National Optical Astronomy Observatory Fiscal Year Annual Report for FY 2013 (1 October 2012 – 30 September 2013) Submitted to the National Science Foundation Pursuant to Cooperative Support Agreement No. AST-0950945 13 December 2013 Revised 18 September 2014 Contents NOAO MISSION PROFILE .................................................................................................... 1 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................ 2 2 NOAO ACCOMPLISHMENTS ....................................................................................... 4 2.1 Achievements ..................................................................................................... 4 2.2 Status of Vision and Goals ................................................................................. 5 2.2.1 Status of FY13 High-Level Deliverables ............................................ 5 2.2.2 FY13 Planned vs. Actual Spending and Revenues .............................. 8 2.3 Challenges and Their Impacts ............................................................................ 9 3 SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES AND FINDINGS .............................................................. 11 3.1 Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory ....................................................... 11 3.2 Kitt Peak National Observatory ....................................................................... 14 3.3 Gemini Observatory ......................................................................................... 17 3.4 Community Access Facilities ........................................................................... 19 4 GROUND-BASED O/IR OBSERVING SYSTEM OPERATIONS ............................ 20 4.1 NOAO South .................................................................................................... 20 4.1.1 CTIO .................................................................................................. 20 4.1.2 NOAO South Engineering & Technical Services ............................. 25 4.1.3 NOAO South Facilities Operations ................................................... 25 4.1.4 NOAO South Computer Infrastructure Services ............................... 27 4.2 NOAO North .................................................................................................... 28 4.2.1 KPNO ................................................................................................ 28 4.2.2 NOAO North Engineering & Technical Services ............................. 32 4.2.3 NOAO North Central Facilities Operations ...................................... 33 4.2.4 NOAO North Computer Infrastructure Services ............................... 34 i NOAO FISCAL YEAR ANNUAL REPORT FY 2013 (REVISED) 4.3 NOAO System Science Center ........................................................................ 36 4.3.1 System User Support......................................................................... 37 4.3.2 Science Data Management ................................................................ 38 4.3.3 Time Allocation Committee ............................................................. 41 4.3.4 System Community Development .................................................... 43 4.4 NOAO System Technology Center ................................................................. 47 4.4.1 System Instrumentation .................................................................... 47 4.4.2 ReSTAR Instrumentation.................................................................. 48 4.4.3 Telescope System Instrumentation Program ..................................... 49 4.4.4 LSST Technology ............................................................................. 50 5 NOAO-WIDE PROGRAMS ........................................................................................... 56 5.1 Office of Science ............................................................................................. 56 5.2 Education and Public Outreach ....................................................................... 57 5.3 NOAO Director’s Office ................................................................................. 64 5.4 ARRA Infrastructure Renewal ........................................................................ 67 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................ 69 A FY13 BUDGET BY PROGRAM .................................................................................... 70 A.1 FY13 Expenditures .......................................................................................... 70 A.2 FY13 Revenue ................................................................................................. 75 A.3 FY13 Funds Carried Forward to FY14............................................................ 78 B NOAO KEY MANAGEMENT & SCIENTIFIC STAFF ACTIVITY ........................ 79 B.1 NOAO Key Management during FY13........................................................... 79 B.2 Scientific Staff Changes during FY13 ............................................................. 79 B.3 Division of Effort—NOAO Scientific/Management Staff .............................. 80 B.4 Scientific Staff Accomplishments and Plans ................................................... 88 C NOAO SCIENTIFIC STAFF PUBLICATIONS ........................................................ 117 D PUBLICATIONS USING DATA FROM NOAO TELESCOPES & ARCHIVES.. 130 D.1 Telescopes at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory ............................. 130 D.2 Telescopes at Kitt Peak National observatory ............................................... 137 D.3 Gemini Telescopes (NOAO System Science Center) ................................... 147 D.4 W. M. Keck Observatory: Keck I and II ....................................................... 152 D.5 HET and MMT .............................................................................................. 153 D.6 Magellan I and II ........................................................................................... 153 D.7 CHARA and Hale .......................................................................................... 153 D.8 NOAO Science Archive ................................................................................ 153 ii CONTENTS E USAGE STATISTICS FOR ARCHIVED DATA ....................................................... 157 F TELESCOPE PROPOSAL STATISTICS ................................................................... 159 F.1 Semester 2013A Proposal Statistics ............................................................... 159 F.2 Semester 2013B Proposal Statistics ............................................................... 160 G OBSERVING PROGRAMS & INVESTIGATORS FOR 2013 ................................. 162 G.1 Demographics ................................................................................................ 162 G.2 Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory ..................................................... 164 G.3 Kitt Peak National Observatory ..................................................................... 171 G.4 Gemini Observatory ....................................................................................... 179 G.5 Community Access to Private Telescopes ..................................................... 194 H BROADENING PARTICIPATION ............................................................................. 198 I GRANTS OBTAINED IN Q4 ........................................................................................ 203 J SAFETY REPORT FOR Q4 ......................................................................................... 204 ERRATA The 13 December 2013 version of this report included an erroneous value for FY13 outside revenue in one table. The necessary Appendix A corrections are shown in this 18 September 2014 revision: 1. Section A.1 FY13 Expenditures, Table A-1 (continuation) on page 72: a. FY13 Program Outside Revenue was corrected from “(9,689,464)” to “(10,304,393)” b. FY13 Total NOAO Carry-Forward was corrected from “(1,935,360)” to “(1,935,361)” 2. Section A.3 FY13 Funds Carried Forward to FY14, Table A-3 on page 78: a. NOAO Funds Carried Forward was corrected from “1,935,360” to “1,935,361” b. Total Funds Carried Forward was corrected from “2,354,242” to “2,354,243” Cover Caption The top portion of the cover shows an image of the NGC 1398 galaxy taken by the Dark Energy Survey (DES) with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Blanco 4-m telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile. Commissioning of DECam was complete by the end of October 2012, science verification began November 1, the dedication was November 9, and community shared-risk observations started December 1. The DES began officially 31 August 2013; the survey team will use DECam, built by Fermilab, to systematically map one-eighth (5000 square degrees) of the sky. (Image credit: Dark Energy Survey.) The bottom portion of the cover shows a cropped image of the spiral galaxy M51 taken by One Degree Imager (ODI) on the WIYN 3.5-m telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona. This image demon- strates the excellent sharpness of the ODI in its partially populated focal plane mode (pODI), which uses a little less than one fourth of the total detector locations. The wide field of the One Degree Imager camera made it possible to capture the entire galaxy and its companion in one pointing, something