HST Call for Proposals and HST Primer for Cycle 24

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6.3	Ultraviolet Initiative

Ultraviolet GO Proposals

Ultraviolet Archival Proposals

Ultraviolet GO Proposals

In recognition of the unique UV capabilities of Hubble and the finite lifetime of the mission, the UV Initiative introduced in Cycle 21 will continue in Cycle 24. The initiative uses orbit allocations to increase the share of primary GO observing time dedicated to UV observations. Both the review panels and the TAC will have UV orbit allocations, which are advisory, not quotas, and UV proposals recommended for acceptance must meet the usual requirement of high scientific quality set for all successful Hubble proposals (see Section 6.2). Small (Section 3.2.1), Medium (Section 3.2.2), Large (Section 3.2.3), and Treasury (Section 3.2.6) GO Proposals can benefit from the UV Initiative, as can Archival and Theory Proposals (see below). SNAP Proposals are not eligible to benefit. Two conditions must be met for a GO Proposal to be eligible.

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The proposal must use the UV capabilities of Hubble. The eligible instrument modes (with central wavelength <3200 Angstroms) are ACS/SBC imaging (all filters), COS spectroscopy (all modes), STIS/MAMA spectroscopy and imaging (all gratings and filters), STIS/CCD spectroscopy (UV gratings only), and WFC3/UVIS imaging (UV filters F200LP, F300X, F218W, F225W, F275W, FQ232N, FQ243N, and F280N), and WFC3/UVIS G280 grism spectroscopy.

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The UV observations must be essential to the proposed science investigation. This condition will automatically be met for proposals requesting UV observations only. For proposals requesting both UV and optical/IR observations, the scientific necessity for the UV observations must be carefully justified in the Special Requirements section of the proposal.

Proposers must check the UV Initiative box in APT to identify whether their proposal qualifies for the benefit based on the above criteria.

Ultraviolet Archival Proposals

The UV Initiative also extends to Archival Proposals, in the Regular AR (Section 3.4.1), Legacy AR (Section 3.4.2) and Theory (Section 3.4.4) categories. STScI will ask the review panels and the TAC to give particular consideration to UV-specific archival proposals in the review process, provided they lead to UV high level data products and tools for the Hubble archive, and enable broader use of those datasets by the community, or (in the case of Theory Proposals) provide new models or theories to aid in the interpretation of UV HST data.

For Archival Programs that propose the joint analysis of UV and optical/IR datasets, the UV datasets must be essential to the scientific investigation for the UV Initiative benefit to apply. In this case, the proposers should carefully justify the importance of the UV component of their program in the Special Requirements section of the proposal.

AR proposers should check the UV Initiative box in APT to identify their proposal as eligible for the benefit.