9^th Announcement of Opportunity for Science Planners
in the NASA-led IRIS mission

24 April 2023

This 9^th Announcement of Opportunity (AO), open to scientists affiliated with institutes located in ESA Member States, solicits proposals for participation as Science Planners in the NASA-led IRIS mission.

The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) is a NASA Small Explorer (SMEX) mission, launched in 2013, that allows tracing the flow of solar energy and plasma from the photosphere through the chromosphere and transition region into the corona using spectroscopy and imaging in ultraviolet windows between 130 and 283 nm. IRIS can reveal the dynamics of the chromosphere and transition region, and allow understanding the processes powering them. IRIS is a major leap from previous and existing solar spectrographs (e.g., SOHO/CDS or SUMER; Hinode/EIS) in terms of spatial (0.3-0.4 arcsec), temporal (2 s), and spectral (3 km/s) resolution.

ESA's participation in IRIS is in the form of a Mission of Opportunity, and entails the access of competitively selected scientists based in ESA Member States to the IRIS mission's observations, under the form of Science Planners. A maximum of three scientists will be appointed through the present AO. The appointment period will be for one year.

Proposal Documentation

An invitation from the ESA Director of Science to respond to this Announcement of Opportunity can be found in the right-hand menu.

Full details of the appointment requirements and conditions, the required contents and format of the proposal, and the evaluation criteria are given in the Announcement of Opportunity document, available to download from the right-hand menu.

Proposal Submission

Proposals in PDF format must be submitted using the submission form linked below, before the deadline of 5 June 2023, 12:00 (noon) CEST

Schedule

The schedule for this AO is given in the table below:

Contact

Further queries should be addressed to:

Bernhard Fleck
ESA Project Scientist for IRIS
Email: Bernhard.Fleckesa.int

with copy to:

Luigi Colangeli
Science Programme Advisor
Email: Luigi.Colangeliesa.int

Last updated: 21 July 2023

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