Memorandum to VLA/VLBA Proposers and Observers
News
- News for Proposers
- General announcements and news
for investigators proposing to use the VLA, VLBA, HSA, and other VLBI
facilities for the 2008 October 1 deadline will be available in
mid-September.
- Fermi Collaborative Observing
- Through an agreement
with the Fermi Gamma-ray
Space Telescope, up to 10% of the total observing time on each
NRAO telescope was made available for collaborative observing. Fermi
launched on 2008 June 11 and Cycle 1 observing began on 2008 August
14. During Cycle 1, approximately 300 hours of collaborative
observing will occur on the VLBA, with less time occuring on the VLA
and the GBT. Abstracts of successful Cycle 1 proposals are available.
- Prompt ToO Overrides for VLA Proposal AO229
- We will
continue a scheme wherein this proposal team is authorized to conduct
prompt target-of-opportunity (ToO) overrides in response to stellar
superflares. Proposal AO229 expires at the end of trimester 2008-T3.
Time taken for such overrides will be rescheduled on a best-effort
basis. To minimize the impact of overrides during sessions longer
than a few hours, we remind observers that it is always prudent to
include more than one observation of a primary flux density calibrator
and, if appropriate, a bandpass calibrator.
Current Regular and Large Proposals
- General
- Information about the status of all
current proposals on which your name appears has been e-mailed to you,
in a format described under Static Information below. That e-mailing
(a) includes proposals just considered for trimester 2008-T3 plus
those waiting for future trimesters, whatever their date of
submission; and (b) does not include proposals submitted earlier that
are waiting in the dynamic scheduling queues or multi-configuration
VLA proposals for which time in the A or subsequent configurations has
been previously allocated.
- VLA
- Scheduling takes two forms, fixed date and
dynamic. Some approved proposals will be scheduled on fixed dates;
time for them was allocated for the A configuration (October 3 to
January 12) or for the associated reconfiguration (September 15 to
October 3). Some approved proposals have been accepted for insertion
into the VLA dynamic scheduling queue; a Guide to VLA
Dynamic Scheduling is available, including descriptions of new
dynamic parameters related to monitoring or survey observations.
Proposals requesting future configurations in some cases have been
allocated time in those configurations, and in other cases have been
retained for future consideration. We rejected proposals which we
were unable to schedule or unwilling to queue, and which required only
the A configuration. We also, in most cases, rejected unscheduled
proposals which were submitted more than one year ago, or for which it
is clear, due to referee ratings or other reasons, that the proposal
will not be accepted within one year from its submission date.
- VLBA
- Scheduling takes two forms, dynamic and fixed
date. Most approved proposals have been accepted for insertion into
the VLBA dynamic scheduling queue; a Guide to VLBA
Dynamic Scheduling is available. Rare proposals, particularly
those requiring other resources such as a non-VLBA antenna, will be
scheduled on fixed dates with notification to the observers about six
weeks in advance.
- Statistics
- The oversubscription rate for the A
configuration was about 1.3, after subtracting time allocated to
maintenance and software development, and subtracting time previously
allocated as part of a multiconfiguration proposal. There were 216
hours requested for the High Sensitivity Array (HSA). There were 1738
hours requested for VLBA observations (753 hours at 128 Mbits/sec, the
current sustainable rate; 585 hours at 256 Mbits/sec; 399 hours at 512
Mbits/sec). For comparison, in a recent trimester the VLBA observed
for 1304 hours, of which 288 hours were allocated through the prior
large proposal process. There were 131 active VLA proposals, 51
active VLBA proposals and five new Global Network proposals. We
allocated time for 57 VLA proposals, accepted five as target of
opportunity proposals waiting for an event of known type, approved 21
for insertion into the VLA dynamic queue, and rejected 47 proposals.
One of the VLA proposals entered into the dynamic queue, AR685, is a
newly-accepted large
proposal. We approved four VLBA proposals for fixed date
scheduling, one for the HSA. We approved 16 VLBA proposals for the
dynamic queue, seven at high priority, six at second priority, and
three at low priority. We rejected 28 VLBA proposals. The average
time allocated per regular proposal was 14 hours for the VLA and 24
hours for the VLBA.
Information from the VLA/VLBA Scheduling Officers includes a table
of approved VLA/VLBA proposals.
Future Regular and Large Proposals
-
- Details for the next two proposal deadlines are
available.
Related Postings
-
- These include the
NRAO Proposal Referees' Guide, a complete description of the
VLA/VLBA Time Allocation Process, and the proposal process for Rapid Response
Science.
Static Information
- Proposal Summary
- The first line contains the
proposal code and title. The second line informs you if we have
scheduled time for the proposal, and whether it will be considered for
more time in the future. If you expected the proposal to be
considered for a future trimester, and this is not indicated in this
line, please let us know by the next proposal deadline. This line is
followed by comments from the VLA/VLBA Proposal Selection Committee,
or from other considerations of the proposal, and then the list of
authors of the proposal. For proposals for which we have allocated
VLA or VLBA time, a list of the times tentatively allocated, with
configuration, and a breakdown in terms of sessions with approximate
centering in VLA sidereal time is given. We also list the times
requested, with a similar breakdown, and times previously
scheduled.
The reports from the referees follow and they contain a numerical
rating. The referees use any numerical system with which they are
comfortable, subject only to the convention that the smaller the
rating, the better the proposal. We include the median of the ratings
given us by that particular referee in order to judge the relative
rating of your proposal. The referee ratings are strongly advisory to
the Committee, which, however, may also apply considerations of
similar archival observations, logistics, resources used, etc., to
decide which proposals to schedule.
For most proposals that supplied a source list we have searched the
VLA or VLBA archive for previous observations of the same sources,
except for the Galactic Center and Orion A in which the listings would
be too voluminous to be very informative. We include this listing in
the e-mailing sent to the lead proposer only. These listings give the
name, position, type of observation (blank indicates continuum, codes
starting with a number are line modes, VLBA observations show
recording mode), frequency of observation, bandwidth, time on source
in minutes, number of antennas, proposal code, observer's name,
configuration and date. Observations are selected on the basis of
positional agreement only. We include this information since it may
be of value to the proposer, as it often was to the Committee in
evaluating the proposal.
- VLBI Global Network Proposals
- NRAO evaluates these
but the final choice of proposals for scheduling, for either the
centimeter or the 3mm sessions, is done by negotiation between the US
and European schedulers.
- Modifications
- Unless stated otherwise, any time
allocated is only for the proposal given, and no substantial
modification in the program should be made without consulting with
schedsoc@nrao.edu (and R. Porcas for VLBI Global Network proposals)
before doing so.
- Public Outreach
- The NRAO can help observers and their
home institution prepare joint press releases, and/or help prepare
enhanced graphics for publications. The NRAO encourages observers to
submit images from their research to its on-line image
gallery. Contact: mtadams@nrao.edu.
Page maintained by schedsoc for the VLA/VLBA Proposal Selection
Committee: R. Dickman (NRAO), R. Becker (UC, Davis), A. Brown (U of
Colorado), B. Clark (NRAO), M. Claussen (NRAO), M. Elvis
(Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), S. Kurtz (UNAM), A. Sarma (DePaul U),
N. Vogt (New Mexico State U), J. Ulvestad (NRAO), J. Wrobel (NRAO),
R. Zavala (USNO)
Modified on Wednesday, 27-Aug-2008 12:29:00 MDT
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