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Astro-Rivelatore Gamma a Immagini Leggero (AGILE)
Identification
Hosting Legal Entity
National Institute for Astrophysics
Italian Space Agency
Location
Via del Politecnico, ASI, Rome, PO: 00133 (Italy)
Structure
Type Of RI
Virtual
Coordinating Country
Italy
Status
Status
Current Status:
Operational since 2007
Scientific Description
AGILE is an ASI (Italian Space Agency) space mission with scientific and programmatic participation by INAF, INFN and CIFS, devoted to gamma-ray astrophysics. AGILE is an Italian Research Infrastructure open to the international community. The satellite was launched on 23 April 2007 and is currently in its seventh year of successful operations in space. Its operative phase has been approved by ASI at least until the end of 2013, with the possibility of further extensions.The AGILE space mission is devoted to high-energy astrophysics for the study of the universe and the Earth. Its imaging detectors are sensitive in the energy range 30 MeV – 30 GeV for gamma-ray detection, and in the range 15-60 keV for hard X-ray detection. A non-imaging detector completes the instrument with excellent timing in the energy range 0.4-100 MeV. AGILE is an ASI “Small Scientific Mission” (the first of its class for Italy) with highly optimized resource management. Over the years, AGILE has produced important scientific results on many cosmic gamma-ray sources, both in our galaxy and in other distant galaxies. Among the most relevant results was the unexpected discovery of strong gamma-ray flares from the Crab Nebula. For this discovery the AGILE Principal Investigator, Marco Tavani, and the AGILE Team were awarded the prestigious 2012 "Bruno Rossi Prize" by the American Astronomical Society. The Mission is also making a crucial contribution to the study of the Earth's atmosphere by detecting very energetic terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs).All AGILE data (i.e. both from the AGILE Team reserved projects and from the Guest Observer Program) are publicly available to the international scientific community after a one-year proprietary period, through the AGILE Data Center (ADC) webpages (http://agile.asdc.asi.it/).

RI Keywords
Astronomy, Space physics, Earth observations, High-energy phenomena, Gamma rays
Classifications
RI Category
Research Data Service Facilities
Earth, Ocean, Marine, Freshwater, and Atmosphere Data Centres
Data Archives, Data Repositories and Collections
Astro-particle and neutrino detectors and observatories
Complex Data Facilities
Earth Observation satellites
Scientific Domain
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Physics, Astronomy, Astrophysics and Mathematics
ESFRI Domain
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Services
Guest Observer Program (GOP)

The AGILE mission has a Guest Observer Program (GOP) open to the international astrophysics community. Proposals led by Principal Investigators worldwide can be submitted in response to the ASI Announcement of Opportunities. The AGILE Guest Observers, after on-line registration, can find a proposal submission tool to prepare, update, and finally submit their proposals. In the reserved area, they can login with username and password to retrieve available data for accepted proposals. All Guest Observer proposals submitted in response to the AGILE AOs are subject to an independent peer review by the AGILE Data Allocation Committee (ADAC). The ADAC is composed of: the Project Scientist (Chair), the PI and three scientists belonging to the international astrophysical community and appointed by the Director of the ASI department of Exploration and Observation of the Universe.

Helpdesk

A Helpdesk service is provided to AGILE Users for the entire duration of the mission. It answers all questions regarding the mission, instruments, data, data analysis software, data archive, etc. The AGILE Helpdesk can be contacted by registered users, after registration at the ASDC site, by sending a message through a dedicated form.

AGILE public software and Data Interactive Archive

Users also have open access to the AGILE public software and Data Interactive Archive at the AGILE ASDC website (http://agile.asdc.asi.it/). AGILE data are validated and standardized according to international standards defined by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA). Web tools enabling users to perform preliminary on-line analysis of scientific data, and comparison of locally resident or remotely accessible archival data (NED, SIMBAD, etc.) is provided.

Equipment
AGILE satellite

See http://agile.iasf-roma.inaf.it/.

Date of last update: 24/05/2018
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