National Aeronautics and Space Administration

• Schedule for Cycle 7
• FULLY ELECTRONIC PROPOSAL SUBMISSION
• Other Important Features of Cycle 7
• Cycle 7 Announcement AN 01-OSS-01 and Appendices
• If you'd like to be a Peer Reviewer....
• RXTE Instrument Configurations: the easy route

NO hardcopies need be sent by postal mail for participation in this Cycle. RPS submission of the cover forms is still required. In addition, the cover forms and scientific justifications should be submitted electronically as PostScript files.

To submit electronically, PIs should:

1. Enter their proposal data into RPS, saving often, and using the "Verify" button to perform final checks before submission. (This step is identical to previous RXTE cycles.)

2. Submit the forms using the 'Submit' button in RPS.

3. Wait (seconds-minutes) for the RPS acknowledgment, which will contain a 3-digit proposal submission number.

4. Create a PostScript file of the forms, using the 'LaTeX' or 'PostScript' buttons within in RPS.

5. Upload two (2) PostScript files per proposal, via RPS, one containing the forms, the other the Scientific Justification, technical feasibility information, and status of previous RXTE observations ("track record"), as specified in the Announcement and Appendices - particularly Section C.2.2. Full instructions on how to upload can be found in RPS. The two files must be named
   • nnn_flast_f.ps

   • nnn_flast_sj.ps

   where

   • nnn is the 3-digit proposal submission number supplied by RPS;

   • flast is the first initial and last name of the PI;

   • _f is the forms;

   • _sj is the scientific justification;

   e.g.: 017_asmale_f.ps, 017_asmale_sj.ps

6. Wait (seconds-minutes) for a second RPS acknowledgment, confirming receipt and completion of the electronic submission process.

• When using RPS, remember to frequently save the html file containing your form entries. Files you're working on can be saved to your hard disk, and reloaded from there, with the RPS 'Save' and 'Reload' buttons.

• If electronic submission is infeasible for you, please contact the RXTE Guest Observer Facility to make alternative arrangements.

• PIs at non-US locations should prepare the PostScript files for their Scientific Justifications using US paper sizes, or risk truncation of their text when the GOF prints out copies of the proposals for the Peer Reviewers. In LaTeX, paper sizes can be adjusted using

  \setlength{\textwidth}{6.75in}
  \setlength{\textheight}{8.70in}
  

  
  or similar.

• Cycle 7 proposers are specifically encouraged to consider projects that would profit uniquely from large amounts of observing time, to enable large-scope investigations to be achieved. Large proposals, defined as those that request observing times of 500 ksec or more, are thus allowed 6 pages for the Scientific Problem and Technical Feasibility section of the proposal (see Appendix C.1.1, C.2.2.2).

• The PCA is currently being operated with reduced duty cycles for three out of the five PCU detectors. Proposers for Cycle 7 should calculate exposure times and discuss technical feasibility with an expectation of using an average of three PCUs. If special circumstances warrant or require the use of four or five PCUs for an observation (e.g., faint source spectroscopy or investigations of weak QPO signals), then a quantative justification must be clearly stated in the Technical Feasibility section. (Although every effort will be made to fulfill requests for more than three PCUs, operational limitations make it impossible to guarantee that the requested number of PCUs will be available.) In addition, it should be noted that some observations, especially those for source monitoring, may be conducted with two PCUs, and proposers should discuss the expected impact of this limitation on their observing program.

• Cycle 7 covers 12 months of observing time.

• All proposals submitted in response to this Announcement must be for new pointed RXTE observations using the PCA and/or HEXTE instruments. Proposals for analysis of ASM data, proposals for analysis of archival RXTE data, and proposals for complementary observations or theoretical work that do not require new pointed observations should not be submitted.

• No funding will be provided through this Announcement, which is only for RXTE observing time. From Cycle 4 onward, funding for analysis and interpretation of new as well as archival RXTE data has been through the NASA Astrophysics Data Program (ADP). Observers with accepted RXTE Cycle 7 observations may submit a proposal for funding to the ADP competition.

• As before, proposers who have previously been awarded RXTE observing time are required to append a page to their proposal listing by Cycle, title, and proposal number their previously accepted RXTE proposals and the status of the data analysis or publications that have followed from them.

• A Cycle 7 proposal for a target already accepted for observation by RXTE in one or more of the previous Cycles is likely to be more successful at the peer review if it has a different observing plan or scientific emphasis from the original proposal(s), and the scientific investigation cannot be completed with archival data. The Cycle 1, Cycle 2, Cycle 3, Cycle 4, Cycle 5, and Cycle 6, programs can be perused in their entireity by following the links just given, or browsed using Argus.

• Unobserved TOO targets approved in the previous Cycle must be reproposed for Cycle 7, if the PI still wants to observe them. The observing status of Cycle 6 TOOs can be found on the SOF's scorecards

• For TOO proposals, the probability that the TOO will be triggered during the Cycle must be estimated. Include the estimate, and any justification, in the proposal text.

• Alternate targets are no longer supported due to the operational burden.

• Faint source exposure times for the HEXTE may be as long as 500ks. It was earlier stated that cosmic background fluctuations would dominate Poisson errors for exposures above 100-200ks. However, new estimates which account for the 40% dead-time fraction and loss of detector PWB2 indicate that this faint source confusion limit may not be reached until at least 500ks - see the new HEXTE Feasibility Chapter for details.

• The minimum observing time that can be requested for a single pointing is 1000 seconds. This limit applies to raster scans and monitoring observations as well as to single observations.

• Announcement for the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer Cycle 7 GO Program
• Appendix A - RXTE Guest Observer Program mission description.
• Appendix B - Not required for this Announcement.
• Appendix C - Information for proposers regarding proposal submission, evaluation, selection and implementation.
• Appendix D - Filling in proposal forms.
• Technical Appendix - Information about the RXTE mission, instruments, and feasibility.

The Announcement, Appendices A, C, and D, and the Technical Appendix are also available via anonymous FTP at heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xte in the directory xte/nra.

Please note that:

    PCA EA1:           Standard1
    PCA EA2:           Standard2
    PCA EA3:           GoodXenon1_2s
    PCA EA4:           GoodXenon2_2s
    PCA EA5:           Idle
    PCA EA6:           Idle

    HEXTE Cluster A:   E_8us_256_DX1f
    HEXTE Cluster B:   E_8us_256_DX1f