Science Instrument Pipeline Requirements SSSC 2009 September 29

1. Science Instrument Pipeline RequirementsSSSC 2009 September 29 Erick Young Director SOFIA Science Mission Operations

2. Background • There was a clear distinction in the level of support between Facility Class Instruments and PI Class Instruments • FSI teams were developing basic data processing pipelines which then were integrated into the Data Cycle System • FORCAST • FLITECAM • HAWC • Software to be delivered to Science Support Center as a “black box” to run in the DCS • An important limitation was that FORCAST and FLITECAM software did not include GRISM support • FIFI LS pipeline development under the EOOP grant in proceeding along similar lines but calibration was included in the scope • full calibration of data for a limited number of modes (need to define) • Other instruments were not required to deliver pipelines to the Science Support Center but to support Guest Investigators directly.

3. SMOR - II • The Science Mission Operations Review–II was organized in 2007 to assess the readiness of SOFIA to begin operations. • Chaired by Gary Melnick • Members included people familiar with data processing of large and small NASA projects, aircraft operations, and interfacing with the science community • Formal review in Palmdale in February 2008 • Recommendations were made to NASA and generally accepted. • USRA has been asked to develop plans for implementing key recommendations.

4. Key SMOR-II Recommendations • Processing Requirements • Data products must be usable to general astronomers and not just to those expert in the instruments • Flux Calibration • Positional Reconstruction • Standard data formats and annotation of observations • Specialized tools as needed • Support for PI-class and German Instruments • In the SMOR-II recommendations: “…the current requirement that allows a lower level of support to users of PI-class instruments must be eliminated in favor of a uniform standard that applies to both U.S. and German Facility- and PI-class instruments.”

5. Key SMOR-II Recommendations, cont’d • Importance of User Support • User Support should have greater prominence in the organization. • Support in preparing approved observations is required • Access to the Archive • Accessing the SOFIA data archive should be straightforward. • Important ancillary data (such as water vapor levels) should be included and available in the archive • Uniform standards need to be set for documentation of the instruments

6. Actions taken so far • FIFI LS is covered under the NASA funded Extend Observing Opportunity Program (EOOP) • Pipeline software is being developed by a team at the University of California Berkeley that will become part of the DCS • We have begun work on developing detailed plans to provide uniform pipelines for FORCAST, FLITECAM, and HAWC. • We have begun resource estimates for the development of new pipelines for CASIMIR, EXES, and possibly HIPO • These plans are detailed but still in development. In particular, they have not been vetted by NASA. • Note that GREAT does not have a NASA-funded EOOP program.

7. Tom Stephens will describe the path forward.