1. The Fermi Mission
Liz Hays
(NASA GSFC)
Fermi Symposium 2017

2. Overview Mission status Highlights from the teams
Catalogs and more catalogs!
Looking ahead
Fermi Symposium 2017

3. Observatory Status
Fermi continues to operate extremely smoothly and to perform at full capability
No consumables
No degradation of science performance
Most observations in sky survey mode
Occasional pointed observations for autonomous repoints and target of opportunity requests
Minimal down time for calibration activities
Fermi Symposium 2017

4. The Sky Is Busier Than Ever
LAT Target of Opportunity observations in past year
Flaring blazars (CTA 102) and MW campaigns (e.g. EHT campaign on M87)
Galactic Novae
Crab Nebula
2 gamma-ray binaries near periastron
IceCube neutrino events
Report campaigns that depend on Fermi coverage to guarantee consideration when planning observatory activities.
Fermi Symposium 2017

5. Two Binaries at Close Approach
PSR B yr orbital period
Periastron Sept. 22, 2018
PSR J ~50 yr orbital period
Periastron Nov. 13, 2018
S. Johnson et al. 1999
W. Ho et al. 2017
Fermi Symposium 2017

6. Neutrino Follow-up
Fermi-LAT reported an active gamma-ray blazar in the error region of an IceCube extremely high-energy neutrino, A
Comment on increasing automation but still maintain use of team members to follow up alerts and generate some communication
Fermi Symposium 2017

7. A Good “Problem” to Have
Exposure Strategy Example
Interleaved survey and pointed
Sky survey
Exposure (normalized to average)
Sky survey provides optimal monitoring of multiple objects of interest.
Fermi Symposium 2017

8. Communications Rapid science communications from teams
GCN
Gamma-ray Bursts
Bright flaring sources in LAT
Astronomer’s Telegram
Fermi News - subscribe at
Fermi Multiwavelength list - subscribe at
ASDC Interactive Tables
LAT GRBs:
LAT ATels:
Fermi Symposium 2017

9. Fermi Sky Monitoring Monitored Source List Lightcurves
Fermi All-sky Variability Analysis (FAVA)
Fermi Symposium 2017

10. Highlights from the LAT
Science Support Center reconfiguration
Process begun to transition some duties from LAT instrument operations at SLAC to the SSC
Plan includes overlap period to ensure smooth transition
Along with transition planning activities, making internal updates to the development and build process for LAT software
Greater emphasis on python will further enhance community development activities (e.g., open source fermiPy framework)
Fermi Symposium 2017

11. Fermi-GBM GRB Triggers
200 long GRB triggers per year -> Massive star collapse
40 short GRB triggers per year -> Compact mergers
GBM continues to be a prolific detector of bursts and other transient phenomena
>2180 triggered bursts to date. Will pass BATSE in a few years.
Fermi Symposium 2017

12. Highlights from the GBM
GBM Response Generator released
Hourly Continuous Time Tagged Event (CTTE) Files released
Currently from Sept. 7, Ultimately, all files from beginning of CTTE in Nov. 2012
Targeted and untargeted searches implemented to find subthreshold short GRB counterparts to GW events. Techniques also applied to neutrino events and Fast Radio Bursts.
Coming Soon: python-based replacement for Rmfit with an interface to XSPEC
Untriggered short GRB candidates are released to GCN. Candidates from older data:
Fermi Symposium 2017

13. Rich Menu of Catalogs: Recent Additions
6-yr Trigger Catalog (3FGBM)
8-yr Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes Catalog (submitted)
8-yr Trigger and Spectral Catalog (in preparation)
Extended Sources in the Galactic Plane (FGES)
Second Fermi All-sky Variability Analysis catalog (2FAV)
Third high-energy source catalog (3FHL)
2nd GRB catalog, extended source catalog (FHES), 4FGL and 4LAC in preparation
GBM
LAT
Coming Soon - 4FGL!
Fermi Symposium 2017

14. Senior Review Fermi science is very strong looking ahead.
New phenomena to pursue, new data products, new catalogs and the rich science that they enable, continued work to understand the instruments and their performance for deep observations
NASA Senior Review cycle changing from 2 year to 3 year cadence. Next Senior Review happens in 2019.
Fermi Symposium 2017

15. Fermi @ 10 Fermi is turning 10 next year!
Planning activities to highlight science results from the first 10 years at conferences and on social media
Next Fermi Symposium late Summer/early Fall 2018
Things you can do to celebrate 10 in 2018
Public Talks on your favorite Fermi Science
E.g. Astronomy on Tap
Outreach Events
E.g. Masterclass programs (hands-on data analysis for high school students)
Cake pic
Mention making graphical materials available for scientific and public use.
Fermi Symposium 2017

16. In Closing Fermi is set to continue well beyond 10 years
Watch for the release of new products and catalogs from the teams
(and don’t forget to take advantage of all the information and tools that are already out there)
Let us know if you have ideas for things that will make your science better
Get ready to celebrate 10
Fermi Symposium 2017