Time Assignment information

Who uses the ATNF facilities?

Each year the facilities provided by the ATNF are used by a large number of Australian and overseas astronomers. For the calendar year 1999, the proposals allocated time on all facilities included a total of 317 different authors. Of these:

• 39 authors were from the ATNF;
• 72 authors were from 15 other Australian institutions; and
• 206 authors were from 86 overseas institutions in 17 countries.

Figure 1 shows the total number of authors, in 1999, from each country. Also shown are the number of proposals allocated time, counted using the principal investigators

Figure 1

The ATNF sets a target that at least 60% of allocated time should be used by astronomers at the ATNF and other Australian institutions with a maximum time allocation of 40% for astronomers at overseas institutions. Figure 2 shows the time allocated to observing teams on the Australia Telescope Compact Array as a percentage of the total allocated time (counted by affiliation of the principal investigator). From 1993 to 1999 the overseas use of the ATCA has been close to 40%. For the Parkes telescope the time allocation has been more variable, with an averaged allocation to overseas users, for the years 1993 - 1999, of 35%.

Figure 2

Jessica Chapman, ATNF