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Report of the NSO Users' Committee (1Mar95) (from Director's Office, NOAO Newsletter No. 41, 1 March 1995) The Users' Committee held a 1-1/2 day meeting in Tucson 14-15 November 1994 with the following committee members present: Jacques Beckers (NSO Director), Drake Deming, Bruce Lites, David Rust (chair), Steve Saar, Rita Sagalyn, Robin (Tuck) Stebbins, and Seth Tuttle. The principal topics were budget and operating philosophy, GONG status, the image quality improvement program, new projects and the future direction of the NSO. NSO may face a 5% cut in after-inflation dollars this fiscal year, and Beckers has been asked to consider what the observatory would do if, as some expect, each year of the next five requires a similar cut. Beckers believes that "belt tightening" has reached the point of strangulation, so he asked the committee for alternative suggestions. There was a consensus that answers have to be found in the context of the Future Directions Plan (FDP) and that the old paradigm of keeping all the telescopes operating will have to be abandoned. In other words, the long term has priority over the short term. However, solar astronomy within NOAO is in a unique position. In contrast to the NOAO nighttime astronomy program, it contains most of the nation's ground-based solar facilities with each of the solar facilities having a unique capability, largely unduplicated by any of the others. The closing of any of NSO's facilities therefore implies the elimination of a unique observing capability (e.g. IR coverage, coronal studies, high angular resolution observations). In this sense NSO has more in common with the NRAO program. Before undertaking such drastic steps as closing a facility, and hence a national capability, the US solar community should be consulted and advised of the reasons. The FDP describes four goals: (1) Understanding the solar cycle; (2) Understanding the coupling to solar surface behavior and the origin of solar irradiance changes; (3) Understanding the coupling of solar surface behavior to the solar envelope and the origin of solar flares and coronal mass ejections; and (4) Remaining open to new discovery prospects. Thus, NSO plans to devote its resources to achieving stated scientific goals rather than just providing facilities for its staff and outside users. The committee endorses the new paradigm, but feels that such a fundamental change in direction presents both an opportunity and an obligation to engage the widest possible constituency. Although the entire NSO scientific staff participated in the plan's design, it should now be circulated in the solar community. Previous meetings of the Users' Committee dwelt at length on the issue of base funding vs. projects. When projects such as GONG and the Advanced Stokes Polarimeter are taken into account, overall funding and scientific capability have increased during the past decade. But base funding has been trimmed to the point where such internal projects as adaptive optics are stagnating or having to be postponed or dropped. The newest telescope is over 20 years old, and most of the facilities date from the 60's. Modernization of the CCD cameras at the VTT has not been realized, despite the high priority that users place on it. Beckers did report that NSO is collaborating with the Kiepenheuer Institute (KIS) to make 1024 X 1024 CCD cameras. It will have a 0.1 to 0.2 sec readout time and frame cadence, depending on the data recording device. If the FDP or any other plan is to succeed, either base funding must be increased or project funding must be accepted. The problem with the project approach is that funding may fluctuate considerably from year to year. Witness RISE, which is likely to receive decreased funding this year rather than the increased funding needed. Project funding also has to be newly justified every few years. It is obviously unwise to operate the nation's principal solar facility on project funding, so the justification for its continuance and even its growth as a facility must be developed thoughtfully, and its case must be persuasively stated. The committee feels strongly that the NSO can have a vital role to play in addressing such scientifically important and practical problems as climate change and space hazards prediction and avoidance. With the FDP, which relies greatly on anticipated progress resulting from one or two solar cycles of GONG operations, NSO can also make dramatic progress in fundamental solar research. Rust suggested that NSO's plan for the future state more explicitly how NSO and its traditional partners will work together. In particular, although NSO has facilities to address goal (3), few of the staff are currently working in the relevant areas of research. Now is the time to cement relationships with AFGL and others to pursue common goals. Rust also suggested that NSO and the NSF grants program work together to encourage users to apply for grants under the Space Weather Initiative and to carry out their work at NSO. NSF's plan to encourage proposals that will use the GONG data is a nice example of the synergy that is possible. We should be clear that NSO probably will not have the resources to redirect its own research programs into all of these FDP areas; it is better not to spread the currently small research staff's efforts even wider. But it may be a rather simple matter to encourage communication and cooperation with other institutions on some of these issues. The plan to involve dynamo modelers with the helioseismology is a good example. Involving vector field measurements with both coronal observations and the seismological studies is another. Beckers emphasized that he intends to do whatever is necessary and possible to get diffraction-limited images at the VTT. The committee strongly applauds this because, of all ground-based solar telescopes, the VTT is capable of giving the highest resolution solar images. Excellent images are being obtained at La Palma, but it was pointed out that a single user group may be assigned two months time there and that may be what is required to get one day with diffraction-limited images. The committee was assured that the TAC at SP can accommodate long runs when requested to do so. Progress has been made on the AO program. The wavefront reconstructor, which looked like a lost cause at our last meeting, is back on track. A major task remaining is the development of the wavefront sensor. Sagalyn emphasized that AFGL is still very interested in AO. Tuttle said that NSF is very interested in AO. Beckers noted that NSO is advertising for an instrumentalist for the AO program to work specifically on solar wavefront sensing techniques. Beckers introduced the results of a pre-phase-A study of a 4-meter solar-stellar coronagraph, called CLEAR: Coronagraph and Low Emissivity Astronomical Reflector. He will request NSF funds for a full phase-A engineering study of the concept. The committee feels that the observatory should show how the new telescope fits in with the goals of the FDP. A specific scientific justification would help. Tuttle described NSF's MPS interdisciplinary fund, and the committee feels it should be approached for the CLEAR study funds. When CLEAR is built, it could replace the NSO McMath Pierce, the VTT and the Evans Facility. If CLEAR can provide better images, greater wavelength coverage, better coronal sensitivity and more efficient usage of the staff's time, then it may sell well. It will do the work for which LEST was intended, but to avoid the fate of LEST, it will have to involve more of the user community. The committee briefly discussed whether there should be opportunities for users to supply focal plane instrumentation. There are certainly very good examples where collaborations between the user community and NSO have resulted in superb user-qualified instrumentation in the past. These productive cooperations between the users and NSO should continue also when CLEAR becomes a reality. David M. Rust, Users Committee Chair
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