Astronomy archives user group (AAUG)

The legacy of ESA’s Astronomy missions is the knowledge base built up in the science community, the papers published in scientific journals and the data stored in ESA’s data archives for Astronomical missions, including the common portal to high-level science-ready data called ESASky. These archives provide the science communities in Europe and worldwide with low-level, calibrated and higher-level data products from ESA’s Astronomy missions. The archives also include the documentation describing the data themselves and the processing that has been performed to generate the products.

For ESA’s Astronomy Missions, the mission archives are the agreed final destination of all science data from the mission (from raw to fully calibrated science-ready data), which, together with the mission documentation stored in Livelink or other documentation systems are kept available in the long-term. The ESAC Science Data Centre (ESDC) is responsible for maintaining the archives accessible in the long term.

In order to better serve the needs of the Astronomical science community, ESA has established an Astronomy Archives User Group (AAUG).

TASKS

The AAUG is an official body that advises ESA, providing suggestions and recommendations in the following areas:

• Identify synergies and/or similarities in the recommendations about the future development of the Astronomy archives.
• Act as an advocate for the ESA Astronomy archives and ESASky.
• Suggest inclusion in the astronomy archives / ESASky of data not currently served but related to the missions.
• Advise ESA on the most important functionalities of ESASky and monitor its development to ensure it best meets the needs of the user community.
• Advise on the main functionalities of a possible future web service linking the Heliophysics, Planetary and Astronomical archives.
• Participate in the peer review of applications for the Archival Research Visitor Programme.

AAUG MEMBERS

You are invited to contact the User Group for specific questions or comments you may have.

MEETINGS

Former AAUG Members

• Marc-Antoine Miville-Deschenes, AIM laboratory, CEA-Saclay, France (June 2018 - Jan 2020)
• Beate Steltzer, Tübingen University, Germany (Chair: June 2018 - October 2020)
• Eva Villaver, Centro de Astrobiología (INTA-CSIC), ESAC, Spain (June 2018 - February 2023)

2017 AAUG group Terms of Reference: here