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Observations to be carried out with Chandra during the 12 months of Cycle 10 science operations will be selected from proposals submitted to the CXC in response to this CfP.
There are seven types of proposals that may be submitted in response to this CfP; they are detailed in the following sections. In addition, Director’s Discretionary Time (DDT) proposals for observations that cannot be completed in, or cannot wait for, the usual proposal cycle may be submitted at any time, see Section 4.8.
The CXC reserves the right to reject any approved observation that is in conflict with safety or mission assurance priorities or schedule constraints, or is otherwise deemed to be non-feasible.
There are no restrictions regarding the amount of observing time or the number of targets that may be requested in this category. Proposals may be submitted for single targets with a relatively short observation time, or for larger programs involving multiple targets or significant amounts of observing time. All proposals will be reviewed, and a mix of large and small programs will be selected. Proposals requesting observations distributed over multiple proposal cycles will not be considered. Observations allocated time in this category will have one year of proprietary time unless a shorter proprietary-time interval is requested by the PI.
Large Projects are defined as requiring 300 ksec of observing time or more, regardless of whether they include long-duration observations of single targets or shorter duration observations of many targets. Large Projects must be designated as such by the PI and are encouraged. Up to 6 Msec of the observing time in this Cycle is reserved for Large and Very Large Projects, subject to the submission of proposals of high scientific merit.
The observations proposed for Large Projects must be completed within the 12-month period covered by this CfP. In the case of target conflicts with a small proposal, the Selecting Official, based on the recommendation of the peer review, may award the target in question to the smaller proposal. In this case, the proposer of the Large Project may always make use of data taken for another project once they are made public.
Large Projects are evaluated differently from other proposals. A Large Project is first evaluated and graded along with the other observing proposals by two independent “Topical Science” panels. The graded Large Projects are then passed to the “Big Project” panel that allocates time to the LPs and VLPs and develops an integrated observing plan involving all top-rated proposals to fill the observing time available through this solicitation. Although the Big Project panel may recommend shortening a Large Project under exceptional circumstances, it is intended that a Large Project be an all-or-nothing proposition. Observations allocated in this category will be allocated one year of proprietary time unless a shorter time is requested by the PI.
Very Large Observing Projects are defined as requiring 1 Msec of observing time or more, regardless of whether they include long-duration observations of single targets or shorter duration observations of many targets. This category is open to all science topics and must be designated as such by the PI. Up to 6 Msec of the observing time in this cycle is reserved for Large and Very Large Projects, subject to the submission of proposals of high scientific merit.
The observations proposed for Very Large Projects must be completed within the 12-month period covered by this CfP. Very Large Projects will be evaluated as described for Large Projects in Section 4.2. Target conflicts will also be treated similarly.
Observations approved as part of a Very Large Project will have no proprietary time associated with them, and the data will be made public immediately.
Projects that plan to deliver products, such as source catalogs, high fidelity data products, or software to the community are encouraged to outline these plans in the proposal. A modest funding allocation may be requested in the Stage 2 Cost proposal to facilitate the delivery of such products.
Proposals are also solicited for Pre-Approved Targets of Opportunity (TOOs). These are defined to be observations of unanticipated astronomical events, such as a supernova or a gamma-ray burst that must take place in order to trigger the observation. The number of times the Observatory can be used to respond to a TOO is limited by operational considerations with difficulty increasing with rapidity of response. Given the limited availability and high operational impact of TOOs, proposers are asked to carefully consider whether Chandra is the optimal observatory for their particular target(s) and to justify this choice in their proposal. Other X-ray missions, e.g., SWIFT, have comparable capabilities and at times are more flexible for performing TOO observations on medium/bright targets. SWIFT TOO application information either pre-approved (by peer review) or unanticipated, can be found on the SWIFT website at: http://www.swift.psu.edu/too.html.
For this Cycle’s GO programs (including Large and Very Large Projects), it is estimated that the Observatory can support a maximum of:
|
# obsvns (Note a) |
response time (days) |
|
8 |
<1-4 |
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20 |
4-12 |
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26 |
12-30 |
|
26 |
>30 |
Note: Follow-up observations count against this allocation if they have a rapid response. If they have a slower response, they count as time-constrained observations.
Once a TOO has been selected, the observing time is awarded but not scheduled until the triggering event takes place. It is the responsibility of the PI to alert the CXC to the occurrence of the triggering event. Proposals may not contain a mixture of TOO and non-TOO targets.
Given the high operational impact of TOOs, no constraints or follow-up observations over and above those included in the proposal RPS forms and recommended by the peer review will be accepted. All follow-up observations whose timing depends on events close to the trigger need to be included in the original proposal forms and will be counted as separate TOOs with category determined by the requested time delay between the event and the observation. All trigger criteria must be specified in the appropriate fields on the RPS form. Follow-up observations that have a longer lead time (> 12 days) are classified as constrained observations.
Those proposing for a Pre-Approved TOO should be aware that any such observations awarded for a given observing Cycle, but not accomplished, cannot be carried over to the next Cycle, although they may be re-proposed. Since the CfP is being released prior to the end of this Cycle, there may be a set of selected and Pre-Approved TOOs for this Cycle that have not been triggered. Proposers may choose to assume that these will not have been triggered by the time the next Cycle starts (about December 2008). If the current cycle TOO is triggered, the PI/observer should indicate on the trigger form (RfO) whether or not the observation should cancel the TOO observation proposed/accepted for the new Cycle.
Joint Observing Projects may be proposed as follows with the intent to address those situations where data (not necessarily simultaneous) from more than one facility are required to meet the scientific objectives of the proposal. In addition to time on Chandra, time may be requested and awarded via this CfP on one or more of the five facilities described below. It is the proposer’s responsibility to provide a technical justification for all observing facilities included in the proposal. A request for simultaneous or otherwise time-constrained observations must be scientifically justified, and the technical justification must include consideration of the relative visibility of the target by all requested facilities. Please note that coordination with ground-based observatories other than NRAO is only available as a preference and will be carried out on a best-effort basis. No time on other facilities will be allocated without accompanying Chandra time on the same target, except where noted.
This CfP
solicits proposals to allow observers interested in using both the Hubble Space
Telescope (HST) and the CXO to achieve their scientific objectives to submit a
single proposal in response to either HST or Chandra CfPs. The only
criteria above and beyond the usual review criteria are that the project must
be fundamentally of a multi-wavelength nature and that both sets of data are
required to meet the science goals. Simultaneous Chandra and HST observations should be requested only if necessary
to achieve the scientific goals. Proposers responding to this CfP may request, and be awarded, HST
observing time in conjunction with their Chandra
observations. One hundred orbits of HST observing time are available for this
opportunity. Conversely, up to 400 ksec of Chandra
observing time are available for award as part of the response to HST research
opportunities. However, the Chandra
project can award no more than one HST Target of
Proposers wishing to take advantage of the CXO-HST
arrangements are encouraged to submit their proposal to the Observatory
announcement that represents the prime science. The expertise required to best
appreciate and evaluate the proposals will be weighted toward the wavelength
band of the primary observatory. Demonstration of the technical feasibility for
both observatories to produce the necessary data is required, including
consideration of the relative visibility of the target(s) to both facilities
for the case of time-constrained observations. Technical information about HST
is available at http://www.stsci.edu/. General policies for HST observations are
described in the latest HSTCall for Proposals, available at http://www.stsci.edu/hst/proposing/documents/cp/cp_cover.html.
The Space Telescope Science Institute is prepared to assist observers proposing
in response to this opportunity. Questions should be addressed to help@stsci.edu.
If a science project requires observations with both XMM-Newton, sponsored by the European Space Agency, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, then a single proposal may be submitted to request time on both Observatories to either the XMM-Newton Cycle 8 Announcement of Opportunity (AO-8) or this Chandra Cycle 10 CfP so that it is unnecessary to submit proposals to two separate reviews.
By agreement with the Chandra Project, the XMM-Newton Project may award up to 400 ksec of Chandra observing time. Similarly, the Chandra Project may award up to 400 ksec of XMM-Newton time. The time will be awarded only for highly ranked proposals that require use of both observatories and shall not apply to usage of archival data. The only criterion above and beyond the usual review criteria is that both sets of data are required to meet the primary science goals. Proposers should take special care in justifying both the scientific and technical reasons for requesting observing time on both missions. Simultaneous Chandra and XMM-Newton observations should be requested only if necessary to achieve the scientific goals. No Targets of Opportunity, either pre-Approved or unanticipated, will be considered for this cooperative program. For this CfP, no XMM-Newton time will be allocated without the need for Chandra time to complete the proposed investigation.
Establishing technical feasibility is the responsibility of the observer, who should review the Chandra and XMM-Newton (http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xmm/xmmgof.html) documentation or consult with the CXC HelpDesk.(http://cxc.harvard.edu/helpdesk/) for proposals that are approved, both projects will perform detailed feasibility checks. Both projects reserve the right to reject any approved observation that is in conflict with safety or mission assurance priorities or schedule constraints, or is otherwise deemed to be non-feasible. Note that simultaneous longer-duration observations with XMM-Newton that require Chandra satellite pitch angles violating the conditions discussed in Section 2.3 may not be feasible. Any observation(s) deemed to be not performable as indicated above would cause revocation of observations on both facilities.
Due to the uncertainty in the duration of Spitzer’s Cycle 5 and the timing between Cycle 5 and Chandra Cycle 10, we are not accepting joint Spitzer proposals in this cycle. We anticipate resuming joint Spitzer proposals during a Spitzer Warm Mission.
By agreement with NOAO, proposers interested in making use of observing facilities available through NOAO (except Keck and Magellan) as part of their Chandra science may submit a single observing or archival research proposal in response to this CfP. The award of NOAO time will be made to highly ranked Chandra proposals and will be subject to approval by the NOAO Director.
The primary criterion for the award of NOAO time is that both Chandra and NOAO data are required to meet the scientific objectives of the proposal. Both observing and archival research proposals are eligible. The highest priority for the award of NOAO time will be given to programs that plan to publicly release the optical data in a timely manner (shorter than the usual 18-month proprietary period) and that create databases likely to have broad application. NOAO plans to make up to 5% of the time available for this opportunity. NOAO observing time will be divided roughly equally between the Fall and Spring semesters covered by the Chandra cycle.
Proposers wishing to make use of this opportunity must provide the following additional NOAO-related information as part of their Chandra proposal:
Demonstration of the technical feasibility of the
proposed NOAO observations is the responsibility of the proposer. Detailed
technical information concerning NOAO facilities may be found at http://www.noao.edu/.
If approved for NOAO time, successful PIs will be required to submit the standard NOAO forms providing detailed observing information appropriate to the telescope and instrument combination(s) awarded. NOAO will perform feasibility checks on the proposed observations and reserves the right to reject any observation determined to be unfeasible for any reason. Such a rejection could jeopardize the entire proposed science program and impact the award of the Chandra observing time as well.
In addition, for NOAO time on Gemini (only), successful PIs will be required to submit a full scientific justification to NOAO on the standard NOAO proposal form. This justification will be reviewed by the regular NOAO Time Allocation Committee in order to determine into which Gemini queue band the observations will be placed.
By agreement with NRAO, proposers interested in making use of the NRAO Very Large Array (VLA), Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) and Green Bank Telescope (GBT) facilities as part of their Chandra science may submit a single proposal in response to this CfP. The award of NRAO time will be made to highly ranked Chandra proposals and will be subject to approval by the NRAO Director.
The primary criterion for the award of NRAO time is that both Chandra and NRAO datasets are essential to meet the scientific objectives of the proposal. No NRAO time will be allocated without Chandra time.
NRAO plans to make up to 3% of VLA, VLBA and GBT observing time available for this opportunity with a maximum of 5% in any configuration/time period and including an 18-month period close to the Chandra Cycle 10 such that all VLA configurations are available.
Proposers wishing to make use of this opportunity must provide the following NRAO-related information as part of their Chandra proposal:
Be aware that some Chandra targets might not require new NRAO observations because the joint science goals can be met using:
Detailed technical information concerning the NRAO telescopes can be found at http://www.vla.nrao.edu/astro/ (VLA), http://www.vlba.nrao.edu/astro/ (VLBA), and http://www.gb.nrao.edu/ (GBT). In particular, technical information required for a proposal can be found at http://www.vla.nrao.edu/astro/guides/vlas/current/ (VLA), http://www.vlba.nrao.edu/astro/obstatus/current/obssum.html (VLBA), and http://www.gb.nrao.edu/gbtprops/man/GBTpg/GBTpg_tf.html (GBT).
If approved for NRAO time, successful PIs will be contacted by the NRAO Scheduling Officers. The successful PIs will then be responsible for submitting observing scripts to NRAO. The deadline for the receipt of these scripts will be communicated by the Scheduling Officers. NRAO will perform final feasibility checks on these scripts and reserves the right to reject any observation determined to be infeasible for any reason. Such a rejection could jeopardize the success of the joint science program.
By agreement with the RXTE Project at NASA/GSFC, proposers interested in making use of contemporaneous RXTE time as part of their Chandra science investigation may submit a single proposal in response to this Chandra CfP. The award of RXTE time will be made to highly ranked Chandra proposals and will be subject to approval by the RXTE Project Scientist.
Continuation of the RXTE mission is currently contingent upon the outcome of NASA Headquarters’ Astrophysics Division Senior Review of Operating Missions 2008. The RXTE project will make joint observing time available if the mission is recommended to continue operations beyond the current shut-off date of 2009 February 28. The outcome of the Senior Review is expected by July 2008.
Joint Chandra/RXTE proposals submitted for Chandra Cycle 10 will be peer-reviewed on science content as usual, but reviewers will be provided with the most current news available, and may be asked to provide a second grade considering the proposal without RXTE time.
The primary criterion for the award of RXTE time is that both Chandra and RXTE data are required to meet the scientific objectives of the proposal. RXTE time will not be awarded without accompanying Chandra observing time. Chandra Cycle 10 is expected to overlap with the end of RXTE Cycle 12, an 18-month observing program which began in 2007 June, and the majority of a potential 12-24 month long Cycle 13.
The RXTE Project could make up to 500 ksec of RXTE observing time available to such joint science proposals. RXTE datasets obtained under this agreement will be proprietary to the PI for one year after the performance of the observation, and will subsequently be released publicly via the HEASARC.
Proposers wishing to make use of this opportunity must provide the following additional RXTE-related information as part of their Chandra proposal:
It is the responsibility of the proposer to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed RXTE observation. Detailed technical information concerning RXTE may be found at http://rxte.gsfc.nasa.gov. The RXTE Guest Observer Facility and Project Scientist will make feasibility assessments of the proposed observations independently of the Chandra review. They will reject any RXTE observation determined to be infeasible. Such a rejection could jeopardize the entire proposed science program and impact the award of the Chandra observing time as well.
If RXTE time is approved, successful PIs will then be required to submit the standard RXTE cover and target forms to the RXTE Guest Observer Facility via RPS to provide the required information about observing strategy and instrument configurations in a form amenable to the RXTE scheduling software. No funding is available through the RXTE program to support the RXTE analysis for joint RXTE/Chandra observations.
Research that is primarily Theoretical/Modeling in nature can have a lasting benefit for current or future observational programs with Chandra, and it is appropriate to propose such programs with relevance to the Chandra mission. Theoretical/Modeling research should be the primary or sole emphasis of such a proposal. Analysis of archival data should not be the goal of the project. Archived data may be used only to show how Chandra observations may be better understood through the results of the proposed Theory/Modeling research. Theory/Modeling proposals must be submitted using the same proposal format as observing proposals, and the proposal type “Theory” should be checked on the electronic submission.
A Theory/Modeling proposal should address a topic that is of direct relevance to Chandra observing programs, and this relevance must be explained in the proposal. (Research that is appropriate for a general theory program should be submitted to the Science Mission Directorate’s Astrophysics Theory Program, solicited in the annual Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) NASA Research Announcement and/or other appropriate funding sources.) The primary criterion for a Theory/Modeling proposal is that the results must enhance the value of Chandra observational programs through their broad interpretation (in the context of new models or theories) or by refining the knowledge needed to interpret specific observational results (for example, a calculation of cross sections). As with all investigations supported through this CfP, the results of the Theoretical/Modeling investigation should be made available to the community in a timely fashion.
A Theory/Modeling proposal must include an estimated amount of funding in the Stage 1 submission and must provide a narrative within the science justification section that describes the proposed use of the funds. Detailed budgets are not requested in Stage 1, however, and are due only in Stage 2.
The scientific justification section of the proposal must describe the proposed theoretical investigation and also the anticipated impact on observational investigations with Chandra. Review panels will consist of observational and theoretical astronomers with a broad range of scientific expertise. The reviewers will not necessarily be specialists in all areas of astrophysics, particularly theory, so the proposals must be written for general audiences of scientists. The proposal should discuss the types of Chandra data that would benefit from the proposed investigation, and references to specific data sets in the Chandra data archive should be given where appropriate. The proposal should also describe how the results of the theoretical investigation will be made available to the astronomical community, and on what time scale the results are expected.
This CfP also includes the opportunity to propose investigations based on data in the Chandra public archive for part or all of the study. Proposals for which archival data is the major focus of the investigation should select the “Archive” category on the RPS form. A PI may link an archival research proposal with an observing proposal to extend an existing sample to perform the same science. There is no restriction on the amount of existing Chandra data that may be proposed for analysis. The Chandra website (http://cxc.harvard.edu/) contains information on the data that are available in the archive. The data may also be accessed through this website (see Section 3.5). All on-orbit calibration data are placed directly in the archive. Data from Director’s Discretionary Time (DDT) observations (see Section 4.8) are placed in the archive no later than three months after receipt by the PI, while other proprietary observations are archived no later than one year after receipt by the PI. VLP data have no proprietary period and are placed in the archive coincident with receipt by the PI.
Archival Research proposals must include an estimated amount of funding in the Stage 1 submission and must provide a brief narrative within the science justification section that describes the proposed use of the funds. Detailed budgets are not requested in Stage 1 and are due in Stage 2.
Proposers should be aware that the first release of the Chandra Source Catalog is expected in the fall of 2008. We will accept archival proposals which make use of this catalog as all/part of the planned science program.
The first release of the Chandra Source Catalog will include information about sources detected in public ACIS imaging observations from roughly the first eight years of the Chandra mission. It is not yet clear whether public HRC imaging observations will be included in the first release of the catalog. Only point sources, and compact sources with extents <30 arcsec, will be included. Highly extended sources, and sources located in selected fields containing bright, highly extended sources, will be excluded.
The catalog will include sources detected with a minimum 3-s significance level above the background (typically corresponding to about 10 net source counts on-axis and roughly 20-30 net source counts off-axis). In the first release of the catalog, multiple observations of the same field will not be combined prior to source detection, so the 3-s cutoff applies to each observation separately.
For each detected source and observation, we anticipate that the catalog will include the following properties:
In addition, a number of file-based data products will be produced for each source individually. These include source region, background, and PSF images, source region photon event list, limiting sensitivity map, source light-curve, and (for ACIS) PI spectrum, ARF, and RMF.
These files will be in formats suitable for further analysis in CIAO.
For more information on the Chandra Source Catalog, please refer to the CXC web pages. Public web pages describing the catalog will be made available no later than early January, 2008, and will be announced via a Chandra Bulletin. These web pages will continue to be updated as work on the catalog progresses.
Unanticipated Targets of Opportunity or those that
cannot wait for the next proposal cycle may be proposed for observation using
Director’s Discretionary Time (DDT) at any time. Proposals for DDT must be
submitted electronically through RPS as described in Section 5.3. Note that the
RPS form for DDT is different from that for ordinary proposals. The DDT form
may be found on the CXC
website by selecting the “Proposer” button and
then “Targets of
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Center (CXC) is operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA. Email: cxcweb@head.cfa.harvard.edu Smithsonian Institution, Copyright © 1998-2004. All rights reserved. |