The OCA has identified SNOs of strategic importance for which it is specifically seeking applications.
Large-scale surveys, ground-based segments, and ground support for space missions.
The OCA is one of the largest contributors to the analysis and processing of data from the Gaia SNO, which is currently our flagship initiative in this field. Our second major contribution in this area is to the Euclid Survey SNO, with recognized contributions to detection algorithms and the creation and validation of galaxy catalogs. The OCA also demonstrates leadership in galactic surveys through its involvement in the WEAVE SNO. Instrumental developments related to the LISA mission, as well as the preparation of the ground segment and scientific support, are now of great importance to the OCA. The OCA is also expanding its role in the ground segments and scientific support for the PLATO mission.
This set of activities extends to the dissemination and utilization of data in this field, through several initiatives under ANO5. For the past two years, a digital SNO hub has brought together a team of three engineers to support developments in this area, thereby significantly strengthening the OCA data center, which until now had been organized around the CDOS DOMINO.
Instrumental Development and Digital Instrumentation.
The OCA’s national contribution consists of two main components. The first component involves significant national and international involvement in supporting optical interferometry instruments (SUV, Gravity+, MATISSE, CHARA), as well as instrumental developments for the validation and testing of the LISA optical system. The second aspect pertains to digital instrumentation and is led by SNO SKATE, with significant involvement in hardware co-design and a desired role in the future SKAO data center.
Multimessenger astrophysics.
This primarily concerns SNO Virgo for gravitational-wave astrophysics, through the production of calibrated data from the Virgo instrument, the analysis of LIGO and Virgo data, their dissemination and utilization, as well as the multi-wavelength follow-up of gravitational-wave alerts. This naturally extends to participation in the SVOM SNO for gamma-ray bursts.
Space and time metrology.
Particularly through the Laser Ranging Stations SNO, the OCA holds a leading position in terms of measurements of artificial satellites and the Moon, and offers prospects for interplanetary measurements and time transfer. The OCA is responsible for compiling the INPOP planetary and lunar ephemerides, which are considered global standards. A contribution to the SNO Clocks program rounds out the institution’s activities.
Details of the SNOs in Section AA in which the OCA is involved
ANO1 : Space and time metrology
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The MICROSCOPE project is a space mission designed to test the equivalence principle (EP) for two masses of different chemical compositions. This equivalence, initially observed experimentally, was established as a principle by Einstein in his theory of gravity. |
The OCA's MeO laser station operates continuously to support scientific space missions, Earth observation missions, lunar missions, and specific missions such as Jason-2, LRO (orbiting the Moon), and GNSS (Galileo, GPS, etc.). |
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The ILRS Service provides the scientific community with the coordinates of ground-based reference stations—which constitute the terrestrial reference frame—as well as parameters related to Earth's motion. |
The purpose of this service is to produce, distribute, and promote ephemerides and calendars at the national level. These activities cover the Sun, the Moon, the planets and their moons, certain man-made objects, and all the bodies in the Solar System. |
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This service represents the highest level of France’s infrastructure, providing all French users—whether in science, industry, or society—with access to the unit of time, the second, and to several atomic time scales, including French legal time. |
ANO2 : Instrumentation for Major Ground-Based and Space-Based Observatories
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CHARA (New SNO Optical Interferometry > 2027) CHARA is an optical array of 6 1m telescopes installed at Mount Wilson in California. It is equipped with the french SPICA visible instrument. This service supports the use of the CHARA Array (SPICA + MIRCx/MYSTIC infrared instruments) for the french community |
MATISSE is currently the world’s most powerful interferometric instrument in the mid-infrared range. It is used to study the environments of young stars as well as those of supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies. |
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Euclid is an ESA medium-class space mission studying the expansion of the Universe over the last 10 billion years. Euclid will prove the cosmic eras from before the acceleration to current times. |
The main objective of the service is to support the INSIGHT mission, which has deployed a Geophysical Observatory on the surface of Mars to conduct simultaneous seismic, geodetic, and magnetic measurements. |
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The GRAVITY+ project aims to improve the performance of GRAVITY (a nominee for the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics) by several orders of magnitude through the deployment of four Extreme Adaptive Optics (XAO) systems and four Laser Guide Stars (LGS), distributed across each of the VLT’s 8-meter telescopes. These upgrades, combined with other enhancements planned for GRAVITY+ (dual-field capability, improved fringe-tracking performance, etc.), will enable a true leap in performance (100x increase in sky coverage, 50x increase in sensitivity, and 10x increase in contrast) and allow for the detection of many new objects (e.g., AGNs at z~2, exoplanets with deltaK > 13 mag). |
LISA LISA will observe gravitational wave sources from space for the first time. The LISA National Observation Service is responsible for the design and development of ground-based equipment to test, validate, and characterize LISA’s interferometric core, as well as for the design, development, implementation, and operation of the ground segment. |
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PLATO (an acronym for PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) is a space observatory developed by the European Space Agency, one of whose main objectives is the discovery and characterization of Earth-like exoplanets orbiting nearby stars. |
SVOM is a Franco-Chinese gamma-ray and X-ray space observatory project designed to detect gamma-ray bursts and determine their characteristics. |
ANO3 : National and International Observation Stations
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The SUV (VLTI User Services) provides support to users of the VLTI's second-generation instruments through personalized assistance with observation planning and data processing for the GRAVITY and MATISSE instruments. |
Virgo is an interferometer, operated by the Franco-Italian EGO consortium, that detects gravitational waves. The Virgo collaboration works with the LIGO collaboration in the U.S., and the two teams analyze the data jointly. |
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The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be the world’s largest radio telescope. This network of antennas, which will be built in South Africa and Australia, will cover a vast frequency range, with a total collecting area of one square kilometer. |
ANO4 : Large-scale surveys and deep observations
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A cornerstone of the European Space Agency (ESA), Gaia is a satellite whose primary mission is to catalog more than one billion stars in the Milky Way. Gaia provides an unprecedented wealth of information about our galaxy, enabling a detailed study of its three-dimensional structure, kinematics, origin, and evolution. |
WEAVE is a multi-object spectrograph for the 4-meter William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands. The OCA is focusing in particular on a galactic archaeology survey, for which WEAVE will supplement the data collected by the Gaia mission. |
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Euclid is an ESA medium-class space mission studying the expansion of the Universe over the last 10 billion years. Euclid will prove the cosmic eras from before the acceleration to current times. |
ANO5 : Data Processing and Archiving Center
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The DOMINO Observation and Services Data Center supports the National Observation Services operated in whole or in part by the Côte d'Azur Observatory in order to facilitate their development, evolution, and sustainability for the benefit of users. |
MP3C (Minor Planet Physical Properties Catalog) is a relational database of the physical and dynamic properties of asteroids. The purpose of this service is to provide access to both the dynamic and physical data for these objects through a single interface. |
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The SPHERE Data Center is a data processing center serving all SPHERE observational PI. The goal is to optimize the scientific return from the extreme adaptive optics instrument on the VLT. |
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MOIO (Methods and Tools for Optical Interferometry) Within the JMMC National Thematic Cluster, the MOIO SNO is responsible for developing, monitoring, and maintaining the software necessary for the optimal use of optical interferometers available to the scientific community, notably ESO’s VLTI and the CHARA interferometer. |
The service aims to generate value-added data related to observations of large-scale structures, primarily in the millimeter, infrared, and optical bands, and to make this data available to the community through data dissemination, processing, and visualization tools. |
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The 3SOLEIL observation program (“Ground-based Monitoring of the Sun and Cosmic Radiation”), led by the Paris Observatory and the Côte d'Azur Observatory, is dedicated to the observation of the Sun and phenomena related to its magnetic activity. |
Virtual Observatory Solar System Portal (VOSSP) The Virtual Observatory Solar System Portal (VOSSP) offers to the community and the grand public many tools dedicated to Solar system bodies: databases of dynamical and physical properties, ephemerides of position, orientation, phenomena... |
ANO6 : Solar monitoring, Sun-Earth interactions, Earth's environment
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The 3SOLEIL observation program (“Ground-based Monitoring of the Sun and Cosmic Radiation”), led by the Paris Observatory and the Côte d'Azur Observatory, is dedicated to the observation of the Sun and phenomena related to its magnetic activity. |