ESA’s Planetary Science Archive, updates since last year!

Abstract With new missions being selected, missions moving to post-operations, and missions starting their journey to various targets in the Solar System, the European Space Agency&#8217;s Planetary Science Archive [1] (http://psa.esa.int) (PSA) is in constant evolution to support the needs of the projects and of the scientific community. What happened since last year? The past year has been good for the European Space Agency (ESA) Solar System missions and the PSA, with the successful flyby of Earth by the BepiColombo mission to Mercury. The ExoMars 2016 mission is performing nominally and is quickly delivering numerous scientific observations. As is common for ESA missions, access to the data is protected and reserved to members of the science team for the first months of the mission. Once the products are ready to go public, the PSA performs a scientific peer-review to ensure that the products to be made public are of excellent quality for all future users. During the first half of 2020, the PSA has successfully peer-reviewed the CaSSIS and NOMAD observations. Those products are now being made public on a systematic basis once the proprietary period elapses (generally between 6 and 12 months). Early in 2020, filters to search data with geometrical values (i.e., longitude, phase angle, slant distance, etc.) were enabled. For now this service works for Mars Express and Rosetta, but will be soon extended to other missions. One of the main new services provided to the scientific community in 2020 is the Guest Storage Facility (GSF), which allows users to archive derived products. Products such as geological maps, Digital Terrains Models, new calibrated files, and others can be stored in the GSF in the format most used by the users. Contact us to preserve your science! Finally, by the end of 2020 users of the PSA will have access to new services based on Geographical Information Systems. You can contribute to the PSA! At the PSA we constantly interact with our users to ensure that our services are in line with the expectations and needs of the community. We encourage feedback from community scientists through: <ul> <li>PSA Users Group: A group of scientific experts advising the PSA on strategic development;</li> <li>Direct interactions: Scientists from the PSA are available and eager to receive your comments and suggestions;</li> <li>ESA missions: If you are part of a mission archiving its data at the PSA, tell us how your data should best be searched and used.</li> </ul> Acknowledgement The authors are very grateful to all the people who have contributed over the last 17 years to ESA's Planetary Science Archive. We are also thankful to ESA&#8217;s teams who are operating the missions and to the instrument science teams who are generating and delivering scientific calibrated products to the archive. References [1] Besse, S. et al. (2017) Planetary and Space Science, 10.1016/j.pss.2017.07.013, ESA's Planetary Science Archive: Preserve and present reliable scientific data sets.

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ESA’s Planetary Science Archive efforts to support the scientific community

10.5194/epsc2021-18 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sébastien Besse ◽

Isa Barbarisi ◽

Guido de Marchi ◽

Bruno Merin ◽

Javier Arenas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Scientific Community ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Planetary Science ◽

Scientific Data ◽

Geographical Information ◽

Storage Facility ◽

The Moon ◽

Mars Express ◽

Geometrical Information ◽

Comet 67P

Introduction:&#160; With new missions being selected, missions moving to post-operations, and missions starting their journey to various targets in the Solar System, the European Space Agency&#8217;s Planetary Science Archive [1] (http://psa.esa.int) (PSA) is in constant evolution to support the needs of the projects and of the scientific community. Geometry as a key input for users:&#160; While analysing the various services that the PSA already offers, geometrical information was lacking in many ways. Feedback received by the users and the PSA User Group pointed to improvements in this area.&#160; During the past years, the PSA structured its internal architecture to provide excellent services to the community. Through external partnership, we developed the GEOmetry GENerator that allows a consistent way of deriving geometrical information. This input provides a solid foundation to develop Geographical Information System (GIS) services into the PSA. At the end of 2020, the PSA released its 3D and 2D interfaces for Mars Express and Rosetta, providing a new generation of geometrical services. Although currently focused on Mars and comet 67P/C-G, our architecture enables a rapid growth to support in particular BepiColombo and JUICE. High level products through the Guest Storage Facility: One of the other new service provided to the scientific community recently is the Guest Storage Facility (GSF), which allows users to store derived products. Products such as geological maps, Digital Terrain Models, new calibrated files, and others can be stored in the GSF in the format most used by the users. The philosophy of the GSF service is to impose minimum requirements on the data producers, while delivering maximum usability to the end users. Various products related to Titan and Mars are available in the GSF. Products related to the Moon, comet 67P/C-G and other targets are in preparation. Contact us to preserve your science!&#160; Interact with the PSA and expect more in the years to come: The PSA aims to build on the previous development to further enrich its services. New GIS interfaces related to Phobos, the Moon and Mars are in development to facilitate the searching capabilities on those targets. In parallel to those major developments, new functionalities will be developed to support ESA missions, in particular ExoMars, Mars Express, and BepiColombo. At the PSA we constantly interact with our users to ensure that our services are in line with the expectations and needs of the community (despite massive disruptions in 2019 and 2020). We encourage feedback from community scientists through: <ul class="ul1"> <li class="li3">PSA Users Group: A group of scientific experts advising the PSA on strategic development;</li> <li class="li3">Direct interactions: Scientists from the PSA are available and eager to receive your comments and suggestions;</li> <li class="li3">ESA missions: If you are part of a mission archiving its data at the PSA, tell us how your data should best be searched and used.</li> </ul> Acknowledgments: The authors are very grateful to all the people who have contributed over the last 18 years to ESA's Planetary Science Archive. We are also thankful to ESA&#8217;s teams who are operating the missions and to the instrument science teams who are generating and delivering scientific calibrated products to the archive. References: [1] Besse, S. et al. (2017) Planetary and Space Science, 10.1016/j.pss.2017.07.013, ESA's Planetary Science Archive: Preserve and present reliable scientific data sets.

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Participation of women scientists in ESA solar system missions: a historical trend

Advances in Geosciences ◽

10.5194/adgeo-53-169-2020 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 53 ◽

pp. 169-182

Author(s):

Arianna Piccialli ◽

Julie A. Rathbun ◽

Anny-Chantal Levasseur-Regourd ◽

Anni Määttänen ◽

Anna Milillo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar System ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Women Scientists ◽

Planetary Science ◽

Gender Inequalities ◽

Team Members ◽

Space Agency ◽

Participation Of Women ◽

International Astronomical ◽

Female Scientists

Abstract. We analyzed the participation of women scientists in 10 ESA (European Space Agency) Solar System missions over a period of 38 years. Being part of a spacecraft mission science team can be considered a proxy to measure the “success” in the field. Participation of women in PI (Principal Investigators) teams varied between 4 % and 25 %, with several missions with no women as PI. The percentage of female scientists as Co-I (Co-Investigators) is always less than 16 %. This number is lower than the percentage of women in the International Astronomical Union from all ESA's Member State (24 %), which can give us an indication of the percentage of women in the field. We encountered many difficulties to gather the data for this study. The list of team members were not always easily accessible. An additional difficulty was to determine the percentage of female scientists in planetary science in Europe. We would like to encourage the planetary community as a whole, as well as international organizations, universities and societies to continuously gather statistics over many years. Detailed statistics are only the first step to closely monitor the development of achievement gaps and initiate measures to tackle potential causes of inequity, leading to gender inequalities in STEM careers.

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Six years of total ozone column measurements from SCIAMACHY nadir observations

Atmospheric Measurement Techniques ◽

10.5194/amt-2-87-2009 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 87-98 ◽

Cited By ~ 39

Author(s):

C. Lerot ◽

M. Van Roozendael ◽

J. van Geffen ◽

J. van Gent ◽

C. Fayt ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cross Sections ◽

Total Ozone ◽

Large Scale ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Data Sets ◽

Data Set ◽

Ozone Data ◽

Space Agency ◽

German Aerospace ◽

The Impact

Abstract. Total O3 columns have been retrieved from six years of SCIAMACHY nadir UV radiance measurements using SDOAS, an adaptation of the GDOAS algorithm previously developed at BIRA-IASB for the GOME instrument. GDOAS and SDOAS have been implemented by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in the version 4 of the GOME Data Processor (GDP) and in version 3 of the SCIAMACHY Ground Processor (SGP), respectively. The processors are being run at the DLR processing centre on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA). We first focus on the description of the SDOAS algorithm with particular attention to the impact of uncertainties on the reference O3 absorption cross-sections. Second, the resulting SCIAMACHY total ozone data set is globally evaluated through large-scale comparisons with results from GOME and OMI as well as with ground-based correlative measurements. The various total ozone data sets are found to agree within 2% on average. However, a negative trend of 0.2–0.4%/year has been identified in the SCIAMACHY O3 columns; this probably originates from instrumental degradation effects that have not yet been fully characterized.

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Understanding Accessibility

Advances in Civil and Industrial Engineering - Using Decision Support Systems for Transportation Planning Efficiency ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-8648-9.ch009 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 223-257

Author(s):

Kivanc Ertugay ◽

Sebnem H. Duzgun

Keyword(s):

Spatial Data ◽

Catchment Area ◽

Geographical Information Systems ◽

Geographical Information ◽

Data Sets ◽

Location Allocation ◽

Modeling Process ◽

Key Variables ◽

Spatial Data Sets ◽

Significant Support

Accessibility measures are generally concerned with equity and a better distribution of services in a territory and can be accepted as key variables for supporting supply/demand, location/allocation and service/catchment area related planning policies and strategies at national, regional, and local levels. Since accessibility measures need organization of huge and complex spatial data sets, accessibility modeling often lends itself to Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for analysis and presentation. Since numerous accessibility measures and modeling techniques ranging from simple to sophisticated can be found in the literature, this work aim to provide an overview of the theoretical framework and relevant background about GIS-based accessibility modeling process. The results could provide a significant support for the decision makers who are supposed to deal with transportation planning, accessibility modeling, location/allocation and service/catchment area related issues.

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Understanding Accessibility

Intelligent Transportation and Planning ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-5210-9.ch026 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 576-608

Author(s):

Kivanc Ertugay ◽

Sebnem H. Duzgun

Keyword(s):

Spatial Data ◽

Catchment Area ◽

Geographical Information Systems ◽

Geographical Information ◽

Data Sets ◽

Location Allocation ◽

Modeling Process ◽

Key Variables ◽

Spatial Data Sets ◽

Significant Support

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Prospects for Life on Other Planets

Assembling Life ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190646387.003.0017 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

David W. Deamer

Keyword(s):

Solar System ◽

Origin Of Life ◽

Hydrothermal Vents ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Extraterrestrial Life ◽

Major Question ◽

Space Agency ◽

Planetary Bodies ◽

The Origin Of Life ◽

Alternative Scenarios

This book describes a hypothetical process in which populations of protocells can spontaneously assemble and begin to grow and proliferate by energy- dependent polymerization. This might seem to be just an academic question pursued by a few dozen researchers as a matter of curiosity, but in the past three decades advances in engineering have reached a point where both NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) routinely send spacecraft to other planetary objects in our solar system. A major question being pursued is whether life has emerged elsewhere than on Earth. The limited funds available to support such missions require decisions to be made about target priorities that are guided by judgment calls. These in turn depend on plausible scenarios related to the origin of life on habitable planetary surfaces. We know that other planetary bodies in our solar system have had or do have conditions that would permit microbial life to exist and perhaps even to begin. By a remarkable coincidence, the two most promising objects for extraterrestrial life happen to represent the two alternative scenarios described in this book: An origin of life in conditions of hydrothermal vents or an origin in hydrothermal fields. This final chapter will explore how these alternative views can guide our judgment about where to send future space missions designed as life-detection missions. Questions to be addressed: What is meant by habitability? Which planetary bodies are plausible sites for the origin of life? How do the hypotheses described in this book relate to those sites? There is healthy public interest in how life begins and whether it exists elsewhere in our solar system or on the myriad exoplanets now known to orbit other stars. This has fueled a series of films, television programs, and science fiction novels. Most of these feature extrapolations to intelligent life but a few, such as The Andromeda Strain, explore what might happen if a pathogenic organism from space began to spread to the human population. There is a serious and sustained scientific effort—SETI, or Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence—devoted to finding an answer to this question.

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The Rosetta Mission to Primitive Bodies of the Solar System

Symposium - International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s0074180900046660 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 160 ◽

pp. 381-394

Author(s):

Yves Langevin

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Solar System ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Time Span ◽

Main Belt ◽

Space Agency ◽

Rosetta Mission ◽

One Year ◽

Definition Of

The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected Rosetta as the next cornerstone mission, to be launched in 2003. The goal is to perfom one or more fly-bys to main belt asteroids, followed by a rendez-vous with an active comet. Advanced in situ analysis, both in the coma and on the surfaces of the nucleus, will be possible, as well as monitoring by remote sensing instruments of the nucleus and of the inner coma for a time span of more than one year, until perihelion. This paper outlines the scientific and technological choices done in the definition of the mission.

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The science return of the ESA Hera mission to the binary asteroid Didymos

10.5194/epsc2020-88 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Patrick Michel ◽

Michael Kueppers ◽

Keyword(s):

Solar System ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Direct Determination ◽

Hypervelocity Impact ◽

The European Union ◽

Long Term Effects ◽

Impact Speed ◽

Asteroid Impact ◽

Space Agency ◽

The Impact

The Hera mission has been approved for development and launch in the new ESA&#160;Space Safety Programme by the ESA Council at Ministerial Level, Space19+, in November 2019. Hera will both offer a high science return and contribute to the first deflection test of an asteroid, in the framework of the international NASA- and ESA-supported Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) collaboration. The impact of the NASA DART (Doube Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft on the natural satellite of Didymos in October 2022 will change its orbital period around Didymos. As Didymos is an eclipsing binary, and close to the Earth on this date, the change can be detected by Earth-based observers. ESA&#8217;s Hera spacecraft will rendezvous Didymos four years after the impact. Hera&#8217;s instruments will perform the measurements necessary to understand the effect of the DART impact on Didymos&#8217; secondary, in particular its mass, its internal structure, the direct determination of the momentum transfer and the detailed characterization of the crater left by DART. This new knowledge will also provide unique information on many current issues in asteroid science. From small asteroid internal and surface structures, through rubble-pile evolution, impact cratering physics, to the long-term effects of space weathering in the inner Solar System, Hera will have a major impact on many fields. For instance, collisions play a fundamental role in our Solar System history, from planet formation by collisional accretion to cratering of solid surfaces and asteroid family formation by collisional disruption. The fully documented hypervelocity impact experiment provided by DART and Hera will feed collisional models with information obtained at actual asteroid scale and for an impact speed (~6 km/s) that is close to the average impact speed between asteroids in the main belt. Moreover, Hera will perform the first rendezvous with an asteroid binary, characterize the smallest object ever visited (165 m in diameter) and provide the first direct measurement of an asteroid interior. Additionally, studies using Hera data will in turn affect our understanding of the asteroid population as a whole. The scientific legacy of the Hera mission will extend far beyond the core aims of planetary defense. Acknowledgment: The authors acknowledge funding support from ESA and from the European Union&#8217;s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870377 (project NEO-MAPP), from the European Space Agency and from the French space agency CNES.

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Research Policy and Review 29: The Chorley Committee and “Handling Geographic Information”

Environment and Planning A Economy and Space ◽

10.1068/a210571 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 21 (5) ◽

pp. 571-585 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

D W Rhind ◽

H M Mounsey

Keyword(s):

Geographical Information Systems ◽

Research Policy ◽

Geographic Information ◽

Geographical Information ◽

Data Sets ◽

Ordnance Survey ◽

Information Technology Education ◽

Training Research ◽

Set Up ◽

The Uk

In 1985, the UK government set up a Committee of Enquiry into the Handling of Geographic Information by computer. This was chaired by Lord Chorley and reported in early 1987. It concerned itself with all information which is described in relation to space and which could hence be used either singly or in combination. The tasks undertaken by the Committee are described, as are its composition and method of operation, the major ‘discoveries’ it made, and the recommendations put forward to government. A total of sixty-four recommendations were made covering digital (especially Ordnance Survey) topographic mapping, the availability of geographically disaggregated data, the problems and benefits of linking different data sets together, the need to enhance user awareness of geographical information systems and information technology, education and training, research and development, and the appropriate role for government and machinery for coordination. Finally, the government's published response to the Chorley Report is examined, particularly with regard to the proposed Centre for Geographic Information. The subsequent moves towards a consortium to bring this about are described.

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Gaia Data Release 2

Astronomy and Astrophysics ◽

10.1051/0004-6361/201832900 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 616 ◽

pp. A13 ◽

Cited By ~ 35

Author(s):

◽

F. Spoto ◽

P. Tanga ◽

F. Mignard ◽

J. Berthier ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar System ◽

A Priori ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Dramatic Improvement ◽

Individual Values ◽

Data Set ◽

Position Information ◽

Additional Information ◽

Space Agency ◽

Data Release

Context. The Gaia spacecraft of the European Space Agency (ESA) has been securing observations of solar system objects (SSOs) since the beginning of its operations. Data Release 2 (DR2) contains the observations of a selected sample of 14,099 SSOs. These asteroids have been already identified and have been numbered by the Minor Planet Center repository. Positions are provided for each Gaia observation at CCD level. As additional information, complementary to astrometry, the apparent brightness of SSOs in the unfiltered G band is also provided for selected observations. Aims. We explain the processing of SSO data, and describe the criteria we used to select the sample published in Gaia DR2. We then explore the data set to assess its quality. Methods. To exploit the main data product for the solar system in Gaia DR2, which is the epoch astrometry of asteroids, it is necessary to take into account the unusual properties of the uncertainty, as the position information is nearly one-dimensional. When this aspect is handled appropriately, an orbit fit can be obtained with post-fit residuals that are overall consistent with the a-priori error model that was used to define individual values of the astrometric uncertainty. The role of both random and systematic errors is described. The distribution of residuals allowed us to identify possible contaminants in the data set (such as stars). Photometry in the G band was compared to computed values from reference asteroid shapes and to the flux registered at the corresponding epochs by the red and blue photometers (RP and BP). Results. The overall astrometric performance is close to the expectations, with an optimal range of brightness G ~ 12 − 17. In this range, the typical transit-level accuracy is well below 1 mas. For fainter asteroids, the growing photon noise deteriorates the performance. Asteroids brighter than G ~ 12 are affected by a lower performance of the processing of their signals. The dramatic improvement brought by Gaia DR2 astrometry of SSOs is demonstrated by comparisons to the archive data and by preliminary tests on the detection of subtle non-gravitational effects.

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