26 July 2023
NSF’s NOIRLab, in partnership with NSF and NASA, is happy to announce the workshop Windows on the Universe: Establishing the Infrastructure for a Collaborative Multi-messenger Ecosystem. This workshop will be hosted at the Westward Look Wyndham Grand Resort & Spa in Tucson, Arizona, on 16 – 18 October 2023.
The goals of this workshop are to identify pathways that increase the coordination of Multi-messenger Astronomy (MMA) observation campaigns and reduce operational redundancy across the network of ground- and space-based observatories. We invite the community to review the current state of resources for MMA, report on existing collaborations and partnerships, and identify potential obstacles to success. More details can be found on the workshop webpage. Registration for the workshop is free (link here). The deadline for in-person registration and contributed talk abstract submission is 1 September 2023.
Prior to this workshop, the organizers would also like to solicit science and infrastructure ideas from the community. These papers (one-page limit) can review the current state of follow-up resources, report on existing collaborations and partnerships, identify potential obstacles to success, and/or make recommendations to address the workshop goals. Further instructions can be found at this link. The deadline for submission is 8 September 2023. Finally, the main outcome of this workshop will be a community-driven white paper to guide planning by NSF, NASA, and NOIRLab to facilitate infrastructure for a collaborative MMA ecosystem.
This workshop is the second in a series inspired by the Astro2020 Decadal report’s recommendation that “In space, the highest-priority sustaining activity is a space-based time-domain and multi-messenger program of small and medium-scale missions’’ and that “The survey also strongly endorses investments in technology development for advanced gravitational wave interferometers, both to upgrade NSF’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), and to prepare for the next large facility.” It follows NASA’s Time Domain and Multi-Messenger (TDAMM) Astrophysics workshop held in August 2022, which produced a white paper available here.