DRAFT Minutes of the
FGST/GLAST International Finance Committee Meeting
27 - 28 February 2009
The International Finance Committee met Hiroshima University.
In Attendance:
Members:
Chair – Steve Kahn
France – IN2P3: Stavros Katsanevas
France – CEA: Ursula Bassler and Philippe Chomaz
Italy – ASI: Elisabetta Cavazutti
Japan – Hiroshima: Takashi Ohsugi
Sweden – KTH: Per Carlson
USA – DOE: Kathy Turner
USA – Stanford: Peter Michelson
Staff:
NASA: Julie McEnery, Steve Ritz
SLAC: Rob Cameron, Eduardo do Couto e Silva, Richard Dubois, Nicola Omedei, Regina Franco, Harvey Lynch
Minutes 27 – 28 February 2009
Opening – S. Kahn
Steve thanked the people of Hiroshima University for their hospitality for this meeting of the IFC.
The minutes of the meeting of 22 September 2008 were approved without change.
Mission Status – S. Ritz
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/2_09/IFC-MissionRitz-2009March-v1.pdf
The LAT is working very well. The Silicon strips that are the heart of the LAT were made in Japan, and they are spectacular.
The first year science timeline is shown on p. 4 of the presentation, and we are on track. The LAT is in full-sky survey mode, and has been running for 6 months now. In this mode, the full sky is mapped every 3 hours. The sensitivity equivalent to the whole EGRET mission was reached in just a few days of operation.
A “Bright Source” list has been published.
The “core tools” have been released to the public; see p. 17.
Steve will be moving from NASA to UCSC, and Julie McEnery will assume his role at NASA.
The IFC was delighted to hear that the LAT is working so well.
The Cycle 2 set of guest investigator proposals are due 6 March 2009.
LAT Science and Collaboration Status – P. Michelson
The LAT has been performing exceptionally well. Page 8 of the presentation lists the 9 science groups and their coordinators. These groups are functioning well. The overall science objectives are summarized on p. 10. In the first three months of operation the LAT has assembled a list of 205 bright gamma-ray sources. In the same time frame 34 pulsars have been identified and measured. Also, 4 gamma-ray bursts have been observed.
In summary:
· Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope fully operational..
· In first few days of sky survey, the LAT corroborated many of the great discoveries of EGRET; now finding new sources as well;
· With 3 months of the 1st year all-sky survey phase;
o large number of pulsars detected, some only in γ-rays;
o many flaring active galaxies observed; about half not seen by EGRET;
o Flaring sources observed along the galactic plane;
o High-energy emission seen from 3 Gamma Ray Bursts; first time seen from short-duration burst;
o Quiescent sun detected at high energies;
o Major progress in understanding galactic diffuse emission
· With time, Fermi will probe deeper and deeper into the high-energy Universe
LAT Analysis Coordinator’s Report – N. Omodei
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/2_09/090228_IFC_3.ppt
The science groups are functioning well, and we are obtaining high quality science results from the LAT. The science groups provide the fora so that the whole collaboration can work together on many different topics. The science groups are active in the areas of Galactic sources, Sources in the solar system, Calibration and analysis, Catalogue, Dark Matter and New Physics, Gamma-ray Bursts, Blazars and other AGN, Galactic diffuse and molecular clouds.
Numerous publications have already been released, both as journal papers and also “Astronomer’s Telegrams”; see pp. 22 and 32 of the presentation.
In summary,
· The instrument is working beautifully
· The preparation for data analysis with pre-launch simulations has paid off
· The sky is cooperating, and we are getting our science and resulting papers out faster than we had expected.
ISOC Status – R. Cameron
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/2_09/Cameron-ISOC-IFC27feb2009-v3.ppt
All LAT flight operations are proceeding very smoothly. The operations include routine data taking, daily monitoring of the health and safety of the instrument. In addition there have been 8 autonomous re-points of the observatory initiated by gammy ray bursts. We have made 2 LAT flight software upgrades and 3 LAT configuration upgrades.
The LAT hardware configurations are stable, and on-orbit calibrations have been executed. Data processing performs very well. The efficiency of data collection has been very high. There will be a need to rearrange the shift coverage, because it is somewhat unbalanced geographically at this time.
Some anomalies have arisen but are under control; see p. 6.
Collaboration Computing – R. Dubois
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/2_09/IFC200902-SAS-v00.ppt
The first three pages of the presentation summarize the resources available and used in the recent past and the immediate future. There will be a need for more storage (disk and tape) as well as computing cores, and these are in the budget.
FGST is making improvements in the software to reduce storage demands by means of more efficient background reduction. A projection of resource needs is shown on pp. 14 et seq.
There was a discussion by Steve Kahn of the SCCS support of the FGST in the future, in the context of BaBar ramping down. We are certainly ok for 2009. Historically, BaBar has been by the far the largest user of computing resources, and it supplied much of the support for the scientific computing of interest here. In the next few years, BaBar will reduce its needs, but on the other hand, LSST will increase its needs. Potentially, LCLS could become a major user of computing resources, but LCLS/BES have not given much thought to the issue. The DOE wants to reassess the infrastructure in 2010, and DOE has the functional responsibility for FGST. We shall discuss this further at the next IFC meeting.
OCF Budget – P. Michelson
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/2_09/IFC%20Budget%20and%20Shares_Jan09.pdf
Peter summarized the budget situation. For CY 2008, there was an under-run of about $168 k. He showed the projection for CY 2009, which folds in the under-run from CY 2007 and 2008. Page 3 of the presentation shows the proposed CY 2010 budget, with a comparison to 2008 and 2009.
Proposed share costs for each agency are shown on p. 4. The per-share cost is $5270. These figures take into account the small head counts for Germany, Australia, and the UK, for which no contribution is asked.
The IFC accepted the proposed increases to the CY 2009 budget to support travel for the computing coordinator and increased publications costs. The resulting charges to individual member agencies were noted and approved. The IFC approved adopting travel by the computing coordinator as a new ongoing category of expenses covered by the OCF.
Round Table – All
Philippe: CEA is delighted to hear of the excellent performance of the FGST. We shall support the continuing analysis.
Per: Sweden has a program for gamma ray bursts. Our finances for 2009 are ok, but there may be a problem in 2010. Sweden does not use the Euro, and our currency has weakened with respect to the Euro by about 20%. This causes problems.
Stavros: We share the enthusiasm regarding the physics of FGST, and we shall continue support.
Elisabetta: Benedetto D’ettorre was not able to attend this meeting and sends his regrets. The budget for 2009 is secure and not a problem. ASI has an active community, and there is interest in increased participation in FGST.
Takashi: The budget for 2009 is good, but 2010 is not known at this time. We are, however, optimistic.
Steve R.: Ilana was not able to come and sends her regrets. NASA very strongly supports the FGST.
Kathy: The DOE is very excited by the rapid turn-on and the great science of FGST. FY 2008 was a bad year for budgets. It appears that 2009 will be a better year for science, and HEP will receive an increase. There will also be money for infrastructure. Budgets for 2010 and 2011 are being developed, and the new administration is putting more emphasis on science.
Steve K: SLAC is changing rapidly, but FGST is not greatly affected by those changes. The Lab’s highest priority is to supporting on-going experiments. We have a vigorous astrophysics program, and the success of the FGST is crucial to that program.
Next Meeting – All
The next meeting will be held in the Washington, DC area, close to the time of the Fermi Symposium in early November 2009. The exact date will be communicated later by email.