SMA Call for Proposal

Proposal Deadline

The ASIAA SMA Time Allocation Committee (TAC) invites Taiwanese proposals for observation with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) for the observing period 2007 November 1 through 2008 April 30 (2007B semester). The deadline for proposal submission is September 7th, 2007 (4AM morning Taiwan time) [= September 6, 10AM, Hawaii Time]. The 230, 345, and 690 GHz bands are open to proposals for the coming semester. The 400 GHz receivers have been installed to 4 antennas, and the 400 GHz band will be open on a trial basis. The use of the 400 GHz receivers should be requested (with a justification) in a proposal. The Subcompact, Compact, Extended, and Very extended configurations are all likely available at some point during the semester on an on-demand basis.

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. An SMA proposal should consist of (i) a cover page that is typed-in through the SMA submission web page, and (ii) a proposal main body that is prepared with a regular LaTex file and is submitted as a pdf or postscript file. No other file-format will be accepted. The proposal main body should have at most two pages for scientific and technical justifications plus at most two pages for figures, tables and references. A standard LaTeX proposal template and a style file are available at ASIAA-SMA web page (http://www.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/~SMART/) as an example and for your convenience.

All proposals must be submitted, before the submission deadline, through the SMA proposal submission facility managed by the SAO http://sma1.sma.hawaii.edu/proposing.html . 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. Go to the web page indicated above, and click "SMA Project Account". A new registration can be made through the SMA Project Account 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, Lee, Mullar, 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 calibration sources are available. For 690 GHz observations, or for any non-standard situations, calibration strategies must be described in detail. For the September 7, 2007, submission period, long tracks will be feasible only for sources in the right ascension range approximately 03h to 17h. 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 September - 2008 April semester. These numbers fluctuate depending on the weather.
During 2005 May - 2005 October, 16 tracks (Taiwanese programs) were carried out.
During 2005 November - 2006 April, 9 tracks (Taiwanese programs) were carried out.
During 2006 May - 2006 October, 13 tracks (Taiwanese programs) were carried out.
During 2006 November - 2007 April, 13 tracks (Taiwanese 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. The Subcompact configuration has an elevation (lower) limit of about 30 degrees.

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;

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 July 31