Please Post/Circulate: Second announcement of a Conference ... THE CALIBRATION LEGACY OF THE ISO MISSION 5-9 February 2001 ISO Data Centre Villafranca del Castillo Madrid, Spain =============================================================== ---------------- |2nd Announcement| ---------------- Web site : http://www.iso.vilspa.esa.es/meetings/calibration/ Background __________ This is the second announcement of the conference "The Calibration Legacy of the ISO Mission", which will be held at the Data Centre of the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) in Villafranca del Castillo near Madrid (Spain) from the afternoon of February 5 to lunchtime February 9, 2001. The scope of the conference - outlined below - reflects the wide range of astronomical and instrumental calibration issues which have been tackled during the history of the ISO project to-date. Particular emphasis will be placed upon the relevance of the ISO experience to calibration of future space missions, such as, for example, FIRST, PLANCK, SIRTF or ASTRO-F. Contributions addressing the relevance for the calibration of ground-based or airborne systems are also welcome. The proceedings should gather, in one place, the legacy of the ISO calibration work, with emphasis upon clear and thorough exposition of the experience gained and of the lessons learned for the future. Venue for the meeting _____________________ ISO Data Centre, Villafranca del Castillo Satellite Tracking Station, Madrid, Spain. email: helpdesk@iso.vilspa.esa.es Scientific Organising Committee _______________________________ C. Cesarsky (ESO), P. Clegg (QMW), M. Cohen (Univ. of Calif., Berkeley), Th. de Graauw (SRON), M.F. Kessler (ESA/ISO) - co-chair, D. Lemke (MPIA), L. Metcalfe (ESA/ISO) - chair, H. Okuda (GAO), G. Pilbratt (ESA/FIRST), J-L. Puget (IAS), T. Soifer (IPAC), B. Swinyard (RAL), M. Werner (NASA). Local Organising Committee __________________________ J. Blommaert, P. Garcia-Lario, C. Gry, M.F. Kessler (Co-chair), R.J. Laureijs, K. Leech, J. Matagne, L. Metcalfe (Chair), T. Mueller, S. Ott, S. Peschke, A. Salama, B. Schulz, J. Villanueva, A. Willis. Preliminary Programme --------------------- It is envisaged that the meeting will be organised around the following sessions : Session 1: Inheritors of the Legacy - Future Missions and Systems o A series of presentations addressing future space astronomy missions and possibly other systems, and the current planning for their calibration. With these missions in mind, over the following days, we will assess the ISO experience. Session 2: Detector Physics o All infrared detectors suffer from a range of physical effects which complicate the characterisation of their response to incident light. In the case of photoconductors, as used for ISO, important effects include (unstable) dark-current, sensitivity to ionising radiation (see Session 3), baseline drifts and, importantly, complex temporal variations in responsivity. These modes of behaviour, and the latest methods under study for modeling and correcting them, will be addressed. Session 3: Effects of the space environment, and the Spacecraft performance o All spacecraft encounter varying degrees of disturbance, or even hazard, from the space radiation environment. We will discuss what we have learned about the properties of this environment and its effects on instrumentation. Other influences of the space environment to be addressed include thermal loading and stability, the demands of pointing and tracking, and the periods when the spacecraft is in eclipse during which Solar illumination and solar power are lost. These, of course bear strongly upon the performance of the Spacecraft itself. Session 4: Calibration sources and calibration source databases. o This session will cover the challenges involved in establishing databases of calibration sources, especially those generated specifically to support the ISO mission and now available to the whole community. Session 5: Ground-based calibration - how relevant and important IS it ? o Of course, all space-borne instruments need to be rigourously tested for engineering integrity on the ground before launch. Can these tests uncover all problems which might affect in-orbit operations ? How important is it to attempt to calibrate, rather than simply to test, an instrument on the ground ? How relevant is the ground-based calibration to the behaviour in-flight ? If relevant - how essential ? Could all calibration be done in-flight ?? Session 6: In-flight routine calibration. o A range of fundamental calibration topics will be addressed as they pertain to the ISO mission and instruments. Session 7: Cross-calibration. o The consistency of the calibration of the ISO instruments with each-other and with other systems, such as IRAS, COBE, KAO, UKIRT etc... will be discussed. Session 8: Data processing. o This session will address important issues influencing the scope and design of data reduction systems for complex missions. Automatic "pipeline" type data reduction and also more conventional Interactive Analysis systems will be covered. Session 9: Lessons Learned for future missions and wrap-up. o Stressing the key theme of the conference, this session aims to distill the essential conclusions and lessons learned. These might help to anticipate problems and difficulties in future missions, and help to eliminate them. A substantial period will be set aside for an open discussion. Calendar of events ------------------ Mid. Oct. 2000: Third announcement with definitive invited programme, call for abstracts and more logistical information. Mid. Nov. 2000: Deadline for submission of a one-page abstract. Early Jan. 2000: Fourth announcement, with final programme, lists of posters and talks. 05-09 Feb. 2001: The conference takes place. Proceedings ----------- The Proceedings will be published in the ESA Special Publications series within about six months of the meeting. In order to meet this schedule, the deadline for receipt of the manuscripts is set to 01 April 2001. Inputs for the Proceedings should be submitted electronically in LaTex format. A LaTeX template for the papers will be posted on the workshop WWW site prior to the meeting. A copy of the Proceedings will be sent to each participant. Registration form and abstract ------------------------------ Registration and submission of abstracts will be solicited at the time of the Third Announcement and publication of the list of invited speakers, in mid-October 2000. There will be no registration fee for the conference.