SOFIA Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy

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SOFIAStratospheric Observatory For Infrared
Astronomy

• E. E. Becklin
• SOFIA Chief Scientist

AAS WORKSHOP Jan 7, 2007
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Outline

• Overview of SOFIA
• Progress to Date
• Science Capabilities
• Schedule

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OVERVIEW OF SOFIA
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Overview of SOFIA

• SOFIA is a 2.5 m telescope in a modified B747SP
  aircraft
• Optical to mm wavelength performance
• Obscured IR range (30-300 ?m) is most important
• Joint Program between the US (80) and Germany
  (20)
• First Science 2009 (NASA, DLR, USRA, DSI)
• Designed for 20 year lifetime

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Overview of SOFIA (continued)

• Operating altitude
• 39,000 to 45,000 feet (12 to 14 km)
• Above 99 of obscuring water vapor
• World-wide deployments
• Ramp up to 1000 science hours per year
• Build on KAO Heritage with improvements
• Facility Instruments
• Science support
• Science flights to originate from Palmdale Site 9
  run by DFRC
• Science Center is located at NASA Ames Research
  Center

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SOFIA The Observatory
open cavity (door not shown)
Educators work station
pressure bulkhead
scientist stations, telescope and instrument
control, etc.
TELESCOPE
scientific instrument (1 of 9)
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Why SOFIA?

• Infrared transmission in the stratosphere very
  good Average 80 from
• 1 to 1000 microns
• Instrumentation
• wide complement, interchangeable,
• state-of-art
• Mobility anywhere, anytime
• Long lifetime
• Outstanding platform to train future
  instrumentalists

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PROGRESS TO DATE
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SOFIAs First Flight - 26 April, 2007
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Major Physical Installations Completed
Main deck, looking aft at instrument interface
Telescope installed
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Primary Mirror (uncoated)
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Telescope in Action
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SOFIAs Instrument Complement

• As an airborne mission, SOFIA supports a unique,
  expandable instrument suite
• SOFIA covers the full IR range with imagers and
  low- to high-resolution spectrographs
• FORCAST and GREAT for
• Early Science in 2009
• FIFI-LS, HIPO and FLITECAM in 2010
• All 9 instruments by 2012.
• SOFIA will take full advantage of improvements in
  instrument technology. There will be one new
  instrument or major upgrade each year.

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Four First Light Instruments
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SCIENCE CAPABILITIES
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Science Capabilities

• Because of large aperture and better detectors,
  sensitivity for imaging and spectroscopy similar
  to the space observatory ISO.
• 8 arcmin field-of-view allows use of very large
  detector arrays.
• Image size is diffraction-limited beyond 25 µm.
• Theta(FWHM) Lambda(microns) / 10 arcsec

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Angular Resolution
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Other Science Capabilities

• Primary Mirror diameter 2.7 meters. Use the
  central 2.5 meters.
• Secondary Chopper 8 arcmin peak-to-peak, f
  20Hz
• Background ? 0.1, T 240 K
• Telescope elevation range is 20 to 60 degrees
• Instruments are accessible

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SOFIA Advances Other Major Missions

• Spitzer SOFIA has 3 times higher angular
  resolution beyond 25 microns. Higher spectral
  resolution. Capabilities beyond 160 microns.
• Herschel SOFIA has capabilities below 60
  microns. Higher spectral resolution below 150
  microns (2 THz). Much longer life time and
  advanced Instruments (large arrays and higher
  sensitivity).
• JWST SOFIA has capabilities beyond 28 microns.
  Higher spectral resolution from 5 to 28 microns.
  
• ALMA SOFIA has capabilities below 300 microns
  and between 500 and 600 microns.

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Infrared Space Observatories
Ground-based Observatories
SOFIA provides temporal continuity and wide
spectral coverage, complementing other infrared
observatories.
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SCHEDULE
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SOFIA Schedule (Major Milestones)

• First Re-Flight Occurred April 07
• Ten Closed Door Flights Finished
  Dec 07
• Door Drive Delivered Spring
  08
• Mirror coated and ground tests Spring/Summer
  08
• Open Door Flights at Palmdale Fall 08
• First Science 09
• Next Instrument call 10

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Early Science US General Observer Opportunities

• First call Early Science proposals this year
• Early Short Science Aug 08 with PIs
• Early Basic Science Dec 08 GOs
• Early Short Science with FORCAST and GREAT
• Special call for participation with PIs
• Very limited flights (3)
• GOs will not fly
• Early Basic Science also with FORCAST and GREAT
• Longer period (15 Flights)
• More capabilities
• Call will be for GO Science and GO participation

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US General Observer Opportunities in 2010 and
Beyond

• There will be a GO call in FY 2010 for the 5
  first Science Instruments. (FORCAST, GREAT,
  FIFI-LS,
• FLITECAM and HIPO)
• FORCAST, FLITECAM and FIFI-LS will be facility or
  facility
• like instruments Do not need to be an IR
  specialist. Data Pipelines. Archive. Science
  Support on the Flight.
• GOs work with the PI for PI instruments
• There will be about 3m/ year for GO support for
  data reduction

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Next Call for New Instruments

• The next call for instruments will be at First
  Science FY 10
• We are considering
• New science instruments, both FSI and PSI
• Studies of instruments and technology
• Upgrades to present instruments
• There will be additional calls every 3 years
• There will be one new instrument or upgrade per
  year
• Approximate funding for new instruments and
  technology is 10 M/yr

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Summary

• Program making progress!
• Aircraft structural modifications complete
• Telescope installed, several instruments tested
  on ground observatories
• Completed first flight and ferry flight to NASA
  Dryden
• Full envelope flight testing (closed door) 80
  complete.
• Several subsystems will be installed
  spring/summer 08 (door motor drive, coated
  primary mirror)
• First science in 09
• SOFIA will be one of the primary facilities for
  far-IR and sub-millimeter astronomy for many years

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BACK-UP
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OPERATIONS PLANS
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SOFIA Operations Drivers

• Frequent Flights 960 science hours/year (2x
  KAO)
• World-wide deployments especially to the Southern
  Hemisphere will be scheduled as required by
  science
• Both Facility and PI Instruments
• Facility Instruments Good tools, Data Pipelines
  and Archive - easy for non-IR astronomer to
  obtain good data (New for Airborne Astronomy with
  SOFIA)
• PI Instruments State of the art and innovative
• General Investigator program for both FSI and PI,
  with funded research
• Robust Instrument program to allow Observatory to
  reinvent itself every few years
• Unique Education and Public Outreach program

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SOFIA Science Operations

• SOFIA will be operated as an observatory open to
  the whole science community through peer review
• 3 flights a week for 40 weeks per year
• Flights will be primarily out of SOFIA Operations
  Center at Palmdale Airport near Dryden with
  occasional deployments to the southern hemisphere
  and other sites as needed
• Continuous access of science and mission staff to
  airplane
• Preflight instrument simulator facilities
  (testing and alignment) for mission preparation
• Instrument laboratories including cryogen
  facilities
• Rapid instrument exchange
• SOFIA Science Center will be at Ames
• Telescope time peer review
• Observing time schedule
• Flight planning
• Management of Instruments (Operations and
  Development)
• Science Data Archive(Facility Instruments Reduced
  data, PI raw data)
• Observing Support

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SOFIA and Spitzer

• SOFIA will become operational near the time that
  Spitzer runs out of cryogens. The science impact
  of not being contemporary is small Spitzer is a
  high sensitivity imaging and low resolution
  spectroscopy mission. SOFIA is a high spectral
  and high angular resolution mission
• As it now stands, the two observatories are very
  complementary and when Spitzer runs out of
  cryogens in early FY09, SOFIA will be the only
  observatory working in the 25 to 60 micron region
  for over 10 years Comets, Supernovae, Variable
  AGN, other discoveries.

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SOFIA and Herschel

• Herschel and SOFIA will now start at about the
  same time
• Joint calibration work is on going
• For the years of overlap, SOFIA will be only
  program
• with 25 to 60 micron capability
• with high resolution spectroscopy in the 60 to
  150 micron region
• When cryogens run out in Herschel in 2011 SOFIA
  will be only NASA mission in 25 to 600 micron
  region for many years
• Important follow-up
• Advanced instrumentation will give unique
  capabilities to SOFIA Polarization, Heterodyne
  Arrays, Heterodyne Spectroscopy at 28 microns
  (ground state of molecular hydrogen), and other
  interesting astrophysics lines
• Both missions are critically important and
  complementary

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SOFIA and JWST

• SOFIA is very complementary to JWST
• Before JWST is deployed and after Spitzer
  cryogens run out , SOFIA is only mission with 5
  to 8 micron capabilities
• important organic signatures
• After JWST is launched SOFIA is the only mission
  to give complementary observation beyond 28
  microns and high resolution spectroscopy in the 5
  to 28 micron region

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SOFIA and WISE

• WISE is a very sensitive all sky survey in the
  3.3 to 23 micron region. It is expect to launch
  just as SOFIA begins operations.
• SOFIA can provide a number of important follow-up
  observations.
• Very red sources seen only at 23 microns can be
  followed up at 38 microns with FORCAST on SOFIA
  and spectra can be obtained with EXES on SOFIA
  for the brightest 23 micron sources not seen by
  IRAS.
• Nearby cold Brown Dwarfs discovered by WISE can
  be followed up with the FLITECAM GRISM and EXES.