Semester 2013A Time Distribution
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Gemini North: Time Availability and Distribution
A minimum of 88% of the time will be
available for science use on Gemini North in 2013A. This amounts to 160 nights and includes a 7% Director's Discretionary Time allocation, 1 night for
instrument performance monitoring, and 4 nights for GRACES commissioning using community targets. The Director's Discretionary Time is divided into a maximum 5% share for use by staff (which is open for joint proposals with the partners), and a minimum 2% share available to all astronomers through the Director's Discretionary Time proposal process throughout the semester.
The non-science time will be used for observatory maintenance tasks and
commissioning of GRACES. Any unused
engineering time will be returned to science. Note that historically around 5% of each
semester's science time is used to complete highly ranked programs from the previous two
semesters to which the ITAC granted rollover status.
The number of hours available to each partner and the host in 2013A is given in the following table. The numbers take into account corrections for prior imbalances.
Partner | Estimated Hours Available |
US | 840 |
Canada | 259 |
Australia | 107 |
Brazil | 87 |
Argentina | 49 |
Univ. of Hawaii (host) |
126 |
Gemini South: Time Availability and Distribution
A minimum of 81% of the time will be
available for science use on Gemini South in 2013A. This amounts to 146 nights,
which include
12 nights of System Verification for
FLAMINGOS-2, a 7% of Director's Discretionary Time allocation and 1 night for
instrument performance monitoring.
The Director's Discretionary Time is divided into a maximum 5% share for use by staff (which is open for joint proposals with the partners), and a minimum 2% share available to all astronomers through the Director's Discretionary Time proposal process throughout the semester.
The non-science time will be used for observatory maintenance tasks,
FLAMINGOS-2 re-commissioning, GeMS laser engineering and
possibly GPI early commissioning.
Any unused engineering time will be returned to science.
Note that historically around 5% of each
semester's science time is used to complete highly ranked programs from the previous two
semesters to which the ITAC granted rollover status.
The number of hours available to each partner and the host in 2013A is given in the following table. The numbers take into account corrections for prior imbalances.
Partner | Estimated Hours Available |
US | 707 |
Canada | 218 |
Australia | 91 |
Brazil | 73 |
Argentina | 42 |
Chile (host) | 127 |
Time Adjustments
To maintain overall balance amongst the partnership, the values shown above for both Gemini North and South have been adjusted from the nominal partner shares as a result of actual time charged through 2012A. The values shown in the tables above were recommended by the Operations Working Group in August 2012. The number of nights is approximated by int(hours/10).