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Friday, January 29, 2010

NSF: National Solar Observatory -- the World's Largest Solar Telescope

The Advanced Technology Solar Telescope will be the world's flagship facility for the study of magnetic phenomena in the solar atmosphere.
Provided by NSO, Sunspot, New Mexico

Double prominences. SOHO/ESA/NASA [View Larger Image]January 22, 2010
The National Science Foundation has awarded a $298 million cooperative support agreement to the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) to build the 4-meter Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST).

"I want to congratulate everyone who has helped make this happen," said Stephen L. Keil, director of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) and AURA's principal investigator for ATST. "It should be an exciting next several years as we bring ATST to reality."

ATST will be the largest and most capable solar telescope. No comparable facility exists or is planned. ATST will be the world's flagship facility for the study of magnetic phenomena in the solar atmosphere and will be the first large, ground-based, open-access solar telescope in the United States in more than 40 years.

"This is an exciting opportunity for the NSO to lead the community," said William Smith, president of AURA. "We look forward to achieving a first-rate, cutting-edge facility."

ATST is to be built atop Haleakala, Maui, Hawaii, pending completion of a Conservation District Use Agreement and other permits. Haleakala was selected after considering 72 sites and then narrowing those down to six for additional consideration through on-site testing. Of those six sites, only the Haleakala site met all of ATST's requirements — the least atmospheric blurring, the most annual hours of low sky brightness, the lowest dust levels, and the smallest temperature extremes. The site is next to the existing Mees Solar Observatory that is owned and operated by the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy, a principal partner in the project.

Understanding the role of magnetic fields in the outer regions of the Sun is crucial to understanding the solar dynamo, solar variability, and solar activity, including flares and mass ejections, which can significantly affect life on Earth. ATST research will investigate solar variability and its impact on terrestrial climate — the conditions responsible for solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and other activities that can impact terrestrial communications and power systems, disrupt satellite communications, and endanger astronauts and air travelers.

ATST's 4-meter primary mirror will feed an advanced array of instruments designed to study the Sun in light ranging from near ultraviolet (350 nm) into the far infrared (28,000 nm, or 28 microns). High-order adaptive optics, pioneered by the NSO and its partners at NSO's Dunn Solar Telescope at Sunspot, New Mexico, will correct blurring of solar images caused by Earth's atmosphere, thus allowing ATST to observe features in the solar atmosphere with unprecedented sharpness, down to structures only a few tens of kilometers in size.

ATST will observe both on the bright solar disk and in the ultra-faint corona. ATST will accurately measure magnetic fields in the ultra-faint corona, which is only a few parts in a million as bright as the solar disk.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

IT Roadmap Chicago, March 16, 2010, Donald E. Stephens Convention Center

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Tuesday, January 12, 2010

"Top 10 Telecom Forecasts for 2010"

"Top 10 Telecom Forecasts for 2010"
January 12, 2010





Top 10 Telecom Forecasts for 2010

Download the Forecast for Free!

Information Gatekeepers Inc. (IGI) has just announced the availability of its forecasts for 2010. Every year, Clif Holliday, author of IGI’s Lightwave report series, prepares his view of the most significant events likely to underpin telecommunications for the coming year. While Clif likes to take a somewhat lighthearted approach to this forecast (its title is “Holliday’s Holiday Horoscope,”) his accuracy has been exceptional! He is one of the few New Year’s prognosticators who always precedes his new forecast with a review of the accuracy of last year’s forecast. This gives the reader a sense of how much creditability to put in the forecasts for the coming year.
We are also offering you a similar opportunity to comment on the upcoming 2010 forecasts. Click here to download the Top 10 Telecom Forecasts for 2010 now.
“This year we have some very significant forecasts that could signal the change in many fundamental aspects of our telecommunications business, particularly in regards to Overbuild by major RBOCs. There are important implications in these forecasts to the traditional telephony carriers, the cable TV companies and the equipment manufacturers. We think there is something of significance in them for everybody concerned with telecommunications,” declared Dr. Paul Polishuk, President of IGI.
Mr. Holliday’s highly anticipated forecast is currently available on IGI’s website, in addition to various new Lightwave reports, newsletters, and conferences. The latest being the “Next Generation Carrier’s Network” and the Transformation Series and our comprehensive series of Advanced Access Architecture Reports including Cost, Equipment, Overbuild Strategies, and Bandwidth Requirements, and our just announced series of ROADM reports including “ROADMs from the Core to the Edge” and “Edge R-OADM Revolution.”
IGI is certain that its clients and readers will find these forecasts both fun and of tremendous value. Clif’s accuracy the last few years has been well above 75% in these efforts, so they may be more than just a pleasant diversion, but rather a powerful set of forecasts for 2010.

For more information regarding these forecasts please visit IGI's website or contact IGI below.

Dr. Hui Pan
Information Gatekeepers Inc.
1340 Soldiers Field Road, Suite 2
Boston, MA 02135
Tel: 617-782-5033
Fax: 617-782-5735
hpan@igigroup.com