ESA Science & Technology - Announcement of Opportunity for observations within the COROT Additional Programme

This letter announces the first opportunity to submit proposals for observations within the COROT Additional Programme. Observations during the first two long runs (centred on HD 49933 and HD 181555) and various short runs (number not yet decided) can be subject of a proposal. Further AOs will be issued in due time for the second year of COROT.

The Corot Mission is described at http://corot.oamp.fr. Updated instrumental parameters and mission properties needed to reply to this AO are summarized in the Instrument Handbook at http://corotsol.obspm.fr/web-instrum/payload.param/overview.html.

The Additional Programme of COROT addresses any scientific case not included in the Core programme. The Core Programme is defined by seismology in the seismology field and planet search in the exoplanet field. It has two components:

1 -	150 day long observing runs (long runs) devoted to asteroseismology and planet search, called Central Programme.
2 -	short runs of about 20 to 30 days devoted to asteroseismology, called Exploratory Programme. The number of short runs dedicated to the Additional Programme will be approximately half of the total number of short runs.

1 -	data from the Core programme
2 -	data from specific windows in the seismology and exoplanet field during long runs
3 -	data from specific short runs

The Additional Programme is open to the astronomical community. Applicants of successful proposals will become COROT Guest Investigators (GI).

A very useful tool for preparing a proposal is Corotsky. It can be accessed through a common identifier and password, your input therefore will not be protected. COROT Guest Investigators will receive a personal identifier and password.

Scientists (including the Corot Co-Is) or groups requesting access to the Additional Programme within this Announcement of Opportunity need to submit their proposal via the webform at: http://ams.astro.univie.ac.at/space/corotAPWG_AO2005.html

before July 5, 2005, 24:00 UT

Responses to the AO will be examined by the COROT Scientific Committee (CSC). Authors of accepted proposals will become Guest Investigators and will have exclusive publication rights concerning their project during the proprietary period (1 year). The CSC is free to use data for other purposes than defined in the respective proposal.

The decision of the Science Consortium will be published not later than Sept. 10, 2005, and all applicants will be notified by mail.

For more information (not necessarily updated) see also:

COROT: asteroseismology and planet finding, 2002, Baglin A., Auvergne M., Barge P., Buey J.-T., Catala C., Michel E., Weiss W.W.and the COROT Team, in Proceedings of the First Eddington Workshop, ESA-SP, 485, p. 17, F. Favata, I.W. Roxburgh & D. Galadi eds.

Additional Science Potential for COROT, 2003, W. Weiss et al , in Proc. 2nd Eddington Workshop "Stellar Structure and Habitable Planet Finding", Palermo, 9-11 April 2003 (ESA SP-538, July 2003 , F. Favata and S. Aigrain eds.) available also at http://corot.astrsp-mrs.fr , select link to Scientific Working Groups.