Science Program 2010A

The October 2009 call for proposals, covering the first trimester of 2010, included a number of new capabilities. Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA) Early Science is expected to begin in March 2010 following the shutdown of the old VLA correlator and the transfer of hardware to the new EVLA WIDAR correlator. Similarly, the new DiFX software correlator, with increased science capabilities, will go into routine operation for Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) programs. At the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), the pulsar Spigot and spectrometer system was being retired in favor of the new Green Bank Ultimate Pulsar Processing Instrument (GUPPI) pulsar back end. The first trimester of 2010 also marks an operational milestone with all three of NRAO's current telescopes using dynamic scheduling as the default scheduling mode.

The GBT and the EVLA/VLBA Proposal Selection Committees (PSC) met in the second week of December 2009 to review the referee rankings and technical reports for all proposals, with the goal of providing a recommended science program to the NRAO Director's Office.

A list of the approved EVLA, GBT, and VLBA/High Sensitivity Array (HSA) observing programs for Trimester 2010-A is below that includes, for each program: (a) the PI's last name; (b) the title of the approved proposal, and (c) the type of proposal (Regular or Large). Additional information is available via the Proposal Finder Tool.

To maximize early EVLA science while simultaneously commissioning the hardware and introducing new capabilities, three separate programs were created. They are, in brief: (1) Open Shared Risk Observing (OSRO) which provides first-light EVLA capabilities to the general user community; (2) Resident Shared Risk Observing (RSRO) which provides access to enhanced EVLA capabilities to those who are able to spend a period of time in Socorro to help with commissioning; and (3) a modest (up to 500 hrs/year) EVLA Commissioning Staff Observing (ECSO) program giving access to commissioning staff to push new science capabilities.

NRAO was particularly pleased with the strong positive response from the community to the RSRO program. A total of 27 RSRO proposals were submitted to this program, with many younger postdocs and experienced observers expressing an interest in committing several months helping out with commissioning the EVLA. We hope to see more RSRO proposals from the community in future proposal deadlines.

A total of 236 hrs were allocated out of an annual allotment of 500 hrs for ECSO programs.

The newly approved projects below for the VLBA and the HSA make up only a fraction of the total available time. Most of the time this trimester is going observing for existing Large projects.