SOFIA Community Task Force Workshop I:
Early Science Opportunities with SOFIA

MONDAY 7 January 2008, at the 211th Meeting of the AAS in Austin, TX
(NOTE that this is before the AAS opening reception Monday evening.)

By Robert D. Gehrz, U. Minnesota
Leader, SOFIA Community Task Force (SCTF)

The first of a series of NASA Stratospheric Observatory for Astronomy
(SOFIA) Workshops will be held at the 211th Meeting of the AAS in
Austin, TX on Monday, January 7, 2008 from 1 to 5 PM. This Workshop is
organized by the SOFIA Community Task Force (SCTF), whose objectives
are to inform and engage the astronomical community in planning for
the SOFIA General Observer (GO) science program, and to develop a
long-range science plan that will realize the potential of SOFIA as as
a premier observatory and as a platform for developing forefront
technology.

There will be a description of the state of the SOFIA Project and a
charge to several working groups that will meet in splinter sessions to
consider the early SOFIA general observer (GO) science plan. The
working groups will discuss, revise, and update the scientific cases
associated with the SOFIA Mission. Following the splinter sessions, a
plenary session will be held to summarize working group findings and to
charge the working groups with providing input to a SOFIA Science
Opportunities Document. The working groups will be assigned tasks
required to produce this document following the workshop. Their
products will be reviewed and revised at the "SOFIA Community Task
Force AAS Workshop II" to be held at the 212th AAS Meeting in St.
Louis, Missouri in June, 2008.

Everyone is welcome. This is your chance to help define the ways that
SOFIA will best serve the science community. We specifically encourage
attendance by astronomers who have never had airborne astronomy
experience, theoreticians, and the large new community of astronomers
doing infrared astronomy with the Spitzer Space Telescope. Refreshments
will be provided. For more information, contact Robert D. Gehrz, SCTF
Leader, Department of Astronomy, School of Physics and Astronomy, 116
Church St., SE, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, phone:
(612) 624-7806, e-mail: gehrz@astro.umn.edu.

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) began its
post-modification test flight series on April 26, 2007 in Waco, Texas.
Erik Lindbergh joined NASA in Waco on May 21 to re-dedicate the plane
"Clipper Lindbergh" in honor of his grandfather, pioneering aviator
Charles A. Lindbergh. The plane was originally dedicated by Anne Morrow
Lindbergh. SOFIA is now undergoing further testing and flight
integration at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force
Base, California. It is expected to begin science demonstration flights
with the initial instrument complement in early 2009.  The current
status of the SOFIA Project and the SOFIA science case are summarized
in powerpoint presentations that may be viewed at:
http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Science/speakers/powerpoint.html.