Gamma-ray astrophysics in the MeV energy range plays an important role for the understanding of many exciting stellar phenomena such as stellar explosions. Nuclei synthesized during supernova and nova explosions, some of them radioactive, are expelled to the interstellar medium, filling the Galaxy with radioactivity and explaining the origin of the elements in the Cosmos. The observation of such radioactivity, both at the stellar sources from where it comes from, or along the Galaxy, or extincted in dust and in meteorites fallen on Earth, shows the footprints of stellar explosions. Therefore, observations at around 1 MeV, the typical energy of the photons emitted by radioactive nuclei, are of the highest relevance to give a direct insight on the synthesis of elements and the explosion processes themselves.

Within the ASTRONET first joint call for proposals, "Common Tools for Future Large Submillimeter Facilities", the program "Adaptable Radiative Transfer Innovations for Submillimeter Telescopes (ARTIST)" was awarded funding to develop a next generation model suite for comprehensive multi-dimensional radiative transfer calculations of the dust and line emission, as well as their polarization, to help interpret observations with these groundbreaking facilities.

Extend the PARIS concept using signals at higher frequency bands

The ROM Meteorology SAF CDOP-2 is a EUMETSAT-funded project that keeps the operational use of the radio occultation system onboard the METOP satellite/s. The consortiium, lead by the DMI and complemented with UK Met. Office and ECMWF, is responsible for delivering temperature, pressure, and humidity profiles in real time and software products for numerical weather prediction models. From March 2012 to February 2017, the project is in the Second Continuous Development and Operational Phase, which will focus on monitoring activities and the maintenance and development of operators for GRAS observation in assimilation software for NWP.and for carrying out related research. But, currently the ROM SAF also uses RO data from the COSMIC mission.

AROSA

This project aims to develop a prototype of a software application devoted to schedule astronomical tasks at the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) observatory. The main purpose of the Scheduler for CTA (SCTA) is the allocation of multiple tasks to one single array or to multiple sub-arrays of telescopes, while minimizing the total execution time and maximizing the scientific return of the CTA project.

The Spanish PAZ satellite, a near-polar Low Earth Orbiter to be launched in 2012, was originally planned to observe the Earth with a SAR instrument solely. This projects aims to provide PAZ with further capabilities: the Global Navigation Satellite System Radio-Occultations (RO). The RO techniques are able to characterize the atmosphere in the form of vertical profiles of its refractivity, which later can be inverted into profiles of temperature, pressure and humidity. The original payload of PAZ already included the GPS IGOR+ receiver for orbit characterization, a receiver that is able to track RO signals. Minor modifications on IGOR+, together with deploying the dedicated antennas, are the basic steps required to achieve the desired capabilities. Moreover, polarimetric RO will be added, becoming a proof-of-concept experiment for detection of heavy precipitation. This will be the first time that polarimetric GPS signals are captured from Space, and the first attempt to monitor precipitation by means of RO techniques.

European scientists lead the world in the modelling of the formation of cosmic structures using computer simulations. The objective of the CosmoComp proposal is to reinforce Europe’s world standing in this field by training the next generation of computational cosmologists. CosmoComp builds on and extends existing research collaborations between major European centres, and has a global element with links to Latin America and the Far East. New training capacity will be developed through the network activities, which will benefit early stage researchers from across Europe, beyond the network members. We propose a series of ground breaking “grandchallenge” simulations which use the state of the art numerical techniques in the subject on some of the largest supercomputers available in Europe. Sun Microsystems and Microsoft will actively participate in our training programme, ensuring that CosmoComp will prepare young people for a research career in academia or industry.

Project includes LPF mission preparation and follow-up as well magnetic diagnostics research for LISA. It also includes GW Astronomy research: waveform generation of interesting sources and adapted data analysis techniques.

Feasibility study of LOFT, an ESA's M3 candidate mission