INTEGRAL Proposals and AO-News
AO-7
The INTEGRAL AO-7 General Program, as recommended by the Time Allocation Committee (TAC) and approved on the 15th of April by the ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration (Prof. David Southwood) has been released.
US Guest Observers will be funded through the AO-7 US Guest Investigator Program. Details can be found in this letter from Dr. Wilton Sanders, NASA INTEGRAL Program Scientist.
AO-7: Preliminary Statistics
Total number of proposals
The total number of proposals received was 76. The total observing time requested is about 107 Msec (for all types of observation, i.e. fixed time, normal time, and TOO). Here, 10% of the requested total TOO time has been taken into account. Given that up to about 29 Msec of observing time are available for the AO-7 observing programme (14.5 months duration starting on 16 October 2009), this corresponds to an oversubscription by a factor of about 3.7 (see details below). This is a high value, showing the continued high interest of the scientific community in the INTEGRAL mission.
Proposals per category
In the following table we give the breakdown of number of proposals as a function of the proposal category. Note that the numbers on requested observing times do include TOO proposals, but it has been assumed here, that a typical TOO proposal requests about 10% of its total observing time as entered into PGT from all the candidate sources included in a TOO proposal. Further analysis may modify this assumption but the impact on the overall results should not be large.
|
Category |
Number of proposals |
Requested observing time (Ms) |
Oversubscription |
% |
% |
|
Compact galactic objects |
32 |
29.4 |
1.01 |
42.1 |
27.4 |
|
Extragalactic objects |
18 |
36.8 |
1.27 |
23.7 |
34.4 |
|
Nucleosynthesis |
8 |
13.4 |
0.46 |
10.5 |
12.6 |
|
Miscellany |
18 |
27.4 |
0.94 |
23.7 |
25.6 |
|
Total |
76 |
107 |
3.68 |
100 |
100 |
The Time Allocation Committee, whose purpose is to peer review all proposals and recommend a scientific observing programme to ESA, will meet from March 23 - 25 at ESAC. Following this meeting, ESA will announce the approved programme for AO-7 of observations.
A second Call within this AO-7 will be released on 25 May, inviting proposals on individual point sources or selected sky areas (for diffuse emission studies) to be associated as "data-right proposals" with the selected observations, excluding TOO observations. The deadline for submission of data rights proposal is 03 July.
Christoph Winkler
INTEGRAL Project Scientist
05 March 2009
AO-7: Important Dates
ESA's Director of Science and Robotic Exploration (Prof. David Southwood) has released the 7th Announcement of Opportunity for observing proposals with INTEGRAL.
This announcement solicits proposals for observations to be carried out from mid-October 2009 onwards. Proposers from all over the world are welcome to participate. All proposals will be subject to an independent peer review by the INTEGRAL Time Allocation Committee (TAC). The deadline for Proposals submission is Friday 20 February 2009, 14:00 CET (13:00 GMT).
Observing proposals selected for AO-7 will subsequently be open for so-called "data right proposals" via a second Call for Proposals. These associated proposals allow the possibility to obtain data rights on point-like, extended sources or emission features contained in the field of view of accepted observing proposals. The second call is scheduled to be released in May 2009.
| Release of AO-7: | 12 January 2009 | |
| Due date for observing time proposals: | 20 February 2009 (13:00 GMT) | |
| TAC meeting: | end of March 2009 | |
| Call for data right proposals: | 25 May 2009 | |
| Due date for data right proposals: | 03 July 2009 | |
| Associated targets selected: | early September 2009 | |
| Start AO-7 observations: | mid October 2009 |
Extension of AO-6
In consultation with the INTEGRAL Users Group, it has been decided to extend the duration of the ongoing AO-6 cycle of observations by two months, therefore AO-6 will be ending now on 16 October 2009. There are sufficient accepted observations available to cover the extension interval.
Also, the duration of the following cycle (AO-7) will be extended by 2.5 months, and AO-7 will therefore last from October 2009 until end of December 2010. The subsequent AO's are expected to be annual again.
The reasons for this change are, in brief:
1. Since the early mission there is an accumulated carry-over of about 2 Msec per AO cycle, which despite improvements to the planning efficiency could never be fully suppressed. This carry over can be cleaned up and thus no longer affect future AOs.
2. In the current scheme, the AO observation cycle is not synchronized with the cycle of mission extensions, as the mission is currently approved until 31 December 2012.
3. Finally, a later start of AO-7 observations allows for a less busy schedule for TAC and ISOC in implementing the new scheme including all observing time and data rights proposals.
AO-6
The INTEGRAL AO-6 General Programme, as recommended by the Time Allocation Committee (TAC) and approved on the 3rd of June by the ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration (Prof. David Southwood) has been released.
US Guest Observers will be funded through the AO-6 US Guest Investigator Program. Details can be found in this letter from Dr. Rick Harnden, NASA INTEGRAL Program Scientist.
AO-6 Key Program
ESA has selected the 6 observing programs to be conducted within the AO-6 Key Program.
These observations are to be carried out in the period from August 2008 to August 2009 during the AO-6 cycle of observations.
| Proposer | Proposal Title | Target | Time (ksec) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belanger | Deep INTEGRAL Observations of the Central Molecular Zone | Galactic Center | 2000 |
| Ajello | The Ultra-Deep INTEGRAL Legacy Hard X-Ray Survey | North Ecliptic Pole | 2000 |
| Knoedlseder | Nucleosynthesis and Anti-Matter Annihilation in Cygnus X | Cygnus Region | 2000 |
| Weidenspointner | Confirming the Asymmetry of the Positron Annihilation Radiation from the Inner Galactic Disk |
Two regions: l=+/-25, b=0 | 2000 |
| Maccarone | Deep Observations of 47 Tuc and the SMC | SMC/47 Tuc | 2000 |
| Stella | Giant Flares from Magnetars in the Virgo Cluster | Vigro Cluster | 2000 |
AO-5
ESA has released the observing program for AO-5. ESA selected 123 proposals of which 24 had US PIs. 49 US Guest Observers were approved for NASA funding of their investigation.
AO-5 Key Program
ESA has selected the 4 observing programs to be conducted within the AO-5 Key Program.
These observations are to be carried out in the period from August 2007 to August 2008 during the AO-5 cycle of observations.
It is anticipated that successful Key Program proposals with US investigators will be funded within the AO-5 US Guest investigator program. Details can be found in this letter to potential US investigators from Dr. Rick Harden, NASA INTEGRAL Program Scientist.
| Proposer | Proposal Title | Target | Time (ksec) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belanger | Deep INTEGRAL Observations of the Central Molecular Zone | Galactic Center | 2000 |
| Ajello | The Ultra-Deep INTEGRAL Legacy Hard X-Ray Survey | North Ecliptic Pole | 2000 |
| Knoedlseder | Nucleosynthesis and Anti-Matter Annihilation in Cygnus X | Cygnus Region | 2000 |
| Butt | Imaging the Hyperactive Cygnus TeV Super-Structure in Soft Gamma-Rays | Cygnus Region | 2000 (merged with the above program) |
AO-4
The INTEGRAL AO-4 General Observing Program has been released. The ESA INTEGRAL TAC approved 90 Guest Observer proposals for AO-4 of which 35 were associated with the INTEGRAL Key Programme. 34 US Guest Observers have been approved for NASA funding of their investigation.
AO-3
The complete AO-3 observing program and a complete list of AO-3 targets are available at ESA's INTEGRAL website.
The ESA INTEGRAL TAC approved a total of 58 Guest Observation proposals for AO-3, of which 18 are led by US Principle Investigators. An additional 8 AO-3 Guest Observation proposals have US Co-Investigators, thus there is US participation in about half of all AO-3 Guest Observations. In addition to the Guest Observations, NASA approved 8 Archival/Theoretical Guest Investigations received in response to NASA ROSS-2004 amendment NNH04Zss001N.
Prior AO's
The observing schedules and lists of approved targets for AO-1 and AO-2 are available from ESA's INTEGRAL web site. The AO-1 and AO-2 observing targets are also listed in the INTEGRAL Observing Program Catalog in the HEASARC INTEGRAL archive. It is searchable using Browse.
Proposal Tools
Proposal preparation tools, and instructions for responding to AOs are available through the INTEGRAL Science Operation Center (ISOC).
Last updated:Tuesday, 05-May-2009 15:28:46 EDT .