Gaia - CU9: Delivering Gaia to the Community
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Institute of Astronomy
Abstract
Gaia is the cornerstone ESA mission which will provide the first astrometric census of the sky. One billion sources will be surveyed, allowing major advances in Galactic structure and evolution, stellar evolution, solar system dynamics, exoplanetary systems, cosmology and fundamental physics. Gaia is scheduled for launch in December 2013. Its huge data set will revolutionise much of astrophysics, provided astronomers can access and understand the data. This proposal is to support the UK leadership roles in Gaia data delivery to users, especially in archive design, science requirements specification, documentation, and support for public-access interface software.
Planned Impact
While the primary motivation for Gaia is to revolutionise our understanding of our Universe, Gaia is also a software and technology mission. Gaia UK technology development has two aspects. Industrial developments, for example of new
classes of CCDs, ESA-funded at e2v, are already proving of wider importance, have earned the UK the Euclid contract, and are generating other new international markets. Precision control systems, and on-board real-time image processing
systems (Astrium Stevenage) are intended to be applied much more widely. There are many ESA-UK industry-UK academic partnerships built on Gaia.
The majority of development however involves fast complex processing of huge data volumes, and the development of tools to allow fast public access to huge and complex data sets. This naturally builds on and expands the eSci and virtual
observatory developments of late. The Cambridge developments in very large database systems (Hadoop) have been adopted mission-wide, illustrating one more area of technical leadership. Gaia will be the next `big beast` in data volumes,
with Gaia learning experience already showing applications to astronomy (Euclid) and wider implications for science and aspects of the digital economy. Big Data problems generically involve gathering subsets of the data for further exploration
and visualising those data in some fashion. The techniques already in use in TOPCAT provide some important software approaches, and the developments to be driven by this work will be applicable to other fields, for example visualising
remote sensing data monitoring deforestation.
classes of CCDs, ESA-funded at e2v, are already proving of wider importance, have earned the UK the Euclid contract, and are generating other new international markets. Precision control systems, and on-board real-time image processing
systems (Astrium Stevenage) are intended to be applied much more widely. There are many ESA-UK industry-UK academic partnerships built on Gaia.
The majority of development however involves fast complex processing of huge data volumes, and the development of tools to allow fast public access to huge and complex data sets. This naturally builds on and expands the eSci and virtual
observatory developments of late. The Cambridge developments in very large database systems (Hadoop) have been adopted mission-wide, illustrating one more area of technical leadership. Gaia will be the next `big beast` in data volumes,
with Gaia learning experience already showing applications to astronomy (Euclid) and wider implications for science and aspects of the digital economy. Big Data problems generically involve gathering subsets of the data for further exploration
and visualising those data in some fashion. The techniques already in use in TOPCAT provide some important software approaches, and the developments to be driven by this work will be applicable to other fields, for example visualising
remote sensing data monitoring deforestation.
Organisations
- University of Cambridge (Lead Research Organisation)
- Leiden University (Collaboration)
- STFC DiRAC Data Analytic Cluster (HPC Facility Cambridge) (Collaboration)
- National Institute for Astrophysics (Collaboration)
- British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (Collaboration)
- European Space Agency (Collaboration)
- The Institute For Research In Schools (Collaboration)
- Airbus Group (Collaboration)
Publications
Amaral L
(2019)
White dwarf and subdwarf stars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 14
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Arenou F.
(2017)
Gaia Data Release 1: Catalogue validation
in ArXiv e-prints
Arviset C.
(2016)
The Gaia Archive: VO in Action in the Big Data Era
in Astronomical Surveys and Big Data
Astraatmadja T
(2016)
ESTIMATING DISTANCES FROM PARALLAXES. II. PERFORMANCE OF BAYESIAN DISTANCE ESTIMATORS ON A GAIA-LIKE CATALOGUE
in The Astrophysical Journal
Babusiaux C
(2018)
Observational hertzsprung-russell diagrams
Babusiaux C
(2018)
Gaia Data Release 2. Observational Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams
Belokurov Vasily
(2016)
Clouds, Streams and Bridges. Redrawing the blueprint of the Magellanic System with Gaia DR1
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Blagorodnova N
(2014)
gs-tec: the Gaia spectrophotometry transient events classifier
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Blagorodnova N
(2015)
Gaia transient detection efficiency: hunting for nuclear transients
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bouquillon
(2016)
Gaia-GBOT asteroid finding programme (gbot.obspm.fr)
in AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts #48
| Title | Gaia artist in residence |
| Description | one million objects in space exhibition |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Impact | lots of interest in science from the arts community |
| URL | http://gaia.ac.uk/latest-events |
| Description | delivery of the ESA Gaia mission data to the UK public. Definition of user interfaces. Provision of key supporting software tools. Documentation. Especially documentation! Delivered 2nd Gaia data release, to massive global public interest. Also delivered and documented Gaia data release EDR3, again to massive community impact and interest. Also a very high level of media interest, including a BBC/US-NOVA documentary. This was part of the "Universe" series. The BBC/world version was led by Brian Cox, with some UK scientists (incl Gilmore) contributing. The PBS version was led by Gilmore, with many young scientists contributing. Both were very highly regarded. There continue to be many other BBC TV and media programs. |
| Exploitation Route | model for other ground and space mission data systems tested application to UK Human Genome Project HPC systems |
| Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Creative Economy Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Education Culture Heritage Museums and Collections Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| URL | https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/data-release-2 |
| Description | provide the model for definition of the interfaces between potential users and very large, complex data sets widely used to illustrate Big Data challenges in fields outside academic - eg navigation trained highly-skilled people who moved on to industry and other challenges |
| First Year Of Impact | 2016 |
| Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education |
| Impact Types | Societal Economic |
| Description | support for uk astronomy research community |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | trained UK scientsists in Gaia data access. In consequence UK authors are the largest national contributor to Gaia research papers. |
| Description | IRIS: Expanding Data Lake Access Services at CASU / IRIS hardware allocation grant for FY20 for IoA, Cambridge University |
| Amount | £150,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/V006231/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2020 |
| End | 03/2021 |
| Description | UK Gaia CU9: Delivering Gaia to the Community: 2019-2024 |
| Amount | £588,912 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/S002103/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2019 |
| End | 03/2023 |
| Title | Gaia-ESO Survey |
| Description | building the first large trans-european collaboration in stellar spectroscopy |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | the methodology we developed is the basis for all major future planned stellar spectroscopic surveys. |
| Title | design improvement sto the ESA ESAC database system |
| Description | The ESA Gaia data are hosted inside ESAC, the main ESA data system. UL-led improvements to the design of ESAC to manage the large and complex Gaia data set are underway. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Gaia is one of the most popular space data sets worldwide. The design advances are being made available to support the UK IRIS national data-intensive computing system |
| Title | operational improvements to the HADOOP data processing system |
| Description | the Cambridge-based Gaia HADOOP data processing system was used during commissioning by the Cambridge/UK HPC system team to enhance security processes on multi-user HADOOP systems. This will influence design and implementation of the UK national genomics data system |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This will influence design and implementation of the UK national genomics data system |
| Title | 46 open clusters GaiaDR2 HR diagrams |
| Description | VizieR online Data Catalogue associated with article published in journal Astronomy & Astrophysics with title 'Gaia Data Release 2: Observational Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams.' (bibcode: 2018A&A...616A..10G) |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/616/A10 |
| Title | Gaia DR2 |
| Description | VizieR Gaia DR2 Catalogue is the CDS version of data provided by the European Space Agency, 2018, Gaia DR2, Version 1.0. https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-ycsawu7 |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/I/345 |
| Title | Gaia data release DR1 |
| Description | the first ever data giving a 3-D measure of the local universe. A unique moment in history |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Gaia DR1 revolutionised study of the Milky Way, stellar evolution, and very much more. |
| URL | https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/data-release-1 |
| Title | Gaia data release DR2 |
| Description | the first ever 6-D view of our local universe. Opening a new window. This is a unique advance in astrophysics. precise data for 1.7billion sources. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | over 800 scientific papers have been published based on Gaia data in 2018 alone. |
| URL | https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/data-release-2 |
| Description | Cambridge DiRAC |
| Organisation | STFC DiRAC Data Analytic Cluster (HPC Facility Cambridge) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | state of the art hardware system which provided expertise and experience to support Cambridge's DiRAC leadership role. |
| Collaborator Contribution | experience with security of a real large data system |
| Impact | knowledge |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | European Space Agency - ESA |
| Organisation | European Space Agency |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | define, develop and implement the spectro-photometric, spectroscopic and crowded imaging data processing system for the ESA Gaia mission; discover and publish science alerts from Gaia data; manage the data release documentation system, design (aspects of ) the archive structure |
| Collaborator Contribution | manage the Gaia mission, host and operate the public data access system through ESAC |
| Impact | during 2018 over 800 science papers were published from public Gaia data |
| Description | Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (Gaia DPAC) |
| Organisation | Leiden University |
| Department | Leiden Observatory |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The UK team is a major member of the Gaia DPAC and is responsible for (Spectro)Photometric processing and contributions to the ESA Gaia data delivery. See https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium for details of the DPAC. |
| Collaborator Contribution | See https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium for details of the DPAC. Note that Leiden University is listed as the partner. This is the host institute of the current Chair of the DPAC Executive. The consortium is composed on institutes from many countries. |
| Impact | The DPAC is responsible for the delivery of the data products from the ESA Gaia mission - see https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/data |
| Start Year | 2006 |
| Description | Gaia alerts schools collaboration |
| Organisation | The Institute For Research In Schools |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | we provide gaia Alert science discoveries suitable for school follow-up, and information to support the project |
| Collaborator Contribution | They find the school, identify the class, organise the work, and deliver the results. They aslo bring the school class to media events. |
| Impact | media events |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | Gais-ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey |
| Organisation | National Institute for Astrophysics |
| Department | Arcetri Observatory |
| Country | Italy |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | co-leads |
| Collaborator Contribution | co-leads |
| Impact | 450-person collaboration, 96 Institutes, over 70 papers so far. This is the biggest large-telescope stellar survey project ever attempted. |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | continuing collaboration with aerospace industry |
| Organisation | Airbus Group |
| Department | Airbus Defence and Space UK |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | joint development of outreach, joint development of policy meetings, prize talks to invited groups, prize award ceremonies |
| Collaborator Contribution | joint development of outreach, joint development of policy meetings |
| Impact | joint outreach activities - support for most of the many listed elsewhere (about 40 events in total). Presentations/interactions with policy groups |
| Description | continuing collaboration with public media |
| Organisation | British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) |
| Department | BBC Scotland |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | this partnership covers all relevant UK and international media. It includes all the UK national newspapers, many international news agencies and sites, and many free-lance journalists, as well as specialist science media and journals. This is an ongoing more frequent than monthly series of interactions |
| Collaborator Contribution | they disseminate the information |
| Impact | major education of public, influence of decision makers on space science outcomes |
| Title | TopCat |
| Description | TOPCAT is an interactive graphical viewer and editor for tabular data. Its aim is to provide most of the facilities that astronomers need for analysis and manipulation of source catalogues and other tables, though it can be used for non-astronomical data as well. It understands a number of different astronomically important formats (including FITS, VOTable and CDF) and more formats can be added. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | very widely used. It is the basis of much research literature. |
| URL | http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/topcat/ |
| Description | Big Bang Fair 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | BigBang fair visited by 1000's of school pupils for STEM impact |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |
| Description | Big Bang Fair March 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | "Big Bang" national science fair at NEC Birmingham |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017,2018 |
| URL | https://www.thebigbangfair.co.uk |
| Description | Gaia at the British Science Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Raising awareness of Gaia science mission by meeting general public. Increased visibility of Gaia mission. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/british-science-festival |
| Description | Gaia data release media events |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | media event |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Mapping the Stars: Tania Kovats in Conversation with Professor Gerry Gilmore |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Professor Gilmore and Tania Kovats will look back over the year and will discuss the history of mapping the stars as well as the cultural implications of Gaia. Built on art-science colaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://gaia.ac.uk/events/archive/mapping-stars-tania-kovats-conversation-professor-gerry-gilmore |
| Description | NV201A13: Space as a Context for Teaching Science - The Gaia Spacecraft Mission to Map the Milky Way |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was a 4-day (3-day residential course followed by one day conference) CPD course for further education lecturers, post-16 teachers and secondary teachers. Increased visibility of Gaia project with UK educators. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | https://www.sciencelearningcentres.org.uk/cpd/ondemand/7782b195-330d-4511-80df-4f1a5e2d7c80/space-as... |
| Description | Stargazing Live 2014 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Gaia was featured in Episode 3 of the very popular BBC Two TV programme Stargazing Live. Lots of questions from public to live TV show. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://gaia.ac.uk/events/archive/stargazing-live-2014 |
| Description | TV interview |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | TV interview which was picked up internationally and by UK government for STEM publicity |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.cambridge-tv.co.uk/Professor-Gerry-Gilmore-Gaia-Satellite/ |
| Description | The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2014 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Members of the Gaia team on hand to explain the exciting science behind the Gaia mission to members of the public. Raised profile of the UK participation in the Gaia mission. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://sse.royalsociety.org/2014/ |
| Description | cambridge science festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | several public lectures over 2 weeks and an open day |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017 |
| URL | https://www.sciencefestival.cam.ac.uk/ |
| Description | media interviews, TV and other media broadcasts |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This groups media interviews, TV and radio and other interviews and enquiries, press releases and feedback on those. These happen on average once per 2 weeks, from global sources. Initially many start as background enquiries, so the input determines what is given high media profile. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019 |
| Description | national Gaia outreach programme |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Type Of Presentation | Keynote/Invited Speaker |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | dozens of events, with up to 3million audience stfc and uksa are setting up a corrdinated national program. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012,2013,2014 |
| URL | http://gaia.ac.uk |
| Description | public lecture ROG London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | public talk, london |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | public open days, MSSL, Cambridge and Edinburgh, RAL, Leicester |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | these events happen several times per year, at each of the 5 main Gaia data centres, and are a primary interface between institutes and the public. They are hugely popular and Gaia display are always requested. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019 |
| URL | http://www.gaia.ac.uk/latest-events |
| Description | radio interview - naked scientists |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | radio interview, with international re-broadcast |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017 |
| Description | talk to IoP members, July 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | public lecture and discussion |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | talks to public groups/societies/clubs |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | talks are given at least once per month to invited groups. these include societies, industry talks, policy talks, student groups, and many other clubs and groups. Some are private dinners for senior figures, some per-/post dinner talks for policy/industry groups, many for the interested public. They are gathered under this item, but include some 15-20 events every calendar year. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017,2018,2019 |
| Description | teacher CPD event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | teacher Gaia science CPD event |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016 |
| Description | we run a very active Gaia outreach and CPD sheme |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | we take part in dozens of activities, talks, etc. see the list at http://gaia.ac.uk much interest |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://gaia.ac.uk |