The Department of Astrophysics/UMR AIM (DAp-AIM) is an internationally recognised space laboratory, working in partnership with CNES, the government agency responsible for the elaboration and implementation of French space policy. DAp-AIM is heavily involved in space missions for ESA's Cosmic Vision science programme and in bilateral missions supported by CNES.
Its mission is to carry out astrophysics research in order to answer the major questions of the discipline in a wide range of fields from solar physics to cosmology, to ensure, in liaison with space agencies and ground-based observatories, the project management of instruments or sub-systems necessary for astrophysics research, and finally to contribute to the development of data centres. The DAp/AIM also contributes to training through research by teaching its knowledge to the new generation of astrophysicists and instrumentalists.
To carry out its missions, the scientific strategy of the DAp/AIM is based on three main pillars with competences covering the whole chain, from R&D to signal processing, scientific exploitation of data, modelling and theory.
The instrumentation pillar is based on upstream research and technology studies, preparing instruments for major space missions and ground-based observatories. It is based on a talented space instrumentation team to design, build and test instruments or sub-systems. Its activities include the creation and development of new spectro-imaging systems, the design of space electronics, the assembly, integration, verification and testing of the developed systems, instrument prime contracting, detector characterisation and instrument calibration.
The multi-wavelength observation pillar aims at the full exploitation of data from observatories or space missions. Here AIM plays a key role in obtaining programmes in response to international calls. This includes activities related to data analysis and ground-based components as well as the development of signal processing tools.
Finally, the third pillar concerns theoretical developments, numerical simulations and models. It covers a wide range of scientific topics from solar dynamics to the structuring of galaxy clusters and provides controlled experiments for comparison with observations.