Galileo Navigation Science Office - ESAC Trainees

GALILEO NAVIGATION SCIENCE OFFICE

1. CESAR SCIENCE EDUCATION

ESAC supervisor(s): Javier Ventura-Traveset, Michel Breitfellner, Beatriz Gonzalez

The IAU has recognized the importance of astronomy education in the last few decades and in the 2019 IAU Astronomy Education Conference has stress the aim to increase the quality, quantity, community and impact of astronomy education researach and practice (https://iau-dc-c1.org/astroedu-conference/).

In this context, the CESAR Team has a lot of value to add. CESAR, which stands by Cooperation through Education in Science and Astronomy Research, is a joint educational programme developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Spanish National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA) and the INTA-owned company ISDEFE. Its objective is to provide students from European primary and secondary schools and Universities with hands-on experience in Astronomy.

We offer a position to work on the generation of scientific activities to attract youngsters to STEM careers and/or to approach space and high-technology to their daily lifes. The trainee is expected to
- participate in the development of new science and education (sci&edu) cases in collaboration with ESA scientists and teachers of hot astronomical topics defined together with the CESAR Science Case Team.
- generate and update material for the sci&edu (teacher’s guide, students guide, booklets) following CESAR templates.
- participate in the design and use of webtools, IT applications and experiments (e.g. AstroPi, Arduino, ...) to make the science cases more attractive to students.
- cross-match the contents of the science cases with the scholar curricula from Spain and UK,
- support the teachers training courses, SSE sessions and astronomical outreach events.
- participate in the implementation of Science Cases on the CESAR website.

Project duration: 6 months

Desirable expertise:

Good understanding of astronomical and astrophysical concepts -
Good background in maths and physics
Good skills in communicating scientific concepts to students (6-18) years old
Fluent (reading and writing) in English
Capable to work within an international team
Achive goals within schedules
Good skills in visualizing data using astronomical data packages (ds9, salsaJ, stellarium) and programming experience (i.e, python)

2. EXPLOITING GNSS DATA FROM SPACE USERS FOR UPPER ATMOSPHERIC (AERONOMY) ANALYSIS

ESAC supervisor(s): Vicente Navarro, Manuel Castillo, Fernando Martin

The ESA Galileo Navigation Science Office (GScO) is an inter-Directorate collaboration between NAV and SCI Directorates. Since GScO conception and in order to support its objectives, it has been considered as a main purpose the set-up and operation of the following facilities at ESAC:
- GNSS Science Service Centre (GSSC) for the exploitation of GNSS data and products as a reference tool for scientific GNSS applications and research
- GNSS Science Laboratory with advanced scientific receivers, GNSS data processors and training/education tools.
This project is proposed in the context of this office.
Recently ESA’s GSSC has incorporated to its datasets the GNSS measurements in RINEX format captured from the ESA Earth Explorer Missions GOCE and SWARM. Its potential for science together with the on-ground GNSS measurements already available in the GSSC is very promising, especially for upper atmospheric science (Aeronomy). As these are captured over the neutral and ionized upper part of the atmosphere, these can be used to complement and even improve the on-ground Tropospheric and Ionospheric GNSS estimations. For example, the observations of GNSS satellites in the zenith of the space platform can be used to calibrate the differential code biases required for the on-ground estimations of the ionosphere electron content. The observations of GNSS satellites close to the Earth Limb and their occultation can be used to characterize both the Troposphere and the Ionosphere.
In close collaboration with the GScO team, the trainee will participate and contribute in the development of applications for the use of GNSS data obtained onboard space platforms for Aeronomy. In particular, the trainee will focus in the use of this data for the analysis of the Earth’s Ionosphere. His/her support will be required for the following activities:
- Development, implementation and validation of Data Processing examples for the use of GNSS measurements from onboard satellite platforms
- Processing of GNSS data provided by the GSSC
- Processing of GNSS data captured at ESAC by GScO scientific-grade GNSS equipment
- Analysis and modelling of Earth Ionosphere dynamics, composition and its relation with Space Weather
- Assessment of the achievable improvement on atmospheric analysis by using GNSS space-based data

Project duration: 6 months

Desirable expertise or programming languages:

Good Knowledge of GNSS, Geophysics and related disciplines
General knowledge on the impact of atmospheric layers on the GNSS signals
Practical experience with GNSS equipment and data processing would be an asset
HW/SW programming skills would be also an asset

3. CesaR ESAC Solar Observatory Master Control Programme

ESAC supervisor(s): Javier Ventura-Traveset, Miguel Perez Ayucar, Michel Breitfellner

CESAR (Cooperation through Education in Science and Astronomy Research) is a joint educational programme developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Spanish National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA) and INTA-owned company ISDEFE. Its objective is to provide students from European secondary schools and universities with hands-on experience in Optical and Radio Astronomy. In addition, CESAR shall contribute with outreach activities to promote Space Science and to stimulate European students' interest in Science and Technology in general and Astronomy in particular.

As part of the CESAR initiative, a permanent Solar Observatory (CESO) was installed at ESAC, Madrid, Spain in 2012. It consists currently of a
• Coronado Solarmax II 90 with double Stack Filter, H-alpha
• TS-Optics Photoline 72mm f/6 APO, visible (white-light)
• TS-Optics Photoline 72mm f/6 APO with Lunt Calcium K Module
The telescopes are mounted on a Celestron CGEM GOTO mount, installed in a Scopedome 3M. The dome is connected to a AAG CloudWatcher weather station. The cameras currently used are two QHY5-II. A second set of portable telescopes, mounts and cameras is also available for testing, and specific observations from remote locations.

The CESAR ESAC Solar Observatory (CESO) is designed to work completely autonomous delivering H-alpha and visible light images every minute if meteorological conditions allow it. Those images are acquired by two QHY5-II cameras and transferred from the computers in the dome to a server where they are processed and archived. Last processed images are displayed on the CESAR webpage.

The objective of this trainee project is to develop the master program that controls the automatic and remote operations of the Solar Observatory at ESAC.

Project duration: 6 months

Desirable expertise:

Good knowledge of physics and mathematics
Practical experience in Python programming and UNIX environments.
Experience with image processing.
Knowledge of ASCOM program for astronomical equipment (dome, mount, cameras...)
Practical experience in observing with amateur would be an asset

4. CesaR ESAC Optical Observatory setup and configuration

ESAC supervisor(s): Javier Ventura-Traveset, Wouter van Reeven, Manuel Castillo, Michel Breitfellner

One of the goals of the CesaR initiative is to provide remote access to telescopes for school classes so that they can take their own data for the exercises proposed or even do their own science projects. Therefore an observatory is currently beeing built at ESAC consisting of two Meade LX200 12inch telescopes in a roof roll-off configuration. The finalization of the works is foreseen for the end of 2019. The observatory should operate in two modes:
• remote access from the Cesar control room A.023a and
• robbotic / automatic observation

The objective of this trainee project is to help preparing the observatory for operations which includes:
• Evaluate the existing hard and software and identify possible improvementsfor smooth operations.
• Write new and improve existing observatory documentation, e.g. user manual for operators and clients (teachers and students).
• Support the telescope operations.
• Support the teachers training courses, SSE sessions and astronomical outreach events.

Project duration: 6 months

Desirable expertise:

Practical experience in observing with amateur telescopes and simple image processing
Knowledge of ASCOM and/or RTS-2 for astronomical equipment (dome, mount, cameras...).
Practical experience in software development.
Practical experience in Python programming and UNIX environments.
Good background in astronomy is desirable but not required.

5. CesaR Educational Software Development

ESAC supervisor(s): Javier Ventura-Traveset, David Cabezas, Michel Breitfellner

One of the goals of the CesaR initiative is to provide educational software through the CesaR webpages, called "Interactive Science Cases". Those programmes are complementary to the exercises, called "Science Cases", available for download and allow to do the calculations n-line through a browser.

The objective of this trainee project is to
• help develop and improve "Interactive Science Case" tools for schools and universities,
• help creating new software for education using the latest technologies (mobile apps, vr glasses, 3D interfaces),
• participate in the software integration and interconnection of subsystems,
• participate in the implementation of Science Cases on the CESAR website.

Project duration: 6 months

Desirable expertise:

Programming experience in PHP, HTML, CSS, XML Javascript, HTML5
Experience in MySQL database
Interest in Planetary Science, Space Science
Interest on 3D software design with engines like Unity
Linux knowledge as user
Hobbyist in DIY hardware and programming skills, like electronic, robotics, 3D print, VR, AR, Mobile app development