HST Call for Proposals and HST Primer for Cycle 24

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3.9	Joint HST-NRAO Observing Proposals

By agreement with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), STScI will be able to award time on NRAO facilities to highly ranked proposals that request time on both HST and NRAO telescopes. NRAO has offered up to 3% of the available time on its North American facilities, namely the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT), the Very Large Array (VLA), and the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), for allocation by the HST TAC, subject to a maximum of 5% of the available time in any given array configuration. In return, STScI has offered 30 orbits of HST time for allocation by the NRAO TAC to proposals submitted on or before either of the two NRAO semester deadlines. These are 1 February 2016 for semester 2016B, and 1 August 2016 for semester 2017A. Joint HST/NRAO Proposals should be submitted to the observatory that represents the prime science facility (not to both observatories).

NRAO observing time awarded through the HST Cycle 24 review will be implemented during the 2016B and 2017A observing semesters. The award of time on NRAO facilities will be subject to approval by the NRAO Director, after nominal review by the NRAO TAC to avoid duplication of programs. The important additional criterion for the award of NRAO time is that both the HST and the radio data are required to meet the science goals of the project. It is not essential that the project requires simultaneous NRAO and HST observations. Under this agreement, NRAO time will only be awarded in conjunction with new HST observations (and should not be proposed for in conjunction with an AR or Theory Proposal). Major results from these programs would be credited to NRAO and HST.

Establishing the technical feasibility of the proposed radio observations is the responsibility of the PI, who should review the NRAO documentation or consult with NRAO directly. If approved for NRAO time, the PI must submit detailed observing information appropriate to the relevant NRAO facility. A description of the technical information that should be included in the proposal is given in Section 9.4.5.

NRAO will perform a technical review of proposals approved by the HST TAC, and reserves the right to reject any approved observation determined to be infeasible, impossible to schedule, and/or dangerous to the telescopes or instruments. Any NRAO observations that prove infeasible or impossible could jeopardize the overall science program and may cause revocation of the corresponding HST time allocation. We therefore urge proposers to discuss technical concerns with appropriate staff at both observatories. Discussions with NRAO staff should occur via the NRAO helpdesk.

Joint HST-NRAO Proposals must be identified in the ‘Special Proposal Types’ section of the proposal (see Section 8.10). Also, you must include technical information about the NRAO observations in the ‘Coordinated Observations’ section of the proposal (see Section 9.4.5).

Proposers must always check whether appropriate archival data exist, and provide clear scientific and technical justification for any new observations of previously observed targets. Observations awarded time that duplicate observations already approved by HST or NRAO for the same time period may be canceled, or data sharing and cooperation among different groups may be necessary, as determined by the two observatories. This includes ToOs with similar trigger criteria, with or without previously known coordinates.

Be aware that some HST targets might not require new NRAO observations because the joint science goals can be met using non-proprietary archival data from the VLA, VLBA, or GBT that are available at http://science.nrao.edu/facilities/vla/archive. Also note that VLA continuum images from sky surveys at a wavelength of 20cm and at a FWHM resolution of 45 arc seconds (see http://www.cv.nrao.edu/nvss/) or 5 arc seconds (see http://sundog.stsci.edu/top.html) are available.

All scientific data from NRAO telescopes have a proprietary period where the data are reserved for the exclusive use of the observing team. The data archive policy and proprietary periods are given at

https://science.nrao.edu/observing/proposal-types/datapolicies

This policy applies to NRAO data taken through the joint HST-NRAO program.