prepublication copy - The Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics ...

above. Increasing scale and complexity of astronomical machinery brings increasing operations and
development needs.
Within AST, approximately 56 percent of resources are spent on current facility operations while
10 percent is spent on instrumentation and 7 percent on future facilities and advanced technology
development. 23 percent is spent on individual investigator grants in support of research, according to
information provided by the survey’s infrastructure study groups. Within facilities funding,
approximately 61 percent goes to national and university-based radio, 33 percent to national and
university-based optical, and 6 percent to solar telescopes. In the committee's view (see below) this
allocation of resources is unbalanced: existing facilities are not being exploited efficiently because not
enough is invested in modern instrumentation and in supporting the investigators who produce the science
from these facilities and, furthermore, not enough is invested in the future through advanced technology
development. Unless the budget increases, the only way to render balance is to close operating facilities
and the mechanism for doing this is Senior Reviews.
CONCLUSION: Maintaining an appropriate balance in NSF’s astronomy and astrophysics
research portfolio and, by extension, balance in the health and scientific effectiveness of the
NSF facilities requires a vigorous periodic senior review.
Senior reviews are major endeavors and should not be undertaken lightly. They should be seen as
good stewardship of the NSF program.
RECOMMENDATION: NSF-Astronomy should complete its next senior review before the
mid-decade independent review that is recommended elsewhere in this report, so as to
determine which, if any, facilities NSF-AST should cease to support in order to release
funds for (1) the construction and ongoing operation of new telescopes and instruments, and
(2) the science analysis needed to capitalize on the results from existing and future facilities.
FIGURE 6‐6. Magnified view of solar convective and magnetic structures. Left panel: Computer
simulation of convection on the Solar surface, together with emergent magnetic fields (twisted
structure surrounding each granule). Right panel: Adaptive optics image of solar convection using a
current Solar telescope. White threads map out the emergent magnetic field surrounding each
granule. ATST will have sufficient spatial resolution to test these simulations against Solar data.
Credit (right): Kiepenheuer‐Institut für Sonnenphysik, Vacuum Tower Telescope.
PREPUBLICATION COPY—SUBJECT TO FURTHER EDITORIAL CORRECTION
6-7