ESA Science & Technology - INTEGRAL Announcement of Opportunity for Key Programme Observing Proposals for the AO-5 Cycle of Observations

The gamma-ray observatory INTEGRAL is the second medium-sized mission of ESA's Horizon 2000 Science Programme. It was launched on a Proton rocket on 17 October 2002 and offers astronomers a unique opportunity to perform high resolution spectroscopy in the energy range from 15 keV to 10 MeV (Imager IBIS). Concurrent monitoring of high energy sources is performed by the co-aligned monitors in the 3 keV to 35 keV X-ray band (X-ray Monitor JEM-X) and in the optical wavelengths (V, 500-600 nm) by the Optical Monitoring Camera OMC.

An INTEGRAL key programme (KP) is a scientific investigation which requires a significant fraction of the total observing time (of the order of 1Ms or more) in order to achieve its scientific objectives. Examples are ultra-deep observations of nucleosynthesis emission and/or diffuse gamma-ray emission (line and continuum), or studies of faint extragalactic sources.

This Announcement solicits proposals for KP observations only, to be carried out in the period from August 2007 to August 2008 during the timeframe of the AO-5 cycle of observations.

Proposers from all over the world are welcome to participate. All proposals will be subject to an independent peer review by the INTEGRAL Time Allocation Committee (TAC). Potential proposers are expected to prepare and submit proposals in electronic form by the deadline given below using the INTEGRAL Proposal Generation Tool software which will be made available online at:

http://integral.esac.esa.int/

The key milestones for this Announcement are:

I wish you success with your proposals to use the INTEGRAL observatory.

Yours sincerely,

David Southwood
Director of the ESA Scientific Programme