| Regular Proposals for 2010B Proposal
Deadline
The ASIAA SMA Time Allocation Committee
(TAC) solicits Taiwanese proposals for observations with the
Submillimeter Array (SMA) for the observing period 2010 November 16
through 2011 May 15 (2010B semester).
The deadline for proposal submission is 2010 September 17th,
4AM morning (Taiwan time).
[= September 16th, 10AM, Hawaii Time].
The 230, 345, 400 and 690 GHz bands are open to proposals for
the coming semester.
The 400 GHz receivers have been installed to 8 antennas.
The use of the 400 GHz receivers (in particular in combination
with the 230 or 345 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. The 4GHz bandwidth will be the default
in 2010B.
SMA
Observing Time for Taiwan
The ASIAA SMA time is open to
researchers and students who are affiliated to a Taiwanese
university or a Taiwanese research institute.
The ASIAA TAC expects a PI to
play a leading role in the proposed project and to be
the first author of the resulting papers. If a PI will be
unable to do these, the PI should provide the reason in the
proposal. ASIAA TAC will make considerations for international
collaborations and SAO-ASIAA (or UH-ASIAA) joint proposals
based on the explanations in the proposal. If you are not sure
whether your proposal will be received by ASIAA TAC for evaluation,
you should make an inquiry to ASIAA TAC Chair (email:
hasegawa AT asiaa.sinica.edu.tw).
The time to be opened to the Taiwanese astronomy community is
limited to the ASIAA's share in the SMA science observation time.
Currently, the ASIAA has a 15.25 % share of the total SMA science
observation 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:
Chin-Fei Lee).
Proposal
Submission
Proposals must be written in English.
Each proposal should consist of an on-line cover form
and technical information forms, and an attached scientific
justification in PDF format. Proposals may be saved and edited
on-line as often as needed prior to final submission.
The scientific justification is limited to a maximum of two
US-letter sized pages of text (11pt or larger) plus two US-letter
sized pages of figures, tables, and references.
Please observe the font-size and
page limits. We recommend proposers check their
pdf files for display problems with AdobeReader before
final submission.
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 through the SMA proposal submission
facility
(http://sma1.sma.hawaii.edu/proposing.html)
managed by the SAO before the deadline.
The submission site will open a few weeks before the deadline.
When submitting, Taiwanese PIs should select
"ASIAA TAC".
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 a proposal 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 guidelines and the procedure of the proposal
submission in
"Guidelines 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.
Starting from September, 2008, the
SAO and ASIAA SMA TACs jointly evaluate all the SMA proposals
submitted to the ASIAA and SAO sides, and will make one ranking
table. Then, the ASIAA SMA TAC will extract the ASIAA proposals
(with their relative rankings) and make a final ASIAA ranking table.
The ASIAA TAC then recommends an amount of time to be allocated
to each proposal submitted to the ASIAA TAC.
Taiwanese proposals still need to be submitted
to the ASIAA TAC for the 2010B semester.
Current ASIAA SMA TAC members are Hasegawa (chair),
Ohashi (co-chair),
Sakamoto,
Lai.
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.
For the 2010B semester, the target allocation for ASIAA time
is about 21 (plus minus 2) tracks (A and B combined).
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 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.
Most of 200 GHz band projects can practically be carried out under
the weather condition pwv = 4 mm. Most of 300 GHz band projects can
practically be carried out under the weather condition pwv = 2.5 mm.
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.
The choice of weather band (in the proposal cover page)
affects the rating of a proposal (as a feasibility factor).
If a proposer requests a weather band that is
better than the current SMA standards (grade 4 [pwv = 4 mm] for
the 230 GHz band; grade 3 [pwv = 2.5 mm] for the 345 GHz band;
grade 2 [pwv = 2 mm] for the 400 GHz band; grade 1 [pwv = 1 mm]
for the 690 GHz band), then the proposer must provide
a justification (or a discussion of cost and benefit).
For the 2010 November 16 -
2011 May 15 period, long tracks will be feasible only
for sources in the right ascension range approximately 04h to 16h.
Sources outside this RA range
will also be considered if an adequate justification is provided.
However, the array configuration is scheduled to accommodate
the A-ranked proposals, so that observations of sources outside
the above RA range might not be possible in practice.
Approximately six nights will be available every week
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 7 nights for
the 230 GHz band, 7 nights for the 345 GHz band, and 1 night for the
400 or 690 GHz band in the 2010B semester. These
numbers fluctuate depending on the weather.
The following table shows the numbers of Taiwanese programs
carried out in the past.
2005 May - 2005 Oct: 16 tracks (Taiwanese programs)
2005 Nov - 2006 Apr: 9 tracks (Taiwanese programs)
2006 May - 2006 Oct: 13 tracks (Taiwanese programs)
2006 Nov - 2007 Apr: 13 tracks (Taiwanese programs)
2007 May - 2007 Oct: 18 tracks (Taiwanese programs)
2007 Nov - 2008 May: 15 tracks (Taiwanese programs)
2008 May - 2008 Nov: 21 tracks (Taiwanese programs)
2008 Nov - 2009 May: 16 tracks (Taiwanese programs)
2009 May - 2009 Nov: 18 tracks (Taiwanese programs)
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"
(70m) and "Extended" (220m) antenna configurations
are expected to be available at some point during
the scheduling semester.
The "Very extended" configuration (500m) 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" (10m - 25m) configuration is available.
The Subcompact configuration has an elevation (lower) limit of
32 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.
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 at 690 GHz.
Ganimede, Calisto, Titan, and Ceres would be a good calibrator.
The 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
(tau225 less than 0.06 or pwv less than 1 mm).
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 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 2010 August 13
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