Cycle 1 Planning Process

B-G Andersson (SOFIA Science Operations Manager)

&Ravi Sankrit (User Support Scientist)

SSSC, May 11, 2011Mountain View

Cycle 1

Cycle 1 Layout• The SMO desires to start one-year cycles with the next

proposal call.– Calls in October, observations start in July

• Discussions are on-going about coordinating US and German calls.

• Cycle 1 observations run – from July 1, 2012 – to June 30, 2013.

• According to the Lego® charts (March 29, 2011) there will be 4 observing windows in Cycle 1:– Aug/Sep 2012 93RH following FORCAST commissioning – Nov/Dec 2012 62RH following FLITECAM commissioning – March 2013 62RH following EXES commissioning– May 2013 93RH following FIFI-LS commissioning

Segment 3

4

  Observing Flights

  Instrumentation Commissioning

  Platform Flights

  Aircraft maintenance / Observatory upgrade

FOC September 25, 2012

• Heading Turner•TA Improvements?

• OBDMA• Ground Cooling

• SATCOM installation

• TA Improvements?

• TA Improvements?

• TA Improvements?

• TA Improvements?

• TA Improvements?

•WVM Upgrade •TA Improvements?

2 week southern hemisphere deployment

Research HoursCY2012 – 245CY2013 – 640CY2014 – 836

SS3SO 7/13/12

RSSO 9/8/14

IMS Reference: SOFIA_IMS110404JP.mppCreated April 4th, 2011

Cycle 1 starts

Cycle 1 ends

Oct Nov Dec Jan MarFeb Jun JulApr May

GI Phase II

Proposal Call Open

TAC Review

SMO activities Flight

Planning

Flights

Oct Nov Dec Jan MarFeb Jun JulApr May

Basic Science: Lessons Learned

Basic Science: Objectives, Ground Rules

• The goal: demonstrate the scientific promise of SOFIA while it was still in the development stage.

• The observations would be shared risk (among GIs, the SMO and Instrument teams).

• There would be a limited observing window.

• Effective oversubscription of accepted targets would be expected.

• The planning resources would be limited.

• The instruments would not have been fully commissioned.

Basic Science Proposal Review

• The Basic Science TAC ranked the proposals and divided them into three categories:– Must Do.

– Do if time is available. (Only the highest ranked ones were accepted.)

– Do not do.

• The SMO Director instructed Flight Planners to give the “Must Do” programs highest priority.– For Basic Science 1 (FORCAST) 90% of the time requested for “Must

Do” targets has been scheduled; the fraction is 17% for “do if time is available” targets.

– The Basic Science 1 flight plans have an average science efficiency (targets + calibrators) of 84%.

• The overhead rates for FORCAST observations were not known before the Short Science I series in December 2010.

Basic Science - Scheduling Issues

• Flight planning was highly constrained due to the short total time-span and limited number of flights.

• Program-internal target prioritization was generally not considered, due to scheduling constraints.

• Flight Planning would be easier for full-year cycles where objects can be observed rising or setting.

• The non-uniform sky distribution of targets made flight planning challenging.

• Shifts in schedule can drop targets from visibility windows

Cycle 1: Instruments

Instrument Use Pre-Commissioning

• FORCAST & GREAT will be used extensively during Basic Science– L1, L2 for GREAT– Imaging mode for FORCAST, but not grisms

• FLITECAM will be used in imaging mode during TA V&V flights in late 2011.– The Call for Proposals will not incorporate the lessons learned

from those flights. However, they would inform updates to other documentation such as the Observers’ Handbook.

• HIPO will be commissioned (de facto) in 2011.• EXES and FIFI-LS will be on SOFIA for the first time

only during their commissioning runs, in February and April 2013, respectively.

Instrument availability in Cycle 1

• Which instruments should be offered?

• What modes will be available for each instrument?

• Which modes need to be offered as “shared risk”?

• Should some instruments/modes be offered with the restriction that is currently applied to “Special Purpose Principal Investigator-class Science Instruments” (SSIs) - i.e. consultation with the instrument PI is required before submitting a proposal?

• What resources are required/available (both internal and from Instrument teams)?

Instruments & Modes for Cycle I

Instrument/Mode SUP Shared Risk SSI mode

FORCAST imaging ✔

FORCAST grism ✔

GREAT Low ✔

GREAT medium ✔

FLITECAM imaging ✔

FLITECAM grism ✔

HIPO ✔

“SUP” – according to the SOFIA Science Utilization Policy.“Shared Risk” – as in Basic Science; outcomes, specifications not guaranteed.“SSI mode” – Endorsement from Instrument PI required before proposing (note: HIPO is an SSI instrument).

Cycle 1: Proposals

New Categories of Proposals

• Snapshot/Survey Proposals

• Target lists where there is no requirement/guarantee that any

particular one will be observed.• The proposals will be judged on scientific merit.• Accepted proposals in this category would provide a pool of targets

that can be used to fill in flight-legs, which otherwise would be “dead-legs”.

• Target of Opportunity (ToO) Proposals

• Director’s Discretionary Time

• After FOC (late September 2012), up to 7% of the time may be

allocated by the SMO Director.

Guaranteed Time (GT) During Cycle 1

• Guaranteed Time allotments need to be restrained– If all instruments commissioned during Cycle 1 requested all

their guaranteed time right away, it would consume 47% of the Cycle 1 time.

• Flight series planning requires GT/GI balance– Flights will be reserved for GT at the same time as instrument

series are scheduled.

• Reserved Observation Catalogs issued for each call– Includes all instruments offered in the call.– Includes as much or all of their allotted time (including overheads

specified by the SMO).– Can be revised only after the Proposal Cycle selections are

made (i.e during “green periods”).

Guaranteed Time “Green Periods: