par Erik Rosolowsky (U Alberta), Joan Wrobel (NRAO)
(Cassiopeia – l’automne 2023)
Recommendations from the U.S. decadal survey Astro2020. Full science operations for the ngVLA would begin in the 2030s. The ngVLA would advance all three of the priority scientific areas identified by Astro2020. Credit: National Academy of Sciences
ngVLA Funded to Enter the MREFC Review Process
In July, the U.S. National Science Foundation approved the ngVLA project for entry into the Major Research Equipment & Facilities Construction (MREFC) review process. MREFC queue entry is not a commitment to construct the ngVLA, but does signal strong scientific and technical promise, and growing project readiness. Three MREFC reviews (Conceptual, Preliminary, Final) will be completed over the coming years. Those reviews will provide the Foundation with the critical information needed to consider adding ngVLA construction to a budget request later this decade. This would pave the way to begin full ngVLA science operations in the 2030s, as recommended by the U.S. decadal survey Astro2020.
In September, the Foundation released funds to continue the project’s design efforts through 2026. That the ngVLA has been funded to enter the MREFC queue is a testament to the research community’s strong support for the project. The ngVLA project is very grateful for that support!
Special Session: Space Weather on Other Worlds
The NRAO and the ngVLA project will convene a Special Session titled « Space Weather on Other Worlds » in January 2024 at the American Astronomical Society meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
The session will highlight recent scientific breakthroughs in characterizing space weather on other worlds with current facilities; describe planned near- and long-term improvements for ground- and space-based facilities; discuss major scientific leaps likely to result from next-generation facilities across the electromagnetic spectrum; and review the highest-priority themes in this area for the state-of-the-art observatories to be commissioned in the next decade.
Invited presentations by Bin Chen (NJIT), Lia Corrales (University of Michigan), Cynthia Froning (Southwest Research Institute), Melodie Kao (University of California, Santa Cruz), Sebastian Pineda (University of Colorado), and Jackie Villadsen (Bucknell College) will be featured. Contributed iPoster presentations are welcomed. Abstracts are due September 29, 2023.