The ECLAIRs Instrument Center (EIC) is part of the French ground segment of the Chinese-French space mission SVOM (Space multi-band Variable Object Monitor). SVOM is dedicated to the study of the transient sky at high energy with a particular interest for Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs). These very energetic phenomena first appear as bright and brief X-/Gamma-ray flashes on the sky. They are thought to signal the catastrophic formation of a stellar-mass black hole or a neutron star, both being the end-point products of stellar evolution of some massive stars. The SVOM mission, with a nominal lifetime of 3 years (+ 2 years extension), has been launched in 2024-06-22. The ECLAIRs camera is in charge of detecting GRBs & other high-energy transients and providing their first sky localization to the ground in real time and in an autonomous manner for multi-wavelength and multi-messenger follow-up purposes.
The EIC will be responsible for all the in-flight instrument activities of ECLAIRs. This includes: 1) the mid-/long-term monitoring of the camera health through housekeeping parameters; 2) the tracking of any changes in the camera scientific performances over the mission lifetime. Changes in the camera performances will lead to an update of the ECLAIRs calibration files: auxillary files to be used at the French Science Centre (FSC) to reduce and to analyse ECLAIRs data; configuration files to be sent to the French Payload Operation Centre (FPOC) in order to be uploaded on-board. These latter files are essential for the operation of ECLAIRs. The FPOC and FSC are part of the SVOM French ground segment.
The development of the EIC was a joint collaboration between two French research institutes: IRAP (scientific lead) and CEA-Saclay under the supervison of the French Space Agency CNES. The various EIC activities/tasks will be performed by Instrument Scientists & Experts from IRAP, CEA-Saclay, APC, LUPM & IAP. The EIC is located at IRAP (Toulouse, France).
