Projects
Solar Orbiter
Solar Orbiter is a mission dedicated to solar and heliospheric physics. It was selected as the first medium-class mission of ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Programme. Solar Orbiter will be used to examine how the Sun creates and controls the heliosphere, the vast bubble of charged particles blown by the solar wind into the interstellar medium. Scheduled for launch in February 2020, the mission will provide close-up, high-latitude observations of the Sun.
The Spectrometer Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) STIX applies a Fourier-imaging technique using a set of tungsten grids (at pitches from 0.038 to 1 mm) in front of 32 pixelized CdTe detectors to provide imaging spectroscopy of solar thermal and non-thermal hard X-ray emissions from 4 to 150 keV
Next Generation Recognised Maritime Picture (NG-RMP)
Within the Next Generation Recognised Maritime Picture project, two major objectives have been focused on: firstly the integration of several vessel information data sources that are not currently used by the Irish Navy Services for generation of the RMP, ranging from S-AIS data, CCTV footage available in major ports, and vessel data from port and shipping authorities; secondly the addition of an automated decision support system which will use the underlying data captured from the multiple data sources to generate a dynamic and improved RMP. The decision support system will use state of the art data mining (machine learning), data analysis (AI) and simulations to provide for early identification of unusual behaviour of vessels and to alert RMP operators for planning of future investigation of these vessels by the INS. By using these emerging and state of the art technologies and the approach described above, the Irish Naval Service expects to improve its efficiency and capabilities through a better assessment of potential "vessels of interest" that need to be investigated further by both personnel within the operations centre and deployed naval vessels.
ESA Atmospheric Validation Data Centre (EVDC)
The ESA Atmospheric Validation Data Centre (EVDC) serves as a central, long-term repository in Europe for archiving and exchange of correlative data for validation of atmospheric composition products from satellite platforms. EVDC builds on the previous ENVISAT Cal/Val database system in operation at NILU since the early 2000s, and provides tools for extraction, conversion and archival of a large amount of EO data. The objective of the EVDC is to provide an online information system that supports users in managing and exploiting campaign datasets for Earth Observation missions and applications.
To facilitate exchange of validation data among investigators and missions a common effort between the GEOMS group that consists of representatives of NASA, ESA, the NDACC and related universities and organizations, has led to a set of harmonized guidelines, The Generic Earth Observation Metadata Standard (GEOMS) guidelines. EVDC is fully compatible with GEOMS. Through collaboration with the ECMWF, EVDC is providing access to daily updated analyses and forecast data files of global gridded meteorological parameters.
Prevention, protection and REaction to CYber attackS to critical infrastructurEs (PRECYSE)
The strategic goal of PRECYSE is to define, develop and validate a methodology, an architecture and a set of technologies and tools to improve -by design- the security, reliability, and resilience of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) systems supporting Critical Infrastructures (CI).
This goal can be mapped into a set of specific Scientific and Technical objectives:
Objective 1. To specify a methodology in order to identify the assets, associated threats and vulnerabilities to thus improve the level of security for CI. This methodology will be based on best practice and standards for critical infrastructure protection and security information management, and will be presented to relevant standardisation organisations. Objective 2. To specify and develop a security architecture that improves resilience. This architecture will not be developed from scratch or as a standalone element, but instead it will encompass a set of architectural principles -including well proven methods and best practice- and the tools to instantiate them into existing or to-be-created CI architectures. Objective 3. Develop a set of tools and technologies for the protection of CI and the prevention of cyber attacks against them. Objective 4. Develop a set of tools and technologies for the early warning of attacks to CI and the issuing of countermeasures. This will include processes, procedures and technologies that alert the managers of a CI when an attack or intrusion is taking place, as well as a series of countermeasure tools, technologies and processes to defeat the intrusion and quickly restore the CI to a fully functional, safe and secure state. Objective 5. Instantiation of an integrated prototype of the methodologies, technologies and tools developed in the project (one lab prototype in the first implementation iteration), so that PRECYSE results can be evaluated in realistic conditions within two demonstrations in the fields of Energy and Transport (two full demonstration in the final implementation iteration). Objective 6. Investigation of the ethical and privacy issues as well as the legal and policy implications associated or relevant to the developments carried out by the project. Objective 7. Dissemination of the project activities and results and liaison with relevant research initiatives and standardization for a – both research and industry related- in order to ensure the transferability, impact and exploitability of the results of PRECYSE. This includes user’s community building among users and management of the project’s Users Groups
International Procedure Viewer (IPV)
The International Procedure Viewer platform assists astronauts in their daily execution of procedures onboard the International Space Station. International Procedure Viewer (IPV) technology provides a list of instructions to Astronauts to help them perform manual and often complex tasks using electronic interactive procedures. This technology was launched to the International Space station in 2005 and has been a key tool used by astronauts on a daily basis with over 10,000 procedures in the system. The system has grown to include a mobile and tablet version, advanced editor together with 3D Model enhanced procedures.
RESOURCE FOR EMERGENCY SERVICES TO ACCESS COMMAND AND CONTROL DATA USING SATELLITE AND HYBRID TECHNOLOGIES (REACT)
REACT system guarantees emergency services responding to major incidents flawless communication using satellite-based data, video streaming and voice communication. The REACT project involves the project consortium working with the Irish Dublin Fire Brigade to develop a system that will ensure constant and reliable communication for exchange of real-time information between deployed emergency response personnel and its relevant command centre during a crisis or disaster situation.
The REACT project proposes to address the limitation of the current dependence on mobile technology by developing a hybrid solution for the emergency services that intelligently combines the usage of mobile and satellite communication for transmission of information. The system will be designed for use not only in rural areas where standard mobile communication may be limited or unavailable but also during a major crisis when standard networks are overloaded.
Deployable SAR Integrated Chain with Unmanned Systems (DARIUS)
Unmanned systems through military programs and numerous R&D projects are now becoming operationally mature. Their use in Search and Rescue operations can now be envisaged to enhance first responder capabilities and intervene in hazardous areas. For cost and procedural reasons however, the market is still very fragmented and business models are unclear. The DARIUS project will leverage previous R&D efforts on technologies and possible added-value of these systems for situation awareness to envisage their adaptation and integration in complex multi-national/agency SAR operations. The main objective of DARIUS is to reach effective levels of interoperability so these systems can be shared between several organisations. This objective will be achieved in designing a Generic Ground Station with associated proposed standards, a full integration in the command and control cycle and a consistent communication network. In addition, DARIUS will adapt the existing unmanned systems and their payloads (air, ground and maritime) to the specificities of the Search and Rescue missions. DARIUS solutions will be evaluated in real conditions through 3 scenarios (Urban, forest fires and maritime SAR) designed by the end-users.
Federation of distributed data sources and Scientific Teams (FOREST)
FOREST project will deliver beyond state of the art searching and data retrieval services in the domain of Heliophysics. The FOREST data model and semantic description will allow complex data queries to be run yielding access to previously unseen or inaccessible relationships. The data will then be presented through a web browser interface using the latest HTML5 and Web 3.0 technologies providing the ability view and interact with the observations Each space mission generates and formatted for the particular needs of the space mission and scientific research related to the mission.
Therefore the scope of the FOREST project is through the application of the latest in web services to interface with data sets, the use of advanced semantic web concepts for data classification and usage of ontologies and the creation of powerful semantic based searching of the data and visualisation of the results from several data sets simultaneously FOREST should provide a powerful solution for space scientists to access research information.
Heliophysics Integrated Observatory (HELIO)
The Heliophysics Integrated Observatory, HELIO, is a Research Infrastructure that addresses the needs of a broad community of researchers in Heliophysics; it has deployed a distributed network of services that provides a rich search environment and the most comprehensive integrated information system in this domain. The architecture of HELIO, based around multiple instances of services, has resulted in an infrastructure that is resilient, extensible and sustainable.
HELIO provides access to data from more than 200 instruments from observatories throughout the heliosphere and the tools to make intelligent choices about which are of interest. The Event Catalogue contains lists describing events that have occurred in different part of the heliosphere while the Feature Catalogue describes the evolution of solar and heliospheric features. Other metadata services provide information about which instruments are suitably located to make the required observations and a propagation model helps to tie the observations together. The services can be accessed through a very capable GUI, or orchestrated using Workflow or scripting capabilities.