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

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

10.5194/epsc2020-921 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sébastien Besse ◽

Isa Barbarisi ◽

Guido de Marchi ◽

Bruno Merin ◽

Javier Arenas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar System ◽

Geographical Information Systems ◽

Scientific Community ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Planetary Science ◽

Scientific Data ◽

Geographical Information ◽

Data Sets ◽

Space Agency ◽

Search Data

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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Using the ESA’s Planetary Science Archive to Search for Mars Express VMC Data of an Elongated Cloud near Arsia Mons

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-3374 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Emmanuel Grotheer ◽

Keyword(s):

User Interface ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Planetary Science ◽

Scientific Data ◽

Public Attention ◽

Mars Express ◽

The Public ◽

Processing Level ◽

Public Data ◽

Planetary Missions

Introduction: The European Space Agency&#8217;s (ESA) Mars Express (MEX) mission to Mars has been returning valuable scientific data for ~17 years. &#160;This data is available to the public for free via the Planetary Science Archive (PSA), which houses the raw, calibrated, and higher-level data returned by the ESA&#8217;s planetary missions, including data provided by the various MEX instrument teams. &#160;The Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) was originally used to monitor the deployment of the Beagle 2 lander. &#160;In recent years, these images have been worked on by a science team from Bilbao for scientific research. &#160;These raw and processed images of this new &#8216;8th instrument&#8217; have been included in the PSA, including observations of an elongated cloud near Arsia Mons that garnered considerable public attention [1]. &#160;In this presentation we will show how to use the PSA user interface to find this data. The PSA user interfaces: The ESA&#8217;s PSA uses the Planetary Data System (PDS) format developed by NASA to store the data from its various planetary missions. &#160;In the case of MEX, the data is stored in the PDS3 format, which primarily uses ASCII files to store and describe the data. &#160;There are two primary ways in which to find the data. &#160;One is the FTP area, which houses all the public data in the PSA. &#160;Here, there are no advanced search capabilities, but it does provide access to all the supporting files and documentation for the various datasets. &#160;When first searching for new data, users would benefit from using the web-based search interfaces [2]. &#160;Here the user can search using various parameters, such as mission name, target (e.g. Mars), instrument name, processing level, observation times, etc. &#160;The development of the PSA&#8217;s search capabilities continues, thus more search parameters continue to be added. &#160;The Image View interface is particularly helpful when looking through browse images provided by the instrument teams. &#160;Recently, a prototype of a new Map View has been made public, in which most of the MEX data can be seen. &#160;These various search methods rely on the metadata provided by the instrument teams in the labels associated with each of the data products.Access and Feedback: All this data can be freely accessed at the ESA&#8217;s PSA, at https://archives.esac.esa.int/psa/. &#160;There are multiple ways of browsing the data. &#160;The development of the PSA&#8217;s user interface is an ongoing project, and we welcome feedback from the community for suggestions on new ways to search this wealth of data. &#160;Feedback and suggestions can be sent to [email protected].References:&#160; [1] Bauer M. (2018, October 25) ESA Science & Exploration. Mars Express keeps an eye on curious cloud. Retrieved from http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Mars_Express/Mars_Express_keeps_an_eye_on_curious_cloud [2] Besse S., Vallat C., Barthelemy M., Coia D., Costa M., De Marchi G., Fraga D., Grotheer E., Heather D., Lim T., Martinez S., Arviset C., Barbarisi I., Docosal R., Macfarlane A., Rios C., Saiz J., and Vallejo F. (2018) Planetary and Space Science, Vol. 150, pp. 131-140.

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Retrieval of ionospheric profiles from the Mars Express MARSIS experiment data and comparison with radio-occultation data

Geoscientific Instrumentation Methods and Data Systems Discussions ◽

10.5194/gid-2-87-2012 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 87-106

Author(s):

B. Sánchez-Cano ◽

O. Witasse ◽

M. Herraiz ◽

S. M. Radicella ◽

J. Bauer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Radio Occultation ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Planetary Science ◽

Data Set ◽

Mars Express ◽

Radio Science ◽

Space Agency ◽

Martian Ionosphere ◽

Occultation Data ◽

Ionospheric Sounding

Abstract. Since 2005 the Mars Advanced Radar and Ionospheric Sounding experiment (MARSIS) aboard Mars Express has acquired a unique data set on the ionosphere of Mars made up of ionospheric soundings taken by the instrument working in its Active Ionospheric Sounding (AIS) mode. These soundings play a role similar to those of modern Terrestrial digisondes in the analysis of our planet ionosphere and have allowed us to dramatically improve our knowledge about the Martian ionosphere. This paper describes this kind of data, which are available from the public Planetary Science Archive, and introduces the MAISDAT tool developed by the European Space Agency to analyze and derive the vertical profile of electron density. Comparisons with radio-occultation profiles obtained from Mars Express Radio Science instrument are performed to validate the procedure used in this study.

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Mars and Venus Exploration: A mapping, visualisation, and data analysis application for SPICAM/V high-level science data products

10.5194/epsc2020-759 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Nick Cox ◽

Jeronimo Bernard-Salas ◽

Stephane Ferron ◽

Jean-Luc Vergely ◽

Laurent Blanot ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Data Analysis ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Space Mission ◽

Planetary Science ◽

Scientific Data ◽

Physical Parameters ◽

Science Data ◽

Starting Point ◽

Data Products ◽

High Level

In the era of big data and cloud storage and computing, new ways for scientists to approach their research are emerging, which impact directly how science progresses and discoveries are made. This development has led the European Space Agency (ESA) to establish a reference framework for space mission operation and exploitation by scientific communities: the ESA Datalabs (EDL). The guiding principle of the EDL concept is to move the user to the data and tools, and to enable users to publish applications (e.g. processors, codes, pipelines, analysis and visualisation tools) within a trusted environment, close to the scientific data, and permitting the whole scientific community to discover new science products in an open and FAIR approach. In this context we will present a proto-type science application (aka Sci-App) for the exploration and visualization of Mars and Venus using the SPICAM/V Level-2 data available from the ESA Planetary Science Archive (PSA). This demonstrator facilitates the extraction and compilation of scientific data from the PSA and ease their integration with other tools through VO interoperability thus increasing their scientific impact. The tool&#8217;s key modular functionalities are 1) interactive data query and retrieval (i.e. search archive metadata), 2) interactive visualisation (i.e. geospatial info of query results, data content display of spectra, atmospheric vertical profiles), 3) data manipulation (i.e. create local maps or data cubes), and 4) data analysis (in combination with other connected VO tools). The application allows users to select, visualise and analyse both Level 2A products, which consist of e.g. transmission and radiance spectra, and level 2B products, which consist of retrieved physical parameters, such as atmospheric aerosol properties and vertical density profiles for (trace) gases in the Martian or Venusian atmosphere. Our goal is to deploy the (containerised) Sci-App to the EDL and similar initiatives for uptake by the space science community. In the future, we expect to incorporate access to other Mars/Venus atmospheric data sets, particularly the measurements obtained with the NOMAD and ACS instruments on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. The community can also use this application as a starting point for their own tool development for other data products/missions.

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Retrieval of ionospheric profiles from the Mars Express MARSIS experiment data and comparison with radio occultation data

Geoscientific Instrumentation Methods and Data Systems ◽

10.5194/gi-1-77-2012 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 77-84 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

B. Sánchez-Cano ◽

O. Witasse ◽

M. Herraiz ◽

S. M. Radicella ◽

J. Bauer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Radio Occultation ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Planetary Science ◽

Mars Express ◽

Radio Science ◽

The Public ◽

Space Agency ◽

Martian Ionosphere ◽

Occultation Data ◽

Ionospheric Sounding

Abstract. Since 2005 the Mars Advanced Radar and Ionospheric Sounding experiment (MARSIS) aboard Mars Express has acquired a unique dataset on the ionosphere of Mars made up of ionospheric soundings taken by the instrument working in its active ionospheric sounding (AIS) mode. These soundings play a role similar to those of modern Terrestrial digisondes in the analysis of our planet ionosphere and have allowed us to dramatically improve our knowledge about the Martian ionosphere. This paper describes this kind of data, which are available from the public Planetary Science Archive, and introduces the MAISDAT tool developed by the European Space Agency to analyze and derive the vertical profile of electron density. Comparisons with radio occultation profiles obtained from Mars Express Radio Science instrument are performed to validate the procedure used in this study.

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Europe's Path To Mars: The European Space Agency's Mars Express Mission

Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences ◽

10.1525/hsns.2011.41.2.123 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 41 (2) ◽

pp. 123-178 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Arturo Russo

Keyword(s):

Selection Process ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Management Approach ◽

Mars Exploration ◽

Mars Express ◽

The Public ◽

Science Programme ◽

Space Agency ◽

History Of

Mars Express is the first planetary mission accomplished by the European Space Agency (ESA). Launched in early June 2003, the spacecraft entered Mars's orbit on Christmas day of that year, demonstrating the new European commitment to planetary exploration. Following a failed attempt in the mid-1980s, two valid proposals for a European mission to Mars were submitted to ESA's decision-making bodies in the early 1990s, in step with renewed international interest in Mars exploration. Both were rejected, however, in the competitive selection process for the agency's Science Programme. Eventually, the Mars Express proposal emerged during a severe budgetary crisis in the mid-1990s as an exemplar of a “flexible mission” that could reduce project costs and development time. Its successful maneuvering through financial difficulties and conflicting scientific interests was due to the new management approach as well as to the public appeal of Mars exploration. In addition to providing a case study in the functioning of the ESA's Science Programme, the story of Mars Express discussed in this paper provides a case study in the functioning of the European Space Agency's Science Programme and suggests some general considerations on the peculiar position of space research in the general field of the history of science and technology.

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The Making of the Moon

From Dust to Life ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691175706.003.0010 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

John Chambers ◽

Jacqueline Mitton

Keyword(s):

European Space Agency ◽

Lunar Exploration ◽

The Sun ◽

The Moon ◽

The Public ◽

China And India ◽

Space Agency ◽

Lunar Prospector ◽

Large Satellite ◽

The 1960S

This chapter considers how the very existence of the Moon, the only large satellite in the inner solar system, is a puzzle. The Moon is sufficiently large that one would think of it as a planet if it traveled around the Sun rather than Earth. Much of what the public now knows about the Moon comes from space missions, beginning in the 1960s and early 1970s. Six American Apollo missions each landed two astronauts on the surface. Three of the Soviet Union's unmanned Luna spacecraft touched down on the surface and then returned to Earth. After a long gap, lunar exploration resumed in the 1990s, when NASA's Clementine and Lunar Prospector spacecraft went into orbit. Recently, the pace of exploration has increased again, with the European Space Agency, Japan, China, and India, as well as NASA, all sending missions to the Moon.

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The New Messengers

10.1093/oso/9780192898159.003.0003 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 36-52

Author(s):

Gianfranco Bertone

Keyword(s):

Gravitational Waves ◽

Nobel Prize ◽

Direct Contact ◽

Thin Shell ◽

Electromagnetic Waves ◽

Scientific Community ◽

The Other ◽

The Moon ◽

New Era ◽

The Universe

I present the momentous discovery of gravitational waves, announced in 2016, starting from a confused Einstein who in 1936 tries to convince the scientific community that gravitational waves cannot exist (!), and then illustrating the extraordinary insights and breakthroughs that led 2017 Nobel Prize winners B. Barish, K. Thorne and R. Weiss to open an entirely new window on the Universe. This achievement has marked the beginning of a new era in science, and upcoming experiments have the potential to truly revolutionize our understanding of the Universe. Accounts of the perception of extra-terrestrial reality with senses beyond sight, such as those offered by astronauts who have been on the Moon, are exceedingly rare. That is hardly unsurprising: touch and taste require direct contact, while hearing and smell operate only over short distances, and are in any case confined to the Earth’s thin shell of atmosphere. Sight, on the other hand, allows us to collect the electromagnetic waves emitted by extraordinarily remote celestial objects.

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A comparison between the two lobes of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko based on D/H ratios in H2O measured with the Rosetta/ROSINA DFMS

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ◽

10.1093/mnras/stz2482 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 489 (4) ◽

pp. 4734-4740 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Isaac R H G Schroeder ◽

Kathrin Altwegg ◽

Hans Balsiger ◽

Jean-Jacques Berthelier ◽

Michael R Combi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mass Spectrometer ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Cometary Nucleus ◽

The Other ◽

Appreciable Difference ◽

Space Agency ◽

Close Proximity ◽

Double Focusing ◽

Comet 67P

ABSTRACT The nucleus of the Jupiter-family comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko was discovered to be bi-lobate in shape when the European Space Agency spacecraft Rosetta first approached it in 2014 July. The bi-lobate structure of the cometary nucleus has led to much discussion regarding the possible manner of its formation and on how the composition of each lobe might compare with that of the other. During its two-year-long mission from 2014 to 2016, Rosetta remained in close proximity to 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, studying its coma and nucleus in situ. Based on lobe-specific measurements of HDO and H2O performed with the ROSINA Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer (DFMS) on board Rosetta, the deuterium-to-hydrogen (D/H) ratios in water from the two lobes can be compared. No appreciable difference was observed, suggesting that both lobes formed in the same region and are homogeneous in their D/H ratios.

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Advances in Cosmochemistry Enabled by Antarctic Meteorites

Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences ◽

10.1146/annurev-earth-082719-055815 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 48 (1) ◽

pp. 233-258

Author(s):

Meenakshi Wadhwa ◽

Timothy J. McCoy ◽

Devin L. Schrader

Keyword(s):

Solar System ◽

Planetary Science ◽

The Moon ◽

Origin And Evolution ◽

Lunar Meteorite ◽

Planetary Bodies ◽

The Antarctic ◽

Melt Pockets ◽

Scientific Advances

At present, meteorites collected in Antarctica dominate the total number of the world's known meteorites. We focus here on the scientific advances in cosmochemistry and planetary science that have been enabled by access to, and investigations of, these Antarctic meteorites. A meteorite recovered during one of the earliest field seasons of systematic searches, Elephant Moraine (EET) A79001, was identified as having originated on Mars based on the composition of gases released from shock melt pockets in this rock. Subsequently, the first lunar meteorite, Allan Hills (ALH) 81005, was also recovered from the Antarctic. Since then, many more meteorites belonging to these two classes of planetary meteorites, as well as other previously rare or unknown classes of meteorites (particularly primitive chondrites and achondrites), have been recovered from Antarctica. Studies of these samples are providing unique insights into the origin and evolution of the Solar System and planetary bodies. ▪ Antarctic meteorites dominate the inventory of the world's known meteorites and provide access to new types of planetary and asteroidal materials. ▪ The first meteorites recognized to be of lunar and martian origin were collected from Antarctica and provided unique constraints on the evolution of the Moon and Mars. ▪ Previously rare or unknown classes of meteorites have been recovered from Antarctica and provide new insights into the origin and evolution of the Solar System.

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