Cycle 4 Flare Month

As announced in the Cycle 4 Proposal Call, DKIST has planned one month of on-sun time for flare observing made available outside of the regular observing time allocation process. This “flare month” is now scheduled for September 10 - October 9, 2026. All data acquired within that dedicated time will be made public immediately after calibration by the DKIST Data Center.

During that dedicated time, the intent is to perform coordinated observations with space- and ground-based observatories who indicated such interest in a survey made available through the Cycle 4 Proposal Call.

To assure that the coordinated observations are scientifically optimized and to the benefit of the community while well aligned with science objectives and goals of all the coordinating assets, we will be forming a community DKIST Flare Working Group. To that end and given the comparatively short development time frame, we would proceed as follows.

Step 1: a set of flare research topics and their respective observing programs will be identified, developed and prototyped by DKIST science operations, building on the experience gained with flare observations within Cycles 1-4. This should be completed by end of April 2026.

Step 2: we will initiate a broader community involvement by requesting additional input on the priority science goals for these flare programs, compatible with the DKIST's capabilities as announced for the current Cycle (i.e. Cycle 4 Proposal Call). The path to provide this information is through a survey/questionnaire. The form will include a question about willingness to join a Flare Working Group. The form should be published by May 1, 2026, with a deadline for submission of May 31, 2026.

Step 3: based on the expressions of interest, the Flare Working Group will be formed. Membership may be limited, to maximize efficiency in view of the very short time frame of the development schedule for the 2026 Flare Month. DKIST scientific staff membership on the working group will be balanced, but remains crucial to guide development of observing programs given the existing technical limitations and constraints. This step will be completed by June 10, 2026.

Step 4: the Flare Working Group will then be charged with analyzing the submissions, finalizing the preliminary design, and recommending the best observing strategy fulfilling the most and/or highest prioritized science cases, while representing the interests of the broader community and being compliant with DKIST capabilities and constraints. This step should be completed by end of July 2026. This will ensure sufficient time for experiment generation and testing before the start of the Flare Month.

Following the experience acquired during the Flare Month, flare observing programs are expected to evolve based on community involvement and collaboration through either requested feed-back to the community at large and/or through the Flare Working Group. Experience gained from the flare-month test will then be folded into the development of community-driven Standard Observatory Time.

If you have any questions, please contact the DKIST Help Desk.