NOAO Strategic Plan A Forward Look

November 2015

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The National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The Association for Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA) operates NOAO under cooperative agreement AST-1546092 with the NSF.

AURA is consortium of 40 US institutions and 4 international affiliates that operates world-class astronomical observatories. AURA’s role is to establish, nurture, and promote public observatories and facilities that advance innovative astronomical research. In addition, AURA is deeply committed to public and educational outreach, and to diversity throughout the astronomical and scientific workforce. AURA carries out its role through its astronomical facilities. .

The AURA Mission: to promote excellence in astronomical research by providing access to information about the universe

from state-of-the-art facilities, surveys, and archives.

Front Page: Located about 1,500 light-years from Earth, Pickering's Triangle is part of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant, which includes the famous Veil Nebula. The supernova explosion that produced the nebula occurred between 5,000 to 10,000 years ago; the entire shell stretches more than six full Moons in width across the sky. This image was obtained at the NOAO Kitt Peak National Observatory Nicholas U. Mayall 4-m telescope. Credit: T.A. Rector/University of Alaska Anchorage, H. Schweiker/WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF

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Table of Contents Message from the Director ......................................................................................... 4  Purpose ......................................................................................................................... 5  The Mission ................................................................................................................... 6  Key Competencies ....................................................................................................... 8  Strategic Initiatives .................................................................................................... 10  

Observational research infrastructure: To 2030 and beyond .................................... 11  U.S. OIR System Optimization .................................................................................. 12  Premier survey data products ................................................................................... 13  Data science tools and services ............................................................................... 14  LSST operations and community research support ................................................. 15  GSMT operations and community research support ................................................ 16  Beyond LSST and GSMT .......................................................................................... 17  Public engagement in the NOAO science enterprise ................................................ 18  

Infrastructure .............................................................................................................. 19  Partners ....................................................................................................................... 20  People .......................................................................................................................... 21  Values .......................................................................................................................... 22  

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Message from the Director Welcome to the NOAO strategic plan, a forward-looking vision for enabling excellence in optical and infrared (OIR) observational astronomical research by the U.S. community into the 2030s. For decades, NOAO has been a focal point for excellence by the entire U.S. community, thanks to continuous innovation in capabilities spanning most aspects of ground-based OIR astronomy. Based on this strategic plan, I believe NOAO will remain a focal point of excellence for decades into the future. This strategic plan is well aligned with our NSF mandated mission, purpose, and competencies. It positions NOAO to enable community-based scientific leadership in a broad range of modern topics in astronomy and astrophysics from the formation of our own Solar System to the interplay of gravity and dark energy over cosmic time.

Activities and initiatives planned into the early 2020s are consistent with projected funding levels. Funding for activities and initiatives planned for the mid-2020s and beyond depends on the outcome of near-term discussions with our federal sponsors and non-federal partners. This is a high-level plan. More details will be provided within upcoming NOAO annual and five-year plans. I look forward with excitement and enthusiasm to working with all our stakeholders, especially the community-based scientists we support, to bring this vision to fruition.

Forward NOAO! David Richard Silva Director National Optical Astronomy Observatory

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Purpose To serve as the U.S. national center for ground-based optical and infrared (OIR) astronomy; to operate and maintain OIR observational research facilities and related data systems; to coordinate and integrate observational, technical, and data-oriented capabilities available throughout the U.S. OIR System of federal and non-federal assets.

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The Mission Enable discovery in ground-based optical and infrared (OIR) astronomy. Open access: In pursuit of this mission, NOAO facilitates access for all qualified professional researchers to state-of-the-art observational facilities and data systems operated by NOAO as well as other federal and non-federal entities within the U.S. OIR System. This access enables the U.S. research community to address a broad range of forefront research questions from how our Solar System formed and evolved to the nature of dark matter and dark energy. U.S. OIR System gateway & coordinator: NOAO is the gateway for the U.S. astronomical community to the Gemini Observatory through the U.S. National Gemini Office (US-NGO). NOAO coordinates community access to telescopes throughout the U.S. OIR system, and it facilitates connecting the scientific user to data archives by developing and maintaining data management capabilities.

OIR community organizer: NOAO integrates community planning for future facilities and instrumentation projects under a national organization. Education, Public Outreach, Public Engagement: In partnership with the community and NSF, NOAO works with colleges and universities to train the next generation of scientists and engineers, and promotes accomplishments to strengthen education and public awareness of the astronomical sciences.

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Key Competencies Our Key Competencies differentiate NOAO as an FFRDC to undertake tasks that cannot be or are not carried out at universities, scientific institutions, and industry. NOAO and NSF cooperatively define these competencies to benefit the entire U.S. research community. National resource: provide a national science and technology resource in the field of optical and infrared astronomy. OIR community access gateway: deliver community access to a suite of high performance, high value, state of the art telescopes, instrumentation, and databases throughout the optical infrared system. Mountain infrastructure steward & operator: serve as stewards and operators of remote, mountain-based physical infrastructure necessary to enable high quality OIR research using facilities at locations specified by NSF, currently Kitt Peak, Arizona, and Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón, Chile. Data steward: serve as stewards of high quality scientific data on behalf of the community, through the operation, maintenance, enhancement, and curation of data archives and associated data services. Data provider: provide broadly based science ready data products to the community.

Technology development facilitator: facilitate system-wide technology development with project management and technical resources not available elsewhere. OIR System planner, developer, and manager: manage national community planning and development of potential future facility, instrumentation, data systems, and infrastructure projects in OIR-based science. National focus for collaboration: serve as the U.S. national entity to promote, implement, and sustain federal-nonfederal-international collaborations and partnerships in OIR astronomy. Scientific/technical training: serve as a national focus for scientific and technical training in the OIR system. EPO services provider: provide integrated education, training, and public outreach programs that utilize the knowledge and discoveries in the OIR system.

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Strategic Initiatives To fulfill our mission of scientific discovery, further develop competency in key areas, and enable community-based scientific excellence, NOAO has engaged in several strategic initiatives. Some focus on enabling scientific excellence before 2020, while others look towards 2030 and beyond. These strategic initiatives are:

•   Observational research infrastructure: To 2030 and beyond •   U.S. OIR System Optimization •   Premier survey data products •   Data science tools and services •   LSST operations and community research support •   GSMT operations and community research support •   Beyond LSST and GSMT •   Public engagement in the NOAO science enterprise

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Strategic initiative: Observational research infrastructure: To 2030 and beyond

Cerro Tololo, Cerro Pachón, Kitt Peak – these sites will remain viable for forefront observational research for decades into the future. Scientific leadership of the four capstone 4-m class facilities (Mayall 4-m and WIYN 3.5-m on Kitt Peak/Arizona, Blanco 4-m on Cerro Tololo/Chile, and SOAR 4.2-m on Cerro Pachón/Chile) will be maintained through innovative modernization programs developed in partnership with U.S. federal agencies (Department of Energy, NASA, NSF) and various international science collaborations they support. Today, the Blanco and Mayall facilities are engaged in DOE/NSF funded key programs to characterize dark energy, while the WIYN facility is engaged in a NASA/NSF funded key program to characterize exoplanets and their host stars. During the 2020s and early 2030s, all four facilities will have critical roles to play within the LSST observational research support and follow up system. Continuous maintenance and modernization of the underlying physical infrastructure enables the on-going scientific productivity of these mountain-based research parks for the 4-m class telescopes as well as a diverse constellation of smaller and larger aperture tenant federal and non-federal telescopes including Gemini South and LSST.

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Strategic initiative: U.S. OIR System Optimization

A 2015 National Research Council study report recommended to NSF that NOAO develop and administer new processes for telescope and data exchanges and community-wide capability planning. Acting in close concert with NSF and the U.S. community, NOAO will work with facility owners and operators throughout the U.S. OIR System to achieve these recommendations with the overarching goal of connecting the best minds via peer review with the facilities, capabilities, data products, and data services they need for scientific leadership, independent of who they are and where they work. Moreover, to maximize LSST science return, the report further recommended that NSF invest in various System structural improvements. Mindful of those latter recommendations, NOAO will invest in new and improved data science tools and services, as well as work more closely with our partner federal facilities in Chile during the LSST operations era.

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Strategic initiative: Premier survey data products

Images of more than 15,000 square degrees of the celestial sphere will be obtained by NOAO facilities by 2018, producing information for 100s of millions of astronomical objects, and leading to a rich database that can be mined by the entire community. By 2023, more than 30 million spectra of objects within the same area will be added to that database. The photometric and spectroscopic catalogs that result from these surveys will remain world-best for many years, especially in the Northern Hemisphere where LSST will not observe. The NOAO Science Archive will ingest and deliver these data products to the worldwide community to enable forefront research by both professional and citizen scientists. The NOAO Science Archive will also be capable of ingesting and serving survey data from non-NOAO projects as appropriate.

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Strategic initiative: Data science tools and services

Premier data products (see last Strategic Initiative) require premier data services. The NOAO Data Science Initiative framework will enable efficient access, exploration, visualization, and analysis in the era of Big Data within an NOAO computing cloud now and extensible to the commercial cloud later. Services are being built today for the exploration and exploitation of static catalogs as well as dynamic time-domain event streams. These services will enable research excellence now as well as help the community, especially students and early-career scientists, develop the data science expertise they will require during the LSST era of the 2020s and early 2030s. NOAO is working in close collaboration with experts and institutions throughout the astronomy, physics, and computing science spheres. Reuse of frameworks and services developed and deployed elsewhere will be central to this initiative in order to leverage activity within the broader data science community.

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Strategic initiative: LSST operations and community research support

During the 2020s, the transformative Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will be the flagship of the NSF OIR program. NOAO is a Founding Partner of the LSST Corporation and will remain closely engaged with LSST during its entire lifecycle. Today, NOAO is supporting efforts within the community to prepare to exploit LSST through the development of new data services, a national time-domain event broker service, and spectroscopic follow up capabilities and processes. During the LSST operations era in the 2020s and early 2030s, NOAO will have well-defined roles in both Arizona and Chile, as an operations partner supporting the production of nightly and annual data products and as a community nexus for LSST research and observational follow up using NOAO operated facilities and data systems as well as analogous capabilities throughout the U.S. OIR System.

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Strategic initiative: GSMT operations and community research support

Two U.S. led consortia seek to begin operation of 30-m class Giant Segmented Mirror Telescopes (GSMT) in the mid-2020s: the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). Along with LSST, these giant facilities will be tent poles for the U.S. OIR System. The future federal role in these facilities is as yet unclear. Federal engagement would create a number of strategic opportunities for NOAO consistent with our key competencies including enabling community access and engagement, providing U.S. research support services especially in the area of data management, hosting U.S. facing education and public outreach programs, and catalyzing consortia to develop, build, and deploy next generation focal plane systems.

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Strategic initiative: Beyond LSST and GSMT

The U.S. OIR observational research community in collaboration with its federal and non-federal sponsors is currently engaged in a bold program of facility and capability development for ultra-wide-field survey science with machines such as DESI and LSST as well as deep, narrow field science with machines such as GMT and TMT. But what comes next? Astronomy has a strong exploration component. History teaches us that each generation of facilities reveals new discovery space and points to new systems needed for future exploration. Given long lead times for technology development and capitalization, the time is now to start looking beyond LSST and GSMT, and NOAO is the natural leader for a community-wide discussion to create a roadmap for 2030 and beyond.

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Strategic initiative: Public engagement in the NOAO science enterprise

As a federal center, NOAO has a responsibility to engage the public in the excitement of our scientific endeavors, to inspire people today as well as to motivate and train the next generation of STEM workers critical to U.S. economic leadership. One key focus group consists of the tens of thousands of people who visit the NOAO mountain sites in Arizona and Chile each year. Another key focus group is under represented and economically disadvantaged students throughout Arizona. NOAO can also reach an international audience through effective Web services. Consistent with our data science research roles, developing data science oriented public engagement programs is a key goal looking forward, likely in collaboration with existing programs designed to engage with citizen scientists in all walks of life.

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Infrastructure NOAO is the steward for a large amount of research and operational infrastructure in Arizona and Chile. That infrastructure and its associated expertise are required by both NOAO and our many local tenants and more distant clients for cost-effective operations today. It also provides the foundation for continuous innovation and modernization into the future.

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Partners NOAO leadership is achieved through scientific and technical partnerships with U.S. Federal agencies, national centers, and universities as well as foreign institutions and multi-national projects. Building these partnerships is required to enable research excellence by a diverse user community that spans small university-based research teams to major multi-national science collaborations.

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People Every single one of our more than 250 employees in Arizona and Chile contributes to our success. A broad and diverse mission requires an equally broad and diverse work force that includes scientists, engineers, technicians, and specialists of all varieties. In turn, we are supported daily by an AURA corporate team that provides centralized business, regulatory compliance, and human resources services.

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Values All NOAO activities are conducted within a framework of shared values. Safety First The safety of our people and our visitors must come first in whatever we do. Excellence To achieve excellence, we must hold to our values as we seek opportunities for continued leadership. Science-driven Management Programmatic decisions are based first on maximizing science return on investment. Collaboration We are strongest when we seek and build science and technical collaborations with a broad range of partners with shared values.

Dialogue Understanding the evolving needs and aspirations of our federal partners and the research community we serve requires constant dialogue with a strong listening component. Transparency All our stakeholders, especially our employees must easily understand our motivations, objectives, and processes. Diversity A diverse workforce and research community shall produce the best and most competitive organization.

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Image Credits All images credit NOAO/AURA/NSF, except as follows: Page 5: Gemini North (Gemini Obs. / AURA); PN PuWe 1 (T.A. Rector, U. Alaska Anchorage & H. Schweicker, WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF) / Page 6: Gemini North (Gemini Obs. / AURA); Keck I & II (R. Wainscoat, U. Hawaii Manoa) / Page 7: HCG 07 (Dane Kleiner, Monash U.) / Page 9: M33 (Local Group Survey Team and T.A. Rector, see above) / Page 11: DECam focal plane (T. Abbott, NOAO/AURA/NSF) / Page 13: Wide-field image (LegacySurvey.org); DESI redshift cone (DESI Collaboration) / Page 14: SN 2011fe (P. Nugent, LBNL and Palomar Transient Factory) / Page 15: LSST survey simulation (LSSTPO/AURA/NSF); Cosmic web simulation (Millennium Simulation, V. Springel et al. 2005); LSST artist conception (T. Mason, Mason Productions Inc. and LSST Corporation) / Page 16: First Stars, Artist’s Conception (A. Schaller and AURA/STScI); Cosmic web simulation (NASA/ESA/E. Hallman U. Colorado Boulder); TMT rendering (TMT International Observatory); GMT rendering (GMTO Corporation); Adaptive optics simulation (P. McCarthy and GMTO Corporation) / Page 17: M35 (N. Sharp/NOAO/AURA/NSF) / Page 20: logo credit to individual institutions This document version 9 March 2016 (D10).

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