Astronomy Science Archive: maximising science from our missions

As for other ESA missions, spacecraft data arrive at ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Germany, via ground stations around the world.

Raw data are transmitted to the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Spain. From ESAC the data are distributed to the processing centres of the Science Ground Segment of the Euclid Consortium, based in a number of European states and the USA.

The Euclid Consortium (EC) is an organisation that brings together more than 2000 researchers in theoretical physics, astrophysics and space astronomy, and engineers, technicians, and administrative staff. It was selected by ESA as the single official scientific consortium having the responsibility of the scientific instruments, the production of the data and of leading the scientific exploitation of the mission until completion.

The EC Science Ground Segment is responsible for the design, development tests, integration and operation of the data processing tools, pipelines and data centres. The processed data products include calibrated images and spectra, catalogues of scientific measurements, and documentation.

At regular intervals, the treasure trove of Euclid’s processed data will be made publicly available to the community via the Astronomy Science Archive at ESAC. It is from ESAC that science operations are planned, and where all the scientific data produced by an ESA mission are archived and made accessible to the world.