These are heady times for solar astronomers, with the Solar Dynamics Observatory launching from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Tuesday and accelerated funding for the world's biggest ground-based solar telescope announced last month.
These are perilous times for solar astronomy in Tucson, which has hosted the world's largest solar telescope - the iconic McMath-Pierce - on Kitt Peak since 1962.
That telescope could close as its operator, the National Solar Observatory, takes on the new monster: the 14-story-high Advanced Technology Solar Telescope on Haleakala Peak, on Hawaii's Maui Island.
Other programs run by the national observatory will have to find new sources of funding as the solar telescope claims the lion's share of the outfit's $12 million budget.
Some members of the observatory's scientific and support staff, now based in Tucson and New Mexico, will relocate to Maui, where it will take about 40 people to run the new telescope. The rest of the observatory staff, about 70 people, will consolidate in new headquarters, based at whatever university offers the best deal for hosting it. The University of Arizona is putting together a proposal to host the National Solar Observatory, but it faces stiff competition from universities in New Mexico, Colorado and California.
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"I am very concerned about the potential of relocating NSO outside the University of Arizona. It would be a huge loss to astronomy in Tucson," said Mark Giampapa, the solar observatory's deputy director.
About 70 scientists and support staffers from the national observatory work in Tucson, at Kitt Peak and in offices on the UA campus. It shares a North Cherry Avenue building with its parent organization, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory.
Both observatories were created to provide access to telescopes based on the merit of scientific proposals rather than affiliation with a particular university or institute. The National Science Foundation will drop support for McMath-Pierce and for the Dunn Telescope in New Mexico as the new telescope is built.
The pace is accelerating with the January announcement of a $298 million award from the National Science Foundation to build and equip the telescope, with an immediate $146 million coming from federal stimulus funds.
Construction, which still awaits approval from the state of Hawaii, is expected to start this year and finish by 2017.
The Arizona and New Mexico observatories will operate in the interim, but no new equipment will be installed, Giampapa said. He hopes that partners can be found to operate the observatories, but the possibility of moth-balling or dismantling them is real.
The UA might offer to continue operating McMath-Pierce as part of its proposal to host the National Solar Observatory, said Joe Giacalone, an associate professor of solar and heliospheric physics at the UA's Lunar and Planetary Lab.
The UA is still waiting for a solicitation, expected to come next month, but it's one of several universities that already have expressed interest. A consortium that includes New Mexico State University in Las Cruces also is interested. "My view is simple," UA President Robert Shelton said. "The UA would be a superb location for the headquarters."
Shelton responded by e-mail from Chile, where he was attending a board meeting of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, which operates astronomical facilities under contract to the National Science Foundation and is the organization that will issue a solicitation for proposals.
That action is expected "within the next month," Giampapa said.
One requirement, according to the National Solar Observatory's long-range plan, is that any university seeking to host the headquarters have a strong program in solar astronomy or a commitment to creating one.
Other potential sites, such as Boulder, Colo., already are tied to the next generation of solar-astronomy programs.
The University of Colorado at Boulder built instruments for the Solar Dynamics Observatory and will be analyzing its data after its expected Tuesday launch.
The Boulder-based High Altitude Observatory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research is a partner in the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope that will be the mainstay of the National Solar Observatory's programs in the future.
The UA has world-class expertise in astronomy, mirror- and instrument-building, and planetary exploration, but it hasn't had a particular strength in solar astronomy. Giacalone said UA's commitment to beefing up its solar programs within the Lunar and Planetary Lab will be a selling point.
"We're offering, basically, to the solar physics community and the nation another place to do solar physics," Giacalone said. "We have lots of resources here, a long history of commitment to telescope work, spacecraft missions, a lot of strength here. We have a commitment to doing this."
Giampapa said, "The question becomes, 'Do you want to augment a strong program or contribute to building a new program?' "
Contact reporter Tom Beal at 573-4158 or tbeal@azstarnet.com
