Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Regarding the SOFIA Research Program

General:
G1) Will there be a SOFIA data archive?
G2) Will the SOFIA GO program involve support for the observers the way HST, Spitzer, and Chandra programs do?
G3) Will there be support data reduction for observers through the SOFIA Science Center the way there is at STScI and SSC?

Instrumentation:
I1) What kind of instruments are being developed for SOFIA?

Proposing:
P1) Will a proposer have to collaborate with the Instrument teams to be allowed to propose and/or to observe with SOFIA?
P2) Is there going to be some kind of SOFIA legacy science call?

Early Science:
E1) Why won't NASA let the winners fly during early short science?

General

G1) Will there be a SOFIA data archive?

Yes, a data archive, located at the SOFIA Science Center (SSC) at NASA Ames Research Center, is planned with Archival Research Proposals supported starting in the second cycle of regular proposals (CY12). Under the current planning and funding, all raw data will be available (after a 1 year proprietary period) through the SOFIA archive. Data acquired with the Facility Class Science Instruments (FSI) will have both raw and reduced data in the archives. In addition to the main SOFIA archive site, the archive content will be available through mirror sites at the Deutsches SOFIA Institut (DSI) in Germany and the NASA/IPAC IR Science Archive (IRSA).

G2) Will the SOFIA GO program involve support for the observers the way HST, Spitzer, and Chandra programs do?

Yes, there will be “Research Support” grants associated with both General Observer programs and Archival Research programs issued by USRA. The exact level of the funding is contingent on annual NASA approval, but is expected to be (in full operation) approximately $2.5M, combined, for the Observing and Archival programs. We expect to support approximately 50 GI teams per year.

G3) Will there be support data reduction for observers through the SOFIA Science Center the way there is at STScI and SSC?

Yes. Under the current planning and funding, the staff at the SOFIA Science Center at NASA Ames will provide data analysis support for the FSI:s. Data analysis support for the PSI:s and the SSI will be provided by the instrument teams.

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Instrumentation

I1) What kind of instruments are being developed for SOFIA?

Instruments are being developed by both the US and German communities.   For the scientific capabilities of the instrument, please see http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Science/instruments/sci_instruments.html. In terms of community usage there are three classes of US instruments being developed for SOFIA:

• Facility-class Science Instruments (FSI),
• Principal Investigator-class Science Instruments (PSI), and
• Special Purpose Principal Investigator-class Science Instruments (SSI)

Amongst the first generation US instruments the following designations apply:

FSI:  FLITECAM, FORCAST & HAWC
PSI:  CASIMIR, EXES & SAFIRE
SSI:  HIPO

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Proposals

P1)  Will a proposer have to collaborate with the Instrument teams to be allowed to propose and/or to observe with SOFIA?

In nominal operations (Cycle 0 and beyond) the following will apply. In Early Science and the “Observatory Commissioning and Demonstration Science” (OCDS) phase, special rules apply (for details, please see the call for proposal for each of these phases).

With the exception of the SSI proposal selection, standard NASA conflict-of-interest rules apply. The FSI or PSI teams will not have input to the proposal selection, beyond providing technical reviews (PSIs) of the feasibility of the observations.

For the FSIs no collaboration with the instrument teams is required.

For the PSIs, a post-selection collaboration is required, the details to be established by mutual consensus.

For the SSI, a GI can only propose to use the instrument with prior agreement from the instrument PI.

For PSI and SSI based program the collaborations are governed by the NASA policy document entitled the “Scientific Utilization Policies of the Stratospheric Observatory of Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), Version 2.4, 01/03/08” available through the SOFIA Project Office and NASA Headquarters.

P2) Is there going to be some kind of SOFIA legacy science call?

Not for Early Science. Legacy science is best done when an observatory’s full capabilities are available, so the issue of a possible legacy science program is being deferred while the SOFIA is still bringing capabilities and instruments online. The issue of a Legacy Science call is still under consideration for after FOC (Full Operational Capability, 2014) is reached.

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Early Science

E1) Why won't NASA let the winners fly during early short science?

The SOFIA airplane will still be in development during the Early Science phase and the project will need to minimize the complexity of operations and hence the number of persons on the airplane to mission critical personnel. As the Short Science observations are to be performed by the instrument teams (with input from selected community members) the very limited number of “astronomer slots” available have all been allocated to the instrument teams. Also the SI teams have been asked to limit the number of people on the plane during Early Science.

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Page Last Updated: September 4, 2008