›Scientific Opportunities For new Instrumentation, Asilomar 2010

One of the great advantages of SOFIA is that the instrumentation can take advantage of new technologies and new thinking, and a strong instrumentation program will be important for the future success of the observatory. To identify science opportunities that would be enabled by a new generation of instruments, and in anticipation of an expected NASA Announcement of Opportunity (AO), the SOFIA Science Mission Operations will be sponsoring a workshop to explore the new investigations that might be made possible in the next few years.

The Workshop will provide a venue for interaction and collaboration between theorists, observers and instrument developers to:

• Review the most important scientific questions addressable through IR and sub-millimeter observations, particularly as they pertain to SOFIA in a 3-7 year range.
• Identify the most urgently needed new instruments required for those observations.
• Highlight technology advancements that can lead to powerful new instrumentation in the near term.
• Discuss unique, synergetic observing programs between SOFIA and other existing and near-term observatory facilities from both space and the ground.