[Everyone] [Lofar-proposals] Call for LOFAR Proposals: Cycle 18

[Proposal ASTRON]

International LOFAR Telescope
Proposal Call to the Worldwide Community 
 
Cycle 18: 01 June 2022 – 30 November 2022
Submission deadline Wednesday 09 March 2022, 12 UT
 
Submission only via the online tool NorthStar
( https://lofar.astron.nl/proposal) . 
** Proposers must ensure their justification files adhere to the
instructions given in Northstar, including restrictions on formats and
proposal length, repeated online here
(
http://old.astron.nl/radio-observatory/observing-lofar/observing-proposals/justification-file-instructions/instructions-j)
. ** 
 
WORLD-WIDE ACCESS: Time on the ILT is available to scientists from the
worldwide community. The single-cycle time offered in this call is
allocated in tandem between National Consortia and the ILT-PC.
Scientific excellence and breadth as well as the technical strength of
the proposals are taken along in the evaluations. The ILT-PC will define
restricted data access rights (default period 1 year) based on the
specific science goals and arguments in the proposal. Other groups may
be allocated simultaneous access for different science. 
SINGLE-CYCLE ONLY: For Cycle 18, only single-cycle proposals are
invited in any supported general-user mode. Single-cycle projects should
achieve their science goals with an allocation only in the upcoming
semester (1 June 2022 - 30 November 2022). Proposals to supplement
Long-Term science already reviewed following previous deadlines are not
eligible for the present call; pursuit of follow-up science related to
results already in hand may be proposed.

LST AND OTHER RESOURCE AVAILABILITY: 
LST availability: The availability of observing time as a function of
LST after taking into account the already active long-term projects is
presented online
(
http://old.astron.nl/radio-observatory/observing-lofar/observing-proposals/lst-availability-during-cycles-18/lst-availabi)
. Some further limitations due to tentative allocations made to Long
Term proposals are not shown, since the ILT-PC may still tension off the
merits of Cycle 18 proposals for that time.
Processing time and/or data storage capacity: These can be limiting
resources. Each proposal must request processing time to match the
observing time within appropriate documented ratios (see documentation
online
(
http://old.astron.nl/radio-observatory/observing-capabilities/depth-technical-information/major-observing-modes/major-obs)
), or should justify how processing will proceed elsewhere.
Support staff effort required to support the proposed projects is taken
into account during allocation. An online
(
http://old.astron.nl/radio-observatory/observing-lofar/observing-proposals/support-load-instructions/support-load-instruc)
 tool is available to understand whether a proposal entails a low,
medium, or high support load of the Science Data Centre Operations
staff. During the allocation process, the ILT-PC will be advised about
the amounts of support effort requested and available, and these will be
used as boundary conditions for proposal allocations; support will be
treated as a scarce resource in the same way as has become customary on
LOFAR for processing and data storage resources.  Advice is available
online
(
http://old.astron.nl/radio-observatory/observing-lofar/observing-proposals/support-load-instructions/support-load-instruc)
 on how proposers can reduce the support load of their project by a
prudent choice of observing mode. The proposal may also indicate that
the support will be carried out by members of the proposing team; in
that case, both the expertise and the work plan must be carefully argued
in the proposal. 
Priority classes: Due to ongoing upgrade work, system availability and
stability will vary with time. The ILT-PC will classify observing
allocations as A and/or B priority time; roughly half in each.
Allocations in A priority will have a high likelihood to yield a
successful observation; in case such an observation suffers substantial
failures, it will be repeated (once) at a later date. Allocations in
priority B will likely be realized partially; they are carried out on a
best-efforts basis, where the total of all priority B allocations
requires an optimistic availability scenario.

SYSTEM CAPABILITIES: The ILT is a powerful radio telescope for
frequencies below 240 MHz that offers state-of-the-art observing
capabilities thanks to its phased-array technology with digital
beam-forming. LOFAR delivers correlated visibility data for synthesis
imaging, plus (in)coherently-added single and multiple station data
(several beam-formed modes) as well as transient buffer read-out, for
example for studies of pulsars, transients, and cosmic rays. LOFAR
capabilities are described in detail online
(
http://old.astron.nl/radio-observatory/astronomers/technical-information/lofar-technical-information)
. Note the restrictions on functionalities offered in Cycle 18, as
described in this page
(
http://old.astron.nl/radio-observatory/observing-lofar/observing-proposals/observing-capabilities-cycle-18/availability-o)
. Proposals should request only the available system observing modes and
functionalities described online
(
http://old.astron.nl/radio-observatory/observing-lofar/observing-proposals/observing-capabilities-cycle-18/availability-o)
.

CO-OBSERVING OPTION FOR STANDARD HBA OR LBA IMAGING WITH LOFAR SKY
SURVEYS: the possibility is offered to carry out imaging in co-observing
mode with the LOFAR Survey projects, in their standard operating mode.
This has the advantage for co-observing PIs that calibration and
standard imaging are a routine process under guidance by the survey
teams (see details here
(
http://old.astron.nl/radio-observatory/observing-proposals/co-observing-surveys-ksp-team/co-observing-surveys-ksp-team)
 for HBA and here
(
http://old.astron.nl/radio-observatory/observing-lofar/observing-proposals/lba-co-observing-strategy/lba-co-observing-str)
 for LBA). 

PILOT PREFACTOR PROJECT: ASTRON is currently implementing in production
Prefactor, the direction-independent calibration pipeline, which
produces direction-independent calibrated visibilities and wide-band
images of the target field, and diagnostic plots. Details about this
pipeline, including its performance, are given online
(
http://old.astron.nl/radio-observatory/observing-lofar/observing-proposals/pilot-prefactor-pipeline-cycle-18/pilot-prefac)
. While Prefactor cannot yet be widely offered in Cycle 18, we will
select a sample of appropriate projects that will be given the
opportunity to obtain data products processed through this pipeline. In
this respect, PIs who are interested in taking advantage of this option
for the reduction of their data should clearly indicate that in the
technical justification of their proposals.


FURTHER PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS: 
●      For all proposals, the technical case must argue both the
optimal and the minimal required total amount of time and other
resources (and any requirements on cadence or time span). If the stated
minimum time or other requirements cannot be allocated, the proposal
will not be carried out at all.
●      Proposals for multiple observations must list and argue the
preferred priority order; this will be considered by the ILT-PC along
with other factors in making (possibly partial) allocations.
●      Proposers are required to verify whether any relevant data are
already available in the LOFAR Long Term Archive
( https://lta.lofar.eu/) . 

OBTAINING ADVICE: In view of the novel and evolving character of the
ILT, proposers are strongly urged to get in contact with Science Data
Center Operations through the JIRA helpdesk
(
http://old.astron.nl/radio-observatory/submit-support-request/jira-sdc-helpdesk-ticketing-system)
 well ahead of the deadline. Novice groups may wish to seek or request
to be connected to suitable collaborators, and should also consider
keeping the scope of initial projects modest while they become familiar
with the complexities of data handling and analysis.

The Science Data Centre Operations group will explore the possibility
for a few users unfamiliar with the reduction of LOFAR data to come to
ASTRON (or have online interaction) for assistance with this. If this is
desired, it must be specified in the proposal. Limited travel subsidies
for eligible users can be supported through the Horizon-Europe ORP
project. Further details are given online
(
http://old.astron.nl/radio-observatory/observing-proposals/radionet-transnational-access-programme/radionet-transnational)
. 
 
Dr. R.C. Vermeulen 
Director, International LOFAR Telescope
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