This summary serves both the community and the operations team. Sometimes a PI will request observation time on more than one platform, or with a ground station. Since the observation cycles of each platform are different and in general independent, it is the responsibility of the PI to note that a co-ordinated observation is required. Then, it becomes necessary to communicate with other schedulers. Usually, an e-mail conveys the list of common targets and a general schedule is discussed.
Email has low overhead and fast response time.
The primary disadvantage, of course, is that it is ultimately people-based. We need to get this network back on track. The primary considerations for a short term schedule are time-critical requests, unofficial time critical requests, bright earth, and star tracker. After the short term schedule is made, some post processing of the file to be distributed takes place. The latest e-mail address and institute name of the PI are added for the convenience of the contact scientist.