Attendance:

Notes by:

• Workshop updates
• STM + Report format

Dear XXX

Thanks for agreeing to lead the YYY working group during Foregrounds workshop in San Diego. As promised, here are some thoughts to keep in mind in order to ensure we achieve the goals of the workshop.

As you know, NASA is funding this workshop as part of the ongoing study of the Probe of Inflation and Cosmic Origins (PICO) space mission. The science goals of PICO, as well those of other projects planned for the next decade, including CMB-S4, pose new challenges in foreground modeling and component separation. A final report to NASA on the PICO mission study is due in December 2018.

A goal for the working groups is to establish what can be demonstrated in terms of foreground modeling and component separation over the full sky within the next 6-8 months. These results will be included in the final PICO report. We would like to identify a plan forward including action items. We hope the talks will clearly establish where we currently stand and provide a good starting point.

A second goal is to look further ahead and attempt to establish a plan forward for projects that have a longer time scale for implementation, including a future space mission.

As the working group leader you are not expected to define the plan but to keep the two time scales in mind, and to ensure the discussion addresses the workshop goals. These goals should also be your guidance in terms of the presentation on Friday morning.

Please let us know if you have any comments or questions.

Thanks so much