SOFIA is pleased to invite proposals for Cycle 9 observations, with a deadline of September 4, 2020, 21:00 PDT (September 5, 2020, 4:00 UTC). Detailed information about the Cycle 9 calls can be found on our website.

Two Calls for Proposals are offered:

• A call for regular programs, for which approximately 400 hours of observations will be offered and funding up to $4M is expected to be available for eligible proposers
• A call for the SOFIA Legacy Program, which enables programs producing a rich archival dataset of significant scientific value to the astronomical community. Up to four legacy proposals will be accepted, with each allocated up to ~200 hours of observing time (~100 hours of observations per cycle). Funding is expected to be available at the level of $2M per year.

All six instruments — EXES, FIFI-LS, FORCAST, FPI+, GREAT, and HAWC+ — will be available during the Cycle. SOFIA plans to offer two Southern deployments: a long deployment from late July through mid-September 2021 offering GREAT and HAWC+, and a short deployment in March 2022 offering FIFI-LS. Formal updates to the calls will be provided on July 17, 2020.

Proposals are to be submitted through the USPOT tool. The Help Desk is open to answer any question and inquiry from the community: [email protected]. In August, several proposal tools webinars will be held, where participants will learn how to use SOFIA’s tools to submit proposals through guided examples with the chance to ask questions live. Dates are still TBD, and will be announced on our workshops page and through our e-newsletter. Slides from the webinar and associated video tutorials for the 2019 proposal tool webinar are available here.