SOLARNET is a EU-FP7 Integrated Activity project (I3) devoted to high-resolution solar physics, coordinated by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. SOLARNET started on April 1, 2013, and will run for a duration of 4 years.

Within the transnational Access program of SOLARNET, European investigators can apply for observing time with the European instruments IBIS and ROSA, which are installed at the Dunn Solar Telescope of the US National Solar Observatory (DST/NSO). Thanks to an agreement with NSO, full partner of SOLARNET, both IBIS and ROSA will offer up to 20 days/year of observing time through this program.

As a feature of SOLARNET, most of the IBIS and ROSA time will be offered in service mode (some "standard" PI time will also be available upon request - enquire directly if interested). This is in parallel with the efforts in developing service-mode operations currently pursued by NSO (see http://nsosp.nso.edu/dst/smex).

Service-mode observations combine a queue of graded observing programs with an evaluation of  solar and atmospheric conditions to choose, on a daily basis, the program best suited to those conditions. This allows for a more optimal utilization of the observing time, which suits both the investigator and telescope operator.

Service-mode observations do not require the presence of the PIs at the telescope to obtain their data. After evaluation of technical feasibility, proposals will be scientifically graded by the SOLARNET TAC. The NSO TAC will set aside a period of time for the SOLARNET observations; during this time as many programs as possible will be executed, according to efficiency considerations, target availability and seeing conditions. Observations will be performed by instrument scientists on site and, if successful, data will be delivered to PI's over the network or through disk transfer. Assistance will be provided to PI's for data reduction.

Information on the instrumentation is available at the following web pages (contact persons for each telescope are given in brackets):

Periodic calls for proposals will be published for requesting SOLARNET observing time with the European instruments IBIS and ROSA, installed at the Dunn Solar Telescope of the US National Solar Observatory (DST/NSO). General instructions for proposal preparation for use of IBIS and ROSA can be found here.

Open call for proposals: 2016 observing time

The fourth and final call for ACCESS time within the SOLARNET program has been issued on December 15, 2015 (see the general call here). Proposals are again solicited for SOLARNET IBIS and ROSA service mode observations.  It is foreseen that about 20 days will be allocated within the 2016 calendar year. Awarded proposals will be executed by IBIS and ROSA scientists, that will keep close communication with PIs. It is not known a priori in which period the observations will be conducted.

Instructions for proposal preparation for use of IBIS and ROSA can be found here.

Reminder: Some SOLARNET time for IBIS and ROSA use might be allocated in normal PI mode (i.e. with the PI visiting the telescope) for "exceptional" programs, e.g. proposing highly innovative ways to use the instruments, or requiring real-time decisions from the PI him/herself. Some travel funds are available to support these efforts. Please enquire to Gianna Cauzzi or Mihalis Mathioudakis for more details.

Third call for proposals: 15 December 2014. CLOSED.

After the 20 January 2015 deadline, a total of four proposals were allocated observing time by the SOLARNET TAC.  20 observing days have been made available at the DST, between 1 and April 20, 2015. Three proposals were successfully completed; the fourth could not be pursued for lack of proper targets (flares).

Second call for proposals: 15 December 2013. CLOSED.

13 observing days were made available in April 2014 for observations performed in service mode by INAF and QUB personnel. Another 10 days were offered in PI mode for innovative use of the IBIS instrument. In service mode, four observing programs were executed, totally or in part, out of the five requested.  An updated Report on Transnational and Service Programme is available in the  SOLARNET  web pages.

First call for proposals: 15 April 2013. CLOSED.

A total of 17 observing days were made available in August 2013. Observations were performed in service mode by INAF and QUB personnel. Six observing programs were executed, totally or in part, out of the eight requested.  See the Preliminary Report on Transnational and Service Programme at the SOLARNET news web page for more details.The first paper making use of these SOLARNET service mode data has been published: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015A&A...580A..53L