SYRTE and PARSEC Contribution for the GBOT/GAIA Moving Target Astrometry

International audienceGAIA will measure to unprecedent precision positions, movements, and parallaxes, by the superposition of two fields apart by 174deg, taken from the L2 Earth-Sun, about 1.5 million km from the ground. To achieve the aimed precision for stars, and particularly for solar system bodies, the instantaneous position and speed of the satellite must be known respectively to 150m and 2.5 mm/s. This translates to the GBOT (Ground Base Optical Tracking) requirement to deliver quasi-daily positions of the satellite at the accuracy of 10mas relatively to the GAIA's reference frame itself (Altmann et al., 2010, this proceeding). The challenge increases because the satellite will probably be dimmer than R 17th magnitude and will be moving on average at 30mas/s, and switching hemispheres between summer and winter. We will present the strategies worked out for the satellite centroid's determination, including tracking mode, binning, super-gaussian fit, blind co-addition of images; as well as the astrometric reduction open code designed to cope with this variety of conditions. We will show applications of these resources to observations of the satellites WMAP and PLANCK, and to fast asteroids

SYRTE and PARSEC Contribution for the GBOT/GAIA Moving Target Astrometry

International audienceGAIA will measure to unprecedent precision positions, movements, and parallaxes, by the superposition of two fields apart by 174deg, taken from the L2 Earth-Sun, about 1.5 million km from the ground. To achieve the aimed precision for stars, and particularly for solar system bodies, the instantaneous position and speed of the satellite must be known respectively to 150m and 2.5 mm/s. This translates to the GBOT (Ground Base Optical Tracking) requirement to deliver quasi-daily positions of the satellite at the accuracy of 10mas relatively to the GAIA's reference frame itself (Altmann et al., 2010, this proceeding). The challenge increases because the satellite will probably be dimmer than R 17th magnitude and will be moving on average at 30mas/s, and switching hemispheres between summer and winter. We will present the strategies worked out for the satellite centroid's determination, including tracking mode, binning, super-gaussian fit, blind co-addition of images; as well as the astrometric reduction open code designed to cope with this variety of conditions. We will show applications of these resources to observations of the satellites WMAP and PLANCK, and to fast asteroids

Ground Based Optical Tracking of Gaia

International audienceGaia's unprecedented ambitions regarding astrometric accuracy and precision require a level of knowledge of the position and velocity vector of the satellite itself not required in other satellite mission. Thus the usual methods of determining these quantities do not suffice and new approaches must be invoked. One of these is the Ground Based Optical Tracking (GBOT) campaign

Ground Based Optical Tracking of Gaia

International audienceGaia's unprecedented ambitions regarding astrometric accuracy and precision require a level of knowledge of the position and velocity vector of the satellite itself not required in other satellite mission. Thus the usual methods of determining these quantities do not suffice and new approaches must be invoked. One of these is the Ground Based Optical Tracking (GBOT) campaign

Gaia-GBOT Pipeline: A Precise Astrometric Measuring Tool for Moving Celestial Bodies

International audienceThis talk presents the function and the tasks of GBOT group within Gaia mission by ESA, and more specifically an overview of all the capabilities of Gaia-GBOT pipeline for the high precision astrometry of moving celestial bodies

Gaia-GBOT Pipeline: A Precise Astrometric Measuring Tool for Moving Celestial Bodies

International audienceThis talk presents the function and the tasks of GBOT group within Gaia mission by ESA, and more specifically an overview of all the capabilities of Gaia-GBOT pipeline for the high precision astrometry of moving celestial bodies

Gaia-GBOT Pipeline: A Precise Astrometric Measuring Tool for Moving Celestial Bodies

International audienceThis talk presents the function and the tasks of GBOT group within Gaia mission by ESA, and more specifically an overview of all the capabilities of Gaia-GBOT pipeline for the high precision astrometry of moving celestial bodies

GBOT - ground based optical tracking of the Gaia satellite

International audienceGaia, the 1 billion star, high precision, astrometric satellite will revolutionise our understanding in many areas of astronomy ranging from bodies in our Solar System to the formation and structure of our Galaxy. To fully achieve the ambitious goals of the mission, and to completely eliminate effects such as aberration, we must know the position and velocity vectors of the spacecraft as it orbits the Lagrange point to an accuracy greater than can be obtained by traditional radar techniques, leading to the decision to conduct astrometric observations of the Gaia satellite itself from the ground. Therefore the Ground Based Optical Tracking (GBOT) project was formed and a small worldwide network using 1-2 m telescopes established in order to obtain one measurement per day of a precision/accuracy of 20 mas. We will discuss all aspects of GBOT, setup, feasibility considerations, preliminary tests of observing methods, partner observatories, the pipeline/database (see also contribution by Bouquillon et al.<SUP>1</SUP>)

GBOT: ground based optical tracking of the Gaia satellite

International audienceGaia, the 1 billion star, high precision, astrometric satellite will revolutionise our understanding in many areas of astronomy ranging from bodies in our Solar System to the formation and structure of our Galaxy. To fully achieve the ambitious goals of the mission, and to completely eliminate effects such as aberration, we must know the position and velocity vectors of the spacecraft as it orbits the Lagrange point to an accuracy greater than can be obtained by traditional radar techniques, leading to the decision to conduct astrometric observations of the Gaia satellite itself from the ground. Therefore the Ground Based Optical Tracking (GBOT) project was formed and a small worldwide network using 1-2 m telescopes established in order to obtain one measurement per day of a precision/accuracy of 20 mas. We will discuss all aspects of GBOT, setup, feasibility considerations, preliminary tests of observing methods, partner observatories, the pipeline/database (see also contribution by Bouquillon et al.<SUP>1</SUP>)

Quasi-automatic software support for Gaia ground based optical tracking

International audienceThe ESA Gaia satellite mission will create a catalog of 1 billion stars with unprecedented astrometric precision. To achieve its aim in terms of astrometric precision, a ground based optical tracking campaign (GBOT) of the satellite itself is necessary during the five years of the mission. We present an overview of the GBOT project as a whole in another contribution<SUP>1 </SUP> (Altmann et al. in SPIE category "observatory operations"). The present paper will focus more specifically on the software solutions developed by the GBOT group