Periodic Reporting for period 2 - HEMERA (Integrated access to balloon-borne platforms for innovative research andtechnology)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2019-07-01 do 2020-12-31
The HEMERA research infrastructure integrates a large starting community in the field of tropospheric and stratospheric balloon-borne research, to make existing balloon facilities available to all scientific teams in the European Union, Canada and associated countries. A wide range of scientific and technical themes will be addressed, such as astronomy, atmospheric physics and chemistry, climate research, fundamental physics, biology, space research and technology.
HEMERA consortium encompasses 13 Partners from 7 countries:
• Space agencies: Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in France; Swedish National Space Board (SNSB) in Sweden; Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) in Italy; Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR) in Germany; Canadian Space Agency (CSA) in Canada,
• Companies operating these balloons and providing the hardware: Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) in Sweden; Andoya Space Center (ASC) in Norway; Airstar in France, which provides balloon envelopes,
• Scientists from the atmospheric sciences, astronomy and astrophysics communities: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France; Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie (KIT) in Germany; Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) in Italy; Heidelberg University in Germany (UHEI); Cranfield University (CU) in the UK.
Currently, only a few national programs for balloon-borne activities and corresponding facilities exist in the European Union (CNES for France, SNSB for Sweden…). HEMERA will be complementary to national programs and will coordinate European activities in the field of ballooning in order to:
O1: Provide better and coordinated balloon access to the troposphere and stratosphere for scientific and technological research, in response to the scientific user needs, with valuable data for the scientific community.
O2: Attract new users to enlarge the community accessing the balloon infrastructure and foster scientific and technical collaboration.
O3: Enlarge the fields of science and technology research conducted with balloons.
O4: Improve the balloon service offered to scientific and technical users through innovative developments.
O5: Favour standardization, synergy, complementarities and industrialization through joint developments with greater cost-effectiveness.
HEMERA includes four major components:
Through virtual access (VA), researchers will have access to the data collected during balloon campaigns (current and past) and these data will be free of charge for use at their own facilities. HEMERA will participate in the “Open Research Data Pilot” action in Horizon 2020.
Through transnational access (TA), flight opportunities and access to the facilities are open free of charge to researchers from all European Union, Canada and associated countries, who will provide their own instrumentation. Access will be granted through dedicated calls for proposals followed by independent assessment of the proposals.
Operational launch sites for HEMERA are:
• Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, in the northern Sweden, 68°N, operated by SCC, where both SSC and CNES perform polar flights.
• Timmins launch base, Ontario, Canada, 48°N, where CNES performs flights.
Aire sur l’Adour (Southwest France, 43°N).
Through the joint research activities (JRA), the infrastructure provided to the research community will be improved, optimized and harmonized. This will be made possible through new joint technology developments with the same common objectives and identical specification.
Through the networking activities (NA), scientists and engineers will have new opportunities to meet, interact and discuss experience. Participation of students will be promoted, through a dedicated summer school. Contacts with other European projects will be organized to exchange datasets, standardize practices and possibly identify joint measurement campaigns.
HEMERA consortium encompasses 13 Partners from 7 countries:
• Space agencies: Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in France; Swedish National Space Board (SNSB) in Sweden; Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) in Italy; Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR) in Germany; Canadian Space Agency (CSA) in Canada,
• Companies operating these balloons and providing the hardware: Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) in Sweden; Andoya Space Center (ASC) in Norway; Airstar in France, which provides balloon envelopes,
• Scientists from the atmospheric sciences, astronomy and astrophysics communities: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France; Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie (KIT) in Germany; Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) in Italy; Heidelberg University in Germany (UHEI); Cranfield University (CU) in the UK.
Currently, only a few national programs for balloon-borne activities and corresponding facilities exist in the European Union (CNES for France, SNSB for Sweden…). HEMERA will be complementary to national programs and will coordinate European activities in the field of ballooning in order to:
O1: Provide better and coordinated balloon access to the troposphere and stratosphere for scientific and technological research, in response to the scientific user needs, with valuable data for the scientific community.
O2: Attract new users to enlarge the community accessing the balloon infrastructure and foster scientific and technical collaboration.
O3: Enlarge the fields of science and technology research conducted with balloons.
O4: Improve the balloon service offered to scientific and technical users through innovative developments.
O5: Favour standardization, synergy, complementarities and industrialization through joint developments with greater cost-effectiveness.
HEMERA includes four major components:
Through virtual access (VA), researchers will have access to the data collected during balloon campaigns (current and past) and these data will be free of charge for use at their own facilities. HEMERA will participate in the “Open Research Data Pilot” action in Horizon 2020.
Through transnational access (TA), flight opportunities and access to the facilities are open free of charge to researchers from all European Union, Canada and associated countries, who will provide their own instrumentation. Access will be granted through dedicated calls for proposals followed by independent assessment of the proposals.
Operational launch sites for HEMERA are:
• Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, in the northern Sweden, 68°N, operated by SCC, where both SSC and CNES perform polar flights.
• Timmins launch base, Ontario, Canada, 48°N, where CNES performs flights.
Aire sur l’Adour (Southwest France, 43°N).
Through the joint research activities (JRA), the infrastructure provided to the research community will be improved, optimized and harmonized. This will be made possible through new joint technology developments with the same common objectives and identical specification.
Through the networking activities (NA), scientists and engineers will have new opportunities to meet, interact and discuss experience. Participation of students will be promoted, through a dedicated summer school. Contacts with other European projects will be organized to exchange datasets, standardize practices and possibly identify joint measurement campaigns.
The HEMERA Research Infrastructure started in January 2018, for a four years period, now extended till end October 2022, due to coronavirus pandemic. The flight campaigns planned in 2019 and 2020 have been shifted to 2021 and 2022.
The first HEMERA Call for Proposals was issued in July 2018 and the answers were received in October 2018. The second call for proposals was issued in October 2019 and the answers received in December 2019.
After the two evaluation processes performed by an independent Peer Review Group, 39 experiments from 13 countries in total for both calls have been selected for flight at no cost on CNES and SSC balloons during the 2019, 2021 and 2022 campaigns.
The experiments will be carried mostly on Zero Pressure (ZPB) balloons and for a few of them on Sounding (SB) balloons or other new types of balloons (LSBs Large Sounding Balloons and SZPB Small Zero Pressure Balloon). The ZPB balloons will be launched from Esrange, in Sweden or from Timmins in Canada, the SB from Aire sur l’Adour, in France and from Kiruna. The LSB and SZPB will be launched by SSC from Kiruna.
The Data Centre provides free access and services for data archiving including higher level data products, links to large databases of past and ongoing scientific balloon data projects, complemented with access to new data products, together with tools for quality assurance, data analysis and research. Furthermore, a link to the up-to-date catalog of known high-energy astronomical sources will be released. The Data Center first version is open from July, 2019.
Networking activities allow HEMERA consortium to promote balloon activities in Europe, through the participation to numerous congresses and symposiums, with HEMERA presentations.
A specific Summer School was organized in Heidelberg in September 2019, and a dedicated HEMERA workshop is planned in Rome in September/October 2021.
During HEMERA, an equatorial ZPB launch site, required by the scientific community, has been explored, as well as a very high latitude in the polar region (Svalbard, Norway, 78°N) and other sites.
In the frame of Joint Research activities, work is on-going on a set of Small Lightweight Innovative Instruments. Comparative evaluation will be performed. Processing algorithms in particular for hyperspectral observations are also being investigated.
The first HEMERA Call for Proposals was issued in July 2018 and the answers were received in October 2018. The second call for proposals was issued in October 2019 and the answers received in December 2019.
After the two evaluation processes performed by an independent Peer Review Group, 39 experiments from 13 countries in total for both calls have been selected for flight at no cost on CNES and SSC balloons during the 2019, 2021 and 2022 campaigns.
The experiments will be carried mostly on Zero Pressure (ZPB) balloons and for a few of them on Sounding (SB) balloons or other new types of balloons (LSBs Large Sounding Balloons and SZPB Small Zero Pressure Balloon). The ZPB balloons will be launched from Esrange, in Sweden or from Timmins in Canada, the SB from Aire sur l’Adour, in France and from Kiruna. The LSB and SZPB will be launched by SSC from Kiruna.
The Data Centre provides free access and services for data archiving including higher level data products, links to large databases of past and ongoing scientific balloon data projects, complemented with access to new data products, together with tools for quality assurance, data analysis and research. Furthermore, a link to the up-to-date catalog of known high-energy astronomical sources will be released. The Data Center first version is open from July, 2019.
Networking activities allow HEMERA consortium to promote balloon activities in Europe, through the participation to numerous congresses and symposiums, with HEMERA presentations.
A specific Summer School was organized in Heidelberg in September 2019, and a dedicated HEMERA workshop is planned in Rome in September/October 2021.
During HEMERA, an equatorial ZPB launch site, required by the scientific community, has been explored, as well as a very high latitude in the polar region (Svalbard, Norway, 78°N) and other sites.
In the frame of Joint Research activities, work is on-going on a set of Small Lightweight Innovative Instruments. Comparative evaluation will be performed. Processing algorithms in particular for hyperspectral observations are also being investigated.
HEMERA has already managed to reach a large community of users; a second call of proposals was issued, in order to prepare the 2021/2022 flight campaigns. in total for the both calls, 39 experiments from 13 countries have been selected for flight.
HEMERA offer has been increased for the flights, in order to better adapt to the user demand, both at SSC and at CNES. Larger 402Z balloons have been proposed by CNES twice, in replacement of two 150 Z balloons, additional piggy back flights have been proposed by CNES, for some experiments. Also, SSC proposed new types balloons for two SB flights, two LSB flights and one SZPB flight.
Concerning scientific objectives, one may expect very significant results from the flight campaigns, for example in the field of atmospheric (stratospheric) chemistry, since several major experiments in this field have been selected ; in high energy astrophysics, new X ray technologies will be tested and compared.
The calibration/validation of the future ESA Forum satellite is also planned in 2022, thanks to the FIRMOS B experiment flight (IR earth budget), in connection to GLORIA B observations, including at nadir.
HEMERA offer has been increased for the flights, in order to better adapt to the user demand, both at SSC and at CNES. Larger 402Z balloons have been proposed by CNES twice, in replacement of two 150 Z balloons, additional piggy back flights have been proposed by CNES, for some experiments. Also, SSC proposed new types balloons for two SB flights, two LSB flights and one SZPB flight.
Concerning scientific objectives, one may expect very significant results from the flight campaigns, for example in the field of atmospheric (stratospheric) chemistry, since several major experiments in this field have been selected ; in high energy astrophysics, new X ray technologies will be tested and compared.
The calibration/validation of the future ESA Forum satellite is also planned in 2022, thanks to the FIRMOS B experiment flight (IR earth budget), in connection to GLORIA B observations, including at nadir.