THE NASA HERSCHEL SCIENCE CENTER
ANNOUNCEMENTS
We are currently in the process of migrating our NHSC home page to a
wiki based system. This will happen in the next two weeks. There may
be minor interruptions to our pages during this time. We appreciate your patience.
Presentations and other material associated with the recently
conducted NHSC Pre-launch Data are available
here.
The NHSC has been established at the Infrared Processing
Center (IPAC) under support from NASA, and began operations in 2001. The
NHSC will continue to operate throughout the lifetime of the Herschel
Mission, including the post-cryogen archival phase.
Goals of the NHSC:
- Ensure the necessary resources and tools are available to the US
scientific community to take advantage of the scientific capabilities
of the observatory in a timely manner.
- Ensure availability of Herschel science data for US archival
research on timescales equivalent to ESA.
- Act as an interface between the ESA Herschel Project and the US-
based scientific user community.
- Advocate US community needs with the HSC and ESA Project.
- Provide the US astronomical community with technical support
throughout all phases of the Herschel mission, from pre-launch through
to the transition to archival phase.
- Manage the US data analysis funding for the US user community.
What the NHSC is currently doing
A key charge of the NHSC charter is for the NHSC to provide a strong Herschel
knowledge base from which to support the US astronomical community in using the
Herschel Space Observatory in the best ways possible. In addition, the NHSC is
charged with developing tools that will support the US community in observation
preparation and data processing and analysis.
We are currently very much in a knowledge gathering and development phase. In order
to acquire intimate knowledge of instrument performance and characteristics, the
NHSC has established close working links with all three Instrument Control Centers.
The NHSC instrument support groups work within the ICCs as part of those teams,
gaining as much insight as possible about the instruments. The NHSC is also working
closely with the ESA Herschel Science Center in the development to key components of
the Herschel Ground System that are also vital to the US community.
The NHSC is participating in the following activities in preparation
for community support:
* Providing core code and support for the development of HSpot.
* Serving of background and confusion estimation tools via HSpot.
* Instrument testing and test data analysis and characterization.
* Developing instrument AOTs and instrument simulators.
* Developing and testing algorithms, and implementing code for data
analysis tools, including:
+ map making tools for the instrument imaging modes
+ heterodyne side-band separation and spectral line disentanglement tools
+ spectral defringing tools
The NHSC is attempting to contribute to all areas of Herschel development and testing
that will touch directly on how well the US community will be able to utilize the
Observatory to achieve the best science results possible. We do this by leading key
efforts, or participating in valuable ways in others.
This is a dynamic time in the development of the Herschel Space Observatory. Many
challenges await us. The NHSC in an excellent position to fruitfully support the US
community in its use of Herschel.
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