Gomez-Alvarez Pedro

Abstract Reference: 31320
Identifier: P8.13
Presentation: Poster presentation
Key Theme: 8 Other

The Euclid mission planning software

Authors:
Gomez-Alvarez Pedro, Buenadicha Guillermo, Dupac Xavier, Vavrek Roland, Hoar John, Laureijs Rene, Altieri Bruno

The Euclid mission is a cosmological survey to map the geometry of the dark Universe and to understand the nature of dark matter and energy including the nature of the gravity itself. Euclid will use two probes por these purposes: Weak Lensing and Galaxy clustering measuring the shape and redshifts of billions and millions of galaxies respectively. Euclid will execute one wide survey covering the cosmological sky (15.000 sq^2 degrees) and three deep surveys near the galactic poles. Mission planning is a key mission aspect to optimize the scientific return of the mission. There are a number aspects that should be taken into account: restricted sky area at a given time, Wide/deep surveys and calibration interleaving, density of galaxies and stars, extinction, zodiacal light, CCD degradation, straylight, ... The needed mission planning software has been developed by ESA at ESAC. This software has been already used to produce and evaluate several versions of the so-called reference surveys used to support other aspects of the mission. It offers excellent visualization capabilities, check any produced survey against a number of validation criteria, it produces a number of figures of merit and it has been evolved into an operational system capable of ingest and produce the needed operational products to allow a robust and flexible operation.