This interactive event will provide practical information to both experienced and prospective SOFIA users on how to best design a scientifically and technically strong SOFIA proposal for Cycle 9.

For each SOFIA instrument, science staff members will present realistic science examples and demonstrate how to determine the necessary signal to noise, choose the observing strategy, perform observing time estimation with SITE and design the corresponding Astronomical Observation Request with USPOT.

A general presentation will introduce the main science cases addressed by SOFIA, and the general capabilities of the instrument suite, as well as the specific features offered during Cycle 9, including the Dual Anonymous Review framework. There will be ample time for questions.

Please connect through this Webex link. The agenda and more connection information are available here.

The different pulsational properties of Miras and semi-regulars are almost certainly responsible for the differences in the dust. Miras are experiencing radial pulsations in the fundamental mode, so that their entire atmosphere is moving inward and outward in unison, which will push gas further away from the photosphere and enhance the condensation of dust. Semi-regulars pulsate more weakly and often in overtone modes, which will result in lower pulsation velocities and smaller changes in radius. As a result, less gas will cool to temperatures low enough for dust to condense. These weak pulsations appear to be more conducive for the formation of just SiC. Read more here.

In response to a request from NASA to develop a plan and timeline, or a “roadmap,” for SOFIA’s instrument development during 2020-2025, the SOFIA Science Center hosted two workshops this summer to collect community input. The first event was focused on science cases (proceedings here) and the second event on concepts and technology readiness for instrument upgrades and new instruments (proceedings here). We are happy to report that both events were sound successes, with more than 300 attendees in total, and engaging talks by more than 40 invited speakers followed by vibrant and fruitful discussions.

During the next month, the SOFIA SMO will develop the SOFIA Instrument Roadmap proposal, as requested by NASA. This will be based on the inputs from the two workshops. We continue to solicit and encourage suggestions and comments to this effort. Please do not hesitate to send those to Jim Jackson (jjackson@sofia.usra.edu). We invite you to respond to this short survey on priorities for science cases and instrument capabilities.

The 5.5-8 microns spectral region is rich in vibrational and rovibrational transitions of organic molecules and their isotopologues, including pre-biotic molecules. Spectral signatures from water (in particular the ground state v2 vibrational band), formaldehyde, methane, ammonia, CH₃, HCN, and more complex organics can be emitted from warm and hot regions around young stellar objects, as well as the inner regions (<a few AU) of protoplanetary disks. High resolution mid-IR spectra are hence an important tool to understand the mechanics of dust grain evaporation in stellar environments, and eventually to retrace chemical evolution during planet formation.

Over the past several years, EXES observations have contributed to a rich inventory of mid-IR spectra from YSOs and protoplanetary disks. The available public database includes sources such as: GV Tau's disk (project 05_0097, Carr et al., in prep), and massive protostars AFGL 2136, AFGL 2591 (projects 04_0120/05_0041 - Barr et al. 2020, 2018, Indriolo et al. 2020), Orion IRc2 (project 05_0043/06_0061, Nickerson et al. in prep) and high-mass YSOs NGC 7538 IRS 1 and IRS 9 (project 75_0024).All calibrated data is available from the IRSA SOFIA Archive.

We are currently seeking two scientists to support the HAWC+, GREAT, and FIFI-LS facility instruments. Instrument scientists are experts on the operation of, and data produced by, the SOFIA scientific instruments, generally with a primary focus on one instrument and a supporting role on another.

Instrument scientists duties include:

We invite qualified candidates to apply on the USRA website. Application deadline is September 14, 2020.

Tele-Talks are scientific presentations given via phone, with slides distributed ahead of time. The talks are held approximately twice a month on Wednesdays at 9:00 a.m. Pacific, noon Eastern. For information on how to participate in the Tele-Talks, please check the SOFIA Tele-Talk webpage.