a) Observational infrastructures :
ATST’s activities make use of numerous observational resources and infrastructures. In terms of ground-based instrumentation, our community’s main infrastructures are of three types:
- Solar monitoring/observation: radio monitoring at Nançay (NRH and ORFEES for the Sun; NDA for the Sun and Jupiter), the THEMIS solar telescope (Canary Islands), the Meudon Spectroheliograph and Meteospace, and SuperDARN ionospheric observations (Kerguelen Islands).
- Scientific exploitation of data from the future European Solar Telescope (EST).
- Instruments not dedicated to ATST and in campaign mode, particularly on Jupiter and the Sun (e.g. NenuFAR).
In terms of space missions, those whose exploitation has been a priority for our community in recent years will remain so. They are SoHO, Cluster, STEREO, SWARM, THEMIS (NASA), SDO, MAVEN, MMS, Juno, Parker Solar Probe, Bepi Colombo, Solar Orbiter, and more recently JUICE. This list is not exhaustive. Other international missions are regularly used by the community.
Recently, some of our community’s priorities have been confirmed, fully or partially, and others have emerged, namely (main list, not exhaustive):
- ESA’s Comet Interceptor (launch 2029), dedicated to the exploration of a primitive comet.
- SOLAR C (planned launch 2028), with the EUVST spectro-imager dedicated to studying the dynamics of the solar atmosphere at very high resolution.
- HelioSwarm (launch 2029, selected by NASA) dedicated to simultaneous fluid and ion multi-scale measurements.
- Several new opportunities have also arisen:
- Phase A of ESA’s M7 “medium class” call: Plasma Observatory (acceleration processes in heliospheric plasmas) and M-Matisse (multi-point study of the Martian environment).
- VIGIL (ESA S2P program): implementation of space weather monitoring at the Lagrange L5 point.
- Flagship mission of the US Decadal Survey of Planetology, dedicated to the exploration of Uranus.
- Missions highlighted in the US Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics, which focuses on the study of the Sun’s poles and the coupling of different regions of the Earth’s magnetosphere (satellite constellation).
Scientific themes related to the inner magnetosphere, as well as to interactions between the Earth’s various envelopes (ionosphere, mesosphere, etc.) are also a priority for the community. They are the subject of several instrumental studies involving several ATST teams, with at least three projects linked to specific ESA and NASA programs.
b) Numerical infrastructures:
ATST makes extensive use of digital resources, both in terms of database management and the development and operation of various numerical codes. These are two subjects on which the ATST community is putting a lot of effort, with great international recognition:
- Two national data centers, MEDOC and CDPP, associated with space missions (maintaining databases and associated exploitation tools);
- Several other databases, notably those associated with ground-based instruments, and servers for tools dedicated to space weather;
- GENCI HPC resources on a national scale and several regional meso-centers for numerical simulation, and with approaches specific to the different components of the community, in particular “in-situ plasmas” and “remote-sensing observations”, notably: MHD; hybrid; particle-in-cell; guide center; Vlasov; radiative transfer; etc.
c) National Observation Services (SNO):
ATST’s SNOs are numerous. They are grouped into several “Actions Nationales d’Observation” (ANO), and in particular the ANO2 (instrument preparation and operations), ANO3 (observing stations), ANO5 (related to databases), and ANO6, which is specific to ATST (monitoring instruments and space weather services).
The ATST community is also working on the development of a number of large-scale codes that are destined to become community-wide and be the subject of ANOCC certification (Action Nationale d’Observation Codes Communautaires), notably Dyablo and PHARE.
The current list of SNOs related to ATST’s activities is the following:
AA-ANO2 : Cluster/CIS, Cluster/STAFF, Comet Interceptor, HelioSwarm, JUICE/PEP, JUICE/RPWI, Magnetospheric MultiScale, Parker Solar Probe / FIELDS, Solar Orbiter
AA-ANO3 : Télescope Bernard Lyot au Pic du Midi, THEMIS (télescope solaire, Iles Canaries)
AA-ANO5 : APIS, MASER, MEDOC, CLIMSO, 3Soleil, CDPP, STORMS
AA-ANO6 : MEDOC, CLIMSO, 3Soleil, CDPP, STORMS, Service International des Indices Géomagnétiques (SIIG)
More information on the « Services Nationaux d’Observation » may be found here : https://www.insu.cnrs.fr/fr/les-services-nationaux-dobservation