Observe
Like MERLIN, e-MERLIN is a common user instrument and open to proposals from the entire worldwide astronomical community. Proposals are competitively peer-reviewed under standard STFC rules by the PATT e-MERLIN Time allocation Committee. During the first 5 semesters of e-MERLIN operations ~50% of observing time has been allocated to 11 large legacy projects, the remaining time will be allocated via PATT to standard proposals solicited each prior to each observing semester
The web-based proposal tool NorthStar has been successfully used for MERLIN and EVN proposals and it is intended that it will also be adopted for the submission of e-MERLIN proposals. Invitations for proposals for shared-risk observations within the commissioning period are likely to be circulated in early 2010. By this time links to the NorthStar e-MERLIN portal will appear on this page.
Please consult the status regularly for updates and revisions of the e-MERLIN delivery timeline.
Invitations for proposals will be distributed twice per year and submitted proposals will be subject to peer review via a PATT e-MERLIN Time Allocation Committee (Phase 1). Successful proposals will then be subject to a second pass in which full observing details will be verified (Phase 2). By default e-MERLIN observations are dynamically scheduled by the operations team. Following the completion of the scheduled observations, the user is invited to attend the e-MERLIN Visitors Suite housed in the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics where full face-to-face support is available to assist the user in the processing of their data to final astronomical images.
