[ASA] Public surveys with KMOS on the ESO VLT

[stuart.ryder at astronomyaustralia.org.au]

Following a recommendation by its Scientific and Technical Committee (STC),
ESO has issued a call for letters of intent for public surveys with the KMOS
instrument on the VLT. A public survey is understood to be an observing
programme in which the investigators commit to produce and make publicly
available, within a defined time, a fully reduced and scientifically usable
data set that is likely to answer a major scientific question, be of general
use and of broad interest to the astronomical community. The raw data are
public immediately. A survey is envisaged to be an observing programme
requesting up to 200 observing nights to be allocated over six semesters.
Observations will be carried out in service mode. The KMOS instrument will
be offered with a maximum of 20 arms and only in individual arm modes, i.e.,
no mosaic modes. For more information, please visit the KMOS News pages
(https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/wdJUCANpgjCrJN9YJTGmLMl?domain=eso.org)
<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/wdJUCANpgjCrJN9YJTGmLMl?domain=eso.org>
which is constantly updated with the latest status of the instrument.

 

The letters of intent should include the following items:

*	Title and Abstract
*	Principal Investigator (PI) and a list of co-investigators
*	Scientific rationale (2 pages)
*	Observing strategy (1 page)
*	Estimated observing time, including the distribution of observing
time over the semesters
*	Required observing conditions (lunar phase, image quality, sky
transparency)
*	Description of the responsibilities within the proposing team (1
page)
*	Description of the data products and justification of their legacy
value (1 page). Please note that the legacy value is an important aspect of
public surveys, which is carefully considered by the review panel.

 

Templates for the letter of intent are available LaTeX
<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/Ou0cCBNqjlCPJ7VoJu6xu-S?domain=eso.org
024.tex> , as well as PDF
<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/Ou0cCBNqjlCPJ7VoJu6xu-S?domain=eso.org
024.pdf>  and Word
<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/Ou0cCBNqjlCPJ7VoJu6xu-S?domain=eso.org
024.docx>  format.

 

The deadline for submission of letters of intent for public surveys with
KMOS is 15 October 2024 12:00 CEST.

 

Letters should be submitted only in PDF format to KMOSsurveys at eso.org
<mailto:KMOSsurveys at eso.org> . The Public Survey Panel (PSP) will review the
letters of intent and suggest integrations and possible merging of projects
with similar aims and observing strategies. Recommended surveys will be
invited to submit proposals for P116 on 15 February 2025, with start of
observations in October 2025.

 

The ESO Director General will select the public surveys based on the
recommendations of the PSP and the OPC, which will evaluate their scientific
excellence, and on their technical feasibility with KMOS and tools. The
selected teams will be invited to prepare a survey management plan, whose
approval by ESO is mandatory before final acceptance of a public survey.

 

Please consider the following conditions:

*	No proprietary time will be granted; raw data will become
immediately available via the ESO Science Archive Facility.
*	The ESO Science Archive Facility will be the repository of the
survey products and provide the primary access of these products to the ESO
community.  Survey data products are to be prepared according to the ESO
science data product standard and submitted in agreement with the policies
for ESO Phase 3. The teams will be responsible for the processing and
validating the data products. Regular survey data product releases are
expected every year.
*	Progress of the approved KMOS surveys will be reviewed regularly by
ESO and the PSP. Corrective steps will need to be identified in cases where
the survey execution is delayed, or the data product delivery schedule
cannot be maintained. 

 

Please submit any enquire to https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/OXwpCD1vlpTjr5BPriAfkgz?domain=support.eso.org
<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/OXwpCD1vlpTjr5BPriAfkgz?domain=support.eso.org/> 

 

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