CONSERT bistatic radar on the Rosetta mission: observations and main scientific results

5 giugno 2018

Time: h.10:45
Location: Room Garda, Via Sommarive 5 - Polo Ferrari 1 (Povo, TN)

Speaker

Prof. Wlodek Kofman - Univ. Grenoble Alpes, France
Prof. Alain Herique - Univ. Grenoble Alpes, France

Abstract

The structure and composition of cometary nuclei is one of the major unknowns in cometary science. These were the scientific objectives of the Comet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radiowave Transmission (CONSERT) aboard ESA spacecraft Rosetta. CONSERT was a bi-static radar composed of two parts, one on the lander Philae on the comet’s surface, and another on Rosetta spacecraft. CONSERT operated during 9 hours after the landing and made measurements through the small lobe (head) of 67P/ C-G. The analysis and interpretation have been done using measurements of the propagation time of the signal through the comet, the shape of the received signals and then 3D modeling of the propagation through the comet. We will describe the measurements that explored the interior of the comet, explain the data analyses and present a synthesis of the obtained results, and their interpretation in term of the internal structure and possible composition.

About the Speaker

Prof. Wlodek Kofman (Honorary Fellow of UK Royal Astronomical Society, Air and Space Academy (AAE) member) received his PhD in signal processing and Doctorat D’Etat in geophysics at University of Grenoble in 1972 and 1979 respectively.
He is Research Director Emeritus at IPAG, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Professor at Space Research Centre at PAS Warsaw. His main research activity is concerned with issues of signal processing, radar technique, plasma physics, study of earth high atmosphere and ionosphere, planetary surface and subsurface. He was Principal Investigator of the CONSERT experiment on ESA cornerstone mission ROSETTA (1994 – 2018).
He is Co-Investigator of sounder radars instruments on ESA, NASA and JAXA space missions. He was vice chairman (1994-1997) and then chairman (1997-1999) of the Council of international incoherent scatter radars facility EISCAT. He was Director of Laboratoire de Planetologie de Grenoble (1999-2007), Editor-in-Chief of Annales Geophysicae edited by The European Geosciences Union (2004 – 2010) and he was member of ESA Space Science Advisory Committee (2010-2012). Since 2013, he is Distinguished Visiting Scientist at JPL/CALTECH. He published more than 145 publications and supervised 17 PhD theses. Asteroid 13368 has been named "Wlodekofman" to honor Wlodek Kofman as principal investigator on the Rosetta mission.

Contact Person for this Seminar: lorenzo.bruzzone [at] unitn.it (Lorenzo Bruzzone )