Home > Information for Researchers > Announcements

ANNOUNCEMENTS

SOFIA Splinter Session at the 220th Annual AAS Meeting in Anchorage, AK

SOFIA Science Highlights and Cycle 1 Observing
Tuesday, June 12, 2012, 5:30-7:30pm
Ballroom C, Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center

At the splinter session, a mission update will be given (including news about 2nd generation instruments), and recent science highlights will be shown. Other presentations will include information about science operations, user support, FORCAST data processing, FLITECAM capabilities and the E/PO program. The agenda is available on the Workshops page. Presentations will become available after the meeting.

SOFIA Users Group Meeting

The first meeting of the SOFIA Users Group (SUG) took place on March 12, 2012 at the SOFIA Science Center, NASA Ames, Moffett Field, CA. This is a newly constituted adivsory group that will replace the SOFIA Science Steering Committee (SSSC).

The SUG charter and member list may be found here. The agenda, presentations and SUG Report for the March 12 meeting may be found here.

SOFIA Cycle 1 Call for Proposals Closed

The Call for Proposals deadline was January 27, 2012. Statistical information, such as the number of proposals received and the proposal distribution is available on the Cycle 1 webpage.

SOFIA Workshop, November 7 & 8, 2011

The SOFIA Science Center hosted a workshop at the NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. The agenda and presentations are available on the Workshop web site, http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Science/workshops/SOFIA_Workshop_2011/.

SOFIA Special Session at the 219th Annual AAS Meeting in Austin, TX

Early Science Results from the SOFIA Observatory
Monday, Jan 09, 2012, 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) made its first science observations in December 2010 and conducted Basic Science flights during mid-2011. Results based on the FORCAST and GREAT data obtained on these flights were presented during the special session. The status of the SOFIA mission was summarized. The speakers included members of the SOFIA Science Center, the Instrument teams, and the Guest Investigator community.

Basic Science

Successful Basic Science Proposals

FORCAST Basic Science flights took place from May 5th to June 7th, 2011.
The first half of GREAT Basic Science flights took place from July 12th to July 18th, 2011, with the remaining flights to begin in September, 2011.

Further details about Basic Science may be found here.

Basic Science Flight Plans

Observation tables and flight plans for SOFIA Basic Science flights scheduled for the current week are available here. The page also contains links to flight plans for completed Basic Science flights. Flight plans for upcoming flights will be added each week.

Short Science I, Raw Data Available

The raw data obtained during the FORCAST Short Science I flights, which took place in December 2010, are now public. Instructions on where to find the data and how to download them are given here. We note that the FORCAST data reduction pipeline is still under development, and is being tested on these data. Furthermore, the properties (such as header keywords) of the raw data files for Short Science may differ significantly from those obtained during future observations, including Basic Science. We expect the first reduced, calibrated Short Science I data to be archived and made public within the next six months, in time for the next SOFIA proposal call.

SSSC / SITR

The most recent SITR and SSSC meetings were held in Mountain View on Tuesday, May 10, and Wednesday, May 11, 2011.

SSPC Meeting

The most recent meeting of the SOFIA Science Project Council (SSPC) was held at NASA Ames on Oct 12-13, 2011.

Recent Presentations

Presentations from the splinter session, "Early Results from the SOFIA Observatory", at the 217th AAS meeting in Seattle and from the "Scientific Opportunities for New Instrumentation" workshop in Asilomar are available here.

Contact the SOFIA help-desk

Page Last Updated: May 14, 2012