Suzaku News #063: Suzaku AO-5 Released

[suzakunews@lists.nasa.gov]

Release of AO-5 Call for Proposals

We are pleased to announce the release of the AO-5 Call for Proposals for
the X-ray astronomy satellite, Suzaku.

We plan to start AO-5 observations in 2010 April, and hereby solicit
submission of observing proposals.  Proposals are due on November 20, 2009.
As with past cycles, proposals are accepted at ISAS/JAXA, NASA, and ESA
depending on the primary affiliation of the principal investigator.

Suzaku was developed under collaboration of Japan and the United States,
and was launched by ISAS/JAXA on 2005 July 10. Suzaku carries four modules
of the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) that focuses X-rays up to ~10 keV with high
throughput. In the focal plane of the XRTs are mounted X-ray CCD cameras
(XIS). The XIS has high sensitivity and moderate spatial resolution, which
is especially advantageous in scrutinizing extended sources, as well as
good spectral resolution for the soft X-ray below 0.8 keV, which is
superior to that of Chandra and XMM-Newton. Moreover, we have applied
so-called Spaced-row Charge Injection technique for the XIS since AO-2 to
suppress degradation of energy resolution. The HXD has unprecedented
sensitivity in the wide energy range up to 600 keV, although it has no
imaging capability. The wide bandpass coverage of 0.2 keV through 600 keV
with the XIS and the HXD is an important characteristic of the Suzaku
mission.

Changes made since the last AO is that we accept proposals using the XIS
in P-sum/timing mode for up to 5% of the total observation time. As in
AO-4, we solicit observation proposals for Key Project.

For further details on both regular and Key Project proposals,
US-based scientists are directed to:

  http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/suzaku/aehp_prop_tools.html

Scientists in ESA member countries are directed to:

  http://www.rssd.esa.int/index.php?project=Suzaku

Scientists in all other countries (not least in Japan) are directed to:

  http://www.astro.isas.jaxa.jp/suzaku/

Best regards,

                       Kazuhisa MITSUDA (Project manager, ISAS/JAXA)
                       Tadayuki TAKAHASHI (Project sub-manager, ISAS/JAXA)
                       Hideyo KUNIEDA (Project scientist, Nagoya University)