bursters, Multifrequency Observational Techniques, Research-Based Science Education.
Recent Research Results Rector has recently completed a multi-wavelength study of two complete samples of BL Lac objects: the radio-selected Uy sample (RBLs) and the X-ray-selected Einstein Medium Sensitivity Survey (EMSS) sample (XBLs). The primary goals of this work are: 1) to complete high-quality observations of both BL Lac samples to determine the full range of observed properties in BL Lac objects, and 2) to use these observations to test the validity of unification schemes which attempt to explain the relationship of RBLs and XBLs to each other and to other classes of AGN. While the properties of EMSS XBLs are consistent with a beamed FR-1 population, the Uy sample contains roughly equal numbers of beamed FR-ls and beamed FR-2s. There are also a few objects in both samples which may be gravitationally-lensed quasars. These results also suggest that RBLs are more closely related to other blazar classes than to XBLs.
Future Research Plans Rector is currently involved in the following research programs: 1) WIYN observations of the host galaxy and clustering environments of high-redshift BL Lacs (z > 0.5); 2) a spectroscopic search for "radio- intermediate" quasars; 3) high-resolution VLA mapping of gravitational-lensing candidates; 4) multi- epoch VLBA monitoring for superiuminal motion in XBLs; 5) an X-ray search for low-luminosity AGN in nearby "passive" ellipticals; 6) a spectroscopic study of the ROSAT-Green Bank sample of BL Lac objects; 7) a search for novae in Local Group galaxies; 8) a search for optical transients associated with gamma-ray bursts; and 9) spectroscopic monitoring of active M-stars.
Service Rector is a member of NOAO's educational outreach program and serves as NOAO's "outreach astronomer." He is the primary research astronomer for the Research-Based Science Education (RBSE) program. He is also a member of NOAO's team to search for optical transients of GRBs, which is underway at Kitt Peak National Observatory.
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NSO Scientific Staff: Research Interests and Service Roles
Karatholuvu Balasubramaniam, Associate Scientist
Areas of Interest Solar Activity Evolution, High-Resolution Solar Physics, Stokes Polarimetry, Solar Mass Ejections, Near- IR Magnetometry, Space Weather.
Future Research Plans Balasubramaniam (Bala) and S. L. Keil (NSO) will analyze data acquired during the past maximum observational data campaigns to seek velocity and magnetic field characteristics of active region evolu tion in support of the solar activity modeling initiative. This includes data obtained with the Narrow-Band Filter and the Advanced Stokes Polarimeter. Bala is also involved in understanding the magnetic field to heat conversion process in solar active regions.
Bala is a project scientist for the AF/ISOON network. He will be involved in the planning and execution of the prototype and the subsequent field models of the Air Force ISOON network, with the rest of the AF and NSO staff associated with the project. His tasks will include areas such as polarization module, polarization analysis, instrumental polarization characteristics, magnetic field derivation, Fabry-Perot (FP) spectral line/wavelength calibration, FP tuning bench tests at VTT, FP scattered light, spectrally and spatially, dark-current, gain table and gain calibration for CCD, specifically polarization, Forecast-Center display and analysis software, science analysis, testing of other software handles and connectivity, and documentation and coordination for the project.
Bala, Keil, and L. Milano (Cambridge Research Instruments) have started a program with the goal of understanding filament eruptions leading to mass ejections. This program involves studying full-disk Ha filament eruptions observed at Sac Peak, with a cadence of one minute. He will use the existing data, spread over several solar cycles to seek and analyze the physical characteristics leading to mass ejections. He will also work on the large-scale flow patterns of the Sun, seeking velocity driver signatures leading to solar mass ejections.
Bala and M. Sigwarth (NSO) are involved in a program of understanding high-resolution flux tube physics and its impact on the measured Stokes profiles. He is also collaborating with L. A. Smaldone (U. of Naples) and Y. Suematsu (National Astronomy Obs., Japan) on a project involving exploiting a micro- lens array for simultaneous spatial spectra in eruptive active regions. Bala is also working with Keil and C. Gullixson (AFRL) on the development of a near-IR imaging vector magnetograph.
Service !__! Bala is actively involved in the Research Experience for Undergraduates Program and the Summer Research Assistant Program at NSO/Sac Peak. He has organized four international workshops at Sac Peak. He holds the scientific charge for SP Library Operations and supervision. He is a member of the NSO/SP Telescope Allocation Committee. He advises non-NSO users on observing at NSO/SP facilities. He is the prime point of contact for public outreach questions on astronomy and also conducts public observatory tours from time to time. He contributes to the planning of the NSO Flagship Telescope, as well as other USAF/AFRL/VSBS and Observatory matters.
Jacques Beckers, Astronomer
Appendix D - 45 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff ScientificStaffResearch andService
Areas of Interest Solar Atmosphere, Astronomical Instmmentation, Atmospheric Seeing, Large Telescopes.
Recent Research Results None
Future Research Plans Beckers will continue with his high angular resolution observations of sunspots and chromospheric structure experiments in atmospheric tomography.
Service Beckers will continue site testing of potential sites for the Advanced Solar Telescope.
Michael Dulick, Assistant Scientist
Areas of Interest Molecular Spectroscopy, High-Resolution Fourier Transform Spectrometry, Study of Molecules of Astrophysical Interest.
Future Research Plans Dulick plans to continue using the McMath FTS to record laboratory spectra of diatomics in the infrared and visible to aid in the assignment of sunspot spectra. A significant portion of the analysis will entail the development of an effective intemuclear potential model for the electronic states of transition-metal diatomics in order to utilize information derived from low-temperature laboratory spectra in predicting the high-temperature spectra of sunspots. Dulick will also participate in projects to upgrade the detectors and data collection system for the FTS.
Service Dulick serves as the NSO FTS Instrument Scientist for visiting investigators funded under the NSF Chemistry grant for Laboratory Fourier Transform Spectroscopy, with specific duties that include providing assistance in the experimental design and setup, and the instructional use of the instrument.
Richard Dunn, Astronomer Emeritus
Areas of Interest High-Resolution Imaging, Instrumentation.
Future Research Plans Dunn plans to continue his work on improving the quality of resolution at the Vacuum Tower Telescope. He will also continue to consult on the upgrade to the Solar Observing Optical Network (SOON).
Mark Giampapa, Deputy Director, Astronomer
Areas of Interest Stellar Dynamos, Stellar Cycles and Magnetic Activity, Asteroseismology.
Appendix D - 46 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff ScientificStaff ResearchandService
Recent Research Results Giampapa and his colleagues, S. Baliunas (SAO) and R. Radick (AFRL), have completed a survey of chromospheric Ca II H and K line emission in the numerous solar counterparts in the solar-age and solar- metallicity open cluster M67, using the WIYN telescope with the Hydra multiobject spectrograph. The results indicate the range of potential amplitudes of the solar cycle through observations of about 100 Sun-like stars. This is critical to know in view of the impact of solar variations on long-term global climate changes. In addition, M. Giampapa and his collaborators have implemented a long-term program with WIYN/Hydra to begin an investigation of long-term variability analogous to what would be expected from cycle-like modulations of chromospheric activity.
Future Research Plans Giampapa intends to continue working on the above areas. As a member of the SONG (Stellar Oscillations Network Group), Giampapa will be participating in an HST experiment to detect p-mode oscillations in solar-type stars (PI: J. Valenti). In collaboration with C. Pilachowski (NOAO), S. Barden (NOAO/KPNO), J. Valenti (NOAO/KPNO), and D. Deming (NASA/GSFC), Giampapa is leading an effort to measure line bisectors in stars that have been reported to have Jupiter-like companions. The results will illustrate the potential contribution of intrinsic stellar atmospheric motions to apparent Doppler shifts that could be misinterpreted as being due to planetary companions. This investigation is supported by a grant from the NASA Origins of Solar Systems Program. The data for the project have been obtained at the McMath-Pierce and will be undergoing analysis in collaboration with an REU student during the summer of FY99.
Service Giampapa serves as the Deputy Director for the National Solar Observatory with specific responsibility for the Tucson/Kitt Peak program. In this role, he has overview responsibilities for the scientific and instmment development activities at NSO/T, including the SOLIS project, and the conduct and support for observing programs at the NSO McMath-Pierce Telescope Facility on Kitt Peak. Giampapa was recently elected to the Council of the Solar Physics Division of the AAS. Giampapa is the Instrument Scientist for the SOLIS Integrated Sunlight Spectrometer (ISS), chairman of the Tucson site Project Review Committee (PRC) and member of the full NSO PRC, and Program Scientist for the McMath- Pierce nighttime program, which is currently operated with grant funds contributed by Principal Investi gators. As Deputy Director, Giampapa assists the NSO Director in the development of program plans and budgets, including budgetary decisions and their implementation.
Giampapa is an Adjunct Astronomer at the University of Arizona. He also serves as a member of the editorial board for New Astronomy Reviews.
Jack Harvey, Astronomer
Areas of Interest Solar Magnetic and Velocity Fields, Helioseismology, Instmmentation.
Recent Research Results Recent research by Harvey has focussed on the solar magnetic field as the driver of solar activity. Working with post-doctoral associate John Worden (funded by an ONR grant), he studied the possibility that the intranetwork magnetic field component might be associated with ubiquitous tiny bright points that are observed a few hundred km above the photosphere. The clear result is that there is no association except for the largest and most persistent of the bright features. Harvey and Worden also completely overhauled the production of synoptic maps of the magnetic flux of the solar surface. The result is much
Appendix D - 47 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff Scientific Staff Research andService
better accuracy. In a related development, a new type of map was developed that shows a best estimate of the flux as a function of time everywhere on the solar surface with one-day time resolution. One immedi ate finding from this work was confirmation that small-scaleflux has to be replaced on the Sun every 2-3 days. They also found that a strong imbalance of the magnetic flux at the two solar poles has vanished in the last two years. This may well be related to an excess of coronal mass ejection activity in the Southern Hemisphere, but this notion needs to be studied in detail. Observations of the chromospheric magnetic field have revealed several new features that are not visible lower in the atmosphere. Perhaps the most intriguing new finding is a strong horizontal field found in close association with filament channels. Further study should help distinguish between the many theories of the formation of solar prominences.
Future Research Plans During FY 2000, Harvey will concentrate on the SOLIS and GONG upgrade projects. Scientific research will continue on studies of the polar magnetic field, intranetwork magnetic fields, the chromospheric magnetic field, and the evolution of solar activity.
Service Harvey performs observatory service as Chair of the NSO/KP TAC and NSO Scientific Personnel Committee, Instmment Scientist for the GONG project, Telescope Scientist for the KP Vacuum Tele scope, and Project Scientist for the SOLIS project. He expects to continue with those responsibilities. In the outsidecommunity, he serves on NASA and NSF reviewpanels and is a co-editorof the journal Solar Physics. He is associated with the recently successful Lockheed-Martin proposal to provide a focal plane package for the Japanese Solar-B mission.
Frank Hill, Scientist
Areas of Interest Helioseismology, Asteroseismology, Fluid Dynamicsof the Solar Convection Zone, the Solar Activity Cycle, Digital Libraries.
Recent Research Results Hill continues to perform research in helioseismology. Currently he is focusing his efforts on improving the estimates of the parameters that describe the features (peaks, ridges, rings) in the solar acoustic spectrum. These parameters are the fundamental data for helioseismology and provide the foundation on which rest all inferences about the solar interior. Consequently, Hill is working on advanced time-series analysis including multi-tapers and wavelet denoising with P. Stark (UC Berkeley), R. Komm, Y. Gu, and S. Jefferies, and with R. Howe on detailed calculations of the spatial leak structure arising from the non- orthonormality of spherical harmonics on a partial sphere. Hill is also working with Howe and Komm on solar cycle variations of the oscillation parameters. Recently they found a very tight correlation between the even frequency splitting coefficients and the corresponding components of the latitudinal surface distribution of the magnetic field. In addition, there is now preliminary observational evidence that the amplitudes and life times of the modes also evolve with the activity level. This work will continue as cycle 23 progresses. Finally, Hill is an active member of the Stellar Oscillation Network Group (SONG), which has been awarded 30 orbits of Hubble time in the July 1999quarter.
Service Hill serves as the GONG Data Scientist, developing algorithms for the reduction and analysis of data for global helioseismology. He serves as the NSO Digital Library Scientist, using an NSF Space Weather Program grant to place NSO data on-line and accessible over the Internet. This service is now available at the URL http://www.nso.noao.edu/diglib. Hill is also working on plans for the SOLIS data archive. Hill
Appendix D- 48 NOAO ProvisionalProgram Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff Scientific StaffResearch andService
typically supervises six staff members, currently three scientists, one programmer, and two data techni cians. Hill is a member of the NOAO Stellar Oscillation Network Group (SONG) Steering Committee, the IAU Commission 12 Organizing Committee, the IRIS helioseismology network Scientific Committee, and the NASA Space Physics Data System Solar Physics Discipline Team. Hill is a member of the NSO Telescope Allocation Committee. He participated in the Passport to Knowledge Live from The Sun program. Hill received the AURA Service Award for 1999.
Robert Howard, Astronomer Emeritus
Areas of Interest Observational Study of Surface Active-Region and Sunspot Orientations and Velocities as Diagnostics of Sub-Surface Conditions Related to the Dynamo Process in the Sun.
Recent Research Results Comparison of the Mount Wilson Observatory and Kodaikanal Observatory sunspot position and area data for individual sunspots and sunspot groups over an interval of many decades during this century has revealed that subtle optical aberrations at both sites affect the rotation results. Careful corrections to the data for these effects from both sites, in collaboration with K. R. Sivaraman and S. S. Gupta (Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, India), has led to the constmction of a dataset consisting of data from both these sites. This is without doubt the most comprehensive and accurate set of sunspot positional data in existence. Among the results from the new datasets is a confirmation of the earlier conclusion that the rotation rate of the Sun, as measured by sunspot motions, shows a marked increase during the mini mum phase of the activity cycle. This increase appears for sunspots of all sizes, thus suggesting that it is not due to an increase in the relative number of smaller (and thus faster rotating) sunspots at the minimum phase. Since the Kodaikanal data were obtained with an optical system that is identical to that used for the Greenwich sunspot data, it is clear that the Greenwich data, which have been used by many investigators over many years for studies of sunspot dynamics, suffer from the same positional errors due to optical aberrations.
Future Research Plans Howard will continue studies of surface characteristics of solar active regions as diagnostics of sub surface flux tube dynamics. This work promises to shed light on the dynamo process that is believed to operate near the base of the solar convection zone. These studies are being carried out in part in collabo ration with P. Gilman (HAO, Boulder), and Sivaraman and Gupta. Analysis of the Mount Wilson and Kodaikanal data will continue during the next year. Other work by Howard utilizes the Mount Wilson sunspot dataset and the Mount Wilson magnetic active region dataset, put together by Howard several years ago. These studies will center on effects, such as the Coriolis force and magnetic tension in the subsurface flux loops, that govern the orientations and motions of the magnetic field lines that emerge to form active regions.
Service Howard provides editorial assistance for all NSO documents (quarterly reports, the NOAO Newsletter, etc.).
Rachel Howe, Junior Scientist
Areas of Interest Helioseismology, The Solar Activity Cycle, Peak Fitting.
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Recent Research Results With R. Komm (NSO) and F. Hill (NSO), Howe has been studying the variation of mode frequencies and splitting coefficients from GONG data in the new solar cycle. A paper on this subject has recently been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal.
In collaboration with J. Christensen-Dalsgaard (Aarhus, Denmark), M.J. Thompson (Queen Mary and Westfield College, UK), J. Schou (Stanford) and others, Howe continues to study the rotational structure of the Sun based on MDI and GONG data. Recently this group, together with Komm and Hill, has been carrying out a major exercise in comparing GONG and MDI results from the same three-month period in an attempt to clarify the systematics involved in the analysis methods. This work was presented at the GONG'99 workshop and is currently being prepared for publication.
Howe continues to work on improved techniques for estimating mode parameters from GONG data in regimes where the standard GONG PEAKFIND algorithm is unsuitable.
Future Research Plans Howe intends to continue working on the above areas.
Service In addition to the research activities described above, Howe shares with Komm the (informal) responsi bility for checking the results of the GONG PEAKFIND analysis. Howe served on the Local Organizing Committee for the GONG '99 workshop.
Stephen L. Keil, Director, NSO
Areas of Interest Solar Activity and Variability, Astronomical Instmmentation, Solar Convection and Magnetism.
Recent Research Results Working with K. Balasubramaniam (ARFL/NSO) and L. Milano (CRI), Keil has shown that the amount of vorticity in surface flows in the solar photosphere and in proper motions in the chromosphere increases significantly before activity events such as prominence eruptions and flares.
Future Research Plans Keil will organize efforts to define an advanced high-resolution solar telescope. He will continue working with Balasubramaniam and Milano on surface motions as precursors to solar activity and attempt to quantify the results. He is also investigating changes in chromospheric emissions through measurements of the Ca II K-line in both integrated flux and spatially resolved spectroheliograms. This work is part of a program to understand variations of the solar ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet flux as inputs to the terrestrial atmosphere. He is also part of a team developing all-sky cameras for measuring solar mass ejections as they propagate through the interplanetary medium. These cameras will be flown on the DoD CORIOLIS mission in 2001.
Service Keil is Director of the National Solar Observatory and a member of the High Altitude Observatory advisory panel, and he works closely with NSO and NOAO educational outreach programs.
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Christoph Keller, Associate Astronomer
Areas of Interest Solar Magnetic Fields, Asteroseismology, High-precision Imaging Polarimetry, Image Reconstruction Techniques, Telescope and Instmment Design.
Recent Research Results Speckle polarimetry with the Dunn Solar Telescope has provided images of 79 individual magnetic elements close to disk center in the quiet network at a spatial resolution approaching 0.2. The average filling factor of 0.73 indicates that many of the elements are almost spatially resolved. A statistical analysis of these elements shows that almost all of them are brighter in white light than the average solar photosphere, in contrast to magnetic elements in plages. Typical diameters range from 200 to 400 km; magnetic fluxes range from 2el7 to 3el8 Mx.
Future Research Plans Apart from working on SOLIS, which will use the major fraction of Keller's time during the next two years, he will use the McMath-Pierce facility to investigate scattering polarization in the photosphere and the chromosphere, which gives new insight into atoms and molecules and their radiation in the solar atmosphere and properties of weak, turbulent magnetic fields. Observations with the Dunn Solar Tele scope using adaptive optics in combination with phase-diverse speckle imaging will be used to study the dynamics of magnetic elements.
Service Keller is the telescope scientist for the McMath-Pierce Telescope. He provides observing support at the McMath-Pierce and sometimes at the Sacramento Peak facilities. He is the lead scientist for the real-time software and hardware efforts for SOLIS and co-leads the Vector-Spectromagnetograph effort. Keller is a member of the local and NSO-wide Project Review Committees and the NOAO Exploration of Technology group.
Rudolf Komm, Junior Scientist
Areas of Interest Helioseismology, Dynamics of the Solar Convection Zone, Solar Activity Cycle, Rotation and Meridional Motion of Sunspots.
Recent Research Results Komm continues to perform research in helioseismology. With three years of GONG data available, it is possible to study the solar cycle variation of acoustic mode parameters in unprecedented detail. He is working on the variation of mode frequency with F. Hill (NSO) and R. Howe (NSO). Komm is working on improving the estimates of the mode parameters of the solar acoustic oscillations which are the funda mental data for helioseismology. Improved estimates are required to make substantial progress in the understanding of the solar interior. He is also working on advanced time-series analysis such as multi- tapers and wavelet denoising with P. Stark (UC Berkeley), Hill, and S. Jefferies (NSO).
Future Research Plans Komm will continue studies of the solar cycle variation of mode parameters of solar oscillations with the focus on mode width and amplitude and on different time scales and heights in the atmosphere. He will
Appendix D - 51 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff ScientificStaffResearchandService
continue to study advanced time-series analysis techniques in order to evaluate their usefulness for helio seismology, and will also study the solar rotation and meridional motion of solar surface tracers such as sunspots in collaboration with J. Javaraiah (Bangalore, India).
Service Komm continues to participate in Project Astro.
John Leibacher, Astronomer
Areas of Interest Helioseismology, Atmospheric Dynamics.
Recent Research Results The first results from the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) are beginning to emerge, ranging from the thermodynamics and kinematic structure of the solar interior, to the effect of spatial inhomogeneities on the p-modes, to the atmospheric response of the resonant and non-resonant sound
waves.
Future Research Plans Leibacher will be devoting the majority of his efforts to assuring GONG's technical and scientific success. He will also continue work on techniques of time series analysis and chromospheric oscillations. Ideas about the observational signature of the convective excitation of p-mode oscillations and the detec tion of gravity modes will be pursued with data from GONG, as well as the SOI/MDI instmment onboard the SOHO spacecraft.
Service Leibacher serves as the Director of the GONG program. He serves on the editorial board of the journal SolarPhysics and also chairs the Goddard Space Flight Center's Space Sciences Visiting Committee and the AAS Solar Physics Division's Hale Prize Committee.
Haosheng Lin, Assistant Astronomer
Areas of Interest Solar Irradiance Variations, Infrared Measurements of Solar Magnetic Fields.
Future Research Plans Lin will continue to work on the constmction and implementation of the Precision Solar Photometric Telescope (PSPT)for the RISE project. He has installedtwo PSPT instmments, one at the Observatory of Rome, Italy and another at Mauna Loa Solar Observatory, Hawaii. A third PSPT instmment was installed at the National Solar Observatory Sacramento Peak site and is currently being tested for its optical performance. It will join the PSPT network shortly. Daily high photometric precision full-disk data in the Ca II K wavelength and in the blue continuum at 4096 are now available to the solar community from the instmments in Italy and Hawaii. This is the initial process for building a database spanning a solar cycle for studies of the total solar irradiance variations observed from satellite experiments. In the short term, Lin is interested in using these data for studying the energy balance of active regions and the continuum contrast of faculae and network elements; he will also search for brightness structures that may be related to large-scale flow on the Sun.
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Lin plans to continue his work on infrared measurements of solar magnetic fields. He constructed a polarization analyzer that is tunable from 1 to 2 microns, and integrated it with the IR array system at Sac Peak. This new IR capability at Sac Peak now allows the measurement of solar magnetic field over a broad range of solar features. Lin used this new IR polarimeter to obtain new data on the intra-network magnetic fields, simultaneous photospheric and chromospheric level vector magnetic fields using the Fe I 15648 A and He I 10830 A lines, and filament magnetic field using the He I 10830 A lineas well. He will continue to explore the potential of this new instmment, including coronal magnetic field measurement using theinfrared FeXiii line at 10746 A and 10797 A lines.
William Livingston, Astronomer Emeritus
Areas of Interest Solar Magnetic Fields, Solar Rotation, Solar Spectrum Variability with Time (Sun-as-a-Star), IR Spectrum Atlases.
Recent Research Results Making use of the McMath-Pierce all-reflective system, Livingston has obtained exploratory observations of prominences in Pfund (3 (4.6 p.), Bracket a (4.0 p.), Balmer a (0.65 p.), Balmer [3 (0.48 p.), and Ca K (0.39 p.). It is found that while the visible lines are usually optically thick, resulting in sampling of only the prominence skin, the IR lines are optically thin. This means the IR lines penetrate the complete prominence body. C. Wenda (Yunnan Obs.) is currently modeling the results.
Livingston continues his long-term monitoring of the Sun's irradiance spectrum. In collaboration with O.R. White (HAO/NCAR), they have a continuous record since 1974 of the behavior of chromospheric Calcium H and K, Helium 10830, Ha 6562, Calcium 8542, photospheric Carbon 5380, Beryllium 3131, and various iron lines. Some long-term secular trends have been discovered, indicating subtle alterations in the solar output. The ISS (solar high dispersion spectrometer) of SOLIS will eventually take up this program on a daily basis. The present aim is to overlap ISS and the present 13.5-m spectrograph data streams so they can be tied together.
Livingston also makes two to three observations per year with the 1-m FTS. This archive goes back to 1980 and is an attempt to track spectrum line asymmetry arising from the average convective motions of the three million plus granules on the disk. It could be that the weak fields mentioned above suppress in a variable way granular convection, possibly another link in the Sun-Climate relation.
Future Research Plans Livingston plans to continue with the above programs, especially the spectrum monitoring.
Service Livingston acts as the resource person for phone queries and other requests for solar information. He is helping Turkish astronomers prepare for the August 11, 1999 total eclipse, including a post-eclipse international meeting on eclipses..
A. Keith Pierce, Astronomer Emeritus
Areas of Interest Instmmentation, Limb Effect, Spectroheliograms.
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Future Research Plans Pierce will continue studies of solar wavelengths leading to information on meridional flows, the Einstein gravitational red shift, and the center-to-limb variations in the profiles of selected solar lines chosen to represent different heights in the atmosphere and different physical conditions. He will also continue studies of seeing and optical problems in the McMath Telescope, including scattered light and better methods of cleaning and supporting mirrors.
Douglas Rabin, Associate Astronomer
Areas of Interest Magnetic Fields and Atmospheric Structure.
Recent Research Results Rabin has been investigating the three-dimensional structure of the solar atmosphere, from the base of the photosphere to the inner corona. There is a growing realization that classical one-dimensional models of stellar atmospheres may fail at a basic level because, at any given moment, the "average" conditions embodied in the model exist almost nowhere in the actual (inhomogeneous and dynamic) atmosphere. Rabin is collaborating with T. Ayres (U. of Colorado) and T. A. Clark and M. Bergman (U. of Calgary) to develop this concept through direct measurements of the temperature field in the low chromosphere using vibration-rotation lines of the carbon monoxide molecule in the infrared near 4.8 microns. Clark, Bergman, and Rabin recently broadened their exploration of molecular diagnostics to OH and H20, achieving for the first time a two-dimensional map of water vapor in a sunspot. Rabin reviewed contem porary research on chromospheric fibrils for a forthcoming Encyclopedia ofAstronomy and Astrophysics. Rabin and C. Keller (NSO) continued their attempt to measure magnetic fields in the low corona using the ZEMPOL polarimeter at the NSO Evans Facility coronagraph. Their second ran, on a bench spectrograph well matched to the requirements for spectral and spatial resolution, yielded a much better signal in the coronal green line than the initial ran on the Littrow spectrograph. There was no detectable circular polarization signal because the sky background was too bright. Another ran is planned.
Future Research Plans In the coming year, Rabin plans to continue research on the temperature minimum region using infrared spectroscopy in collaboration with Ayres, Clark, Bergman, H. Uitenbroek (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), and F. Hill (NSO). Rabin and Keller will continue their attempt to measure coronal magnetic fields. Rabin and D. Jaksha (NSO) hope to begin hardware development for a large-format infrared camera based on an Aladdin array (resulting from the NOAO/USNO collaboration) and a commercially available array controller. Rabin may participate in a NASA study of a space-borne ultraviolet magnetograph and imager.
Service Rabin leads the solar infrared effort on Kitt Peak and is a member of the SOLIS Vector Spectromagneto- graph team. He serves on the NSO/Kitt Peak Telescope Allocation Committee and Project Review Committee. He serves on the organizing committee for the proposed NSF Solar Magnetism Initiative and the advisory committee for the NSF Radiative Inputs from the Sun to Earth (RISE) program.
Thomas Rimmele, Associate Astronomer
Areas of Interest Adaptive Optics, Small-Scale Magnetic Fields, Active Region Dynamics, Helioseismology.
Appendix D - 54 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: ScientificStaff Scientific Staff Research and Service
Recent Research Results Rimmele has recently published results from high-resolution observations of umbral fine structure. He found evidence for oscillatory magnetoconvection in a sunspot light bridge. Oscillatory convection in strong magnetic fields has been predicted by theoretical models but never observed before. Rimmele collaborates with P. Goode and L. Strous (NJIT) and Tuck Stebbins (JILA) in the study of the excitation of solar oscillations. Their observations show that acoustic power is generated in intergranular lanes and give a detailed description of the mechanism responsible for the conversion of convective energy into acoustic energy. They are also able to show that the acoustic energy is fed into the resonance modes of the Sun.
Future Research Plans Rimmele is leading the adaptive optics program at NSO. In particular, he is developing techniques for wavefront sensing for extended objects. Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), he is developing the active optics system at the Dunn Solar Telescope at Sac Peak, which corrects optical aberrations that vary on slow time scales and also serves as a testbed for further development of adaptive optics. He is planning to build a low-order (~ 20 modes) adaptive optics system within the next two years as an intermediate step toward a full-up adaptive optics system. The low-order AO system will provide diffraction limited imaging during reasonable seeing conditions. Rimmele will continue his efforts to perform observations at the highest spatial resolution, using frame selection techniques, in order to study the properties and the dynamics of small-scale magnetic elements.
Service In an ongoing effort, Rimmele is working with R. Radick (NSO/SP/AFRL) and R. Dunn (NSO/SP) on improving optical performance of the Dunn Solar Telescope (DST). Rimmele is developing narrow-band filter capabilities for the DST using Fabry-Perots and participates in an ongoing effort to upgrade CCD detectors at NSO/SP. Rimmele serves as Chair of the Sac Peak site Project Review Committee and is co- investigator for the CLEAR design study.
Michael Sigwarth, Postdoctoral Research Associate
Areas of Interest Solar Magnetic Fields, Flux Tube Dynamics, Polarimetry, Two-Dimensional Spectroscopy, High- Resolution Observation.
Recent Research Results Sigwarth has recently published results on high-resolution polarimetry with the Advanced Stokes Polarimeter (ASP) at the Dunn Solar Telescope (DST) in combination with additional imaging and spec troscopy. The spatial and spectroscopic resolution of the data allowed investigations of vertical velocities in magnetic elements of the Network, Internetwork and active region and their non-magnetic vicinity. Individual flux tubes show strong dynamic behavior as predicted by numerical models. From time series, direct evidence for the formation of kG flux tubes by convective collapse is found.
Future Research Plans By using the low-degree adaptive optics system at the DST and by upgrading the ASP camera system, Sigwarth and his collaborators plan to increase the spatial resolution and the sensitivity for quantitative polarimetry to about 0.4 arcsec (0.2 arcsec pixel scaling). This will provide better data for studying the formation of flux tubes and the interaction of magnetic fields with convective motions, and will allow comparison of the observations with numerical models.
Appendix D - 55 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff Scientific Staff Research and Service
A double-etalon two-dimensional spectrometer will be installed, tested, and used with the adaptive optics system at the DST in order to perform high-resolution spectroscopy and polarimetry of active regions and quiet sun network magnetic fields.
Service Sigwarth assists on observations with the HAO/NSO Advanced Stokes Polarimeter and with handling, calibrating, and analyzing the data. He is also developing software for handling and analyzing two- dimensional spectroscopic data.
Raymond Smartt, Astronomer
Areas of Interest Coronal and Prominence Dynamics, Coronagraphic Instmmentation, and Narrow-Band Tunable Filters.
Recent Research Results Coronal Loop Interactions (CLIs) are observed in the emission of the two visible coronal lines, 530.3 nm (FeXIV; T - 2 x 106 K) and 637.5 nm (FeX; T- 106 K). They are evident as transient brightenings, lasting at least several minutes, appearing first in the higher-temperature (530.3 nm) line and a few minutes later in the 637.5 nm line. This time interval between brightening onset of these two lines is interpreted as evidence of cooling of the plasma following the initial interaction. Interactions are seen to occur when two, or more, loops come into partial contact. Similar brightenings are also observed in Yohkoh soft X-ray (SXR) data (for example, Shimizu et al., 1994) and also in extreme-UV observations from CDS/SOHO (for example, Mathews and Harra-Murnion, 1997), and at least some images show evidence that these are CLI events. However, single loop brightenings have also been reported in the space data (for example, Shimuzu et al., 1992). E. Kh. Kaghashvili (CfA) has further developed the "non- rotating plane" twisted magnetic flux tube model (see, for example, Lau, 1995), and he and Smartt have investigated this model as a possible mechanism to explain both single- and two-loop brightening events. Rotation of the footpoints of a coronal loop in the same sense gives rise to a non-rotating plane within the loop, the location of this plane is dependent on the relative amount of rotation between the two footpoints and, hence, of the averaged rotational momentum deposition to each footpoint. It can be shown that this mechanism would result in maximum energy deposition at the site of the non-rotating plane in a single loop, which appears consistent with the observed brightenings. In the case of two interacting loops, non- rotating planes within the loops would migrate to the localized region of interaction, resulting in an increase in the level of energy release due to the magnetic pinch effect (Sakai, 1993).
Future Research Plans The above model will be extended to explore in more detail the consequences of its application to single coronal loop brightenings, two-loop brightenings, and to CLIs in general.
Service Smartt is principally responsible for the development of the science exhibits in the NSO/SP Visitor Center, which continues as a major effort covering a wide variety of displays. He is Chair of the NSO/SP Telescope Allocation Committee and also serves as a member of the NSO Scientific Personnel Committee. Smartt is a Co-I on the LASCO instrument of SOHO and on other space instrumentation proposals. He continues to be involved with specific optical instrumentation development and provides assistance as needed on various aspects of instmmentation development and refurbishment at NSO/SP.
Appendix D - 56 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff ScientificStaff Research andService
Clifford Toner, Assistant Scientist
Areas of Interest Global and Local Helioseismology, Image Restoration, Data Analysis Techniques.
Future Research Plans Toner, S. Jefferies, and T. Toutain (Observatoire de Nice) have confirmed the theoretical prediction (T. Toutain, G. Berthomieu, and J. Provost, 1999, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 344, 188) that the p-mode amplitude in the continuum peaks very near the solar limb. They also found that the low-frequency solar background decreases at the limb. The combination of low background and high oscillation signal makes the solar limb an ideal place to look for low-frequency oscillations such as g-modes. The detection of solar g-modes would substantially increase our knowledge of the deep solar interior.
Toner, S. Jefferies, R. Garcia (Service d'Astrophysique, France), and P. Palle (Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Spain) have developed a data analysis technique which can substantially increase the signal-to- noise ratio in solar oscillation spectra by reducing the contamination due to incoherent noise. This allows more precise measurements of the oscillation parameters (e.g., frequency, line width, etc.) and has allowed the detection of modes that previously were lost in the background noise.
Toner has been developing an algorithm for merging GONG data at the image level. This is in preparation for the upgrade of the GONG instruments to higher resolution cameras (GONG+) so that the Project can begin using GONG data for local helioseismology.
Service Toner performs observatory service as Assistant Data Scientist for the GONG project. He is also involved in the NOAO Educational Outreach Program, having given talks and demonstrations at schools and at Boy/Cub Scout functions.
Appendix D - 57 NOAO Provisional Program Plan FY 2000: Scientific Staff
NOAO Management
Sidney Wolff Director, NOAO
Richard Green Director, KPNO - Deputy Director, NOAO
Stephen Keil Director, NSO - Associate Director, NOAO
Todd Boroson Director, USGP/SCOPE - Associate Director, NOAO
Malcolm Smith Director, CTIO - Associate Director, NOAO
"l Alistair Walker Assistant Director, CTIO
Mark Giampapa Deputy Director, NSO
John Leibacher Project Director, GONG
Pat Eliason Manager, GONG Project
Jeremy Wagner Manager, SOLIS Project
Larry Daggert Manager, Engineering and Technical Services (ETS)
Steve Grandi Manager, Central Computer Services (CCS)
Larry Klose Manager, Central Administrative Services (CAS)
Sandra Abbey Human Resources Manager
Glen Blevins Financial Manager
James Tracy Controller
John Dunlop Manager, Central Facilities Operations (CFO) & Kitt Peak Facilities (KPF)
Jane Price Manager, Public Outreach
Robert Barnes Assistant to the Director, KPNO
Rex Hunter Administrative Manager, NSO - Sacramento Peak
Appendix E-1 NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: NOAO Management
DEFERRED MAINTENANCE FY 2000
Facilities Maintenance NOAO must maintain a large physical plant at five different locations—La Serena, Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachon, Kitt Peak, Sacramento Peak, and Tucson. Inasmuch as we have never received a special appropriation to support this mainte nance, we must maintain the facilities in good repair through regular allocations of funding. In addition to regularly sched uled maintenance, each year we address issues of deferred maintenance. Deferred maintenance is defined as maintenance that must be regularly scheduled at intervals longer than one year to keep buildings in good working order and to prevent deterioration of the physical plant. Deferred maintenance does not include the costs of upgrading Sea level facilities facilities—e.g., providing high bandwidth wiring to support computer networks. FY 2000 maintenance ($1,543 K) facilities maintenance projects at each site are described below. as a percentage of total NOAO supportinfra Cerro Tololo Facilities structure ($5,548 K). • Tololo Water System The San Carlos water line (CTIO's only water supply) is nearing the end of its expected 25-year useful life. Portions of it are worn or pitted from the action of iron-eating bacteria and must be replaced.
• Fire Prevention and Fire Fighting Fire prevention and fire fighting equipment will be installed in the kitchen and dormitories.
• Vehicle Fleet Renovation CTIO maintains a vehicle fleet for transportation of both personnel and goods, especially between La Serena and Cerro Tololo, as well as heavy equipment to maintain the road and to support access to Cerro Pachon. We have developed a schedule for regular and timely replacement.
• Stand-By Power Generatorfor La Serena Headquarters National brownouts are a frequent occurrence in Chile during drought years. An emergency power system is in place at Cerro Tololo. These funds will provide backup power in La Serena.
Cerro Tololo Road Improvement CTIO Facilities Program - FY 2000 The greatest safety problem at CTIO continues to be accidents on the access road to Tololo. In recent years Projects (Dollars in Thousands) Est. Cost CTIO has installed -1 km of guard rails in sectors of the Water line, Tololo $ 25 greatest potential danger. In order to continue offering Fire prevention equipment 30 greater protection to people using the road, an estimate of Vehicle fleet renovation 50 a further 9,700 meters (~ 6 miles) of guard rail are needed, Stand-by generator (La Serena HQ) 55 at a cost of ~ US$31/linear meter (US$50 K per mile, total Main access road to Tololo & Pachon 75
Total CTIO $235
Appendix F -1: NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan Deferred Maintenance FY 2000 Deferred Maintenance FY 2000
US$300 K). There is also a need for guard rails on the road to Cerro Pachon. We will continue to reserve some funds each year to make progress on the installation of guard rails.
Kitt Peak Facilities KPNO Facilities Program - FY 2000
Kitt Peak Facilities (KPF) is responsible for maintaining Project ((Dollars in Thousands) Est. Cost 85,000 SF of scientific space and approximately 58,000 SF of Replace water, sewer, power & $ 30 general support and residential space, as well as the utility telephone lines infrastructure and distribution systems, the water collection Energy management 15 and treatment plant, and emergency response services. General building & dome repairs 40 Lodging and food services are provided to staff and visitors Water plant/system improvements 15 on a reimbursable basis. Transportation services maintain Road repairs 10 vehicles and heavy equipment for mountaintop usage, as well Vehicle replacement 15 as for transportation of people and equipment to/from Tucson. Building & lightning ground systems 10
Tribal skills outreach 15 • Replace Water, Sewer, Power, and Telephone Lines Emergency services support 10 Large portions of the underground utilities were 4-m aluminizing tank enclosure 40 installed in the early 1960s and are well past their expected lifetime. The allocated funds are part of a Total KPNO $ 200 continuing program to replace lines as damage requires.
• Energy Management Controlling energy usage is critical to reducing operating costs for the Kitt Peak facility. A multi-year program has been developed to replace lighting fixtures and other components with new, energy efficient systems.
• General Building and Dome Repairs A program is in place for repairs, painting, and reroofing, as well as maintenance to the internal lighting, electrical, communication, and water distribution systems.
• Water Plant/System Improvements Kitt Peak relies on collected rainfall for its water. In dry years, water must be tracked to the summit. The collection system is being reviewed to identify changes that will increase the collection capacity. The processing plant has been in use for over 25 years and must be upgraded to meet new EPA standards.
• Road Repairs The extremes of weather on Kitt Peak cause severe damage to the asphalt surfaces, requiring periodic repair and resealing.
• Vehicle Replacement Through GSA surplus and targeted acquisitions, we plan to upgrade our mountain- based fleet of aging heavy equipment and reduce operating and repair costs.
Appendix F- 2: NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan DeferredMaintenance FY2000 Deferred maintenance FY 2000
• Building & Lightning Grounding Systems Lightning regularly causes damage to equipment on Kitt Peak, particularly during the monsoons. We plan to improve the grounding systems in order to minimize damage from lightning strikes during the monsoon season.
• Tribal Skills Outreach As part of our educational outreach programs, KPNO facilities staff is working with the Tribal Skills Center to develop training opportunities for tribal members. Individuals are employed within the facilities group on a temporary, part-time basis to supplement their classroom training and enhance their skills.
• Emergency Services Support In accordance with increasingly stringent regulatory requirements, we must provide medical and fire skills training on a routine basis to staff. Equipment and supplies are needed to maintain response capabilities.
• 4-M Aluminizing Tank Enclosure The 4-m aluminizing facility is the only large coating chamber routinely available to astronomy organizations. More than half the mirrors coated each year belong to organizations other than NOAO. The process can be made more efficient if the tank is enclosed in a clean area with space for preparing the blanks for coating.
Tucson Facilities Central Facilities Operations (CFO) primarily services Tucson CFO Facilities Program - FY 2000 the needs of the >330 people who make use of the Project (Dollars in Thousands) Est. Cost space in Tucson. (About one-third are visiting Energy Management Control $ 10 astronomers or scientific personnel funded for special Shuttle Vehicle Replacement 50 projects or through outside grants.) CFO maintains the Correction & Upgrade of HVAC System 10 nine-building Tucson facility (approximately 137,000 Replacement of Main Cooling Tower 10 SF) and provides technical support to the Kitt Peak site General Building Repairs and 30 and to various projects (e.g., SOAR, Gemini, GONG, Maintenance etc.) as requested. Tucson also provides the single Fire/Security Alarm System Replacement 40 safety officer for all northern hemisphere locations. Total $150
• Energy Management Control The reduction in energy usage has significantly reduced operating costs for the Tucson facility. We plan to continue minor improvements to offset anticipated utility rate increases.
• Shuttle Vehicle Replacement A shuttle fleet is utilized for transportation of staff and visitors to/from Kitt Peak as well as for staff travel. To maintain safe highway vehicles, we purchase an average of three vehicles each year . We are facing increased costs because of Federal
Appendix F - 3: NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan Deferred Maintenance FY 2000 Deferred Maintenance FY 2000
Government requirements for alternatively fueled vehicles. Theserequirements will also probably compel us to install fuel storage systems.
• Replacement ofMain Cooling Tower The tower was installed in 1966 and has been repaired and upgraded three times to extend its life span. It must now be replaced in order to ensure operation at peak efficiency and minimum utility cost.
• Correction and Upgrade ofHVACsystem Because of its piecemeal construction, the headquarters building has several heating and air conditioning problems. Changes within the HVAC systemare necessary to replaceinefficient components (pumps, fans, motors, bearings, etc.) and to modify operations to enable correct operation to meet environmental demands.
• General Building Repairs and Maintenance Maintenance of the Tucson facility requires repairs, painting, and reroofing, as well as maintenance of the internal lighting, electrical, communication, and water distribution systems.
• Fire/Security Alarm System Replacement After a major break-in and several thefts,we are upgrading our security systems and we also plan to replace the obsolete fire detection system.
Facilities Maintenance: NSO - Sac Peak The FY 2000 NSO/SP budget includes approximately $25K for items above the normal reactive maintenanceprogramand NSO-Sac Peak Facilities Program - FY 2000
approximately$20K from housing revenues above the normal Projects (Dollars in Thousands) Est Cost housing maintenance. General funds will be used to start Commercial/telescope painting $ 15 repainting telescope and commercial buildings and to begin up Lighting upgrades 10 grading the lighting. The housing revenue funds will be carried Road re-surfacing (carry-over) 20 over to FY 2001 to do road repair in the housing areas. In addi Cloudcroft facility/RCA bldg. 50 tion, the NOAO Long Range Plan lists as other maintenance demolition*
tasksthe demolishing of the Cloudcroft facility/ RCA building Staff vehicle* 20 and a new staff vehicle which will be funded through year-end Total $115 funds if they are available. These items were carried forward from FY 1999 because funds were not available at that time. * FY 2000 year-endfunds ifavailable
• Commercial/Telescope Painting A numberof commercial and telescope buildings requirepainting: the Main Lab, Hilltop Telescope, andtheEvans SolarFacility. Thiswill be a multi-year project.
• Lighting Upgrades Commercial lighting around the Peak is 1960svintage and upgrades would reduce utilitycosts and improve the working environment. The Main Lab and shop areas are highest priority for replacement. This is also a multi-yearproject.
Appendix F - 4: NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan Deferred Maintenance FY2000 Deferred Maintenance FY 2000
... • Road Resurfacing The roads in the housing area are in very bad condition, which causes higher on going maintenance costs and damage to vehicles. The housing rent revenue will be carried over to FY 2001 to begin resurfacing these roads.
• Cloudcroft Facility NASA recently spent over $175K in renovation of the main telescope building at the Cloudcroft Telescope Facility. Other buildings, in particular the RCA building, are in poor condition and require attention. The RCA Building will cost approximately $50K to demolish. This will remove an ongoing maintenance and potential safety problem.
• Staff Vehicles All but one of Sac Peak's staff vehicles are over 10 years old and have more than 100K miles on them. These vehicles are heavily used by personnel to travel long distances in remote areas of New Mexico and Arizona and failures could cause hazardous situations.
Facilities Maintenance: NSO - Kitt Peak In contrast to NSO/SP, where NSO is fully responsible for site and building maintenance, KPNO is responsible NSO - Kitt Peak Facilities Program FY 2000 for the labor and non-payroll associated with the routine Project (Dollars in Thousands) Est. Cost maintenance of the solar telescopes of NSO/KP and the Electrical upgrade McMath-Pierce $ 30 Kitt Peak site and facilities. NSO/KP is responsible, at Painting McMath-Pierce 15 the level of $30K/year, for non-payroll costs associated Total $ 45 with major solar facility maintenance.
McMath-Pierce Facility Sections of the wiring and electrical components within the main observing room and the telescope structure as a whole require replacement and upgrade to ensure that the facility remains operational and maintainable. The aging Telescope Control System (TCS) at the McMath-Pierce constitutes a serious long-term maintenance issue. The current 20-year-old control systems are increasingly difficult to maintain, resulting in increased downtime. The cost of replacing the TCS with modem, lower-maintenance hardware and software will exceed $500,000 but is not included in the summary above since the project cannot be carried out within the current operating budget. The exterior of the McMath-Pierce was painted in 1991 and has held up reasonably well; some touch-up is scheduled for summer 1999. Maintenance of the interior surfaces and caulking, however, are long overdue. The section of the interior windscreen just below the top of the pier requires extensive work.
Appendix F - 5: NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan Deferred Maintenance FY2000
Telescope Usage Statistics
FY 1998 Telescope Usage Statistics1 By Visitor Type and Institution (NOAO staff usage not included)
CTIO2 KPNO3 NSO4 ALL NOAO
Type of Visitor US Foreign US Foreign US Foreign US Foreign Total
Astronomers 102 57 327 93 133 24 562 174 736
Graduate Students 42 19 81 15 9 5 132 39 171 Other (technicians, 5 8 61 0 9 0 research assistants, etc.) 75 8 83
Total Visitors 149 84 469 108 151 29 769 221 990
Institutions 56 37 99 66 29 12
1. Table reflects the number of observers/users physically present at each observatory for the fiscal period. Multiple visits by a single observer/user are counted separately. This table does not include NOAO staff.
2. During the fiscal year 1998 a total of 199 observing programs were carried out by visitors and the NOAO staff at Cerro Tololo. Visiting astronomers were assigned 92.6% of the scheduled telescope time and the remaining 7.4% was assigned to the staff.
3. During fiscal year 1998 a total of 244 observing programs were carried out by visitors and the NOAO staff at Kitt Peak. Visiting astronomers were assigned 86% of the scheduled telescope time and the remaining 14% was assigned to the staff.
4. During fiscal year 1998 a total of 176 observing programs were carried out by visitors and the NOAO staff at the National Solar Observatory. Visiting astronomers were assigned 54% of the scheduled telescope time and the remaining 46% was assigned to the staff.
Appendix G-1: NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: FY 1998 Telescope Usage Statistics
NOAO Tenant Facilities
KPNO Tenant Facilities
Warner & Swasey Observatory (Case Western Burrell-Schmidt 0.6/0.9-m Telescope Reserve Univ.)
Calypso Telescope (Edgar O. Smith) 1.2-m Telescope
MDM Observatory (Michigan-Dartmouth- Hiltner 2.4-m Telescope Columbia-Ohio State Univ.): McGraw-Hill: 1.3-m
NASA/MIT Optical Transient Experiment
National Radio Astronomy Observatory 25-m Telescope - Component of Very (NRAO): Long Baseline Array network 12-m Telescope - Millimeter Wave spectroscopy and mapping
Southeastern Assoc, for Research in 0.9-m Telescope Astronomy (SARA): (Florida Inst, of Technology, East Tenn. State, Florida International, Georgia State, Valdosa State)
Steward Observatory (Univ. of Arizona) 2.3-m Bok Telescope 0.9-m Telescope - Spacewatch survey for near-earth asteroids 1.8-m Telescope - Spacewatch survey instrument in commissioning.
Univ. of Wisconsin H-alpha Mapper (WHAM)
CTIO Tenant Facilities
Gemini South 8-m
MACHO Program on CTIO 0.9-m
NOAO-UNC-Univ. of Michigan-Brazil: SOAR 4-m
Swarthmore: 3-cm Robotic H-alpha Survey
Univ. of Chile-Max Planck Institute 1-m Millimeter-Wave Antenna
Univ. of Massachusetts 2MASS South: 1.3-m IR Survey telescope
USNO 20-cm Astrographic Survey telescope
YALO 1-m
Appendix H-1: NOAO FY 2000 Provisional Program Plan: Tenant Facilities
DIRECTORY NATIONAL OPTICAL ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORIES (NOAO) ORGANIZATIONAL CHART T
OBSERVATORIES OBSERVATORIES AURA, INC. VISITING COUNCIL BOARD OF DIRECTORS COMMITTEE
AURA, INC. [A]
T NATIONAL OPTICAL ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORIES [B]
CERRO TOLOLO KITT PEAK NATIONAL SOLAR INTER-AMERICAN NATIONAL OBSERVATORY OBSERVATORY OBSERVATORY [I] [G] [H]
X r 1 X
TELESCOPE TELESCOPE KPNO TELESCOPE CTIO USERS' NSO USERS' ALLOCATION ALLOCATION USERS' ALLOCATION COMMITTEE COMMITTEE COMMITTEE COMMITTEE COMMITTEE COMMITTEE
r 1 CENTRAL CENTRAL CENTRAL ENGINEERING & NOAO COMPUTER administrative FACILITIES TECHNICAL OUTREACH kjk:dirflowchart.flo services (cas) OPERATIONS (CFO) SERVICES (ETS) SERVICES Rev: September, 1999 [E] [C] [D] [F] (CCS) APPENDIX I AURA ORGANIZATIONAL CHART [A]
Board of Directors L. Kuhi, Chair M. Lowengrub, Vice Chair
President (Interim) W. Smith
Director, NOAO Director, STScI S. Wolff Director, Gemini Project S. Beckwith T. Boroson, Deputy M. Mountain M. Hauser, Deputy
AD NOAO, AD NOAO, Director, AD NOAO, Director, AD NOAO, Director, CTIO NSO Director, KPNO Science Operations M. Smith S. Keil R. Green T. Boroson
AD: Associate Director CTIO: Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, La Serena, Chile KPNO: Kitt Peak National Observatory, Tucson, AZ NOAO: National Optical Astronomy Observatories, Tucson, AZ kjk:auraflowchart.flo Rev: September, 1999 APPENDIX I NOAO DIRECTOR'S OFFICE [B]
Director Executive Secretary S. Wolff K. Kataisto
Deputy Director Financial Manager T. Boroson G. Blevins
Administrative Assistant Administrative Assistant P. Breyfogle (.5) (Document Preparation) D. Brouillette
Document Specialist S. Adams (.5) Copy Center Switchboard P. Sharpley J. Judith
kjk:dirofficetlowchart.flo Rev: September, 1999 APPENDIX I CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES [C] Manager L. Klose
Administrative Assistant P. Stephens 1
Human Resources Controller S. Abbey J. Tracy C. Bauer I
Procurement C. Enterline Accounting Manager Business Manager C. Richardson P. Phelan
Buyers G. Castillo K. McBride Disbursements Payroll Vacant (.5) L. Rodriguez C. Burnett E. Fimbres M. Cummins (.75) CTIO Liaison J. Kerekes J. Faltin (.5) Clerk Typist L. Wonders
Contracts A. Commissaris
Ship/Receiving F. Delahanty Property kjk:casflowchart.flo J. Smith Rev: September, 1999 APPENDIX I CENTRAL FACILITIES OPERATIONS [D] Manager J. Dunlop*
'
Facilities Administrative Safety Security** i Maintenance & Engineering Staff Contracted Staff : M. Rhoades : Support J. Barr Services B. Jensen (Open) (.5)
HVAC Custodial Mailroom/Supplies J. Fabins Groundskeeping J. Rees Vehicle Repairs i Telephone Systems After Hours Security Electrician
Vehicle/General Support T. Plog
Carpenter Shop B. Porter * Facilities Manager CFO and KPNO (H) ** Funded in ETS (F) Painter/Carpentry E. Shackelford kjkxfotlowchart.flo Rev: September, 1999 APPENDIX I NOAO OUTREACH [E] NOAO Outreach Coordinator D. DeYoung
Scientific/Educational Outreach Public Outreach Outreach Education Officer, S. Jacoby Manager, J. Price Astronomer T. Rector
Program Coordinator Secretary/ J. Henrikson Program Web Photo Imaging* Database Coordinator Designer M. Hanna Specialist G. Beal M. Newhouse J. DuHamel (0.75) (Open)
Kitt Peak Visitor Center HST CY8 Teacher B. Wolpa (0.40) Total Staffing: 12.45 NSF Funded: 3.99 Visitor Center Supervisor Lead Observer Grants: 2.26 N. Petrosino A. Block Visitor Center: 6.20
* Photo Imaging: Funded outside Visitor Center Observing Technicians Ed. Outreach and Guides R. Barchfield (.2) not included in chart above S. Garcia F. Haase (.4) R. Islas (.6) S. White (.6) kjk:noaooutreachflowchart.flo R. Richards (.4) Rev: September, 1999 APPENDIX I ENGINEERING & TECHNICAL SERVICES [F] Director, NOAO S. Wolff
Manager, ETS L. Daggert
Administrative Assistant B. Moore
T IR ouv Staff Shops Software Services Scientific Staff M. Merrill R. Reed Engineering R. Wolff T Inst. NOAO NOAO • OE M. Liang (.5) Drafting Safety/Officer Projects Projects Software T. Armandroff — ME E. Pearson (.5) M. Rhoades S. Barden — ME (1) •— D. Stover - N. Buchhotz J. Elias — ME(1) - LE B. Ditsler •MD R.Gomez IM - P. Daly Computer K. Hinkle " MD(1) M. Merrill • IM (1) R. Repp - P. Ruckle Maintenance/ -Vacant ' EE A. Peters • EE Electronic — ET D. Dryden - J. Irvine Supplies • ET P. Schmitt - R. Bennett KPNO C. Danielson - OE (.5) - J. Stein Software •— Prog. (1) '—Prog (1) - S. Rath W.Burlingame - D. Miller - B. Marshall T J. Curtis OE: Optical Engineer - D. Mills ET: Electronic Technician <— R&D - R&D - S. Gott NOCL Optics/ PROG: Programmer ME: Mechanical Engineer - Vacant Coatings MD: Mechanical Designer EE A. Fowler L EE T. Wolfe D.Vaughnn EE: Electrical Engineer R. Lund IM: Instrument Maker - G. Poczulp ET W. Ball GMOS/HROS LE: Lab Engineer S. Nguyen - A. Camacho Gemini CCD - H. Yarborough kjk:etsflowchart.flo Cont Rev: September, 1999 L Prog(1) APPENDIX I Gemini Near Infrared Spectrometer (GNIRS) [F.i]
Director, NOAO S. Wolff
Gemini Projects N. Gaughan, PM
Administrative Assistant M. Bowersock
PS/SE J. Elias D.Joyce B. Gregory
— ME L. Goble G. Muller
— MD J. Andrew D. Rosin E. Downey
EE A. Rudeen
— OE (.5) M. Liang
'— Prog. (1) Open PS Project Scientist SE: Systems Engineer IR Controller OE: Optical Engineer Upgrade ET: Electronic Technician PROG: Programmer (TBD) ME: Mechanical Engineer kjk:gnirsflowchart.flo MD: Mechanical Designer Rev: September, 1999 EE: Electrical Engineer APPENDIX I IM. Instalment Maker CERRO TOLOLO INTER-AMERICAN OBSERVATORY [G] AURA-0 Director in Chile M.G.Smith
Assistant Director CTIO Program A.R. Walker Users Committee CD. Bailyn (Chair) Telescope Allocation Committee Advisory Committee for N.B. Suntzeff, (Chair) Technical Resources A. R. Walker (Chair)
Engineering & Technical Services Telescope Operations B. Gregory O. Saa
Computer Applications Scientific Staff Secretarial Staff T. Ingerson Administrative Staff Telescope R. Lillo J. Baldwin E. Mac-Auliffe Observer Support Mechanics M. Bonati R. Blum R. Venegas J. Briones E. Bustos P. Bouchet S. Ecker (.5) R. Cardemil B. Gregory X. Herreros E. Cosgrove E. Aguirre R. Cantarutti Mechanical & S. Heathcote (A) M. Fernandez E. Huanchicay J. Hughes Facilities T. Ingersonf) L. Gomez N Saavedra Engineering R. Mendez M. Hernandez A. Montane(A) K. Olsen Electronic D. Maturana Engineering R. Probst Receptionist/Guide H. Tirado A. Cisternas R. Schommer Electronics & Data R. Schmidt K. Flores P. Ugarte F. Collao C. Smith A. Zuniga Systems H. Ochoa N. Suntzeff 'Vacancy G. Brehmer S. Cathalifaud A. Walker (-) R. Galvez J. Orrego S. Wachter E. Parkes M. Martinez V. Pasten E. Mondaca R. Rivera 'Vacancy D. Rojas R. Leiva P. Vergara Library J. Rojas P. Ojeda •Vacancy A. Veliz (A) Acting Head E. Schmidt R. Rogers (A) On Sabbatical Leave E. Toro R. Smith (*) Listed elsewhere as head CAG (-) Listed elsewhere as Assistant Director Computer (.5) Part Time Employee Optical Engineering kjk.chileflowchart.flo Hardware Systems M. Boccas "Vacancy: 3 Rev: September, 1999 R. Lambert 1 APPENDIX I Total Employees: 67.50 CERRO TOLOLO INTER-AMERICAN OBSERVATORY SUPPORT SERVICES UNIT [G.i] AURA Observatory Director M.G. Smith
Assistant Director A.R. Walker
T AURA Observatory Support Services (AOSS) Manager E. Figueroa
Assistant AOSS Manager Safety Consultant "Vacancy Mario Gonzalez
Budget & Operations Tololo Operations Operations Accounting L. Garvizo Santiago La Serena T. Ponce H. Bustos J. Araya G. Pellegrini J. Kruger M.V. Ramirez H. Rojas E. Segovia Maintenance Group
Personnel Office M. Alvarez E. Artigas G. Callejas Medical Services H. Galvez Quarters M. Urquieta M. Lara S. Franco J. Andrade O. Nunez R. Puno H. Pasten I. Ocaranza A. Rojas R. Rojas Commissary N. Carvajal Purchasing J. Aguilar S. Aguirre Maintenance Group M. Araya CL. Saguez R. Esquivel Garage & Transport O. Araya N. Jeraldo R. Aguirre G. Cifuentes R. Orrego E. Guerrero P. Ramos M. Miranda S. Ponce T. Orostigue J. Paleo Inventory Control R. Varas O. Rivera Garage & Transport M. Salinas Warehouse J. Cortes G. Damke Warehouse S. Cuello C. Pinochet
M. Nunez Administrative Staff
L. Medina C. Segovia
'Vacancy: 1 kjk:chilesupportsrcsflowchart.flo Total Employees: 52 Rev: September, 1999 APPENDIX I KITT PEAK NATIONAL OBSERVATORY [H] KPNO Director R. Green
Administrative Assistants Assistant to the Director J. Prosser R. Barnes J. Roberts
Mountain Scientific Support Scientific Staff J. Glaspey
M. Belton [6] Externally Funded Emeriti B. Bohannan E. Ahjar[1,2] H Abl C Claver G. Bower [2] D. Crawford I. Dell'Antonio [1j T. Kinman A. Dey[1,2] G.Jacoby L. Wallace S. Malhotra[1,2) R.Joyce K. Mighell [2] R. Lynds B. Muller[1,2] P. Massey S. Sakai [2] J. Najita N Samarasinha [1,2] R. Probst [4] G. Tiede[1,2] J. Rhoads[1] S. Ridgway [5] A. Saha Scientific Support P. Smith [3] Observing Staff J. Valenti [1] Assistants E. Alvarez (2) W. Cash J. Christensen (2) C Corson (5.) [3] K. Edwards [1] Post-doctoral research associate W. Halbedel (.9) [2] Supported by non-NSF funds E. McDougall [3] WIYN Telescope Operations G. Rosenslein (.9) [3] [4] Long-term assignment at CTIO H. Schweiker W. Shook [3] [5] 0.4 CHARA D. Williams [6] 0.3 NASA * Funded in ETS [F] ** Funded in CFO [D] WIYN Site C. Corson (.5) kjk:kpnoflowchart.flo Rev: September, 1999 APPENDIX I NATIONAL SOLAR OBSERVATORY [I] NSO Director S. Keil
Administrative Staff P. Piano
L. Buisman (.25)
H DeputyDirector I M. Giampapa
_c Administration Project Science Fac. & Facilities Operations Branch R. Hunter R. Coulter
Admin Projects & NSO/SOLIS Scientific Staff Facilities, Secretarial & Ops. Branch Purchasing, Property [12] Visitor Support Observing & Photo Services Scientific Staff — Electronics J. Wagner R. Elrod T. Brown R. El rod T 1 J. Harvey J. Beckers w Jones C. Bundy Cook E Leon F. Hill H.Lin R. Coleman K. Plum L. Wilkins C. Keller T. Rimmele L Gregory (.3) J. Leibacher M. Sigwarth Observing & Instr. G. Montana Instrument D. Rabin R. Smartt Support D. Craig [3] Development B. Ramos (Open 1) B. Haas (3) Evans Solar Facility W. Hull [3] r— S. Hegwer N. Snyder [3] i M. Dulick [8] L. Cole T. Bippert-Plymate i I K. Balasubramaniam [3] G. Duffek l__ C. Plymate Mechanical C. Leiker Shipping & Receiving Facilities Maintenance $ S. Gregory N. Mills R. Reyero R. Rentschier Scientific Pool (1.5) [1) \A Support X T. Tilleman [9) I H. Cope (.6) [31 E. S lover H T. Henry [3] J. Tvedt D. Branston [9] L— M. Davis [9] M. Rogers D. Plum [3] Visitor Center L. Gilliam [9] W. Rogers Vacuum Tower Telescope [1] ETS start assigned lo IDP projects L. Gregory (.7)111) R. Schimming C. Gullixson 13] [2] NSF/Aimosphersc Space Weather S. Hegwer Digital Library M. McGraw (.5)111] B. Smaga J. Mason [9] lunded per sonnel — Computing F. Hill (.2) T (3[ USAF project funded personnel B. Armstron [4| SOI project lunded personnel D. Gilliam 1 (5] RISE projecl funded personnel S. Fletcher [G] See [l.i.jof GONG project slaff NSO Base Personnel r Library R. McGraw [7] ONR project lunded personnel Cloudcroft Telescope J. Cometl I N. Toner (.5) [2] C. Richards [8] NASA projecl landed personnel Faciliity [9] Externally funded personnel Externally Funded (Non-NSF) ^Open^^ [10] NSF/Chemlstry project lunded personnel kjk:nsoflowchart.flo (11] Funded by VisilorCenter revenues Digital Library B. Blanscert [8] Rev: September, 1999 (12) See [l.i.] of SOUS project staff M. McGraw (.3) [2] APPENDIX I ••••••..,..••I 3 NSO GLOBAL OSCILLATION NETWORK GROUP [U] Project Director J. Leibacher [1] IliiMilMIMIiMliMliMitilltMliiMIMiMMIMaiHIHlMillilMMlMMl I
Instrument Scientist! Project Manager Data Scientist J. Harvey [1] P. Eliason F. Hill [1]
MM
Administrative Support R. Howe A. Barringer C. Toner
Network Data R. Komm [2] Operations/Instrument Management Engineering R. Tucker Support J. Pintar mmammamaammmmmmaam] R. Kroll
D. Armet w . Erdwurm (.75) [1] NSO Scientific Staff Pool 2.5 [3] J. Goodrich (.75) [2] Supported by NASA S. Davidson L. Britanik G. Ladd [3] ETS Staff H. Villegas S. McManus R. Toussaint (.75) T. Wing NSO Base Personnel kjk:nsogong.flo Rev: September, 1999 Externally Funded (Non-NSF) APPENDIX I SYNOPTIC OPTICAL LONG-TERM INVESTIGATIONS OF THE SUN SOLIS PROJECT [Mi]
kjk:solisflowchart.flo NSO Base Personnel Rev: September, 1999 Externally Funded (Non-NSF) APPENDIX I r
SCience OPErations (SCOPE) [J] Director T. Boroson
Administrative Staff J. Kennedy r
I Library USGP Central Computer M. Guerreri M. Trueblood Scientific Staff Support E. Alvarez (.25) M. Dunkley(.25) I Manager S. Grandi D. DeYoung ] B. Jannuzi T. Lauer Administrative/System C. Pilachowski Support S. Strom S. Hayes \
Data Reduction/Analysis System/Software IRAF Support Support D. Tody J. Barnes ] I M. Cheselka M. Peralta L. Davis D. Bell N. Sharp 1 ] M. Fitzpatrick R. Seaman F. Valdes kjk:scopeflowchart.flo N. Zarate Rev: September, 1999 APPENDIX I
NSO 10 Year Funding Profile
Append x J.1 National Solar Observatory 0 Year Fund ng Profile "
FY ($ in thousands) 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 NSO Directors Office 212 218 225 232 239 246 253 261 269 277 NSO/SP 2,000 2,060 2,122 2,000 1,980 1,900 1,800 1,600 120 0 NSO/Tucson 2,109 2,172 1,944 2,003 2,063 2,125 2,188 1,130 50 0 NSO/GONG 1,750 1,803 2,107 2,170 2,235 2,302 2,371 2,442 1,300 1,300 NSO/SOLIS 1,575 1,575 293 302 311 320 330 340 430 530 NSO/AST 323 393 880 1,091 1,204 1,360 1,508 2,753 6,300 6,700 NOAO OPS Support (700) (721) (743) (765) (788) (811) (836) (400) (0) (0) AF Support (540) (540) (556) (573) (590) (608) (626) (400) (300) (0) NASA Support (32) (32) (33) (34) (35) (36) (37) (38) (42) (0)
Total NSO (NSF) $6,697 $6,928 $6,239 $6,425 $6,618 $6,797 $6,951 $7,687 $8,127 $8,807
Appendix J.2 National Solar Observatory Budget Increments Required to Implement Parker Committee Report
FY ($ thousands) 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Total Needed Increments Solis Operations 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 800 Parker Report Initiatives 0 SOLIS SCI 350 350 300 1,000 GONG++ Data System 500 500 1,000 GONG++ Operations 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 3,500 AST 0 AO 1,500 1,500 1,500 500 5,000 Site Test 550 150 150 150 1,000 Conceptual Design 500 1,100 1,500 3,100 IR Technology 100 300 300 700 Proposal 200 200 400 AST Construction 15,000 15,000 15,000 5,000 50,000 Site Consolidation 3,000 7,000 2,000 12,000 Data Archiving 550 50 60 70 80 100 100 100 120 1,230
Total SO $3,550 $4,050 $5,110 $1,520 $15,680 $15,700 $18,700 $12,700 $2,720 $78,500
Appendix J-1 NOAO Program Plan FY 2000: NSO Funding Profile