InfraRed detectors In Space (IRIS) Workshop

10 Mar 2026, 08:00 → 12 Mar 2026, 19:00 Europe/Rome

Room 216 (mezzanine floor) (CNR Area Territoriale della Ricerca Bologna)

Eduardo Medinaceli Villegas (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)), Rémi Barbier (Bertin Technologies)

IRIS Calibration and Performance Workshop 2026

Website link: https://indico.ict.inaf.it/e/IRISworkshop2026

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Workshop Scope

The primary objective of the workshop is to perform a comparative analysis of calibration strategies adopted by current space missions operating in the infrared domain, with emphasis on evaluating their achieved scientific and instrumental performance. The workshop will focus on identifying key calibration challenges and examining the diverse methodological approaches employed to address them. This will be achieved by engaging international specialists in the field to present calibration schemes and the latest results from operational missions, as well as the ongoing work of missions currently under development.

Particular emphasis will be placed on operational experience from contemporary space telescopes, enabling cross-disciplinary knowledge transfer among instrumentation specialists and scientific teams with mission-specific objectives. This will also serve to disseminate established best practices and empirically derived lessons learned from current infrared missions. Recent advances in infrared detector technology will be presented, and emerging mission concepts will illustrate strategies for leveraging these developments.

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Scientific Programme Overview

The workshop mainly addresses the topics covered in the following six sessions.

• Space Missions Overview

Review of operating and upcoming space observatories equipped with state-of-the-art infrared sensors.

• Technology Development / New Mission Concepts

The latest advances in infrared detectors and front-end electronics technologies are presented, along with their prospective use in future mission concepts.

• Data Acquisition / Signal Estimation

Different approaches to data acquisition and signal estimation strategies are compared, with particular emphasis on innovative techniques.

• Infrared Detector Characterisation

Support activities for detector development, including testing and characterisation, are discussed. Specific methodologies for assessing key detector effects are presented, along with the main simulation toolkits for infrared detectors.  

• Pre-launch Characterisation Strategies

Overview of mission-specific approaches for end-to-end characterisation of the signal detection chain. 

• In-flight Calibration and Performance

Case studies illustrating how detector systematics propagate through data processing and calibration pipelines, and how they impact overall performance. 

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Tuesday 10 March

08:00 Registration

1 Welcome and Workshop Agenda

Space Missions Overview: Operation and development of near-infrared instruments

Review of operating and upcoming space observatories equipped with state-of-the-art infrared sensors.

2 Overview of three decades of infrared detectors in space - M. Robberto

3 Euclid - P. Ferruit

4 JWST - T. Brown

5 SPHEREx - P. Korngut

10:55 Coffee Break

6 JUICE - F. Poulet

7 ARIEL - E. Pascale

8 ROMAN - T. Brandt

9 ARRAKHIS - E. Pascale

12:45 Buffer

13:00 Lunch Break / Poster Session #1

Technology Development / New Mission Concepts

The latest advances in infrared detectors and front-end electronics technologies are presented, along with their prospective use in future mission concepts.

10 Technology Development at Teledyne - J. Beletic

11 Technology Development at LEONARDO - TBC

12 Technology Development at Markury Electronics - M. Loose

16:05 Coffee Break

13 Technology Development at ESA - M. Soman

14 Technology Development at CEA-Leti - O. Gravrand

15 New Mission Concepts: THESEUS - D. Gotz

16 New Mission Concepts: Gaia NIR - D. Hobbs

17:55 Buffer

Wednesday 11 March

Data Acquisition / Signal Estimation

Different approaches to data acquisition and signal estimation strategies are compared, with particular emphasis on innovative techniques.

17 Wide Field Images Combination: PyImom - C. Hirata (TBC)

18 NISP signal estimator - F. Cogato

25 min

19 New advanced readout modes in JWST - E. Bergeron

25 min

10:45 Coffee Break

20 New acquisition techniques in SPHEREx - P. Korngut

25 min

21 Deidicated Firmware JUICE - F. Poulet

25 min

12:05 Buffer

13:00 Lunch Break / Poster Session #2

Infrared Detectors Characterization

Support activities for detector development, including testing and characterisation, are discussed. Specific methodologies for assessing key detector effects are presented, along with the main simulation toolkits for infrared detectors.

22 APD testing at ESTEC - V. Affatato

23 APD characterisation - M. Bottom (TBC)

24 Glow characterisation at ESA - L. Boucher

16:15 Coffee Break

25 IR detectors characterisation CEA-Leti - O. Gravrand

26 IPC characterization at CPPM - A. Secroun

27 IR detectors characterisation NASA - G. Mosby

28 Ground based projects - S. Smee

18:25 Buffer

Thursday 12 March

Pre-launch Characterization Strategies

Overview of the mission-specific approaches for end-to-end characterisation of the detection chain.

29 Preparing for the ARIEL System-level cryo-test campaign - I. Argyriou

25 min

30 ARIEL FGS characterization - G. Szymanski

31 ARIEL AIRS characterization - J. Amiaux

32 New mission - TBC

11:10 Coffee Break

33 Simulation Contribution (Pyxel) - F. Lemmel

34 Simulation Contribution (ExoSim/ARIELRAD) - L. Mugnai

35 Simulation Contribution - Round Table (TBC)

12:30 Buffer

13:00 Lunch Break / Poster Session #3

In-flight Calibration and Performance

Case studies illustrating how detector systematics propagate through data processing and calibration pipelines, and how they impact overall performance.

36 Euclid - Impact of detector effects on Photometric Data Processing - G. Polenta

37 Euclid - Impact of detector effects on Spectroscopic Data Processing - Y. Copin

38 Reaching the ultimate readnoise with advanced pipeline (JWST) - M. Regan

15:45 Coffee Break

39 Euclid - Persistence In-flight calibration - S. Conseil

40 Cosmic Rays with JWST/NIRSpec - B. Rauscher

41 Snowballs/Cosmic Rays with Euclid/NISP - L. Gabarra

17:30 Buffer

42 Wrap-up and Next Appointments