Herschel
Space Observatory

In this issue

1. New NHSC Helpdesk
2. Far-Infrared Community Workshop
3. Second Announcement: ALMA/Herschel Archival Workshop
4. Conferences and workshops of interest to Herschel users

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1. New NHSC Helpdesk

The NHSC Helpdesk has been upgraded to a more fully-featured and secure version.

Now you can enter your Herschel question on the front page without having to register your email address first. We have not carried over our old database of tickets nor our previous list of users. Please feel free to submit a ticket or to register anytime.

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2. Far-Infrared Community Workshop, 2 - 5 June 2015, Pasadena

Dear Colleague,

NASA is seeking input from the science community that will culminate in a
decision to support studies of three or four large missions to prepare for
the next Decadal Survey in Astrophysics. A white paper released by NASA's
Astrophysics Division (http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/documents/ )
lists four candidate missions, including a "Far-Infrared Surveyor"
mission. This mission is listed because it was recommended in the
Astrophysics Roadmap, "Enduring Quests, Daring Visions," which you can
find on the same web site. The community now has an opportunity to comment
on the candidate missions and to recommend additions to or deletions from
the initial candidate list.

Community input will be provided to NASA's Astrophysics Subcommittee
through its three Program Analysis Groups (PAGs). The Far-IR Science
Interest Group (http://cor.gsfc.nasa.gov/sigs/sig1.php ) comprises all
interested members of the community and reports to the Cosmic Origins PAG
(COPAG).

The Far-IR Science Interest Group will hold the next workshop in a long
series of such meetings on the Caltech campus in Pasadena from 2 - 5 June,
2015. This workshop will follow up on discussions held during the May 2014
workshop "Bringing Fundamental Astrophysical Processes Into Focus: A
Community Workshop to Plan the Future of Far-Infrared Space Astrophysics"
(http://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/conferences/FIR/ ). The purpose of the June 2015
workshop is to prepare a community response to the NASA white paper.
Coherent community support for the "Far-Infrared Surveyor" mission is the
best way to ensure that the mission will be selected for study and
technology investment in the years leading up to the Decadal Survey.
Workshop participants will develop the science rationale for the "Far-IR
Surveyor" and decide which mission architecture best provides the
essential measurement capabilities at an affordable cost. Examples of
architectures under consideration are a direct detection cryo-cooled
interferometer, a cryo-cooled single aperture telescope, and a passively
cooled single aperture telescope. In preliminary discussions, a consensus
has emerged that by "affordable" we mean approximately $1 - 2B. A mission
in this cost range could enter development in the latter half of the next
decade if it is prioritized in the Decadal Survey.

You are cordially invited to participate in defining the "Far-IR Surveyor"
mission. Please hold the dates 2  5 June and stay tuned for further
information about the community workshop.

Sincerely,

Dave Leisawitz and Paul Goldsmith
Far-IR Science Interest Group Co-Chairs

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3. Second Announcement: ALMA/Herschel Archival Workshop, ESO-Garching, April 15-17, 2015

This is the second announcement for the "ALMA/Herschel Archival Workshop", jointly organised by ESO and ESA, to be held at ESO-Garching, on April 15-17, 2015. 

If you are interested in the joint exploitation of Herschel and ALMA archival data or plan to use Herschel data for the preparation of your upcoming ALMA Cycle 3 proposals, this workshop will give you practical information on how to do that for your science research. The workshop will include science talks describing projects that have already successfully combined both types of data (or plan to do that) with examples covering all major astronomy fields that will serve you as a reference for your own science case. 

If you want to share your own experience (or plans) at the workshop you are invited to contribute with a talk or a poster describing your practical case.
Abstract submission deadline for oral presentations and posters is 15 March 2015.

For all other participants the registration is still open until 31 March 2015.

Detailed information is available on our website:
http://www.eso.org/sci/meetings/2015/AlmaHerschel2015.html

The ALMA/Herschel Archival Workshop Organising Committee
almaherschel2015@eso.org

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4. Conferences and workshops of interest to Herschel users

• ALMA/Herschel Archival Workshop , April 15-17, 2015, ESO-Garching, Germany.
• Far-Infrared Community Workshop, June 2-5, 2015, Pasadena, California.
• From interstellar clouds to star-forming galaxies: Universal processes? , August 3-7, 2015, IAU Symposium 315, Honolulu, Hawaii.
• The Legacy of Planck, August 11-3, 2015, IAU General Assembly Focus Meeting #5, Honolulu, Hawaii.