About
84
Publications
90,002
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
2,820
Citations
Publications
Publications (84)
The tilt-to-length coupling during the LISA Pathfinder mission has been numerically and analytically modeled for particular time spans. In this work, we investigate the long-term stability of the coupling coefficients of this noise. We show that they drifted slowly (by 1 μm / rad and 6 × 10 − 6 in 100 days) and were strongly correlated to temperatu...
We present an in-depth analysis of the LISA Pathfinder differential acceleration performance over the entire course of its science operations, spanning approximately 500 days. We find: (1) The evolution of the Brownian noise that dominates the acceleration amplitude spectral density (ASD), for frequencies f≳1 mHz, is consistent with the decaying pr...
The tilt-to-length coupling during the LISA Pathfinder mission has been numerically and analytically modeled for particular timespans. In this work, we investigate the long-term stability of the coupling coefficients of this noise. We show that they drifted slowly (by 1\,$\mu$m/rad and 6$\times10^{-6}$ in 100 days) and strongly correlated to temper...
A precise characterization of the magnetic properties of LISA Pathfinder free falling test-masses is of special interest for future gravitational wave observatory in space. Magnetic forces have an important impact on the instrument sensitivity in the low frequency regime below the millihertz. In this paper we report on the magnetic injection experi...
LISA Pathfinder was a mission designed to test key technologies required for gravitational wave detection in space. Magnetically driven forces play a key role in the instrument sensitivity in the low-frequency regime, which corresponds to the measurement band of interest for future space-borne gravitational wave observatories. Magnetic-induced forc...
Electrostatic force actuation is a key component of the system of geodesic reference test masses (TM) for the LISA orbiting gravitational wave observatory and in particular for performance at low frequencies, below 1 mHz, where the observatory sensitivity is limited by stray force noise. The system needs to apply forces of order 10−9 N while limiti...
The (LPF) mission successfully demonstrated the feasibility of the technology needed for the future space borne gravitational wave observatory LISA. A key subsystem under study was the laser interferometer, which measured the changes in relative distance in between two test masses (TMs). It achieved a sensitivity of 32.0 − 1.7 + 2.4 fm / Hz , which...
We present a study of the tilt-to-length coupling noise during the LISA Pathfinder mission and how it depended on the system’s alignment. Tilt-to-length coupling noise is the unwanted coupling of angular and lateral spacecraft or test mass motion into the primary interferometric displacement readout. It was one of the major noise sources in the LIS...
We present a study of the tilt-to-length coupling noise during the LISA Pathfinder mission and how it depended on the system's alignment. Tilt-to-length coupling noise is the unwanted coupling of angular and lateral spacecraft or test mass motion into the primary interferometric displacement readout. It was one of the major noise sources in the LIS...
A comprehensive summary of the measurements made to characterize test-mass charging due to the space environment during the LISA Pathfinder mission is presented. Measurements of the residual charge of the test mass after release by the grabbing and positioning mechanism show that the initial charge of the test masses was negative after all releases...
A trihedral corner reflector has been used to evaluate the capability of passive reflectors to calibrate radar altimeters such as the Poseidon-4 altimeter on board Sentinel-6A. The reflector location, placed on the top of a mountain ridge and about 4-km off-nadir of the Sentinel-6A subsatellite track, allows capturing echoed signals with a Signal-t...
A comprehensive summary of the measurements made to characterize test mass charging due to the space environment during the LISA Pathfinder mission is presented. Measurements of the residual charge of the test mass after release by the grabbing and positioning mechanism, show that the initial charge of the test masses was negative after all release...
In a previous article [1], we have reported on the first subpicometer interferometer flown in space as part of ESA’s LISA Pathfinder mission, and have shown the residual sensor noise to be on the level of 32.0−1.7+2.4 fm/Hz. This review provides a deeper and more complete overview of the full system and its interferometric mission performance under...
We present an in depth analysis of the transient events, or glitches, detected at a rate of about one per day in the differential acceleration data of LISA Pathfinder. We show that these glitches fall in two rather distinct categories: fast transients in the interferometric motion readout on one side, and true force transient events on the other. T...
Presentation of the approach and validation of a Coastal Processor, over different Areas around the globe and using 4 different altimetry missions. A refinement of the algorithms has been conducted in the last years, in order to make it robust, reliable, fast, and easy to implement.
This paper provides an overview of the Dragon 4 project dealing with operational monitoring of sea ice and sea surface salinity (SSS) and new product developments for altimetry data. To improve sea ice thickness retrieval, a new method was developed to match the Cryosat-2 radar waveform. Additionally, an automated sea ice drift detection scheme was...
In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and mo...
In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and mo...
We report on the first subpicometer interferometer flown in space. It was part of ESA’s Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Pathfinder mission and performed the fundamental measurement of the positional and angular motion of two free-falling test masses. The interferometer worked immediately, stably, and reliably from switch on until the end...
LISA Pathfinder is a technology demonstrator space mission, aimed at testing key technologies for detecting gravitational waves in space. The mission is the precursor of LISA, the first space gravitational waves observatory, whose launch is scheduled for 2034. The LISA Pathfinder scientific payload includes two gravitational reference sensors (GRSs...
LISA Pathfinder (LPF) has been a space-based mission designed to test new technologies that will be required for a gravitational wave observatory in space. Magnetically driven forces play a key role in the instrument sensitivity in the low-frequency regime (mHz and below), the measurement band of interest for a space-based observatory. The magnetic...
LISA Pathfinder (LPF) has been a space-based mission designed to test new technologies that will be required for a gravitational wave observatory in space. Magnetically driven forces play a key role in the instrument sensitivity in the low-frequency regime (mHz and below), the measurement band of interest for a space-based observatory. The magnetic...
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna Pathfinder (LPF) main observable, labeled Δg, is the differential force per unit mass acting on the two test masses under free fall conditions after the contribution of all non-gravitational forces has been compensated. At low frequencies, the differential force is compensated by an applied electrostatic actua...
We present two novel methods, tested by LISA Pathfinder, to measure the gravitational constant G for the first time in space. Experiment 1 uses electrostatic suspension forces to measure a change in acceleration of a test mass due to a displaced source mass. Experiment 2 measures a change in relative acceleration between two test masses due to a sl...
The zodiacal dust complex, a population of dust and small particles that pervades the solar system, provides important insight into the formation and dynamics of planets, comets, asteroids, and other bodies. We present a new set of data obtained from direct measurements of momentum transfer to a spacecraft from individual particle impacts. This tec...
We report on the results of the LISA Pathfinder (LPF) free-fall mode experiment, in which the control force needed to compensate the quasistatic differential force acting on two test masses is applied intermittently as a series of “impulse” forces lasting a few seconds and separated by roughly 350 s periods of true free fall. This represents an alt...
We report on the results of the LISA Pathfinder (LPF) free-fall mode experiment, in which the control force needed to compensate the quasistatic differential force acting on two test masses is applied intermittently as a series of "impulse" forces lasting a few seconds and separated by roughly 350 s periods of true free fall. This represents an alt...
LISA Pathfinder (LPF) was a technology pioneering mission designed to test key technologies required for gravitational wave detection in space. In the low frequency regime (milliHertz and below), where space-based gravitational wave observatories will operate, temperature fluctuations play a crucial role since they can couple into the interferometr...
LISA Pathfinder (LPF) was a technology pioneering mission designed to test key technologies required for gravitational wave detection in space. In the low frequency regime (milliHertz and below), where space-based gravitational wave observatories will operate, temperature fluctuations play a crucial role since they can couple into the interferometr...
The LISA Pathfinder (LPF) mission has demonstrated the ability to limit and measure the fluctuations in acceleration between two free falling test masses down to sub-femto-g levels. One of the key elements to achieve such a level of residual acceleration is the drag free control. In this scheme the spacecraft is used as a shield against any externa...
LISA Pathfinder (LPF) was a technology pioneering mission designed to test key technologies required for gravitational wave detection in space. In the low frequency regime (milli-Hertz and below), where space-based gravitational wave observatories will operate, temperature fluctuations play a crucial role since they can couple into the interferomet...
The science operations of the LISA Pathfinder mission have demonstrated the feasibility of sub-femto-g free fall of macroscopic test masses necessary to build a gravitational wave observatory in space such as LISA. While the main focus of interest, i.e., the optical axis or the x-axis, has been extensively studied, it is also of great importance to...
Non-recurrent short-term variations of the galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) flux above 70 MeV n−1 were observed between 2016 February 18 and 2017 July 3 on board the European Space Agency LISA Pathfinder (LPF) mission orbiting around the Lagrange point L1 at 1.5 × 106 km from Earth. The energy dependence of three Forbush decreases is studied and reported...
Since the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for the observation of gravitational waves, it is fair to say that the epoch of gravitational wave astronomy (GWs) has begun. However, a number of interesting sources of GWs can only be observed from space. To demonstrate the feasibility of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), a future gra...
The science operations of the LISA Pathfinder mission has demonstrated the feasibility of sub-femto-g free-fall of macroscopic test masses necessary to build a LISA-like gravitational wave observatory in space. While the main focus of interest, i.e. the optical axis or the $x$-axis, has been extensively studied, it is also of interest to evaluate t...
The Space Technology 7 Disturbance Reduction System (ST7-DRS) is a NASA technology demonstration payload that operated from January 2016 through July 2017 on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) LISA Pathfinder spacecraft. The joint goal of the NASA and ESA missions was to validate key technologies for a future space-based gravitational wave observato...
The Space Technology 7 Disturbance Reduction System (ST7-DRS) is a NASA technology demonstration payload that operated from January 2016 through July of 2017 on the European Space Agency's LISA Pathfinder spacecraft. The joint goal of the NASA and ESA missions was to validate key technologies for a future space-based gravitational wave observatory...
The LISA Pathfinder charge management device was responsible for neutralizing the cosmic-ray-induced electric charge that inevitably accumulated on the free-falling test masses at the heart of the experiment. We present measurements made on ground and in flight that quantify the performance of this contactless discharge system which was based on ph...
The LISA Pathfinder charge management device was responsible for neutralising the cosmic ray induced electric charge that inevitably accumulated on the free-falling test masses at the heart of the experiment. We present measurements made on ground and in-flight that quantify the performance of this contactless discharge system which was based on ph...
LISA Pathfinder (LPF) was a European Space Agency mission with the aim to test key technologies for future space-borne gravitational-wave observatories like LISA. The main scientific goal of LPF was to demonstrate measurements of differential acceleration between free-falling test masses at the sub-femto-g level, and to understand the residual acce...
Galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) energy spectra observed in the inner heliosphere are modulated by the solar activity, the solar polarity and structures of solar and interplanetary origin. A high counting rate particle detector (PD) aboard LISA Pathfinder (LPF), meant for subsystems diagnostics, was devoted to the measurement of galactic cosmic-ray and so...
LISA Pathfinder is a differential accelerometer with the main goal being to demonstrate the near perfect free-fall of reference test masses, as is needed for an orbiting gravitational wave observatory, with a target sensitivity of 30 fm s⁻² Hz-1/2 at 1 mHz. Any lasting background differential acceleration between the two test masses must be activel...
In the months since the publication of the first results, the noise performance of LISA Pathfinder has improved because of reduced Brownian noise due to the continued decrease in pressure around the test masses, from a better correction of noninertial effects, and from a better calibration of the electrostatic force actuation. In addition, the avai...
The LISA Pathfinder radiation monitor made in situ measurements of the interplanetary charged-particle environment that was responsible for charging the isolated test masses at the heart of the experiment. We describe this bespoke radiation monitor and present measurements which show a gradual 40% increase in count rate coinciding with the declinin...
We report on the performance of the capacitive gap-sensing system of the Gravitational Reference Sensor on board the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft. From in-flight measurements, the system has demonstrated a performance, down to 1 mHz, that is ranging between 0.7 and 1.8 aF Hz−1/2. That translates into a sensing noise of the test mass motion within 1.2...
We report on electrostatic measurements made on board the European Space Agency mission LISA Pathfinder. Detailed measurements of the charge-induced electrostatic forces exerted on free-falling test masses (TMs) inside the capacitive gravitational reference sensor are the first made in a relevant environment for a space-based gravitational wave det...
Following the selection of The Gravitational Universe by ESA, and the successful flight of LISA Pathfinder, the LISA Consortium now proposes a 4 year mission in response to ESA's call for missions for L3. The observatory will be based on three arms with six active laser links, between three identical spacecraft in a triangular formation separated b...
LISA Pathfinder satellite was launched on 3 December 2015 toward the Sun-Earth first Lagrangian point (L1) where the LISA Technology Package (LTP), which is the main science payload, will be tested. LTP achieves measurements of differential acceleration of free-falling test masses (TMs) with sensitivity below 3 × 10⁻¹⁴ m s⁻² Hz-1/2 within the 1-30...
We report the first results of the LISA Pathfinder in-flight experiment. The results demonstrate that two free-falling reference test masses, such as those needed for a space-based gravitational wave observatory like LISA, can be put in free fall with a relative acceleration noise with a square root of the power spectral density of 5.2±0.1 fm s^{-2...
Future space borne gravitational wave detectors will require a precise
definition of calibration signals to ensure the achievement of their design
sensitivity. The careful design of the test signals plays a key role in the
correct understanding and characterisation of these instruments. In that sense,
methods achieving optimal experiment designs mu...
Magnetic sensors are necessary devices to map the magnetic field and gradient at eLISA test masses location. Their primary goal is assessing the contribution of the magnetic effects to the acceleration noise budget. Our experience, accumulated during the magnetic diagnostics system design for LISA Pathfinder, indicates that the accuracy of the magn...
We present a new technical simulator for the eLISA mission, based on state space modeling techniques and developed in MATLAB. This simulator computes the coordinate and velocity over time of each body involved in the constellation, i.e. the spacecraft and its test masses, taking into account the different disturbances and actuations. This allows st...
Thermal Diagnostics experiments to be carried out on board LISA Pathfinder (LPF) will yield a detailed characterisation of how temperature fluctuations affect the LTP (LISA Technology Package) instrument performance, a crucial information for future space based gravitational wave detectors as the proposed eLISA. Amongst them, the study of temperatu...
The cold gas micro-propulsion system that will be used during the LISA-Pathfinder mission will be one of the most important component used to ensure the “free-fall” of the enclosed test masses. In this paper we present a possible strategy to characterize the effective direction and amplitude gain of each of the 6 thrusters of this system.
A post-pu...
The main goal of LISA Pathfinder (LPF) mission is to estimate the acceleration noise models of the overall LISA Technology Package (LTP) experiment on-board. This will be of crucial importance for the future space-based Gravitational-Wave (GW) detectors, like eLISA. Here, we present the Bayesian analysis framework to process the planned system iden...
Magnetically-induced forces on the inertial masses on-board LISA Pathfinder are expected to be one of the dominant contributions to the mission noise budget, accounting for up to 40%. The origin of this disturbance is the coupling of the residual magnetization and susceptibility of the test masses with the environmental magnetic field. In order to...
During the On-Station Thermal Test campaign of the LISA Pathfinder the data
and diagnostics subsystem was tested in nearly space conditions for the first
time after integration in the satellite. The results showed the compliance of
the temperature measurement system, obtaining temperature noise around
$10^{-4}\,{\rm K}\, {\rm Hz}^{-1/2}$ in the fre...
The LISA Pathfinder mission will demonstrate the technology of drag-free test
masses for use as inertial references in future space-based gravitational wave
detectors. To accomplish this, the Pathfinder spacecraft will perform drag-free
flight about a test mass while measuring the acceleration of this primary test
mass relative to a second referenc...
A statistical procedure for the analysis of time-frequency noise maps is presented and applied to LISA Pathfinder mission synthetic data. The procedure is based on the Kolmogorov-Smirnov like test that is applied to the analysis of time-frequency noise maps produced with the spectrogram technique. The influence of the finite size windowing on the s...
Deep phase modulation interferometry was proposed as a method to enhance
homodyne interferometers to work over many fringes. In this scheme, a
sinusoidal phase modulation is applied in one arm while the demodulation takes
place as a post-processing step. In this contribution we report on the
development to implement this scheme in a fiber coupled i...
LISA Pathfinder (LPF), ESA's precursor mission to a gravitational wave
observatory, will measure the degree to which two test-masses can be put into
free-fall, aiming to demonstrate a residual relative acceleration with a power
spectral density (PSD) below 30 fm/s$^2$/Hz$^{1/2}$ around 1 mHz. In LPF data
analysis, the measured relative acceleration...
We present a parameter estimation procedure based on a Bayesian framework by applying a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm to the calibration of the dynamical parameters of the LISA Pathfinder satellite. The method is based on the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm and a two-stage annealing treatment in order to ensure an effective exploration of the pa...
The STOC (Science and Technology Operations Centre) simulator of the LPF
(LISA PathFinder) mission is intended to provide a validation tool for the
mission operations tele-commanding chain, as well as for a deeper understanding
of the underlying physical processes happening in the LTP (LISA Technology
Package). Amongst the different physical effect...
LISA Pathfinder is a mission planned by the European Space Agency to test the
key technologies that will allow the detection of gravitational waves in space.
The instrument on-board, the LISA Technology package, will undergo an
exhaustive campaign of calibrations and noise characterisation campaigns in
order to fully describe the noise model. Data...
20 pages; submitted to the European Space Agency on May 24th, 2013 for the L2/L3 selection of ESA's Cosmic Vision program
The last century has seen enormous progress in our understanding of the Universe. We know the life cycles of stars, the structure of galaxies, the remnants of the big bang, and have a general understanding of how the Universe evolved. We have come remarkably far using electromagnetic radiation as our tool for observing the Universe. However, gravit...