| Proposal
Deadline
The ASIAA SMA Time Allocation Committee
(TAC) invites Taiwanese proposals for observation with the
Submillimeter Array (SMA) for the observing period 2007 May 1
through 2007 October 31 (2007A semester).
The deadline for proposal submission is March 2nd,
2007 (5AM morning Taiwan time = March 1, 11AM, HST).
The 230,
345, and 690 GHz bands are open to proposals for the coming semester.
The Subcompact, Compact, Extended, and Very extended configurations
are all likely available at some point during the semester on
an on-demand basis. The 2007A semester likely starts in the
Subcompact configuration.
SMA
Observing Time for Taiwan
This call for proposal is restricted to
proposals with a PI (principal investigator) who is
affiliated to a Taiwanese
university or a Taiwanese research institute.
In addition, the time to be opened to the Taiwanese community is
limited to the ASIAA's share of the SMA science observation time.
Currently, the ASIAA has a 15.25 % share of the total SMA science
observations time.
Although the SMA has started producing good scientific results,
various features of the array are still being tested or remain to
be implemented.
This call for proposals is intended for people who are willing and able
to make use of data obtained in this potentially difficult environment.
People who are not familiar with the SMA are urged to consult
Nagayoshi Ohashi (
ohashi@asiaa.sinica.edu.tw)
or contact persons according to subjects they are interested in
(star formation:
Sheng-Yuan Liu,
extragalactic:
Satoki Matsushita,
evolved stars:
Dinh-Van Trung).
Proposal
Submission
Proposals must be written in English using the standard
LaTeX proposal template (at most two pages for
scientific and technical justifications plus at most
two pages for figures, tables and references).
No other format will be accepted.
Please
be sure to use the latest version of the proposal template,
which is available at ASIAA-SMA web page
(http://www.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/~SMART/).
All proposals must be submitted through the SMA proposal
submission facility managed by the SAO
http://sma1.sma.hawaii.edu/call.html
by the proposal deadline.
From 2007A, you need a proposer account (equivalent to
a registration) to submit an SMA proposal. If you have an account
at the SMA Observer Center, you are already registered.
Potential proposers are urged to visit the above submission site.
The registration can be made through the proposal submission web page.
Those who are planning to submit proposals are strongly
encouraged to have detailed discussions about their proposals at
one of above mentioned three groups (star formation, extragalactic,
evolved stars) well in advance of the proposal submission. See more
details regarding the guideline and the procedure of the proposal
submission in "
A guideline for people to submit the SMA proposals"
on the web page. If a PhD student is considering an SMA proposal,
please see the guideline page for potential benefits.
Proposal
Evaluation
Proposal selection will be based on scientific merit and technical
feasibility.
ASIAA-SMA TAC (TTAC; Hasegawa-chair,
Ohashi,
Liu,
Hwang
[NCU],
Wright
[UC-Berkeley],
Wilner
[SAO])
will make the final ranking of the proposals, and will recommend an amount
of time to be allocated to each proposal. The proposals will be ranked
into three categories : A (best effort to execute), B (may be attempted
as conditions permit), and C (will not be attempted). The total amount
of A-ranked observing time for the ASIAA SMA proposals will be
contingent to the total A and B time allocations for the SMA.
All allocated time will be shared-risk, with no guarantee of
observations, and no claim to observations in future proposal
periods. Most proposals will be queue scheduled to maximize return
based on the prevailing weather conditions.
Preliminary
Considerations
SMA observations are generally done only at night, as the data quality
is generally best from a few hours after sunset to sunrise when
atmospheric phase noise is low and sunlight does not degrade pointing.
Proposers must provide clear justifications for the rms flux
sensitivities, spectral resolutions, and antenna configuration(s)
needed to achieve their science goals. Proposers must also show that
suitable calibrator sources are available. For 690 GHz observations,
or for any non-standard situations, calibration
strategies must be described in detail. For the March 2,
2007, submission period, long tracks will be feasible only
for sources in the right ascension range approximately
16h to 04h. Sources outside this RA range
will also be considered if adequate justification is provided.
However, the array configuration is scheduled to accomodate
the A-ranked proposals, so that observations of sources outside
the above RA range might not be possible in practice.
Exactly what fraction of time will be allocated to science
observations is unclear.
It is likely that at least half of the nights will be available
for science observations. Weather statistics suggest that
approximately half of the time allocated to science observations
will be suitable for observations in the 345 GHz band.
As a rough guide, Taiwanese PIs might expect a total of 6 nights for
the 230 GHz band, 5 nights for the 345 GHz band, and 1 night for the
690 GHz band in the 2007 May - 2007 October semester. These
numbers fluctuate depending on the weather. During 2005 November -
2006 April, 9 tracks (of Taiwanese PI programs) were carried out.
During 2005 May - 2005 October, 16 tracks (of Taiwanese PI programs)
were carried out.
Status of the Array and Technical Information
Status of the Array and Technical Information are available at
SMA web page. Several tools for planning SMA
observations are available on the
Tools page.
Proposers must use the Beam Calculator / Sensitivity Estimator
to calculate nominal sensitivities for proposals.
The basic "Compact"
(70 m) and "Extended" (220 m) antenna configurations
are expected to be available at some point during both the first
half and the second half of the scheduling semester.
The "Very extended" configuration (500 m) will be available on
an on-demand basis. Projects using the very extended configuration
must describe calibration strategies in detail. From 2007 May,
the "Subcompact" (10 - 25 m) configuration is available.
Proposals
for the 690 GHz band
The 690 GHz band is the highest frequency band at the SMA, and
observations at this band are very challenging. Only 6 antennas have
been fully tested at the 690 GHz band. You should keep in mind the
following notes if you would like to propose a project at the 690 GHz
band;
|
(1) |
phase calibration is the current
main issue at the 690 GHz band. For phase referencing, you need
to observe a point source having a flux density of at least 5 Jy,
preferably more than 10 Jy. Quasars are not strong enough for
phase referencing. Ganimede, Calisto, Titan, and Ceres would be
a good calibrator. H2O maser line at 658 GHz toward
some evolved stars could be used for phase calibration,
too. |
| (2) |
The weather condition must be very good.
According to the statistics, only 5 % of the available time
can be used for observations at the 690 GHz band. |
| (3) |
Targets must be as compact as possible.
The expected angular resolution is about 1 arcsecond even in the
compact antenna configuration we use at the SMA, and the SMA is
sensitive enough to only structures having a scale of less than
5 arcseconds or so. |
Proposals for the 690 GHz band should be
consulted with those who are familiar with the SMA. Also, since
available time for the 690 GHz is very limited, collaboration
with the SAO is encouraged.
Tatsuhiko Hasegawa 2007 February 8
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