NASA SOFIA Cycle 1 Call for Proposals

Release Date: November 22, 2011
Proposal Deadline: January 27, 2012

We are pleased to announce the Cycle 1 Call for SOFIA observing proposals. The first science observations with FORCAST mid-infrared camera at 5-40 micron (P.I. Terry Herter, Cornell University) and GREAT far-infrared spectrometer (P.I. Rolf Guesten, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy) were obtained in Dec 2010 and April of 2011, respectively. SOFIA also completed a set of general investigator observations under the Basic Science proposal call during 2011.

The deadline for submitting Cycle 1 proposals is January 27, 2012. The Cycle 1 observing period is from August 2012 to August 2013. Cycle 1 observations offer with the instruments of FORCAST mid-infrared camera, GREAT far-infrared spectrometer, FLITECAM infrared camera at 1-5 micron (P.I. Ian MacLean, UCLA) and HIPO Occultation Photometer (P.I. Edward Dunham, Lowell Observatory). The combination of HIPO/FLITECAM is also available. The instrument configuration of FORCAST grism, FLITECAM grism and GREAT M1 (2.51 THz OH line) are considered “shared-risk” observations.

To prepare and submit observing proposals, see the Cycle 1 webpage: http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Science/proposals/cycle1/. Some of the supporting tools and documentation are undergoing updates based on recently obtained information. These updates (primarily, the sensitivities; and opening for proposal ingestion) will be released on December 12, 2011.

The Call is open to all qualified astronomers, world-wide, except for those currently affiliated with German institutions, for whom a separate Call will be issued by the Deutsches SOFIA Institut. Successful proposers with U.S. professional affiliations will be eligible to receive funding to support the acquisition, analysis and publication of their Cycle 1 program.

For further information about the Cycle 1 Call for Proposal or help in preparing proposals, please see the “Information for Researchers” ( http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Science/) section of the SOFIA web site, or contact the SOFIA help desk at sofia_help@sofia.usra.edu.

Questions about the SOFIA General Investigator program can be directed to the SOFIA Science Operations Manager, Dr. B-G Andersson (bg@sofia.usra.edu), or SOFIA User Support Scientist Dr. Ravi Sankrit (rsankrit@sofia.usra.edu).

For further information about the SOFIA Science project, please contact the above, or the Science Mission Operations Director, Dr. Erick T. Young (eyoung@sofia.usra.edu)