Applying for Time in Semester 08B

• A separate call for proposals for the Pilot Programme of the eSMA is expected to be issued by the collaborating observatories at a later date.

Spectrometer Backend:

• ACSIS
  • The ACSIS corelating spectrometer is a highly flexible backend designed to work with HARP, but which works with all our receivers. Please see www.jach.hawaii.edu/JCMT/spectral_line/Backends/acsis/acsis-guide.html for a list of available bandwidths, spectral resolutions and backend modes.

Supported Observing Modes:

Several modes of observing have been tested and are supported, including Single-spectrum samples, Grid-mapping, Jiggle-Chop mapping, Jiggle-PSSW mapping, and Raster mapping. These observing modes are discussed in some detail in http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/software/jcmtot/het_obsmodes.html

Calculating Integration Time and Overheads:

A Heterodyne Integration TimE Calculator HITEC, has recently been updated and upgraded to use the current complement of receivers and observing modes. HITEC can be used to calculate the integration time needed to reach a given RMS per channel as a function of frequency and weather. Don't forget to include the overhead factors recommended by HITEC in your calculation of the total time required.

Those who have a fall 2007 or later version of JCMTOT can also use that program to calculate the necessary integration times, since JCMTOT and HITEC should give similar results. However, be sure to use the overhead factors recommended by HITEC in your calculation of the total time required.

Proposals should be sent to the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the Canadian, or the International queue, depending on the primary funding agency of the PI or coIs. Please be careful to follow the rules (listed below) for deciding the appropriate queue. Proposals sent to the wrong queue risk being rejected.

• Is the PI employed by a UK, Netherlands or Canadian institution? If so, then submit the proposal to the UK, Netherlands or Canadian queue respectively.
• If not, is at least one of the co-Is employed by an institution from one of the above-named countries? If so, then submit the proposal to the national queue of the first-named co-I who is from one of the three countries.
• If neither the PI nor any of the co-Is is employed by an institution in the UK, the Netherlands, or Canada, then the proposal must be submitted to the International queue.

JCMT Legacy Survey projects will play an increasing role in science operations over the coming semesters. Seven projects were approved by the JCMT Board in July 2005, and were described in the Spring 2006 issue of the JCMT Newsletter. An overview of the science goals and sources for each can be read here.

The JCMT Board has decided that the science goals of the survey projects are to be protected against duplication by PI projects, and that scientific merit should be the guiding principle in cases of overlap. This means that no regions of the sky are off-limits: PIs who submit proposals to observe fields claimed by the survey projects will, however, be required to provide additional justification for so doing. If that justification is not provided or is insufficient, time will not be awarded. It is anticipated that time will normally be awarded to PIs in such cases only when the observations represent an extension of the surveys: e.g., in depth, in area or in frequency. (Note that these duplication rules do not apply to the University of Hawaii queue.)

In order to enable proposers to identify potential conflicts with the survey programme, a web-based Survey Clash Detector tool has been developed. The tool simply reports positional clashes for an instrument; it does not attempt to say whether the clash constitutes a conflict between your proposal and one of the surveys. If a clash is detected, you will need to check the survey descriptions to determine if there is a conflict.

It's well known that summer months tend to be much wetter than winter months, but on average, how much wetter is it? Just how much time is generally available in certain weather bands at certain times of the year? Click here for a discussion, reprinted from the Spring 2007 issue of JCMT SPECTRUM, on atmospheric opacity statistics. For example, in winter months (Dec-April) on average only about 10-15% of the time is grade 1, while in summertime the fraction is under 5%. Conversely, as much as 20-30% of the time is grade 5 weather.

Observer Status and Queue Observing:

Canadian & Netherlands Projects

Successful Canadian and Dutch programs have been executed in recent years during dedicated observing blocks. The observer during these blocks is usually associated with one of the high-priority programs to be observed, but is effectively running the entire Canadian/Dutch queue in a flexible manner. Canadian and Dutch applicants should anticipate the possibility that they may or may not be asked to be an observer for their national queue in this manner.

UK Projects

On the other hand, UK programs are scheduled individually, but only if the UKTAG has determined that an observer should be present. The observer then primarily observes his/her program if the weather permits, and, secondarily, observes other programs from the UK queue, including those for which no observer was deemed essential.

The determination of 'observer' status by the UK TAG is guided by several factors including the complexity of the program, the weather requirements, the time needed, and the priority awarded the program. Consider these examples:

• A high-priority, good-weather, complex program will most likely require an observer from among the applicants to go to Hawaii to observe the program, whereas
• a moderately-ranked, straight-forward program needing grade 3/4 weather may be successfully observed during flexible observing by the attendant JCMT TSS, and will not need an observer from among the applicants to be in attendance.
• However, a short, straight-forward, high-priority program requiring the very best (and rarest) weather may not attract observer status on the grounds that the observer would be unlikely to be in attendance when the weather was suitable. Such a program could be observed as a priority when the weather was suitably good.
• If the PI has a specific reason that observer status would be required, those reasons should be listed in the "Scheduling Preferences" section of the proposal.

Note also that the JCMT Scheduler may, after consultation with the UKTAG Tech.Sec., change the UKTAG's observer/non-observer status, if and when required by constraints on the schedule.

International Projects

Allocated programs from the International queue are, except in very rare circumstances, required to provide an observer to staff the telescope during their scheduled time. Nevertheless, observing programs remain in the queue and may be observed during other international observing blocks, or during JCMT Legacy Survey blocks (see above) when no suitable JLS projects are available.

The JCMT Users e-mail exploder:

From time to time, subscribers to the 'jcmt_users' email list will receive notices on the status of the JCMT, call for proposals, etc. To subscribe, please visit http://mailman.jach.hawaii.edu/mailman/listinfo/jcmt_users

And Finally:

If you have any comments about the scheduling, the submission deadlines and procedures, etc - please contact me.

Gerald Schieven
JCMT Scheduler