22 August 2024
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will devote a majority of the first five years of the mission to surveys that are being defined by the science community. This includes Roman’s Core Community Surveys, which serve to meet Roman’s mission-level science requirements for investigating the nature of dark energy and the fate of the universe, and the demographics of exoplanets. The surveys consist of the Galactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey (GBTDS), High Latitude Time-Domain Survey (HLTDS), and High Latitude Wide Area Survey (HLWAS). The primary goal for the definition of each of these is to maximize the science performed with Roman’s infrared surveys.
To define the details of each survey (e.g., field selection, filter selection and depth, observation cadence, etc.), a definition committee has been formed for each of the three Core Community Surveys composed of members of the community. The committee membership was selected to ensure that the breadth of interests of the scientific community in using Roman were well represented. The committees have been charged with assessing community input, investigating various observational strategies to maximize the science return of the surveys, and producing a recommendation for multiple survey options (such as a minimal, nominal, and optimal survey definition). The committees are expected to deliver a report summarizing the recommended survey options, including a discussion of the scientific tradeoffs, the time required, and the observational constraints of each option to the Roman Project at NASA Goddard by November 2024 for dissemination to the Roman Observations Time Allocation Committee (ROTAC). The ROTAC will review the input of the committees and make a recommendation to the Roman Project on the implementation of the surveys and the amount of time to be dedicated to each survey.
To get feedback and input on the survey options and strategies they are considering, each definition committee will hold two virtual town halls in late August / early September, to give a progress report and hear from the community. The times of the town halls aim at maximizing attendance over different time zones:
All town halls will take place over WebEx, using the same meeting link: