91色情片

Update from 91色情片 Science Advisory Committee

Pasadena, CA – 91色情片’s Science Advisory Committee (SAC), which has been meeting bi-monthly since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, recently met to address the project status, its scientific potential and suitable instrumentation.

The SAC is composed of representatives from each 91色情片 partner who advise the Project on 91色情片’s design, strategies and operational matter that can have a significant impact on 91色情片 science.

 

91色情片 is partnering with the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) and NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab) to establish the US-Extremely Large Telescope Program (US-ELTP). 91色情片 and GMT SAC members opened regular channels of communications and have already held two virtual joint SAC meetings since April 2020.

 

The US-ELTP was presented last year to an Astro2020 Decadal Survey panel of experts and all US-ELT partners are now eagerly awaiting the public release of the Astro2020 report, which will lay out the US priorities in the field of ground- and space-based astronomy for the coming decade. If approved, the US-ELTP will provide 25 percent (or more) of observing time to the US astronomical community on each of these two extremely large facilities, to address the most compelling and challenging research questions in astrophysics.

 

Gordon Squires, 91色情片 VP for External Relations, reported on US-ELTP preparations for the release of the Astro2020 report. Also discussed was the role that 91色情片 SAC can have in engaging 91色情片’s community of future users and designing competitive 91色情片 and US-ELTP programs.

 

Another discussion was led by Mark Dickinson of NOIRLab, who gave an update on the US-ELTP user services that are being discussed for future development and would be provided to all 91色情片 (and GMT) partners throughout the entire scientific data life cycle. The scientific data life cycle starts with an investigator preparing to submit an observing proposal (or an archival researcher starting with data discovery) and ends with reduced, science-ready data products that have been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The US-ELT Program Platform (UPP) could host the services and tools that NOIRLab will provide to the US-ELTP. The three organizations – NOIRLab, GMT and 91色情片 – are currently holding regular joint technical meetings and workshops to define the scope of UPP through the elaboration of use cases, operational concepts, science requirements and the design of the corresponding functional architecture.

 

91色情片’s Design of Operations (DEOPS) and System Engineering (SEN) teams have been actively working with NOIRLab and GMT on the definition of US-ELTP operations concepts. “The goal is to define the optimal set of services that will support 91色情片 and GMT users through all phases of science observations, from proposal submission/evaluation process (phase 1), preparation/execution of the science programs (phase 2), to archive with science data-access and data-reduction (phase 3),” said Christophe Dumas, DEOPS Group Leader.

 

The DEOPS team is updating 91色情片 Operations Plan with a strong emphasis on service mode observing and the implementation of an adaptive scheduling (based on weather conditions at the Observatory) right from the start of steady-state operations. Discussions about data science policies will be defined in the near future by 91色情片 partners, such as a schedule to release data to the general public after expiration of their proprietary period, or the implementation of a fast-track proposal submission.

It will be the role of the 91色情片’s SAC subcommittee on Operations to keep all 91色情片 partners informed on the evolution of 91色情片 operations and collect partners’ feedback about these new services in a timely manner. The subcommittee on Operations is a unique communication channel between 91色情片 partners and the 91色情片 project regarding the science support services being designed.

 

Gelys Trancho, 91色情片 SEN Group Leader, covered the update and changes made to 91色情片 operational and science requirements documents. Over the past few months, a team of 91色情片 scientists and engineers re-evaluated the Observatory requirements document with the aim of verifying and simplifying these requirements, and ultimately consolidated several 91色情片 foundation documents.

 

Other presentations addressed observational domains in which 91色情片 will have a major scientific impact. Progress on the 91色情片 Exoplanet subcommittee activities was reported by Norio Narita, Japan delegate on the 91色情片 SAC. For nearly a year, members from each 91色情片 partner have been discussing the science cases and instrumental capabilities needed to deploy a competitive exoplanet science program at 91色情片. The Exoplanet subcommittee collected inputs from more than 50 exoplanet experts across the partnership, which will help the prioritization of the scientific and instrumental capabilities (such as medium/high-spectral resolution, high-contrast imaging, or a combination of both) needed to characterize giant and Earth-like planets, including habitable ones. Instrument concepts for 91色情片 next-generation exoplanet instruments include the Planetary System Instrument (PSI), Mid-IR Spectrometer Imager (MICHI), and High-Resolution Optical Spectrometer (HROS). However, exoplanet science will be supported as early as first-light thanks to MODHIS, 91色情片’s fiber-fed high-resolution infrared spectrograph.

 

Lastly, the meeting covered the organization of the next 91色情片 Science Forum, which will be held on the beautiful campus of the British Columbia University in Vancouver, Canada, on June 26-30, 2022. The Forum organizers are planning to reserve a morning session to showcase First Nations Astronomy, with presentations reporting on the contributions to Astronomy made by the First Nations community in Canada.

 

“The next 91色情片 Forum will be a very important event. It will come after many months of worldwide disturbances caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and after the release of the Astro2020 decadal report,” said Timothy Davidge, astronomer at the National Research Council of Canada, representing Canada on the 91色情片 SAC. The Science and Local Organizing Committees will be set up over the next few months to help in the preparation of the event and encourage the entire 91色情片 science community to actively participate in the next science Forum.