This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This project involves the renovation of the cyberinfrastructure at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. The Lowell Observatory's assets are distributed across three separate mesas or hilltops. The proposal is to enhance the telecommunications connections between them, by deploying long distance microwave network links between the sites, and to renovate the data center at the Observatory's main campus.
Lowell Observatory's telescopes are used for studies of small objects in the solar system, including comets and the Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) that orbit the Sun beyond Neptune. The Observatory's new Discovery Channel Telescope will allow a more comprehensive survey of KBOs than has ever been done. Researchers conduct studies of selected asteroids. The Observatory's facilities are also used for studies of the planet-forming disks of dust and gas around very young stars, studies aimed at resolving the persistent differences in competing theories relating stellar masses and brightness, research on binary stars, solar astronomy, the search for and study of extrasolar planets, star clusters within the Milky Way galaxy, and dwarf galaxies.
In addition to providing infrastructure for research, the Observatory provides public education programs. Since 1996, several of the Observatory's astronomers have carried out a semester-long mentoring program in middle schools on the nearby Navajo and Hopi reservations. Through a partnership with Discovery Communications, the Observatory is building the Discovery Channel Telescope. The Discovery Channel's programming about the telescope and its science will is anticipated to reach hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide and will be a source of information about the cosmos for the general public.
NSF Project ARI-R2 #0963078 Jeffrey C. Hall, PI About the Project In 2010, NSF provided Lowell Observatory with $277,000 to upgrade its IT infrastructure. The grant allowed Lowell to perform two projects: Remodel and modernize the Observatory’s datacenter, which previously suffered from far too little space. Install a high-speed microwave network between Lowell’s main campus on Mars Hill near Flagstaff, AZ, and its two dark-sky research sites, 10 and 40 miles from Flagstaff. Outcomes All infrastructure was successfully in place by late 2012, and the result was a substantially improved intranet and connection to the Internet that enhanced the Observatory’s ability to perform its two-pronged mission of conducting research as well as bringing the results of its research to the general public. The Datacenter The Observatory’s central computer services were formerly located in a narrow space partitioned from a larger room. There was not enough space for the increasing number of components and racks required to support the Observatory’s IT, and thermal issues were becoming increasingly bad due to the confined space. The ARI grant enabled a major expansion of this area to the entire available room, including a thermally stable area for several large racks of equipment as well as work space for the IT staff. See Image 1 for a picture of the new datacenter. Anderson Mesa Research Station Lowell owns several research telescopes at its dark-sky site at Anderson Mesa, which has been established since 1960 under a special use permit from the U. S. Forest Service. Lowell also operates the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer for the U. S. Naval Observatory, a facility that allows high-precision measurements of stellar positions; such measurements support the accuracy of the U. S. GPS and intelligence and reconnaissance satellite fleets. Prior to the ARI grant, this site was served by a very inadequate T1 line. Today, the high-speed 100 Mbps microwave enables transfer of the large data volume from the site much more effectively, and has increased the uptime and robustness of the connection from Mars Hill. Happy Jack Research Station In 2004, Lowell established another USFS special use permit area 40 miles from Flagstaff near the Happy Jack Ranger Station, and in 2012 celebrated the completion of the 4.3-meter, $53M Discovery Channel Telescope. During construction of the telescope, the only Internet connection was a satellite link, barely adequate for communication during construction and wholly inadequate for routine operation. With the microwave network in place, key capabilities are now enabled. These include: Research and observing: observers can use the telescope through remote control interfaces to the instrument software with little to no latency. This is convenient for Lowell staff and will make an enormous difference for our institutional partners from Boston University, the University of Maryland, and the University of Toledo, obviating the need for them to travel all the way to Flagstaff for observing. Transfer of large images to or from the site (18-36 MB each) is a routine and helpful capability. STEM education: Live streaming events with our partners from Discovery Communications have been carried out to large audiences. For example, iIn 2013, a webcast from the observing floor of the telescope with Discovery Education staff reached tens of thousands of K-12 students across the nation in schools of the Discovery Education network. Outreach on Mars Hill: A live all-sky camera image from the DCT site is now broadcast continuously in the lobby of Lowell’s Steele Visitor Center, giving our 80,000+ visitors each year a "live from the DCT" view and allowing our educators to talk with our guests about how modern astronomical observing is carried out. See Image 2 for a picture of the Discovery Channel Telescope; the microwave antenna is visible on the non-rotating part of the dome at lower right. Summary The new datacenter and network are now integral components of Lowell Observatory’s information technology systems. They meet all requirements initially identified, and enable a number of research and outreach efforts that would not be possible in their absence. Lowell thanks NSF, it Office of International and Integrative Activities, and ARI Program Officer Dr. Stephen Meacham for their support and assistance throughout this project.
