Federal Funding of Astronomical Research (2000)
Chapter: A: Discipline and Field Categories
A
Discipline and Field Categories
Since one of the main requirements of this study was to track the health of the various subfields and subdisciplines in astronomy, it was necessary to define classification categories (see Table A.1 ). These are of necessity broad and general and have proven to be useful for the committee's studies of grants, publications, and research personnel. “Discipline” refers to the primary activity of a grant, individual investigator, or publication; for example, papers primarily describing new optical observations would be classified as OO, papers describing a purely phenomenological analysis of data would be classified as theory (TH), and so forth. “Field” refers to the area of study, such as the Sun, Earth's planetary system, star formation, cosmology, and so on. A paper on optical observations of the Sun would be classified as OO/SO (solar). Any such analysis of either individuals or grants, and sometimes publications, is at some level subjective since individuals, for example, often work in more than one discipline and in more than one field.
Note that the discipline category observational infrared (OI) covers part of the wavelength region traditionally considered infrared astronomy, 1 to 3 microns. The split was made this way in part to distinguish between observations requiring space or airborne platforms and those usually done from ground-based telescopes and in part because near-IR (NIR) observations and instrumentation are now closer to optical in nature than far-IR (FIR). Even this split is not optimal because longer-wavelength observations can be done from the ground in some transparent bands, and optical and NIR observations are done in space with the HST. Observational radio (OR) also extends to wavelengths as short as 350 microns if done from the ground. Since different people categorized publications and AAS members and since it is generally easier to classify a single publication rather than the body of work that might pertain to an individual, slight differences exist in these classifications. Ground-based NIR-related publications were classified as OO, while space-based NIR-related publications were classified as OI.
TABLE A.1 Disciplines and Fields
|
Discipline |
Field |
||
|
OR |
Observational radio or SMM |
PL |
Planetary |
|
OI |
Observational IR (3 microns+) |
SO |
Solar |
|
OO |
Observational optical/IR |
ST |
Stellar |
|
OU |
Observational UV |
IM |
ISM+the Galaxy |
|
OH |
Observational HEA |
GA |
Galaxies+clusters |
|
EP |
Experimental particles and fields |
AG |
Active galactic nuclei |
|
EA |
Laboratory strophysics |
SF |
Star and planet formation |
|
TH |
Theory |
IN |
Instrumentation |
|
AE |
Aeronomy or atmospheric science |
CO |
Cosmology |
|
AM |
Amateur or historian |
FM |
Fundamental experimental |
|
AD |
Administration |
NA |
Not applicable |
|
NOTE: Acronyms are defined in Appendix H. |
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