Roman Core Community Survey White Papers
The primary goal of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is to maximize the scientific return from wide field near-infrared surveys. To this end, the Roman Space Telescope team has requested initial community input to be used to begin the community-led work of defining the observational strategies for Roman’s Core Community Surveys .
As one avenue for providing input, the Roman Mission will be requesting white papers, anticipated to be due in late spring 2023, describing science investigations that could be enabled by one of the Roman Core Community Surveys (CCSs). The aim of the Roman CCS white papers is to compile quantitative discussions of CCS science drivers and observation strategies, including what strategies will enable and optimize a given science investigation.
The responses will be used to provide a quantitative basis for the CCS definition committees, which will be composed of community members and charged with defining the CCSs, to begin exploring the impact of various trades in observational strategy on a CCS’s overall science return, and to identify areas where significant additional discussion with the community is needed. They will provide the Roman Mission, the CCS definition committees, and the astronomical community with a detailed understanding of the observational strategy space over which trades will need to be considered and consensus built.
Accordingly, authors of Roman CCS white papers should anticipate discussing (i) the importance of the science investigation with respect to addressing open questions in its field, (ii) how the capabilities of a Roman CCS will uniquely enable the investigation, (iii) the minimal and optimal observational strategies for enabling the science investigation, within the bounds imposed on the relevant CCS by its science requirements in cosmology or exoplanet demographics, and (iv) the impact of different observational strategy choices on the science investigation, expressed via appropriate metrics or figures of merit that the CCS definition committees can readily utilize. For each of the three CCSs, white papers discussing observational strategies to enable science investigations in all Roman science areas, including astrophysics, cosmology and exoplanets, are encouraged.
The second avenue for providing input is via short, one to two paragraph descriptions, or ‘pitches,’ describing science investigations that could be enabled by one of the Roman Core Community Surveys, combined with a questionnaire to obtain high-level input on the importance of various observational strategy choices for the success of the science investigation described in the pitch. These Roman CCS science pitches are requested by February 17, 2023. The science pitches and an analysis of the questionnaire responses will be made will be made generally available for other interested scientists, and an analysis of the questionnaire responses will be published, in late March 2023. The Roman Mission will use the results of the Roman CCS science pitches to encourage the submission of Roman CCS white papers and to enable collaborations of community members with similar science interests in composing more detailed white papers.
The Roman CCS white papers will be due several months after the science pitch deadline, in late spring, 2023. Additional details, including content prompts and suggested length, will be provided after the analysis of the submitted Roman CCS science pitches. A second call, announcing the opening of white paper submissions, will be made at that time.
Resources
For specific questions related to a submission, email both help@stsci.edu and roman-help@ipac.caltech.edu, with subject line: “Roman CCS community input.”
