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From: starrfie@hydro.la.asu.edu (Sumner Starrfield)
Subject: An open letter to the IUE community (fwd)
Date: Sun, 25 Jul 93 20:07:36 MST
Forwarded message:
>From jlinsky@cygnus.DNET.NASA.GOV Sun Jul 25 17:08:15 1993
Date: Sun, 25 Jul 93 20:04:09 -0400
Message-ID: <vsnet-history1257@hoge.baba.hajime.jp>
From: jlinsky@cygnus.DNET.NASA.GOV
To: @iue1
Subject: An open letter to the IUE community
From: jlinsky@jila.colorado.edu
To: IUE Users
Subj: An open letter to the IUE community
Date: 25 July 1993
Dear IUE User,
By now you have received a letter from Yoji informing you of the success
or failure of your IUE Guest Observer proposals. For the first time these
letters contain the clear message that there is no funding available for the
new GO programs. While there probably will be a tiny amount of funding for these
programs, probably less than 10% of that in previous years, the message is
clear that IUE observing and data analysis will now have to be done with very
little or no funding.
This ominous development is the endproduct of a whole series of events in
which the amount of money allocated for the Mission Operations and Data Analysis
(MO+DA) portion of NASA's budget has been cut back from that originally
planned to operate and fund the analysis of data from the increasing number of
operational spacecraft for astrophysics and other disciplines. All astrophysics
missions and data analysis programs including HST are being cut, and all
indications are that the situation will likely get worse in the next few years.
Over the last few months many of us have fought to retain IUE as an
operating spacecraft. I am pleased to report that NASA has now agreed to
continue to fund IUE operations (but at a reduced level) through at least
September 1994, to fund the Final Archive program, and to provide a very small
amount of funds for the 11 month 16th year and about 5 month 17 year episodes.
Thus the highest priority objectives are reasonably safe. However, the pain of
nearly zero funding for the 16th year GO programs and the absence of any
commitment by NASA to fund operations beyond September 1994 are a reality.
If you consider these issues of great importance, I would like to call your
attention to an appropriate opportunity to do something.
Guenter Riegler, the Science Operations Branch Chief in the NASA's
Astrophysics Division, has said that he would prefer that any communications
from IUE observers be sent to Jim Houck (Chair of the Astophysics Mission
Operations Working Group) and to Roger Malina (Chair of the Ultraviolet and
Optical Mission Operations Working Group). Since the AMOWG will meet on Monday
August 2, 1993 with the UV astronomy program on its agenda, now is the right
time to communicate with Jim Houck (email address jrhouck@nasamail.nasa.gov)
and Roger Malina (email address rfm@cea.berkeley.edu). They are already
familiar with (and likely sympathetic to) the unique scientific program of IUE
and the highest priority needs to continue science operations (see enclosed
message). It is very important and probably useful, however, for them to know
your personal pain due to the absence of significant funding for your 16th year
program and your personal views on the high scientific priority of continuing
science operations beyond September 1994. So I encourage you to send them an
email message before Friday July 30 concerning this. You should also send a
copy to Claude Canizares (email address crc@space.mit.edu) who is leading a
study of the MO+DA program.
Jeffrey L. Linsky
Chair, IUE Users Committee
******************************************************************
From: jlinsky@jila.colorado.edu
To: Jim Houck (Chair, AMOWG)
CC: Roger Malina (Chair, UVMOWG)
Subj: IUE and the AMOWG
Date: 28 June 1993
Dear Jim,
I am writing to you in your role as Chair of the AMOWG because the
question of continued operations and funding for IUE will likely arise at the
next AMOWG meeting. As the Chair of the IUE Users Committee, I have consulted
with the members of the Users Committee and many other Guest Observers to
identify the highest priorities for funding IUE that will maximize the
scientific return from this important satellite.
Since UV astronomy is not possible from the ground, this critical region
of the electromagnetic spectrum can only be sampled from space. While Hubble
can observe fainter sources and has higher spectral resolution and signal/noise
than IUE, IUE nevertheless retains its uniqueness, particularly in the
following types of science programs:
(1) IUE can obtain long time sequences of spectra to study time variable
phenomena on stars, solar system objects, and AGNs on time scales of minutes to
years.
(2) IUE's observing program is sufficiently flexible to study targets of
opportunity within 2 hours of the report of discovery (such as SN 1987A and SN
1993J).
(3) IUE's ability to observe most of the sky at any time and its scheduling
flexibility means that IUE is typically the central telescope in coordinating
observing programs that study objects across the electromagnetic spectrum from
space and the ground.
(4) New IUE observations may be compared with previous spectra of the same
object or other objects in its class already present in the archive of more
than 90,000 spectra obtained over 15 years in standard ways. In this way new
observations may be better understood in context of time evolution or class
characteristics.
(5) IUE's large aperture permits observations of faint extended sources and
imaging spectropscopy, such as multiple spectra of stars in starburst galaxies.
(6) IUE obtains UV spectra covering 1000 A at one time to permit the
intercomparison of widely separated spectral features even for variable
sources.
Unlike most space experiments, IUE does not have a Principal Investigator
to argue its case to NASA. Thus the user community and its representatives on
the IUE User Committee of necessity must take on some of these activities. All
of the observing time of IUE has always gone to the Guest Observers who are
selected each year by peer review.
I anticipate that the AMOWG will hear from the Science Operations Branch
and the committee appointed to advise NASA concerning IUE that met at the
recent Berkeley AAS meeting. As a contribution to this discussion of the
future of IUE, I would like to bring to your attention and to the attention of
the AMOWG the unanimous view of the Users Committee and, I believe, the
overwhelming opinion of the user community concerning what we believe are the
highest priorities for the future of IUE to maximize its scientific
productivity. These are our priorities in order of decreasing importance:
(1) Continued scientific operations of the IUE until the quality of the
scientific data should deteriorate substantially due to satellite or instrument
failure. In the more than 15 years of operations, the instrument sensitivity
and operational flexibility remain substantially at their launch capabilities,
which was unanticipated at launch and may be unique for an astronomy mission.
We believe that the quality of the science forthcoming from IUE is very high
and that IUE's role for coordinated observations is more important than ever as
more satellites come into operation. We are relieved that NASA has finally
agreed that the peer reviewed proposals for the 16th year of IUE should be
implemented for nearly one year's observing (about 11 months), and we support
the idea of a new round of proposals that emphasize "heroic" observing. We see
no scientific rationale for ending scientific operations in September 1994 and
believe that the scientific case for IUE operations beyond that date is
identical to that for scientific operations before that date. We believe that
statements by NASA concerning ending scientific operations in September 1994
are destructive in that they encourage key IUE support staff to seek employment
elsewhere.
(2) Modest support for the completion of the IUE Final Archive Project is our
second priority. Since 1988 and with the support of various NASA advisory
groups and the Science Operations Branch, the IUE Project has invested 40
man-years of effort to develop the software needed to reprocess the entire
archive to improve the signal/noise and absolute flux calibration of the
spectra and to make the archive consistent and more user friendly. The
development effort should be complete in a few months and the processing of the
low dispersion data is underway. This project must be completed while the key
personnel are working on the project.
(3) Modest support at the level of $250K per observing episode is needed to
support new Guest Investigations in the 16th year program and beyond. This is
required to provide the small amount of money to users who need support for
travel to IUE or to a remote observing site and money for journal page charges.
In the past the GO support budget was about $2.5M/year, but the GOs consider
items (1) and (2) above as higher priority than their own funding given
financial stringency.
Finally, I would like to call your attention to the results of a recent
study of IUE publications compiled by Helmut Abt. He finds that IUE continues
to be one of the most scientifically productive observatories with about 195
papers published per year in the refereed journals (43% in ApJ and ApJS and 29%
in A+A and A+AS). He finds that this productivity is increasing with more
papers per year in the refereed astronomical literature than published by the
scientific staffs of GSFC, Caltech, and the Space Telescope Science Institute
COMBINED. Moreover, IUE papers have twice the peak citation rates of the
average of other ApJ and AJ papers. These statistics cannot be ignored when the
fate of this most productive spacecraft is on the table.
I am seeking your support for the IUE, on behalf of the large body of
users, because of what IUE is capable of doing now and what it can do for
astronomy in the future. I would appreciate you attention to the matters
described in this letter and your sending copies of this letter to members of
the AMOWG.
Sincerely yours,
Jeffrey L. Linsky
Chair, IUE Users Committee
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