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UPR PARTNERSHIP FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATION IN ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
(UPRPREAA)

Under the guidelines of NSF's PAARE Program, we propose to establish a
partnership for research and education in radio, radar & optical astronomy
between the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), the National Atmospheric and
Ionosphere Center (NAIC) in Arecibo, and Gettysburg College (PA). In order
to broaden its range of scientific possibilities, NAIC is working to
acquire a 12-m class antenna to be sited near the 305-m dish. This forms
the centerpiece of the collaborative work presented in this proposal, as it
opens up opportunities for the undergraduate students at UPR to develop and
apply skills in electronics, and undertake research in radio/radar
astronomy. Other areas of astronomy are also represented in this proposal
by bringing together optical and radio/radar observations currently
conducted separately by members of faculty and stuff at different campuses
of the UPR, Gettysburg College and NAIC, using optical facilities at
Gettysburg & Flagstaff, and the 305-m telescope and its S-band radar
facility at Arecibo. Such collaboration will foster intellectual growth by
providing an umbrella organization within which to conduct efficient
research programs in astronomy astrophysics in a coordinated manner. The
benefit of the program will reach even a wider population via an excellent
outreach program for students and high-school teachers in Astronomy
Astrophysics. The undergraduate students participating in this program
will be more likely to enter graduate programs in Astronomy Astrophysics
nationwide, thereby increasing the representation of a minority group in
the field.

1. LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

1. Rafael Muller, PI Professor, Physics and Electronics Dept.
UPR at Humacao
2-Juan Carlos Cersosimo Professor, Physics and Electronics Dept. UPR
at Humacao
3-Mayra Lebron Santos Asst. Professor, Phys. Science Dept
UPR at Rio Piedras
5-Myrna Ayala Professor, Dept of Education
UPR at Humacao
6-JosИ Alonso Professor, Dept of Phys and Math
UPR at Cayey
7-Murray Lewis Head, Radio Astronomy
NAIC (Arecibo)
8-Tapasi Ghosh Senior Research Associate
NAIC (Arecibo)
9-Chris Salter Senior Research Associate
NAIC (Arecibo)
10- Paulo Freire Senior Research Associate
NAIC (Arecibo)
11- Ellen Howell Research Associate
NAIC (Arecibo)
12- Jim Cordes
12-Laurence Marscall Professor Dept of Physics
Gettysburg College

The Steering Committee
1- Kathy Eastwood Dept of Physics and Astronomy Northern
Arizona University
2- Michael M. Davis Past Site Director NAIC (Arecibo) Retired
3- Hector Arce Dept of Astronomy
Yale University


2- PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

1-To establish collaborative research projects in radio astronomy, radar
and optical
astronomy, and astrophysics
2- To bring on-board promising undergraduate and high school students by
means of
undergraduate research and science fair projects in astronomy and
astrophysics
3-To train undergraduate students in the construction of the specialized
electronics
equipment used in astronomy
4-To offer students involved in undergraduate research the opportunity of
gathering
data on site at the radio and optical facilities.
5-To strengthen the UPR infrastructure for research and education in
astronomy
6-To develop an effective outreach program in astronomy and astrophysics
7-To promote UPRPREAA as a model of a successful collaboration

3- ACTIVITIES

UPRPREAA will undertake the following activities to fulfill its objective
of enabling faculty and students to enrich their research and educational
efforts in astronomy.

1- The Arecibo Observatory, the University of Puerto Rico and the
participants
from the Gettysburg College are all committed to the collaborative
research projects described below, during the academic year and summer
terms.
2-UPRPREAA will support summer research work at Arecibo, California
and
observing runs at Flagstaff by UPR faculty and students, which
will also include
gifted high school students pursuing science fair projects
3- UPRPREAA will also serve as a platform for the recruitment of
astronomy
faculty members at the UPR campuses, as positions are opened
through
retirement, etc., attracting young, minority astronomy faculty
to UPR.
4- Importantly, the UPRPREAA will enable hand-on access by UPR faculty
and
students to a radio telescope and provide opportunity to build
equipment for it.
5- The UPRPREAA partnership will be enhanced through the use of
videoconference
facilities at Arecibo, California and the various campuses of the
UPR. The staff,
visiting scientists and graduates in residence at the Arecibo
Observatory, and
the partners at Gettysburg College and in California will provide
seminars to the
students at the UPR campuses on a regular basis.
7- UPRPREAA will enable faculty and student exchange throughout the
academic year, as needed and possible, to facilitate the
research partnerships.
8- UPRPREAA will facilitate summer internships for students to the
Arecibo
Observatory and other sites as needed for the research projects.

9- UPRPREAA will fund courses in astronomy and astrophysics to be
offered to
interested undergraduates. It will also sponsor seminars and
workshops offered by
members of the partnership.
10- UPRPREAA will fund astronomy workshops for high school science
teachers
targeting those from public schools that are the main feeders of
the UPR
campuses involved in the UPRPREAA. The workshops will include
presentations
on the research efforts of the partners and undergraduate
students with the
objective of encouraging teachers to motivate their students to
follow careers
in astronomy and astrophysics. One very important workshop will
take place
after the 12-meter class antenna for phase referencing is up
and running (see the
radio research program below). Through this school teachers can
also be trained
radio astronomical data acquisition.
11- All partners will participate in an annual research and education
presentation
meeting conducted either at the Humacao UPR facilities or the
Arecibo
Observatory's Angel Ramos Foundation Visitor Center. This
activity will take
place at the same time as the meeting of the steering committee, and
serve as a
focus for promoting the partnership among all science faculty in the
campuses
and the NAIC staff so as to, in a single activity, evaluate progress,
inform the
broader community and promote UPRPREAA.

4- RESEARCH PROGRAM

The research and education activities will be centered on two main areas:
Radio Astronomy, Radar & Optical Astronomy.
.
4.1 RADIO ASTRONOMY

4.1.1. HAAT - the Humacao-Arecibo Astrometric Telescope:

The 305-m Arecibo radio telescope is the world's largest, most sensitive,
single-dish radio telescope. It is equipped with receivers between 47 MHz
and 10 GHz. In addition to its single-dish capabilities, the telescope also
participates in Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations with
the VLBA, HSA, EVN and Global VLBI networks. All observing time on the 305-
m telescope is granted via a highly competitive peer review process, open
to researchers worldwide. Although not unknown, opportunities for
undergraduates to utilize the instrument, or gain hands-on experience in
radio sciences by building equipment for it, have been limited.

In order to broaden the range of scientific possibilities it offers its
users, NAIC is currently in the process of acquiring an auxiliary a 12-m
class radio telescope to be sited near the 305-m dish. Such an instrument
would have scientific capabilities that are both complementary to, and
independent of, the 305-m telescope. We foresee the antenna being scheduled
in support of "phase-referencing VLBI" with the 305-m telescope for a
maximum of ~20 % of its time. All other time (apart from maintenance) would
be available for integration into the educational and research needs of
UPR, and Public Outreach ventures in collaboration with the UPR and the
Observatory's Visitor Center as described in this proposal.

4.1.1.1. VLBI -- Phase Referencing: Phase (?) referencing in VLBI
observations has made it possible to study very weak radio sources by
increasing the effective coherence time from, at maximum, a few minutes to
hours. Currently, 50% of VLBI observations are carried out using this
technique. However, such observations encounter limitations with the
Arecibo 305-m telescope since the Gregorian dome, located on a suspended
platform, has slow slew rates (24o/min in azimuth, 2o.4 /min in zenith
angle.) Hence, in a typical ?-referenced observation, where the calibrator
could be located 3o or more from the target, a significant amount of
observing time, often ™ 50%, is wasted slewing between the two sources,
leading to severe losses in signal-to-noise ratios. However, ?-referenced
VLBI could be performed using a smaller "auxiliary" telescope `` to track
the phase calibrator, while the 305-m antenna observes the target most of
the time, only occasionally moving to the calibrator. The effects due to
ionospheric/tropospheric phase fluctuations can then be derived from the
small telescope data and applied to the target data from the 305-m dish.
While this technique has been successfully applied for observations with
the extensive MERLIN array in the UK, it will be new to VLBI. Implementing
its application for VLBI will be a major collaborative research activity
under the present proposal.

4.1.1.2. Is HAAT Good enough for Phase Referencing? : The effective area
yields a point-source sensitivity of ~0.026 K/Jy. The antenna is expected
to work with full efficiency up to 15 GHz, covering the complete frequency
range of the 305-m telescope (327 MHz to 10 GHz). With a system temperature
of T deg K, this would give a system equivalent flux density of ~38.6 T
Jy. If HAAT were to have a similar Tsys to a VLBA telescope at this
wavelength, then the baseline sensitivity for a 12-m to a VLBA antenna (1-
?) would be ~20 mJy/beam. This implies that, at the 5-? level, sources
brighter than about 100 mJy/beam will be suitable for ?-referencing, thus
including the majority of sources from the VLBA Calibrator list.

4.1.1.3. Technical Collaboration for the HAAT: One of the aspects of this
collaboration is the construction of a C-band receiver for the ?-reference
antenna. This project will involve students from Humacao's Associate Degree
Program in Electronics Technology who will be in residence at Arecibo for
at least one or two summer seasons under the guidance of an electrical
engineer from Humacao working on the assembly of this receiver. The faculty
at the Humacao campus includes four electrical engineers. Funds are
requested for the summer salary and release time during two academic years
for one engineer from Humacao to supervise the construction of the device
in coordination with NAIC staff. Salary is also requested for one
electronics technician for the accomplishment of this educational activity
that will be most significant for the partnership. We will begin
operations, including providing proof of concept for the technique, using
the 6 cm receiver, the wavelength most requested for Arecibo ?-referenced
VLBI operations. In due course, the four standard VLBI frequency bands
below 10 GHz will need to be serviced by the auxiliary antenna. A ultra
wide-band receiver will be developed at a later date via other fudning
sources. We expect this antenna to share the Observatory's maser
time/frequency standard and backends.


4.1.1.3. HAAT- Timeline: We expect the antenna to become operational within
18 months of the startup of this proposal (January 15, 2009), so the
antenna will be used for teacher's hands-on workshops during the third year
of this project. Thus, NAIC's involvement in the development of HAAT would
be a contribution from it to the training of Puerto Rican scientists,
engineers and technicians, as well as enhance the options it offers its
user base for astronomy and planetary physics. The UPR-Humacao's
contribution will be to provide the material and students' assistance in
building this receiver, and develop the particular form of phase-
referencing technique (under the guidance of the NAIC staff) via the
current proposal.

Below, we detail some of the specific scientific and education activities
that can benefit from this auxiliary telescope, HAAT.

4.1.2. Research Area-I : Astronomy using HAAT in Phase Referenced VLBI

Collaborators: Rafael Muller (UPR-HUMACAO), Juan Carlos Cersosimo (UPR-


HUMACAO), Mayra Lebron (UPR-Rio Piedras), Chris Salter (NAIC-
AO),
Tapasi Ghosh (NAIC-AO), Jim Cordes (Cornell University), Paulo
Freire (NAIC-AO)

Stellar (radio) Astrometry: In a white paper submitted to the NSF
ExoPlanet Task Force, Bower et al. (arXiv:astro-ph/0704.0238v1) explore the
possibility of "Radio Astrometric Detection and Characterization of Extra-
Solar Planets". Utilizing the better than 100-microarcsec positional
accuracy routinely achieved with the VLBA, they propose carrying out a
Radio Interferometric Planet search (RIPL) that will survey 29 low-mass,
active (radio-loud) M-dwarf stars over 3 years. This would have sub-Jovian
planet mass sensitivity at distances of about 1~AU from the star. They note
that, "Radio astrometric planet searches occupy a unique volume in planet
discovery and characterization parameter space, which gives greater
sensitivity to planets at large radii than do radial velocity searches. For
the VLBA and the expanded VLBA, the targets of radio astrometric surveys
are by necessity nearby, low-mass, active stars, which cannot be studied
efficiently through the radial velocity method, coronography, or optical
interferometry."

Current measurement errors are limited by the number of compact sources
near the stellar targets that are well above the detection threshold of
their observations and which can be used as reference sources in their
differential measurements. The addition of Arecibo in such surveys would
increase the detection sensitivity by a factor of four, making it possible
to venture into the study of objects with one third of the mass of Jupiter
as companions of similar stellar types. As Arecibo's primary beam is much
smaller than other telescopes, and the slew rate slower, the availability
of HAAT for phase referencing would be highly beneficial for taking such
studies down to thermally emitting stars.

A Broad-impact VLBI Measurement of Trigonometric Parallax of Star Clusters:
In an impressive work using the VLBA at 8 GHz, Menten et al. (2007, A&A,
474, 515) have determined the trigonometric parallax of several stars in
the Orion BN/KL region, allowing them to derive the most accurate value to
date (414± 7pc) for the distance to this region. This is about an order of
magnitude better than the previous value of 361+168-87 pc determined from
the optical parallax measurement of a single star in this complex by
Hipparcos. Luminosity-based distance estimates of star-forming regions
could be adversely affected by poorly known extinctions, and the new radio
technique is an important way to improve the estimation of distances, and
hence luminosities, with subsequent impact on star-formation theories.
Once again, the inclusion of Arecibo would permit the extension of such
studies to fainter, more distant, star-forming regions.

Pulsar Astrometry: High-precision astrometry of pulsars over multiple
epochs can provide their basic astrometric parameters: positions, proper
motions, and annual trigonometric parallaxes. Due to the weakness of most
pulsars, with duty cycles of typically <10%, the participation of Arecibo
and phase referencing is vital to the success of this exercise. In respect
of positional measurements, we note that VLBI estimations are tied to the
reference frame of the distant quasars, rather than the Solar-system frame
used by pulsar timing positional estimates. This allows fundamental
reference frame ties between the Solar-system and extragalactic (ICRF)
frames via measurements of recycled pulsars, which are highly stable
rotators.

Proper motion estimates allow pulsars to be traced back to their birth
sites and, for very young pulsars, associations with progenitor supernova
remnants (SNRs) can be established, providing independent age estimates for
SNRs. Combined with pulsar distance estimates, proper motion measurements
lead to estimates of space velocities, allowing a study of the natal kicks
imparted to pulsars at the time of their birth. When a parallax measurement
is possible, this yields a model independent estimate for the distance (and
hence velocity) of the neutron star. Such measurements, (i) calibrate
models of the Galactic electron distribution, (ii) constrain SN core
collapse using the velocity estimates, and (c) provide photospheric sizes
for hot neutron stars with optically observed thermal surface radiation,
constraining the equation of state of matter at extreme pressures and
densities.

Detection Experiemnts: Present-day VLBI offers thehighest sensitivity radio
astronomical observations yet achieved, with noise levels presently
approaching 1 $\mu$Jy/beam being for arrays using the world's most
sensitive telescopes. Hence, the 305-m Arecibo telescope is being
increasingly used in experiments to detect radio emission from very weak,
very compact, astronomical targets such as radio X-ray stars, distant
supernovae and their remnants, Gamma-Ray Bursts, and red-dwarf and other
stars. For these sensitivity levels to be reached for targets of very low
intensity, it is essential that phase-referencing be used.

VLBI imaging of molecular gas in ULIRGs: Arecibo and the GBT are currently
searching for cm-wavelength lines of prebiotic and other molecules in Ultra-
Luminous InfraRed Galaxies (ULIRGs). The project has been inspired by the
recent Arecibo detection of the prebiotic molecule, methanimine (CH2NH) in
the protypical ULIRG/megamaser galaxy, Arp 220 (Salter et al. 2008, AJ,
136, 389). These galaxies are considered to be extreme merger systems and
are heavily obscured at optical wavelengths. Molecular lines from these
galaxies often show wide velocity widths, caused by line blending due to
spatial and velocity overlaps. Detailed studies maser emission and
molecular absorption lines from these objects require phase-referenced
VLBI observations. Sources with molecular-line detections from the Ar-GBT
search will be followed up by high-resolution VLBI mapping using HAAT as a
phase-referencing unit at Arecibo.

Expected Timeline for the scientific projects in Research Area-I: The
projects mentioned above will be started in later half of the second year
of this proposal after the HAAT becomes operational. Most of these will
require individual observing proposals submitted to the VLBI arrays.
Students will thus have the opportunity to join in the projects
from the begining stage of the projects. The work will be carried out
during the thrid and
the fourth year of the active period of this proposal.

4.1.3. Research Area-II : Using HAAT As An Independent Single Dish
Collaborators: Juan Carlos Cersocimo (UPR-Humacao), Chris Salter (NAIC-
AO),
Paulo Freire (NAIC-AO)

Full-Stokes Galactic Plane continuum Surveys with HAAT: The 12-m class HAAT
telescope, together with existing Arecibo backends, will enable the making
of full-Stokes, continuum surveys using the cooled dual-channel receivers
that will be built for use with the dish. Full-Stokes continuum surveys of
the wider Galactic plane at high frequencies with HAAT can provide unique
databases in a number of ways. Firstly, they can yield full spatial
frequency, full-Stokes mapping at previously unmapped wavelengths, with
competitive resolution for such extended features as the Galactic
background emission, HII complexes, and middle-aged and old SNRs.
Comparison with the existing lower frequency surveys would allow accurate
estimation of spectral index distributions over these features, providing
the ability to perform accurate thermal-nonthermal separation on angular
scales between 1o and <10 arcmin allowing the study of energy injection to
the ISM, energy losses for relativistic particles associated with SNRs, and
the mechanisms of vertical transport and diffusion of energy from the disk
of the Galaxy into the halo and intergalactic space.

Linear polarization measurements are of especial importance. The
appearance of the polarized sky at ? > 21 cm is complex. Westerbork at 327
MHz (for high Galactic latitudes) and the 1.4-GHz Canadian Galactic Plane
Survey have shown that there is little relationship between total intensity
and polarization structures; for the diffuse Galactic synchrotron emission,
the bulk of the area of the Galactic Plane imaged on arcminute scales at L-
band reveals highly structured polarization features with no counterparts
in Stokes I. The accepted interpretation of this is that, although the
Galactic synchrotron emission is intrinsically quite smooth, differential
Faraday rotation in the intervening magneto-ionic medium, (the Faraday
Screen), imposes fine structure on the polarized emission. In other words,
the low-frequency polarized sky is dominated by propagation effects rather
than by intrinsic emission structure. This field is now moving from
phenomenology to astrophysics.

The signals produced by the Faraday Screen are rather weak, and the limited
surface brightness sensitivity of interferometers samples only the
strongest, and for these the derived rotation measures (RMs) are noisy due
to low signal-to-noise per channel. Moreover, missing zero-spacings in
interferometric observations lead to complications in interpretation. The
high brightness sensitivity of HAAT, coupled with its few arcminute beam
size at high frequencies, promises major advances in the study of the
magneto-ionic medium. At these frequencies(™ 5 GHz) the effects of Faraday
rotation become tiny
(?? ? ?-2) and HAAT polarization position angles are essentially those
intrinsic to the emission, providing both intrinsic directions of magnetic
fields and a database against which lower frequency polarization
distributions can be definitively interpreted.

In existing studies of the Faraday Screen, the spectral signatures of the
polarized intensity have been examined to seek only a single RM value per
image pixel. Such a value corresponds to a RM in the foreground of the
dominant polarized emission component along a given sight-line. However,
the Faraday Screen is spread out in depth along each line of sight, with
regions of polarized emission at different distances along the sight-line
contributing to the observed spectrum with their corresponding foreground
Faraday rotation signature. Because of depolarization effects, bandwidth
integrated polarization will show lower degrees of polarization than those
intrinsic to individual slabs. With an appropriate combination of
observing frequency, bandwidth and spectral resolution, it should be
possible to perform Faraday tomography, wherein the spectral polarized
intensity modulations along a given sight-line can be transformed to a set
of polarized intensities as a function of Faraday depth (i.e. RM). Thus, it
should be possible to derive a polarized-intensity data cube (quite like a
spectral-line data cube) with two dimensions being the sky coordinates and
the third being RM. High-frequency images from HAAT would be invaluable in
pursuing this endeavor.

Away from the Galactic plane, the high latitude regions contain several
well-known non-thermal emission structures, notably the North Polar Spur
(Loop 1), an object that contains rich small-scale structure, both on its
main arc and in internal ridging. Above b = 45 deg, low resolution
measurements of this nearby (~100 pc distant), old SNR show >70% linearly
polarization at 1.4 GHz. Higher frequency, higher resolution, HAAT images
would directly reveal magnetic field directions in this object.

We specifically mention the L-band Arecibo GALFA Continuum Transit Survey
(GALFACTS), which is being made by an international consortium of
astronomers led by Prof. Russ Taylor (U. Calgary). This full-Stokes survey
of the whole sky observable with the 305-m telescope covers 1225 - 1525
MHz, with 8192 frequency channels. At L-band, the Faraday rotation effects
on the linearly polarized radiation are considerable, and a continuum
survey at much higher frequency, but similar resolution, (HPBW ~ 4 arcmin
for GALFACTS), would allow thermal-nonthermal separation, and aid Faraday
tomography when comibined with GALFACTS. The same situation exists for a
large part of the Southern Galactic Plane L-band continuum survey being
made with the Parkes radio telescope (HPBW ~ 15 arcmin; Haverkorn et al
2006). HAAT surveys would also provide vital low-spatial frequency data for
future interferometric full-Stokes surveys.

Synergy with GLAST: ?-ray emission from our Galaxy is believed to be
produced by, a) brehmsstrahlung from the interaction of cosmic-ray
electrons and the interstellar gas, and b) the decay of neutral pions
produced in interactions between the gas and cosmic-ray protons and heavier
nuclei. The former is thought to dominate at <1 MeV, and the latter at
higher energies. Similar distributions of ?-rays are found at low latitudes
in both energy ranges, suggesting that the cosmic-ray heavy particle-to-
electron ratio is constant over the Galaxy. If so, the ?-ray emissivity,
??, is proportional to the product of the cosmic-ray intensity and the
total (i.e. neutral and ionized atomic, plus molecular) gas density, ? ;
?? ? N0 ?, where the cosmic-ray energy distribution is given by, N(E) dE =
N0 E-? dE. Now, for the synchrotron component of the Galactic radio
emission, the emissivity is, ? ? N0 B? (?+1)/2, where B? is the
magnetic field strength perpendicular to the line of sight.

The Galactic distributions of the three quantities, N0, ?, B, are all of
great astrophysical interest. Arecibo will contribute significantly to a
knowledge of ? over the accessible sky, GALFA consortia providing, a) the 2-
dimensional distribution of HI, while the thermal-nonthermal separation of
the continuum emission mapped by HAAT and GALFACTS surveys will provide the
2-D distributions of, b) the thermal emission from HII and c) the non-
thermal synchrotron emission. The 2-D distribution of the molecular gas is
already available from CO surveys of similar resolution. Hence, combining
Arecibo HAAT and ALFA work with other radio data and the high-fidelity
GLAST ?-ray background images will provide the information needed to
"unfold" the 2-D distributions and derive the Galactic distributions of N0,
?, & B. This would represent a major contribution to our understanding of
the detailed distribution of the magnetic field and cosmic rays in Galactic
disk.

Pulsar timing: The majority of pulsars are too weak to be satisfactorily
timed with a 12-m dish. However, timing observations of the strong Crab and
Vela pulsars would compliment dedicated monitoring of the rotational state
of these neutron stars undertaken at other observatories. The traditional
aim has been to detect glitches and timing noise in these objects, which is
scientifically important by itself (e.g. Lyne et al. 1996, & Lyne et al.
1993). This has become even more relevant now with the launch of Gamma-ray
satellites like AGILE and GLAST, which require continuous monitoring of
these pulsars in order to fold the many gamma-ray pulsar candidates with a
cadence and hour angle coverage that aare impossible to achieve with the
305-m telescope, and that complement other telescopes: for instance, we can
time Vela pulsar while it is below the horizon of its dedicated telescope
at Mt. Pleasant in Tasmania.

Another application of this antenna will be on the statistical properties
of the giant pulses of the Crab and other pulsars. These have fluxes of the
order of MJy, which are very easily detectable with the proposed dish. This
would have several important ramifications. Paulo Freire is part of an
international collaboration that is using several millisecond pulsars to
detect very low-frequency gravitational waves. One of the main issues of
this project has to do with the calibration of the time delays of all the
telescopes and back-ends used for this international project. The giant
pulses from the Crab detected by the 12-m dish can be used as an
international time reference for all telescopes in the Western Hemisphere,
giving us a calibration of all the instrumental delays of all the
telescopes and back-ends involved in this global high-precision timing
project.

The signals received by the 12-m antenna will be piped back to the control
room for processing with existing Arecibo back-ends, which have well-known
time characteristics. This avoids any duplication in the processing
hardware or software, but it will add to the present data storage and
processing requirements.

Expected Timeline for the scientific projects in Research Area-II: The
projects mentioned above will also be started in later half of the second
year of this proposal after the HAAT becomes operational. Up to about 70%
of the observing time on the HAAT will be available for projects in this
category (with 10 % for NAIC-general users' VLBI work, up to 10 % in
Research Area-I, and a further 10% being alocated for teaching and outreach
work). A memcanism will be deveopled for alocating time for proposals in
this category.
the fourth year of the active period of this proposal. Most of the work
willl be carried out during the 3rd and the fourth year of the proposal.

4.1.3. Research Area-III : Radio Recombination Line (RRL) survey Using the
305-m Dish and the ALFA receiver

Collaborators: Mayra Lebron (UPR-Rio Piedras), Juan Carlos Cersocimo (UPR-
Humacao), Chris Salter (NAIC-AO)

GALFA-RRL is a sensitive radio recombination line survey. It will be done
using the ALFA receiver at the Arecibo Observatory. This survey will fully
sample the entire Galaxy plane observable from Arecibo. It will provide
organized data sets that will permit the study of HII regions, PNe, novae,
young massive star forming regions, and the diffuse ionized interstellar
medium. This spectral line survey will permit us to study the large scale
structure of the Milky Way, to study its electron temperature across the
plane, as well as the abundances of He and C and heavier elements. In
addition, it will be possible to study the diffuse galactic ionized
medium, its physical parameters and its distribution. One of the major
contribution of this survey will be the identification of new
photodissociated regions bright in carbon RRLs.

Expected Timeline for the scientific projects in Research Area-III: The RRL
Survey is an already accepted project at the 305-m telescope. Observation
is likely to begin in the first year of this proposal, and will continue
for the following two years. Students will be encouraged to participate in
that during this time. Most of the data reduction and interpretation work
will be carried out in the third and the fourth year of this proposal.

4.2 RADAR+OPTICAL ASTRONOMY

Collaborators: Ellen Howell (NAIC-Arecibo), R.J. Muller (UPR at Humacao),
Lawrence Marshall (Gettysburg College)

Combining Radar and Optical Observations of Asteroids: New types of near-
Earth asteroids are still being discovered. Moreover, the optical surveys
that are about to come on-line will discover new, even smaller asteroids at
more than ten times the current rate over the next few years. We therefore
expect to continue to make surprising discoveries about these objects.
Radar observation of asteroids is a powerful tool to extract information
about their physical properties and orbits. Further, when their echoes are
strong enough, the Arecibo radar can achieve an imaging resolution of about
10 meters.

Dr Ellen Howell, in collaboration with Dr Michael Nolan and Dr Chris Magri
(Univ. of Maine at Farmington), use extremely computer-intensive asteroid
shape-modeling software to generate models from the radar images. These
have been generated for five objects over the past two years, and several
more are in progress. Radar-derived models are ideal for refining
simplistic models and for constraining the rotational period of an object.
One astrometric radar measurement of an object increases the precision of
its orbit by an order of magnitude compared to that from a set of optical
measurements. Nevertheless, the combination of an optical light curve with
a set of radar measurements is important in constraining a model's shape,
which in turn gives us insight into the asteroid's dynamics and internal
structure.

When the rotation period of an asteroid is obtained from its light curve,
its sub-Earth latitude can be determined from the Doppler width of its
radar echo. However, the shape derived solely from a light curve cannot
elucidate any concave zones it may have on its surface; these are imaged by
radar. The combination of optical light-curves and radar images is very
effective.

We propose to institute a Radar-Optical partnership to increase the number
of asteroids for combining radar observations from Arecibo with light
curves obtained from the Gettysburg College 0.4-m reflector and/or the NURO
0.8-m telescope at Anderson Mesa, near Flagstaff, Arizona. Dr Ellen Howell
and collaborators will select asteroids and obtain radar data, while Drs.
Rafael Muller and Larry Marshall will obtain light-curves.
The Gettysburg Telescope is available at short notice. Both Drs. Marshall
and Muller have access to the NURO telescope (www.nuro.nau.edu) of Lowell
Observatory. The photometric sky at 7200 feet above sea level at Anderson
Mesa allows for very precise light curves, with broadband color photometry
using BVRI filters. A single evening of continuous monitoring can often
yield useful results, while several nights usually suffice for a definitive
light curve. Both optical observers have access to 12 nights of observing
time at NURO per year. Software for data reduction, such as MIRA, is
readily available and easy to use. There are literally tens of thousands of
target objects bright enough for observation with our telescopes.

This should be a very fruitful way to obtain observations, even at short
notice, for near-Earth asteroids that are only bright for a very short time
as they pass close to the Earth. As possible, we will also obtain color
photometry to combine compositional information with the radar properties:
the composition is also critical when considering possible mitigation
strategies for potential Earth impactors.

Expected Timeline: Work in this area will being from the strating date of
the proposal
and will continue through the entire active period. Asteroidal light-curve
determination is an ideal student project, as it is straight-forward, while
letting the student carry out all the steps in making a practical
astronomical observation. Photometry projects may require only a few nights
of observing on a small-to-moderate aperture telescope, and the data
analysis is fairly direct and easy to learn.

5- EDUCATION AND OUTREACH PROGRAM

Collaborators: All UPR faculty, including the educational coordinator, Dr
JosИ Alonso (UPR Cayey Campus), the evaluator, Dr. Myrna Ayala (UPR at
Humacao Campus), and Dr. Murray Lewis ( NAIC)

5.1 UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
We are committed to the mentoring of undergraduate students in all research
activities described above. Our experience at the departmental level
demonstrates that undergraduate research activity stimulates the intellect,
enhances creativity, and nurtures the development of new skills among
students. Those who have the opportunity to work in a research environment
are properly socialized and equipped with valuable information to select
graduate school and research topics. For example, in the last 5 years
approximately 40% of the students in the Physics and Electronics Department
of the Humacao Campus have been involved in undergraduate research
experiences. Of those, two per year on average are following the graduate
path at Universities in the U.S; one each of the graduating classes of 2006
and 2007 are following graduate programs in astronomy. This proposal will
allow us to do a better job mentoring students interested in astronomy &
astrophysics, and thus increase the number of minority students that
proceed to seek advanced degrees in the field


5.2 TECHNICAL STUDENT INSTRUMENTATION PROGRAM


[need some text here --- from Ganesh ]

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4 5.3 STUDENT AND FACULTY EXCHANGE

In the Student and Faculty Exchange program, undergraduate students and
faculty spend a summer month doing research at NAIC, at a university in the
US, and/or doing observing runs at telescopes in the US. Students and
faculty will participate as teams. Teams consist of at least a student and
his/her faculty mentor. The participation of students and mentors together
ensures the continuity of the efforts during the academic year. During the
exchange period the participants will have access to instrumentation and
library resources that are not available in their home institutions, and
the opportunity to learn new techniques and to exchange information with
collaborators. Faculty exchange will also be aimed at bringing more
experienced personnel from other institutions to UPR and providing minority
students and women students the opportunity to work in a minority
institution that has been successful in graduating women minority students
with science degrees.

5.4 WORKSHOPS
Workshops focused on our collective research agenda will be organized
yearly, aiming to discuss and evaluate this proposed multi-campus program
and to keep the participants in touch with the most updated, innovative and
relevant topics.

5. SEMINARS AND VIDEO CONFERENCIES
In order to keep the groups integrated and to disseminate the most relevant
results obtained from research topics, seminars and videoconferences will
be held monthly. All faculty participants involved in research and
education activities will participate in this activity.

6. HANDS ON WORKSHOPS & OPEN HOUSES FOR HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS AND STUDENTS
Presentations on the research subjects of astronomy and astrophysics will
be given during our annual hands-on workshops and open houses for high
school teachers and students. Workshops for high school teachers will be
conducted at the facilities at NAIC putting emphasis on research subjects.
When the phase reference antenna becomes operational, hands-on workshops
will be conducted for high school teachers and students using the phase
reference antenna as a tool for learning data acquisition and analysis in
radio astronomy

5.7 WEBSITE FOR UPRPREAA
A website with our activities and main results will be prepared with the
aim of attracting motivated high school students.

6- MANAGEMENT PLAN

UPRPREAA will be administered from the Humacao Campus of the University of
Puerto Rico, an undergraduate institution serving close to 4500 students,
of whom 99% are Hispanic. Humacao is one of 11 campuses of the University
of Puerto Rico system. The Chancellor of the Humacao Campus of the UPR, Dr.
Hilda ColСn-Plumey will be the institutional authority. The PI of UPRPREAA
will be Dr. Rafael Muller, permanent faculty member of the Department of
Physics and Electronics of the Humacao Campus, with close to 10 years
experience administering Title II funds for in-service teacher training.
The PI in collaboration with the staff and faculty will be responsible for
the day-to-day implementation and operation of the program. The CO-PI will
be Dr Murray Lewis from NAIC (Arecibo).

Two other campuses of the University of Puerto Rico are represented in
UPRPREAA: Dr Mayra LebrСn, from Rio Piedras and Dr. JosИ Alonso, our
educational coordinator, from Cayey. The educational Coordinator will
report directly to the PI. Dr Myrna Ayala, from the education department at
Humacao (UPR) and with extensive experience evaluating science activities
and projects, will be in charge of assessment and evaluation, and will
respond directly to the PI. The evaluation plan is presented on page 14 .

The research and education groups will be composed of (Radioastronomy)
Chris Salter, Tapasi Ghosh, JC Cersosimo, Mayra LebrСn and Murray Lewis,
Paulo Freire, Jim Cordes; (Optical/Radar) Rafael Muller, Lawrence Marshall
and Ellen Howell.



6.1 THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE

The Advisory Committee will play an important role in our Collaboration as
a sounding board on the programs and procedures being adopted. The members
of the Committee are three distinguished astronomers from universities in
the USA (CVs have been included with proposal):

Kathy Eastwood (University of Northern Arizona)

Michael M. Davis ( Former director, Arecibo, now
retired)

Rafael Arce ( Yale University)

They will participate in the annual meetings, both to review and present a
report to the PI on their perception of the program status as well as to
offer suggestions for improvements. The specific responsibilities of the
Advisory Committee are: to play a leadership role and participate in
strategic planning related to the ongoing development and maintenance of
the UPRPREAA, to assist UPRPREAA faculty in maintaining awareness of
current trends in research and education; to provide advice to faculty on
program design, content, and resources.

All the program participants will meet once a year in UPR-Humacao or at the
Arecibo Visitors Center during our annual meetings. In these two-day
meetings, the PI will present a progress report on the program, while all
the student and faculty collaborators will present the results of their
research and education efforts. They will have time to exchange ideas and
to evaluate and discuss the future direction of the effort. At the end of
the annual meeting the Advisory Committee will write a report with their
recommendations

Funds are requested to hire an Administrative Coordinator. The
Administrative Coordinator will be responsible for the administrative
aspects of the program in collaboration with the PI and the Educational and
Outreach Coordinator.


7- Assessment and Evaluation plan

The program will allow students and faculty to increase their knowledge and
skills by actively undertaking research projects in astronomy and
astrophysics, and by improving the mentoring of undergraduates interested
in astronomy. Continuous formative evaluation will be completed throughout
the program, especially during the first two years to find out if:
1) education activities were developed and carried out as planned,
2) audiences were from various target groups (minority, women,
undergraduates and faculty), 3) students had the opportunity to work in a
team-based approach in research activities, 4) program content includes
research experiences and meets the stated objectives, and 5) the program is
on course to becoming a successful model for other programs in the United
States. Objectives will be measured using data on advancing
undergraduates, students accepted at universities in the mainland, number
of refereed papers, interview of main staff, copies of brochures and other
handout materials, impact of web site, questionnaires by participants,
discussion of focus groups. Summative evaluations will be carried out at
the end of each year by focus groups of faculty and students, surveying
students and faculty participating in the program and analyzing copy of
publications (web page, brochures, etc.).This information will also be
furnished to the Steering Committee for their appraisal and evaluation at
the annual meeting.
The educational activities will be assessed to ensure that they are
effective and that they are consonant with the UPRPREAA objectives. It is
very important to evaluate the outreach activities to ensure that they
target the correct population and accomplish their objectives. We should
follow the evaluation plan to ensure that the UPRPREAA is a successful
model and that it strengthens the infrastructure for research and education
in astronomy at the University of Puerto Rico.


8- Dissemination


In order to promote an extensive dissemination of our combined research-
curriculum development, we will offer workshops, open houses, and
laboratory demonstrations for faculty and students of other universities,
schools and industry. The participants will visit our facilities or we will
communicate with them using the available videoconferencing facilities. The
information developed as a result of this program, including that in CD ROM
format, will be offered to the other units of the UPR system and to any
other institution interested in our results. Publications, presentations by
faculty and students, and the web page will make our results available to
the scientific and educational communities.


9- Broader IMPAct of the Proposed Project


The impact of this project will be substantial. The UPR-HUMACAO is the
largest producer of undergraduate physics/chemistry and computational
mathematics majors on the island. Continuity from the B.S. level to
graduate school will be sustained. Undergraduates at UPR-HUMACAO and other
participating institutions will be given a unique opportunity to engage in
undergraduate research and to interact with mainland students
(undergraduate and graduate) at Arecibo with the unavoidable consequence of
being motivated to pursue graduate school. The faculty sense of self worth
is greatly enhanced by participating as co-investigators with leaders in
their fields.

New research capabilities will be made available, which has the prospect of
attracting even more faculty into research, thereby increasing the pool of
active scientists on the island. By involving faculty from other units of
UPR (UPR_Rio Piedras and UPR-Cayey) the extent of the collaboration will be
enhanced by at least 50%, and the number of students that participate in
this project will increase. This will serve two purposes: it will help
establish a credible research environment in the south-east part of the
island, and it will serve as a motivating factor in inviting local high
school students to campus for the purpose of demonstrating to them the
range and variety of research projects undertaken by undergraduates, some
of whom the high school students may even recognize.


The phase reference antenna, HAAT intended to be used in augmenting VLBI
observations also generates precise locations for radio sources. Thus
future work may measure the precession (and hence the distances) of pulsars
over a wide swath of our Galaxy. So one future use we foresee is in tying
together the optical, radio, and Solar System fundamental frames of
reference. In particular, accurate pulsar timing observations of milli-
second pulsars produce positions in the Solar System coordinate frame,
while VLBI provides their astrometric radio positions with respect to other
radio sources. However a small number of pulsars also have optical
counterparts, which would enable all three systems to be integrated.

The inverse of accurate position measurements of cosmic sources is accurate
knowledge of one's position on the Earth. Thus the HAAT antenna also has
utility in such non-astronomical contexts as geodesic observations of
continental plate drift, and the local definition of the vertical. The
potential implementation of a HAAT antenna has generated interest in the
geodesic community, which in turn may lead to a fresh community of users.







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