Institut für RaumfahrtsystemeSOFIA Cycle 1 German TAC Results
TAC results of SOFIA German Cycle 1 proposals
The SOFIA German Cycle 1 call for proposals (deadline March 2, 2012) generated 39 proposals, asking for a total of 200+ hours observing time. The SOFIA Time Allocation Committee (TAC) met at DSI/Univ. Stuttgart on April 16 and 17 to evaluate and rank the proposals by scientific merit.
The committee had the following members:
- Prof. Dr. Michael Grewing, Chair (Univ. Tübingen, Germany)
- Dr. Pierre Cox (IRAM Grenoble, France)
- Dr. Andy Harris (Univ. Maryland, USA)
- Dr. Frank Israel (Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands)
- Dr. Hans-Ulrich Käufl (ESO, Garching)
- Dr. Jesús Martin-Pintado (Centro de Astrobiologia, Madrid, Spain)
- Dr. Katharina Schreyer (Univ. Jena, Germany)
- Dr. Bingfried Stecklum (Landessternwarte Thüringen, Tautenburg, Germany)
The committee was asked to rank the proposal into 3 main categories:
- category A (MUST DO)
- category B (CAN DO, if time)
- category C (DON'T DO in this cycle)
Interestingly, the panel decided to introduce a 4th category, intermediate between A and B, labelled A/B (SHOULD DO, if at all possible).
Below, we present 3 tables, one for category A, one for category A/B, and one for category B. The order of appearance of the selected proposals in each table is alphabetical and does not represent a ranked sequence. The total open time available for the German community is about 35 hours.
Table 1 (category A proposals)
| PI | Institution | Title | Instrument | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caratti o Garatti | MPIfR, Bonn | Probing embedded molecular jets from massive young stellar objects | FORCAST | 3.5 |
| Csengeri | MPIfR, Bonn | Cooling processes in the starburst template W51 MAIN | GREAT | 4.5 |
| Glueck | Univ. Cologne | [CII] emission from ISM clouds in formation | GREAT | 2 |
| Guesten | MPIfR, Bonn | High-J CO observations of the IC443 SNR with GREAT | GREAT | 4 |
| Huber | Hamburg Observatory | Do star spots inflate the expolanet CoRot-2b? | FLITECAM | 3.5 |
| Parise | MPIfR, Bonn | The OD/OH ratio; clues for water formation | GREAT | 3 |
| Requena-Torres | MPIfR, Bonn | Excitation gradients across CND; constraining the heating processes | GREAT | 6 |
| Schilke | Univ. Cologne | Sulphur chemistry as a probe of the physical state of the ISM | GREAT | 2.5 |
| Wiesemeyer | MPIfR, Bonn | Interstellar chemistry of the OH radical (survey) | GREAT | 4 |
| Wyrowski | MPIfR, Bonn | Ammonia as a probe of infall in high-mass star forming clumps, part II | GREAT | 6 |
Table 2 (category A/B proposals)
| PI | Institution | Title | Instrument | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bik | MPIA, Heidelberg | Disentangling the complex ISM structure of the Galactic starburst W49 | FORCAST | 5 |
| Csengeri | MPIfR, Bonn | The DR21(OH) clump: formed by a collision of flows? | GREAT | 2 |
| Giesen | Univ. Cologne | Detection of 13CCC in dense star forming regions | GREAT | 4 |
| Linz | MPIA, Heidelberg | FORCAST observations of massive protostars | FORCAST | 1.5 |
| Menten | MPIfR, Bonn | OH isotopologue absorption toward high mass star forming regions | GREAT | 10 |
| Okada | Univ. Cologne | [CII] mapping of LMC cloud cores | GREAT | 5 |
| Perez-Beaupuits | MPIfR, Bonn | Constraining the physical state of the dense and warm gas in M17SW | GREAT | 3.5 |
| Roellig | Univ. Cologne | Mapping the nucleus of IC342 | GREAT | 3.5 |
| Schlemmer | Univ. Cologne | Observing para-H2D+ absorption towards IRAS 16293 | GREAT | 3 |
Table 3 (category B proposals)
| PI | Institution | Title | Instrument | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angerhausen | Hamburg Observatory | Transit and eclipse spectrophotometry of GJ 1214b and HD 189733b | FLITECAM | 2.5 |
| Beuther | MPIA, Heidelberg | The carbon budget and formation signature of molecular clouds | GREAT | 2 |
| Burgdorf | DSI, NASA-Ames | 5-37 micron exploratory spectrum of Venus | FORCAST | 1 |
| Eisloeffel | Tautenburg Observatory | The origin of the warm gas in the low-mass L1448 outflow | GREAT | 6 |
| Jakob | DSI, Palmdale | Observing the massive star formation region and mol. cloud Onsala-1 | GREAT | 1 |
| Menten | MPIfR, Bonn | OH observations in the protostellar outflow CepA HW2 | GREAT | 2 |
| Preibisch | Munich Observatory | Excitation of a strongly irradiated pillar in the Carina Nebula | GREAT | 3 |
| Ratzka | Munich Observatory | An unblinded inventory of the PDR near Trumpler 14 | FORCAST | 3 |
| Sandstrom | MPIA, Heidelberg | Revealing "CO-dark" molecular gas in Andromeda | GREAT | 3 |
| Simon | Univ. Cologne | SOFIA observations of warm and dense gas in G333.6 | GREAT | 2.5 |
| Walcher | AIP Potsdam | Liners in early-type galaxies: ISM ionisation | FORCAST | 2.5 |
While we will make every effort to schedule all category A proposals, in the end it all depends if they can be fitted into an optimised flight schedule. Therefore it is conceivable that a category A/B or even B proposal will make its way into the schedule, while a more meritorious A proposal may have to be left out. Note that we plan to have a SOFIA deployment to the southern hemisphere in July 2013 (most likely Christchurch, New Zealand).
Thank you very much for your interest in SOFIA observations.
Dr. Hans Zinnecker
SOFIA SMO deputy director & German SOFIA proposals selection official