Report on UK activities

1
Report on UK activities Chris Castelli Science
Programme Office
Sue Horne now has responsibility for the ESA
Aurora Programme
2

• Talk Overview
• Missions in operation under development
• EIS (Hinode/Solar-B), Heliospheric Imager (NASA
  Stereo) and Solar Dynamics Observatory SDO
• Missions under study and new opportunities
• Solar Orbiter (ESA/NASA)
• KuaFu (CNSA)
• ESA Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 potential
  participation from UK
• ASPIICS on Proba-3 (ESA) status following
  phase A
• NASA SMEX (AO Oct 2007) potential UK
  involvement

3
Research Council Up-date

• Creation of STFC on 1st April 2007 through merger
  of PPARC and CCLRC
• Motivation
• Increase international competitiveness
• Enable world class research
• Deliver access to state-of-the-art facilities
• Increase economic impact
• Enable greater 2-way knowledge exchange
  industry, universities, STFCs labs
• Broad science base Space science, particle
  physics, synchrotron radiation, nuclear physics,
  neutron sources etc.
• Comprehensive programmatic review started
  looking at whole science and technology programme
  strategy and developing a robust future
  investment plan
• National Space Technology Programme

4
The Harwell / RAL Campus
5
Management structure
Council
CEO
Corporate Office
Corporate Strategy Council Business Communications
Director International Relations
Science Programme Office
Administration
Knowledge Exchange
Facility Operations
Finance Director
Science Strategy Science Programme Management
Programme Project Peer review Education
Training International Strategy Representation
Subscriptions (CERN, ESO, ESA, ILL,
ESRF, Gemini, DIAMOND) Grants Project
Oversight Science Society
Commercialisation Campus Development Programmes Ne
tworks Economic Impact
Facilities (ISIS, SRS, ING, JAC, CLF) Technology
(RAL, DL, ATC) Science Programme
Support Project Management Support
Finance Agreements/Contracts Legal Shareholder
HR/Employee Relations Information
Systems Information Management Health, Safety
Security Efficiency Change Management Shared
Services Premises
6
EIS on Hinode

• Hinode (Solar-B) launched 22 Sept 2006
• UK PI on the EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) with
  significant contribution from NRL on optics

• Principle aim of making spectroscopic
  observations over a wide range of temperatures
  for plasma velocity, motion and energy
  measurements

7
EIS on Hinode
Hinode Science Meeting Announcing First Results
Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 20-24th August
2007 http//msslxr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk8080/SolarB/Anno
unce.jsp
Data policy science community have access to
data after first 6 months of observations as soon
as processed by ISAS Full Hinode data available
from 27 May 2007 (DARTS at Hinode Data Centre) UK
EIS data activities analysis tools available as
part SolarSoft EIS search and data archive
available online http//msslxr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk8080
/SolarB/SearchArchive.jsp
8
Heliospheric Imagers for the Stereo
NASA Stereo launched in October 2007 UK provided
the Heliospheric Imagers instrument - built by a
consortium led by RAL and the University of
Birmingham (UK), CSL (Belgium) engineering
input from Swales HI is designed to observe the
space between the Sun and the Earth (12 to 300
Rs) in order to watch for solar storms driven
CMEs as they head our way. HI data is available
via Stereo website and mirrored in UKSSDC (RAL)
9
NASA Stereo
Zoomed in movie showing the same comet later
showing wiggles as it interacts with the solar
wind
Movie sequence taken on April 20 shows a CME
hitting Comet Encke - the comet tail is whipped
off and flies back away from the Sun. A new tails
forms
10
CMEs along with Venus and Mercury observed by HI
Venus/Mercury movies
11
Solar Dynamics Observatory

• RAL responsible for the CCD camera design build
  
• 8 flight units delivered for AIA and HMI
  instruments to Lockheed Martin and Stanford
• New 4kx4k pixel CCD development with e2v (UK)
• 2 Mpixels/s Quad readout
• Requirements for high dynamic range, low noise,
  and low power

12
KuaFu

• UK sees collaboration with China as
  strategically important MoU between CNSA BNSC
  on framework of space science technology
  cooperation
• Excellent science fills a role not currently
  covered by ESAs programme, exploring the energy
  flow from the solar wind (at L1) to the
  magnetosphere and ionosphere
• International coordination meeting, China (Jan
  2007) - Mission not yet selected within the
  programme being developed by CNSA
• Early funding for studies during pre-Phase A

Novel x-ray focussing optics for the auroal
imager instrument

• Part of comprehensive review to clarify science
  objectives and payloads and decision end 2007
• UK involvement Auroral imager (Leicester Uni),
  medium and low energy plasma Instruments (MSSL,
  RAL), magnetometer (Imperial) and a MOSES type
  spectrographic imager (MSSL)

13
Solar Orbiter

• UK involvement in Solar Orbiter is high priority
  for community STFC roadmap
• Schedule leading to 2015 launch requires early
  release of instrument AO depending on
  resolution of merger issues with NASA Sentinels
• Reviewed potential UK involvement as part of an
  integrated package of instruments proposed to
  Solar Orbiter

• UK funding design studies for an Extreme
  Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), Magnetometer, Electron
  Analyser System (Solar Wind Plasma Analyser) and
  Spectrometer (EUS)?
• Early system trade studies, accommodation,
  interfaces, TRL assessment etc.
• UK groups responded in the LoI submitted to ESA
  in September 2006
• SPRT full agency support for nationally
  provided payloads

14
Solar Orbiter

• Electron Analyser System (in-situ instruments)
• Part of the Solar Wind Plasma Analyser
• Prototype EAS system under test at MSSL thermal
  vacuum facility based on extensive heritage (e.g.
  Cluster, Cassini, Venus Express)

• Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI)
• European consortium led by Royal Obs Belgium
• 4 EUV band telescopes sharing a common structure
  and electronics box (MSSL)
• Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EUS)
• High resolution imaging spectrometer
  international consortium led by RAL
• Significant advance on Soho CDS, Solar-B EIS

15
Proba-3 ASPIICS

• ESA technology demonstration missions
• 4 counties involved Sweden, Belgium, UK, Spain
  with launch 2010/11
• The PROBA-3 concept selected by ESA is a giant
  coronagraph ASPIICS (led by P. Lamy (LAM,
  France)
• 1 of 4 concepts originally studied at pre-phase
  A by CNES looking at scientific missions
  utilising a formation flying demonstration
  define mission requirements
• With a formation flyer, a two-spacecraft
  coronagraph is possible access to high
  resolution imaging

• 100 m spacecraft separation translates into lt3
  arcsec resolution down to 1.1 Rs
• A considerable advance (LASCO C2 resolution is
  70 at 2.2 Rs)
• UK industry (Astrium) completed Phase A study
  Jan 07

16
Proba-3 ASPIICS
Ground based image obtained during a total eclipse
SOHO/LASCO-C2 coronagraph
ASPIICS aims at achieving conditions close to
total eclipses
17
ESA Cosmic Vision 2015-25
COMPASS (Fineschi INAF, Italy) Coronal
Magnetism, Plasma Activity Studies from Space
UK groups RAL formation flying solar mission with
a 100m s/c separation with off-limb and on disk
instrument capability POLARIS (Appourchaux, F)
Polar Investigation of the Sun UK groups RAL
MSSL Builds on Solar Orbiter mission concept
Collaboration with NASA (science technology
roadmap identified in ILWS) Cross-scale (UK
leading proposal) - 10 s/c utilising a common
design in near-Earth space In collaboration with
JAXA SCOPE mission providing 2 s/c WARP
(Pulkkinen) Waves and Relativistic Particles
(UK groups RAL, UoW, BAS) Plasma physics of
Earths inner magnetosphere using constellation
of 4 spacecraft Participation is subject to
review by STFC advisory structure
18
CV2015 timeline
19

• Conclusion
• ILWS clearly very important to UK ground and
  space based Heliophysics community
• Envisage strong participation in future missions
  e.g. KuaFu, SO, bi-lateral opportunities (SMEX)
• Planning participation in ESA CV1525 taking into
  account recommendations from SPRT
• Programmatic review will shape UK science
  strategy for STFC