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ASCA: Draft Rules for Targets of Opportunity (TOO)
This page describes the current policy and application procedure for
a Target of Opportunity (TOO) with the
ASCA Observatory. This policy was started in June 1997
to increase the participation and opportunities for TOOs
with ASCA. Prior to this change TOOs had been taken exclusively from the
Japanese time allocation, by replacing a Japanese target with the TOO and
assigning a Japanese principal investigator (PI).
TOOs will utilize the general observatory time,
with the PI designated to be the person who first requested the TOO,
following the procedure described below. This will
allow more flexibility in the scheduling of TOO targets, and broaden the
participation in the data analysis.
About 7% of the ASCA observation time is allocated to
observatory time which includes not only TOOs, but also for
calibration and completing under exposed observations. Of this time
typically 250-350 Ksec/yr is available for TOOs.
This means the current capability is about 10 TOO observations/year
(20-40 ksec). The TOO observations are compensated by Priority-C targets at
the end of an AO cycle.
As has been the case for other observatories, the TOO program
is designed to provide quick response to observe unexpected events, that
could not be anticipated as part of the regular proposal process. For an
ASCA TOO request to be approved requires a strong scientific justification
and a clear demonstration that it involves a historically rare event that
cannot wait to be included in the next AO cycle review.
The TOO observation will be made during the first available opportunity.
The operational constraints of ASCA (where uplinked commands can be made
during contacts from Japan) mean that this will be at least 3 days after the
request is made. The replaced target will be rescheduled in the current
observing window if possible, otherwise in the next window typically six
months later.
The guidelines to follow when applying for an ASCA TOO are as follows:
- An e-mail request must be sent to either
Fumiaki Nagase (nagase@astro.isas.ac.jp) and/or
Nick White (white@adhoc.gsfc.nasa.gov) specifying the target
name, its coordinates and a justification as to why this target should
be observed. Please include as much information as possible that will
help to justify why the ASCA observation program should be interupted.
- The final decision to proceed will be made jointly by F. Nagase and
H. Inoue at ISAS, and N.E. White and R. Petre at GSFC, who in turn
will consult with experts in the Japanese and US communities.
- If the TOO is approved, the PI of the
observation will be the person who made the request. In the case
of multiple requests for the same target, the designated PI will be the
first to send by e-mail a clear description
of the goals behind the observation that fully justifies the time request.
- The ASCA scheduling is made by research staff and students from ISAS
and the Japanese University community. To make TOOs places a large burden
of extra responsibility on these people, at the expense of their research
time. To provide some reward for their efforts and to ensure rapid analysis
of the data, one or two CoIs from the ASCA team members will be assigned.
Where ever possible these CoIs will be chosen to be experts in the field
of science from the TOO. Other CoIs may be assigned with the agreement of
the designated PI and the ASCA program/project scientists (F. Nagase
and N.E. White).
- The data from all TOO observations will be sent to the PI. It will
be released for public access from the archive 1 year after the observation
is made, irrespective of the nationality of the PI.
If you have any questions concerning the ASCA TOO policy or you wish to
apply for a TOO please send e-mail to
Fumiaki Nagase
(nagase@astro.isas.ac.jp) and/or
Nick White
(white@adhoc.gsfc.nasa.gov).
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