PATT ITAC Report for Semester 96A

The individual partner TAGs hold meetings in their respective countries prior to the PATT session to assess applications from their own country. At these meetings informal numbers of shifts are nominated for each application in a priority order. The Chairpersons of each TAG bring their respective lists to the PATT where the ITAC combine the awards, include discussion of the engineering and commissioning requirements and assess the international applications. The final allocations of shifts are made by the ITAC.

Applications to be considered

UK status			46

Canadian status			24

Netherlands status		14

International status		9

University of Hawaii		10

TOTAL:				103

It should be noted that if the PI on an application is a JCMT staff member based in Hilo, then the application is assessed by the appropriate national TAG. However, by Board rule, International status is given to any application where the only named collaborator from any partner country is such a JCMT staff member. International applications are assessed at the ITAC meeting.

Time Available (in 16-hour nights)

No. of nights in semester 96A	     	182.0

Engineering and Commissioning 		45.0

University of Hawaii (10%)       	13.5

Director's discretionary use       	4

Available for PATT science:		119.5

Awards (in 16-hour nights)

UK status		63.25

Canadian status		28.75

Netherlands status	23.0

International status	4.5

University of Hawaii	13.5

TOTAL allocation:	133.0

Attribute by JCMT Board formula (in nights)

UK		48.9

Canada		30.7

Netherlands	20.4

International	17.3

The reduction in allocation of time for UKT14 is again due to reduced request as applicants await the arrival of SCUBA to continue their programmes. The Lethbridge Group have again requested to bring their own Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) system. Previously their FTS interfaced with the UKT14 bolometer but they now have a stand-alone instrument with its own bolometer and cryostat. The FTS will be located on the right-hand Nasmyth platform (the other side from the SCUBA platform). No SBI time was allocated for this semester.

Instrument distribution

UKT14		15%

FTS		3%

SBI		0%

RxA		48%

RxB		23%

RxC		11%

L/M/95B/U14 and L/M/95B/U15 were awarded long-term status for 2 semesters with awards of 7 shifts and 4 shifts respectively in 96A. These are the final awards for these projects.

L/M/96A/U14 was approved for long-term status for two semesters, given 6 shifts in 96A, with a further 2 shifts in 96B.

Engineering & Commissioning

The engineering & commissioning time for 96A includes major engineering periods to replace the telecope encoders for 24-bit models and to upgrade the antenna azimuth track. The Az track work is a continuance of work begun during semester 95B. The installation of new encoders was postponed from semester 95B due to delivery problems from the manufacturer.

In view of the large amount of E&C time set aside for the commissioning of new instrumentation, other E&C tasks have been kept to a minimum for the semester.

Commissioning of the antenna and instrumentation continues with periods required to characterise and improve the surface via metrology and beam map measures, monitor the antenna performance and tracking through pointing and inclinometry runs, measure receiver performances and efficiencies, and increase the catalogue of standard spectra available at the telescope.

Time has been allocated for commissioning of RxB3, RxW and for SCUBA according to the commissioning plans made by the instrument builders. There is a non-standard instrument configuration schedule for the new FTS system which requires set-up and calibration time on the right-hand Nasmyth platform.

Observatory Backup Programme

The Observatory Backup (M/94B/I09) was not discussed for this round. However, it was discussed in view of the requirements for a considerable amount of low-frequency, high quality science for the semester. The ITAC decided that this programme may continue for semester 96A BUT only for CO (2-1) and 13CO (2-1) mapping of the nominated sources. More explicit requests must be made through the ITAC before proceeding to observe any other lines and/or sources.

Fallback Programmes

A number of applications have been approved by the ITAC to be included in the schedule should RxB3, RxW and/or SCUBA fail to meet their delivery dates. The commissioning time set aside for these instruments will be apportioned according to the partner funding ratio after 10% has been given to the University of Hawaii. Applicants on these fallback programmes will be informed by the JCMT Scheduler when/if their time is to be scheduled.

Since the fallback applications do not necessarily fit directly into the scheduled slots for the instruments some changes may be required to the schedule for the second half of the semester. All applicants affected will be informed in advance by the JCMT Scheduler.

Service time

Allocations for this semester are:

CDN = 6 shifts allocated;

NL = 0 shifts allocated;

UK = 10 shifts allocated

Redesign of the JCMT Application form

Some minor revisions have been made to the new version of the PATT3 form for the forth-coming semester. These are necessary in order to make further progress towards flexible scheduling and serviced observing. The current version of the form should now be used wherever possible. The new form is available on the JCMT homepage of the World Wide Web. There is also a template form available which enables a suitable Latex output to be generated from a simple editing of the file.