1. Introduction to the Astronomer’s Proposal Tool (APT)
Bill Blair & Deepashri Thatte
STScI/INS Staff
Feb. 17, 2017
INS Training Presentation

2. Useful Links APT web page http://apt.stsci.edu
APT contains helpful “What’s New” and “Getting Started” links for HST and JWST at the upper right in the GUI.
Training Materials (much applies to APT in general; some HST only)
Proposal Instructions (defines legal values for parameters)
(HST PhII)
(JWST)
User-facing documentation for JWST
(Some published; much still in preparation)

3. Astronomer's Proposal Tool (APT)
Observers have the responsibility of creating and submitting proposals that are accurate, feasible, and schedulable.
The computer software used to schedule and execute observations can only interpret the proposal information if it is in the proper format.
The Astronomer's Proposal Tool (APT) allows users to construct, validate and submit proposals for the Hubble Space Telescope and will also be used for James Webb Space Telescope proposals.
First released in Current version (released January 26th 2017, for HST Cycle 25 Phase I and JWST testing)

4. APT, continued
Really a collection of tools with a GUI interface to the user/proposer
The intent is for the GUI interface itself to be as self-explanatory as possible, although some contextual help is available
When entering into the tool, a pull-down menu allows one to access the HST branch or the JWST branch
HST-APT has two modes that correspond with the two-phase proposal process.
Focus of Ph I is to make the case for the science to be done
Phase II (details of observations) only done for accepted proposals
BIG time and effort saver for proposers!
The JWST branch has been developed to be consistent with the single-phase (single-stream) proposal approach.
Observation templates: designed to make it more straightforward to enter full observation specs in the initial submission
Intent is to speed up the processing of accepted proposals and get observations into the schedule faster
Will ultimately include significantly more contextual help and linkage to relevant documentation.

5. HST-APT Specifics
Phase I mode: very simple user specification of proposed observations. (Almost no details in APT, although descriptive text provided by the proposer needs to justify the orbit request.)
Phase II mode: detailed observation specs are entered and the Orbit Planner and Visit Planner are run to verify the orbit-by-orbit layout to match the orbit allocation.
Proposers typically have a month to submit their Phase II files after acceptance.
Guide Star availability assessment is performed after Phase II submission. (Part of post-submission process and assessments; NOT part of APT per se.)
Often interventions by the PCs or Instrument Scientists and/or iterations with the proposer on details of the Phase II files are needed.
It takes 6 – 8 weeks after the Phase II deadline to get the majority of new proposals ready for Long Range Planning (and ultimately Short Term Scheduling).

6. JWST-APT Specifics Observation Template strategy
Once an instrument and observing mode (or template) are selected, the specific parameters that need to be specified for that mode are presented to the user.
Intent is to make it straightforward for users to specify complete observations in the initial submission.
Schedulability (including Guide Star availability) assessments are performed prior to the initial submission by running the Visit Planner within APT.
Observations that are confirmed by the Visit Planner are thus known to be schedulable.
Accepted proposals can thus flow more directly into scheduling activities.
Many fewer interventions by the PCs or Instrument Scientists and/or iterations with the proposer on details should be needed.
It may take 2 – 4 weeks after proposals are accepted to get the majority of new proposals ready for Long Range Planning (and ultimately Short Term Scheduling).

7. APT Resource Accounting
HST:
User requests an integral number of orbits.
TAC panels allocate time to proposals in orbits.
JWST:
Operations are event-driven.
User specifies exposure parameters that provide the necessary S/N for their science requirements.
APT calculates the total science exposure time being requested in the requested observations.
APT applies a set of rules and assumed overhead times to calculate the overheads required.
APT reports the science and total resource estimates as wall-clock time (including overhead) for consideration by the TAC panels.
TAC Panels recommend a total amount of wall-clock time to support a proposal.
(In both cases, the STScI Director must approve final allocations.)

8. Basic APT GUI Top Tool Bar Active GUI Window Tree Editor
Combination of Top Tool Bas selection and Tree Editor selection controls what shows up in the Active GUI Window.

9. Basic APT GUI -- II Annotated snapshot of GUI features:

10. APT Major Tools – JWST version

11. Form Editor
Click here to see errors and warnings

12. Adding targets to the proposal

13. Creating an Observation – HST Ph I
Phase I: Only high level summary information needs to be specified, and a total number of orbits for each.

14. Creating an Observation – HST Ph II
Phase II: Details for each filter & observation now need to be specified!

15. HST Orbit planner output
Readouts
Parallels
(Trick: Hover over blue exposure bar
for a pop-up with exp. details!)

16. Creating an Observation - JWST
Click here to see errors and warnings

17. View in Aladin
More Aladin training materials on the training materials web page

18. Adding Special Requirements
Example: Grouping Observations

19. Visit Planner Example - I
Grouped observations 1, 2 and 3
Schedulable time

20. Visit Planner Example - II
Right-click on observation or visit opens a pull down with diagnostic help.

21. Visit Planner GS Diagnostic Plot
(Trick: Hover cursor over green line for a pop-up with problem visit IDs and the angle info.)
This example indicates there are 72 visits in this large mosaic, but all of the tiles cannot get guide stars simultaneously (65 out of 72 is the best one can do if the orientation is fixed at about 0 degrees).

22. Adding PA Range Special Requirement
Note: Range of “0” to “0” allowed, but it fixes the mosaic in a small window of time.
Special Requirements

23. Mosaic Viewed in Aladin, PA=0 confirmed

24. Target Confirmation Charts
Verify that you entered correct RA and DEC

25. Hands-on APT Demo (Supporting slides follow- some slides are repeated)

26. Exposure parameters required by APT Subarray, Readout pattern, NGROUPS, NINT
For NIRISS AMI subarray is SUB80,
Readout pattern is NISRAPID (one frame per group)
ngroups: number of groups in an integration
GROUP
NINT: number of integrations in an exposure
frame
EXPOSURE: The end result of one or more INTEGRATIONS over a finite period of time. EXPOSURE defines the contents of a single FITS file
INTEGRATION
EXPOSURE (one or more integrations)
Figure adapted from JWST Mission Operations Concept Document JWST-OPS Revision E 2014

27. Exposure parameters required by APT Subarray, Readout pattern, NGROUPS, NINT
For NIRISS AMI subarray is SUB80 (FULL also available)
Readout pattern is NISRAPID (one frame per group)
signal
GROUP = FRAME for NISRAPID
with TFRAME = sec
time
INTEGRATION
EXPOSURE (one or more integrations)

28. NIRISS AMI Exposure AMI exposure with SUB80, NISRAPID NGROUPS = 5
For NIRISS AMI subarray is SUB80 (FULL also available)
Readout pattern is NISRAPID (one frame per group)
AMI exposure with SUB80, NISRAPID NGROUPS = 5
NINT = 4
signal
Photon collect duration = NGROUPS x NINT x TFRAME = 5 x 4 x sec
NGROUPS = 5
time
INTEGRATION 1
INTEGRATION 2
INTEGRATION 3
INTEGRATION 4
EXPOSURE with NGROUPS=5, NINT=4

29. Dummy JWST proposal in APT
This is a dummy proposal and uses dummy values for exposure parameters, some of the target coordinates and acquisition fluxes.
Instrument: NIRISS
Template: NIRISS Aperture Masking Interferometry
Title: Long wavelength follow-up of planets found by ground-
based observatories.
Targets: - HD , HD , HD (Use ‘Fixed Target
Resolver’ and SIMBAD to add these targets)
- REFSTAR1 (Use ‘New Fixed Target’ and enter
coordinates , )
Acq Fluxes (micro-Jy): 1.47 e6, 1.52e6, 2.34e5, 1e7
Subarray: SUB80
Readout Pattern: NISRAPID
Title, Targets adapted from NIRISS SODRM program 3051

30. Dummy JWST proposal in APT
This is a dummy proposal and uses dummy values for exposure parameters, some of the target coordinates and acquisition fluxes.
Observations
Targets
HD231776
Observation 1
HD229863
Observation 2
HD215904
Observation 3
REFSTAR1
Observation 4
Filters
NGROUPS
NINT
F480M 47 55 45
298 54 27
F430M 34 66 33
218 64 19 67
F380M 18 83 80
118 79 10 85
Create a Special Requirement to group observations 1, 2, 3 and 4 and choose options
Non-interruptible, Exclusive Use of Instrument.
Create Target Confirmation Charts, run Visit Planner, view one of the observations with
Aladin, look at the PDF Preview
Title, Targets adapted from NIRISS SODRM program 3051

31. Dummy JWST proposal in APT
This is a dummy proposal and uses dummy values for exposure parameters, some of the target coordinates and acquisition fluxes. .
Find the meaning of Non-interruptible and Exclusive use of instrument special requirements using JWST Proposal Instructions.
Do you think the observations are schedulable? Are the coordinates correct for all targets?

32. Adding targets to the proposal

33. Create Observation – step 1
Click on Observations in the tree editor, then click on ‘New Observation Folder’.

34. Create Observation – step 2

35. Create Observation – step 3
Select Instrument: NIRISS
Select Template: Aperture Masking
Interferometry
Select Target

36. Create Observation – step 4
Start here to add details about the observation.
Populate Filter, NGROUPS, NINT fields

37. View details of a visit in an observation
Click on the pull-down arrow for an observation, then click on the visit.
Visit is created by APT and uses single guide star.
Dithers within 80” fit in a single visit.

38. View in Aladin
More Aladin training materials on the training materials web page

39. Adding Special Requirements
Group Observations

40. Visit Planner Example - I
Grouped observations 1, 2 and 3
Schedulable time