The Proposal Data Entry Centre opened on the 5
of December and between
then and the end of January the bulk of the Guaranteed Time Programme was
entered. After a break of one week, and updates to some of the software, Phase
2 of the Open Time proposal submission process started. All observations which
have been recommended by OTAC will now have to be specified in detail and
entered by proposers into the ISO mission database. European and Japanese
PIs are expected to visit the ISO PDEC in ESTEC (Noordwijk, The
Netherlands). No ESA support for travel or subsistence is foreseen. US
proposers will visit IPAC.
PDEC will be open for Open Time proposers between beginning of February and mid July. At PDEC up to 30 visitors can work in parallel and enter their data. Proposal entry is performed using PGA, the Proposal Generation Aid software which allows entry of observation parameters and simultaneous checks the parameter's validity. Technical and scientific support at PDEC is ensured by Science Operation Center personnel; reference material like catalogues, User's Manuals, etc are available for the Data Centre visitors.
Open Time PIs (or the persons designed by PIs) are being contacted via Helpdesk and informed about their scheduled visit at PDEC. Because of the time limits, Open Time proposal entry will have a rigid calendar: PDEC is expected being fully operative (up to the maximum number of visitors allowed by the existing facilities) for most of the OT Phase 2 time period.
To make the visit as efficient as possible, PDEC visitors should prepare in advance all the observation details like coordinates, proper motions (if applicable), target and background fluxes, instrumental parameters, ... Detailed information, of what to prepare and how to prepare it, is available on the anonymous ftp account: ftp.estec.esa.nl in the directory pub/iso/doc. Any questions are welcome at the ISO Helpdesk: helpdesk@iso.estec.esa.nl.
In view of the special procedures required, a SOC resident astronomer will be assigned to each proposal containing polarisation observations as well as to each ToO proposal.