The INTEGRAL Science Operations Centre remote at work
The world is being profoundly affected by the global COVID-19
virus pandemic. ESA put in place procedures which guarantee the safety
of its fleet of missions and their instruments. Under most scenarios it
is able to continue with science operations and observations. And so is
the INTEGRAL Science Operations Centre (ISOC). The teleworking of the
team at ISOC since mid-March is up to now without any negative impact on
INTEGRAL's operations. Observation planning is now done remotely.
ESA is also doing its best to guarantee that the proposal submission and
review processes remain optimal within the restrictions imposed by the
coronavirus crisis. Since measures deployed in the ESA's Member States
disrupted scientific activities in its countries, the INTEGRAL AO-18
proposal submission deadline was postponed from Friday, 3 April to
Monday, 4 May 14:00 CEST. The team at ISOC is welcoming many proposals
for observing time, and is now preparing for the review of these
proposals. The picture is a collage of ISOC online meetings in these
difficult times.
