Having assumed the NSO directorship on 1 April 1999, I am still in the process of getting my feet wet. As I begin working with the NSO staff to formulate our programs and long range plans, I welcome constructive inputs from the astronomical community. The NSO is developing new capabilities that will help address shortcomings in spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution that will enhance progress in understanding the origins of solar activity and variability. In the near term, we look forward to the completion of new synoptic capabilities through SOLIS, the third RISE/Precision Photometric Solar Telescope, and enhancement of the GONG network. In the longer term we look forward to working with the solar and astronomical community to define and build a large-aperture, Advanced Solar Telescope (AST). Major steps leading to the AST include the development and installation of adaptive optics at the Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope and the McMath-Pierce Telescope, and development of infrared instruments and sensors. In addition, the NSO will continue to pursue collaborations with the community to develop the next generation, large-aperture reflecting coronagraph.
The recent NRC Report on Ground-Based Solar Research: An Assessment and Strategy for the Future can be found on the WWW at http://www.nas.edu/ssb/gsrmenu.htm. The staff of the National Solar Observatory is encouraged by the committee's specific recommendations directed at the NSO to carry on its national mandate for research in solar physics and development of solar instrumentation. The report represents a substantial effort to evaluate the need of solar astrophysics for ground-based assets and the need to support reduction and modeling of the data those assets generate. The recommendations, which address the NSO facilities, projects and structure, will have a positive impact on the growth and development of the observatory as a prime international institution for ground-based solar physics research. Our response to the report can be found on the WWW at (http://www.noao.edu).
Also joining the NSO family during the past few months are Leo Milano and Michael Sigwarth. Leo works for Cambridge Research and Instruments (CRI) and is stationed at NSO/SP. He and Peter Foukal (CRI) are using the Evans Coronal Facility 16" coronagraph to investigate transient coronal electric fields. He is also digitizing the NSO/SP Ca II spectroheliogram archives. Michael just received his doctoral degree from the Kiepenheuer-Institut für Sonnenphysik. His thesis was on the Interaction of Convective Flows and Magnetic Elements in the Solar Photosphere. He will work closely with Thomas Rimmele and K.S. Balasubramaniam on high-resolution solar physics, exploiting the recent success with the low-order adaptive optics system and the Advanced Stokes polarimeter.
Long-term visitors at NSO include Lois Kieffaber and Alan Peterson (Whitworth College) who are conducting air glow experiments at Sunspot. Also Paul Hickson and Suzanne Watson (University of British Columbia) who are testing a new camera at the Liquid Mercury Telescope for asteroid detection and working with the Sunspot staff on methods of measuring atmospheric turbulence and seeing. The GONG project hosted visits from Markus Roth (Kiepenheuer-Institut), Sushant Tripathy (Udaipur Solar Observatory) and Pier Francesco Moretti (University of Rome) whose projects are mentioned in the GONG section herewith. K.R. Sivaraman and S.S. Gupta (Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore) are spending another summer in Tucson with Bob Howard, working on the analysis of Kodaikanal and Mt. Wilson sunspot position and area measurements from many decades of daily observations in this century.
The current NSO Users' Committee, consisting of Tom Ayres (Colorado, Chair), Tim Brown (HAO), Tom Duvall (NASA), Phil Goode (NJIT & Big Bear Solar Obs.), Ernie Hildner (NOAA/SEC), Don Jennings (NASA), K.D. Leka (Colorado Research Associates), and Dick Shine (Lockheed) have agreed to continue in their role of providing guidance to the observatory for the upcoming year. The NRC panel on ground-based solar astronomy has recommended formation of an advisory group for the NSO. The NSO plans to combine this function with the Users' Committee and hopes to enlist new members soon. Expressions of interest in serving on this committee are welcome.
NSO continues to make progress on its major projects. The adaptive optics system is now being used to make high-resolution solar observations, already revealing new results about solar fine structure. SOLIS successfully completed an external technical review and is entering the manufacturing and procurement stage. We would like to thank the review committee for their time and effort and especially for their thoughtful suggestions on important design issues. GONG+ has installed the first 1K × 1K camera at the Tucson site and are performing tests. The Improved Solar Observing Optical Network (ISOON) telescope system is about to enter its construction phase. I would like to thank our partners who are contributing to these projects and to the general operations of the observatory. These include the USAF, NASA, NOAO, SPRC, and CRI.
Steve Keil