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Semester 2012B Time Distribution

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Gemini North: Time Availability and Distribution

A minimum of 86.5% of the time will be available for science use on Gemini North in 2012B. This amounts to 159 nights and includes a 7% Director's Discretionary Time allocation, in agreement with Gemini Board resolution 2011.A.9. Of the Director's Discretionary Time, the Director has decided to make 5% available for staff use, while 2% will be available to all astronomers through the Director's Discretionary Time proposal process throughout the semester. Staff time remains open for joint proposals with the partners. The non-science time will be used for observatory maintenance tasks, re-commissioning of GNIRS, 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 2012B is given in the following table. The numbers take into account corrections for prior imbalances.

Partner Estimated Hours Available
US 619
UK 252
Canada 229
Australia 98
Brazil 59
Argentina 34
Univ. of Hawaii (host)
202

Gemini South: Time Availability and Distribution

A minimum of 81% of the time will be available for science use on Gemini South in 2012B. This amounts to 149 nights, which do not include NICI campaign science, as the campaign is expected to be completed in 2012A. These nights do include 20 nights of System Verification for FLAMINGOS-2 and GSAOI, and 7% of Director's Discretionary Time in agreement with Gemini Board resolution 2011.A.9. Of the Director's Discretionary Time, the Director has decided to make 5% available for staff use, while 2% will be available to all astronomers through the Director's Discretionary Time proposal process throughout the semester. Staff time remains open for joint proposals with the partners. The non-science time will be used for observatory maintenance tasks, FLAMINGOS-2 commissioning, and GSAOI 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 2012B is given in the following table. The numbers take into account corrections for prior imbalances.

Partner Estimated Hours Available
US 508
UK 196
Canada 194
Australia 84
Brazil 53
Argentina 29
Chile (host) 142

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 2011B. The time allocations also include a purchase by Brazil of 35 hours of UK time at each telescope. The values shown in the tables above were recommended by the Operations Working Group in February 2012. The number of nights is approximated by int(hours/10).



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