Rapid Turnaround Call for Semester 19B
This is a call for rapid turnaround proposals. For regular calls for proposals, please see the facility home page.
Semester Information
| Semester start of observing | 2019-08-02 00:00 UT |
|---|---|
| Semester end of observing | 2020-02-02 00:00 UT |
The East Asian Observatory invites JCMT observing proposals requesting Rapid Turnaround (RT) time with Principal Investigators (PIs) from its partner regions (China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan), from its affiliate member regions (Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand), or from eligible PIs in the UK/Ireland. All prospective PIs should review the JCMT eligibility requirements page prior to the preparation and submission of a proposal.
A new RT submission cycle shall begin at the start of every month and close at the intermediate deadline at the start of the next month. Any proposals not submitted at this time will remain in preparation and can be submitted during a subsequent cycle for the same semester. RT requests are limited to a maximum of 8 hours for Band 1 – 4 time requests, but are unlimited for Band 5 time requests. The Observatory shall aim to complete successful RT proposals within six months of their formal approval, after which time they shall be removed from the observing queue (regardless of their levels of completion).
All RT proposals submitted shall be peer-reviewed by the proposal creator (or designated co-author) of other proposals also submitted during the same submission cycle.
The proposal peer review deadlines shall normally be two weeks after the close of the monthly RT proposal submission deadlines.
By submitting a proposal, all proposing teams are committing themselves to providing ratings and brief written assessments of several other proposals submitted for this Call by the corresponding deadline.
Any proposing team that fails to provide a full set of reviews for their assigned proposals by the corresponding review deadline shall have their own proposal removed from the review process. All such proposals shall be regarded as abandoned by the Observatory.
The MSBs for all approved RT projects should be created as soon as possible after their corresponding monthly RT review period has completed, ideally before the end of the month following the RT submission deadline met by the proposal.
Example: A proposal submitted in January for the RT submission deadline at the start of February would be peer-reviewed during the first two weeks of February. Assuming the proposal were to be approved, the MSBs should then be prepared during the remaining part of February, with the aim that the project be observed during the months of March — August.
Available Instruments
Continuum
- SCUBA-2
- POL-2 – Applicants should consult JCMT staff for sensitivity estimates.
Heterodyne
The heterodyne backend, ACSIS, provides great flexibility in bandwidth and resolution. Various modes of observing are available for all associated heterodyne receivers.
Important Notes
- There is only one submission queue for this semester, labeled “PI Science”.
- Applicants from the University of Hawaii have a separate application process and may have a different deadline.
- RxW and FTS-2 are not being offered in this Call.
- RxA3m has been decommissioned and will no longer be available for use during this or subsequent semesters.
Content of Proposal
Proposal authors are expected to provide separately both a Scientific and a Technical Justification for their proposed observations. These justifications should be substantiated by results from the JCMT integration time calculators to show that the proposed observations will reach the necessary noise limits for the proposed science goals. The calculators are integrated into the proposal submission system, and should be used to save the calculation(s) for their inclusion in the proposal.
Calibrations
Overheads for pointing, focusing, and calibrations should not be added to the time request. These activities will be accounted for separately. Calibration observations (e.g. focus, pointing, flux calibrators) and other unavoidable overheads (e.g. receiver tuning) are not charged to science projects and instead are charged to an Observatory accounting code. There is therefore no need for applicants to provide calibration overhead estimates in their proposals. The Observatory will perform regular and appropriate calibration observations to ensure that all science data obtained are sensibly calibrated.
- Spectroscopically, this involves observations of one of the JCMT spectral line standards at one of about ten different line frequencies. If the target observing frequency is one of these, then the proposers are in luck. In any case, the calibration allows the proposers to assess the performance of the instrument. Such an observation will be performed at least once per program unless a previous calibration is still appropriate, and more often if circumstances change or if more than a couple of hours pass.
- For continuum work, calibrators will be observed at both operational wavelengths of SCUBA-2 (450µm, 850µm) at appropriate times and airmasses to meet the general needs of the science program.
If a proposal demands more unusual or more frequent calibrations then this needs to be clearly stated in the proposal and the time for these calibrations requested explicitly. For queries about what the default calibrations might be, or what extra overheads are generated by a project’s calibration requirements, please consult JCMT staff.
Previous Proposals
The proposers should provide information on any previous, successful JCMT allocations, including any papers published as a result or the status of the project. The success of previous projects can be taken into account when awarding time, so it is in the proposers’ interests to provide full information on this. A section is included within the proposal submission system for this information.
Data Available from the Archive and Large Programs
All proposers are expected to check that there are no preexisting public data that meet the proposal’s science needs, or conflicting large programs, before submitting a proposal. A clash tool is available to aid in this, which can be used to search for potential “clashes” between the proposed objects and available data sets. It also provides a link to an archive search for each target position.
It is the proposers’ responsibility to ensure that sufficient explanation is included as to why any matching data does not meet the project’s needs — e.g. because it does not reach sufficient depth, or because is not at the right frequency, or because the observations were not of sufficient quality.
The ‘Outreach’ version of the proposed science
In the ‘Public Summary’ section, proposers should provide a paragraph describing the goals of the proposal in a way that is understandable to a general audience. A translation of the abstract might be a good starting point. This may be used in JCMT outreach efforts.
Flexible Scheduling
The overall philosophy of observing at JCMT is to match observing programs to the weather — see the Flexible Observing Guidelines page for more information. Data may then be acquired for a project at any time, even without the applicants being in attendance at the telescope. A summary was also given at the January 2015 Workshops.
Observer status
The “Members” section of the proposal form should be used to express the proposers’ willingness and ability to travel and observe. Observers from approved projects are invited on the basis of their project demands and TAC ranking, and will receive additional priority when in attendance. Identification of one or more possible observers for each proposal is strongly encouraged. Observers are needed to staff the observatory each night.
Further Questions
For any remaining further questions, please use the “Contact us” link at the bottom of any page of the proposal submission system.