EUROPEAN VLBI NETWORK CALL FOR PROPOSALS

The European VLBI Network (EVN) invites observing proposals for the 1 February 2002 deadline.
See below for further details and instructions on how to submit proposals

Introduction

The EVN consists of a VLBI network of radio telescopes in Europe and Asia operated by an international Consortium of institutes.

Consult the EVN User Guide for the following:

The EVN Status table gives current antenna capabilities
Estimates of the sensitivity and resolution of the EVN.
On-line VLBI catalogue of sources observed by the EVN and Global VLBI
Guidelines on scheduling EVN observations

The EVN encourages use of the Network by astronomers not specialised in the VLBI technique. The Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE) can provide support for schedule making, correlation and data analysis of EVN projects, as well as advice during proposal preparation. Contact Michael Garrett (garrett@jive.nl) for information about The JIVE EVN Support Group

In particular, the EVN is in receipt of an award from the European Commission's Access to Research Infrastructures Programme (an action of the Improving Human Potential Programme) that supports EVN projects led by non-EVN institute PIs affiliated to EU and Associated State Institutes. As well as providing access to the EVN, the programme provides financial support for visits to the EVN observatories and JIVE. Contact Michael Garrett (garrett@jive.nl) for information or see the EC ARI Page at JIVE.

EVN Observing Sessions in 2002

2002 Session 1	Feb 08 - Mar 01	18/21cm + MERLIN, 5cm, 3.6cm
2002 Session 2	May 24 - Jun 14	18/21cm 6cm+MERLIN, + ...
2002 Session 3	Nov 08 - Nov 29	6cm, 18/21cm+MERLIN, 5cm +...

Proposals received by 1 February 2002 will be considered for scheduling in Session 2, 2002 or later. Finalisation of the planned observing wavelengths will depend on proposal pressure. Projects will only be scheduled during sessions.

Special features for Sessions in 2002

The new VLBI terminal at ARECIBO is installed and fringes have been found to VLBA antennas - see www.naic.edu/menuimag/astronomy.htm
GBT available - see below for proposal details
512 Mbps recording available at EVN antennas for session 2/2002
The Shanghai and Urumqi telescopes are now fully operational for MkIV/VLBA recording
Hartebeesthoek (South Africa) is now an associate member of the EVN
5cm receiver available at Cambridge

Telescope availability in 2002

Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank will not be available in session 2/2002 due to major upgrade/re-surfacing programme

Combining EVN antennas with other arrays

Proposers may request EVN antennas together with other telescopes and arrays.

EVN + MERLIN Observations

MERLIN is an radio-linked array of 6 telescopes in England with a maximum baseline of 217 km. Combined EVN+MERLIN projects add the short MERLIN baselines (10 - 217 km), which will help to image more extended sources, as well as providing VLBI baselines to the CAMBRIDGE antenna. Most EVN sessions usually include some combined MERLIN + EVN observations at 18 or 6cm. MERLIN + EVN time will be allocated by the EVN PC, but the case for joint observations must be made in the proposal.

Including other antennas

Antennas of the NASA DSN, including the 70-m at Robledo, and the 300-m Arecibo antenna may be available for a small number of projects requiring very high sensitivity. The 25-m antenna at Hartebeesthoek, South Africa, provides useful N-S resolution for low-declination sources.

Global VLBI

GLOBAL projects add the NRAO VLBA and/or other US antennas, creating an array of up to 20 elements, suitable for very high dynamic range imaging, and "snap-shot" observations of many sources.

Submitting EVN Proposals

Deadlines

Proposals must be received by 1st Feb, June or Oct.

Contact

Before submission the PI should ensure that all named co-proposers have given their consent to be included in the list of investigators. All communication between the Proposer(s), and the EVN Program Committee or Scheduler will be via the Contact Author designated in the proposal.

How to submit

EVN proposals, including EVN+MERLIN, EVN+Arecibo etc, should be sent to

         Dr. R. Porcas, EVN Scheduler,
         MPIfR, 
         Auf dem Huegel 69,
         D 53121 Bonn
         GERMANY.

         Email: proposevn@HP.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de

EVN proposals which request MERLIN, Arecibo, Hartebeesthoek, or DSN telescopes need not be submitted elsewhere.

EVN "Global" proposals which also request NRAO resources, ie, one or more VLBA antennas, the VLBA Correlator, the VLA or GBT must ALSO be sent to:
```
         The Director, NRAO,
         Edgemont Road,
         Charlottesville,
         VA 22903-2475, USA

         Email: propsoc@nrao.edu
```
Requests for THE VLBA+EFFELSBERG ALONE must be sent to both NRAO AND MPIfR. Instructions for VLBA+Eb proposals
Requests for any other antennas NOT affiliated with the EVN or NRAO should be indicated in the proposal but the PROPOSER MUST SEND A COPY to the Director/Scheduler of the observatory involved, and will be responsible for arranging all aspects of their participation, including observing support, tape supply and acquiring telescope time for the EVN time allocated. See also the Code of Practice for operational details.

Rules for email submission

Proposals may be submitted as postscript files by email via the addresses above, following the following guidelines. See also the NRAO guidelines on submitting proposals

Do not submit by email if this is at the expense of including essential diagrams and other material
Send proposals A FEW DAYS BEFORE the deadline; only in this case can proposers be notified if the file fails to print !!
Write a 3-4 word title as the subject line for proposal identification
Avoid grey-scale plots and scanned graphics, which can create very lengthy files.
EVN will accept separate postscript files for the coversheet and the scientific justification if sent as attachments to a single message, or a single concatenated postscript file in the body of the message. NRAO do not accept attachments.
IF you specify paper size for printing, only use size A4 for "proposevn" (but do NOT specify A4 size for "propsoc")

After submission

A list of all proposals received will be posted shortly after the deadline. All communication between the Proposer(s), and the EVN Program Committee or Scheduler will be via the Contact Author designated in the proposal. The results from proposal review will be communicated after the next meeting of the EVN Program Committee, and will be SENT BY EMAIL unless otherwise requested in the proposal Abstract.

Guidelines on what to include in proposals

All proposals should include the VLBI proposal cover sheet (see below) and a text NOT EXCEEDING 2 SIDES. This should contain both a scientific and a technical justification for the resources requested. It should include a brief summary of any related EVN proposals which have already been observed or scheduled. Proposers should indicate if it is a resubmission of an earlier proposal. Up to 2 additional sides with diagrams may be included; the total, including cover sheet, should not exceed 6 sides.

Proposers should identify any individual antenna(s) whose inclusion is considered ESSENTIAL for achieving their goals
Only a limited amount of time is available at some antennas for joint observations with the EVN - these include MERLIN, ARECIBO and the DSN. A SPECIAL JUSTIFICATION is needed for requesting any of these facilities.
Except at 5cm, requests for use of the CAMBRIDGE antenna without MERLIN require additional scientific justification and will only be granted at the discretion of the Director, MERLIN/VLBI National Facility (UK).
Hartebeesthoek will not normally observe sources north of declination 30 dg

Phase-referencing observations

Observers are advised to find phase calibrators as close as possible to their target source and warned that at 18cm phase calibration is affected by the ionosphere which is still active after the recent solar maximum. The VLBA Calibrator Survey , which now has updated source positions from VLBA 'geodetic observations', may be useful here. For proposals where phase-referencing is essential, the calibrator source(s) should be specified.

Previous EVN Observations

Lists of previous observations have been compiled by Tiziana Venturi.

The VLBI Proposal Coversheet

The VLBI Proposal Coversheet must be used for all proposals.

The up-to-date version should be obtained via JIVE

Select a wavelength band
Select a recording format compatible with the requested correlator (select "VLBA" for VLBA-compatible MKIV modes)
For SPECTRAL LINE proposals, specify the exact observing frequencies and the (baseband) channel bandwidths
Select EVN antennas using the 2-character codes given in the EVN STATUS TABLE.
For EVN+MERLIN proposals, add "MERLIN" to the EVN antenna list
Specify the GST ranges for Asian antennas separately, if appropriate The scheduling program sched can be used to select appropiate ST ranges.
For selection of Processor (Correlator) see below

Correlation of EVN observations

Correlation of EVN projects at JIVE

The capacity of the EVN MkIV Data Processor at JIVE has been increased recently and its main limitation is in terms of data transfer. With a restriction that all visibility integration times must be 2s or longer, it is possible to have 2048 spectral points per baseline available with 8 second integration and 8 telescopes or less. This limitation scales linearly with integration time and quadratically with number of telescopes. For example, using 16 telescopes and 2 second integration time one can have 256 spectral points per baseline. It is hoped that this restriction will be relaxed by a factor or 2 or 4 before the start of session 2/2002. All EVN proposals are subject to a technical assessment by correlator staff, and any technical difficulties of correlation are discussed during EVN proposal review. See the update on the JIVE correlator capabilities or or email Huib van Langevelde (langevelde@jive.nl) for questions.

Correlation of EVN projects at Bonn

Limited time may be available for the correlation of EVN experiments at the Bonn Mk4 VLBI Correlator , but only by PRIOR arrangement with the MPIfR correlator staff. Suitable projects will be those for which the scientific advantage of using the MPIfR Correlator is given in the proposal, or those which include an MPIfR collaborator who wishes to have closer "hands-on" approach to the data flow. For details contact the Correlator Manager, Walter Alef, walef@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de or see the Bonn Mk4 Correlator Status Page .

Correlation of EVN projects in Socorro

For experiments which cannot yet be correlated at JIVE, the VLBA correlator in Socorro may be available for a limited number of "EVN-only" experiments. Proposers should submit such proposals to NRAO and the EVN. See the VLBA Observational Status Summary for correlator capabilities.

Correlation of Global VLBI Projects

Proposers of GLOBAL projects must use VLBA/MKIV-compatible recording modes. Either the VLBA correlator or the EVN correlator at JIVE may be explicitly requested for technical reasons, in which case the PI should make a case for the choice of correlator. The EVN Program Committee and the NRAO and EVN Schedulers will consider the correlator requested for each proposal submitted and assign one if no preference was given, also taking into account the load on the correlators, the logitisics of tape distribution and the proximity of the PI to the correlator.

Short Observations

"Short" observations (< 4 hours) may be proposed up to 6 weeks before an observing session begins, by means of a brief justification to the Chairman of the EVN PC, who will, at his discretion, authorise scheduling in any gaps in the session plan. They are intended to allow the EVN to respond to urgent "targets of opportunity", or to facilitate short, pilot observations, if needed in preparation for a full proposal. They can only be granted limited resources (number of telescopes, tapes, correlator time) and must use standard recording modes. They should not involve any special observing set-ups. The present EVNPC Chairman is: Simon Garrington, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Macclesfield SK11 9DL, UK. Tel +44 (0)1477 571321 Fax +44 (0)1477 571618 Email: stg@jb.man.ac.uk

Access to Proposal Information

Note that the following data from the proposal will be stored in machine- readable form: PI name and email, wavelength, observing mode, program title, requested telescopes, EVNPC rating. The data will be distributed to the EVN Scheduler, VLBA scheduler. For proposals supported under the IHP program "Access to Research Infrastructures", the title, author list, and amount of time granted (or a brief reason for rejection) will be made available to the EC in Brussels. Copies of all EVN+MERLIN proposals will be made available to the MERLIN TAC Chairman, together with the EVNPC rating. Coversheets of proposals requesting use of the VLBA correlator will be forwarded to NRAO for checking technical feasibility. Copies of proposals requesting ARECIBO will be forwarded to the Arecibo Observatory for technical review.

Further Information

Informal enquiries about technical feasibility of EVN or EVN+MERLIN projects may be directed to Michael Garrett (JIVE EVN Support Group, garrett@jive.nl)

Future EVN Calls for Proposals and other VLBI news can be received from the VLBI e-mail exploder. To subscribe, send the message "subscribe vlbi" in the body (not the subject line) of an e-mail to: Majordomo@zia.aoc.nrao.edu


Rolf Schwartz, EVN Scheduler, October 2001.

MPIfR, Auf dem Huegel 69,
D 53121 Bonn,
GERMANY