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Introduction A rapid deploy of unexpected early impact of the COVID pandemic in Spain was described in 2020. Oncology practice was revised to facilitate decision-making regarding multimodal therapy for prevalent cancer types amenable to multidisciplinary treatment in which the radiotherapy component searched more efficient options in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic, minimizing the risks to patients whilst aiming to guarantee cancer outcomes. Methods A novel Proton Beam Therapy (PBT), Unit activity was analyzed in the period of March 2020 to March 2021. Institutional urgent, strict and mandatory clinical care standards for early diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 infection were stablished in the hospital following national health-authorities’ recommendations. The temporary trends of patients care and research projects proposals were registered. Results 3 out of 14 members of the professional staff involved in the PBR intra-hospital process had a positive test for COVID infection. Also, 4 out of 100 patients had positive tests before initiating PBT, and 7 out of 100 developed positive tests along the weekly mandatory special checkup performed during PBT to all patients. An update of clinical performance at the PBT Unit at CUN Madrid in the initial 500 patients treated with PBT in the period from March 2020 to November 2022 registers a distribution of 131 (26%) pediatric patients, 63 (12%) head and neck cancer and central nervous system neoplasms and 123 (24%) re-irradiation indications. In November 2022, the activity reached a plateau in terms of patients under treatment and the impact of COVID pandemic became sporadic and controlled by minor medical actions. At present, the clinical data are consistent with an academic practice prospectively (NCT05151952). Research projects and scientific production was adapted to the pandemic evolution and its influence upon professional time availability. Seven research projects based in public funding were activated in this period and preliminary data on molecular imaging guided proton therapy in brain tumors and post-irradiation patterns of blood biomarkers are reported. Conclusions Hospital-based PBT in European academic institutions was impacted by COVID-19 pandemic, although clinical and research activities were developed and sustained. In the post-pandemic era, the benefits of online learning will shape the future of proton therapy education.

International audience

Introduction: The clinical practice and outcome results of intraoperative electron radiation therapy (IOeRT) in cancer patients have been extensively reported over 4 decades. Electron beams can be delivered in the promising FLASH dose rate. Methods and Materials: Several cancer models were approached by two alternative radiobiological strategies to optimize local cancer control: boost versus exclusive IOeRT. Clinical outcomes are revisited via a bibliometric search performed for the elaboration of ESTRO/ACROP IORT guidelines. Results: In the period 1982 to 2020, a total of 19,148 patients were registered in 116 publications concerning soft tissue sarcomas (9% of patients), unresected and borderline-resected pancreatic cancer (22%), locally recurrent and locally advanced rectal cancer (22%), and breast cancer (45%). Clinical outcomes following IOeRT doses in the range of 10 to 25 Gy (with or without external beam fractionated radiation therapy) show a wide range of local control from 40 to 100% depending upon cancer site, histology, stage, and treatment intensity. Constraints for normal tissue tolerance are important to maintain tumor control combined with acceptable levels of side effects. Conclusions: IOeRT represents an evidence-based approach for several tumor types. A specific risk analysis for local recurrences supports the identification of cancer models that are candidates for FLASH studies. This research has been funded in part by grants from: Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer, ERAPERMED PerPlanRT, AC20/00103, AC20/00102, 2020-110-1). Ministry of Science, Innovation and Education PID 2019-104558RB-100, Grant PID2019-110369RB-I00 (RADHOR), funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033

International audience; We present an update on the overall integration progress of the WEAVE next-generation spectroscopy facility for the William Herschel Telescope (WHT), now scheduled for first light in early-2021, with almost all components now arrived at the observatory. We also present a summary of the current planning behind the 5-year initial phase of survey operations, and some detailed end-to-end science simulations that have been implemented to evaluate the final on-sky performance after data processing. WEAVE will provide optical ground-based follow up of ground-based (LOFAR) and space-based (Gaia) surveys. WEAVE is a multi-object and multi-IFU facility utilizing a new 2-degree prime focus field of view at the WHT, with a buffered pick-and-place positioner system hosting 1000 multi-object (MOS) fibres, 20 mini integral field units, or a single large IFU for each observation. The fibres are fed to a single (dual-beam) spectrograph, with total of 16k spectral pixels, located within the WHT GHRIL enclosure on the telescope Nasmyth platform, supporting observations at R~5000 over the full 370-1000nm wavelength range in a single exposure, or a high resolution mode with limited coverage in each arm at R~20000.

Full list of authors: EHT MWL Science Working Group; Algaba, J. C.; Anczarski, J.; Asada, K.; Baloković, M.; Chandra, S.; Cui, Y. -Z.; Falcone, A. D.; Giroletti, M.; Goddi, C.; Hada, K.; Haggard, D.; Jorstad, S.; Kaur, A.; Kawashima, T.; Keating, G.; Kim, J. -Y.; Kino, M.; Komossa, S.; Kravchenko, E. V.; Krichbaum, T. P.; Lee, S. -S.; Lu, R. -S.; Lucchini, M.; Markoff, S.; Neilsen, J.; Nowak, M. A.; Park, J.; Principe, G.; Ramakrishnan, V.; Reynolds, M. T.; Sasada, M.; Savchenko, S. S.; Williamson, K. E.; Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration; Akiyama, Kazunori; Alberdi, Antxon; Alef, Walter; Anantua, Richard; Azulay, Rebecca; Baczko, Anne-Kathrin; Ball, David; Barrett, John; Bintley, Dan; Benson, Bradford A.; Blackburn, Lindy; Blundell, Raymond; Boland, Wilfred; Bouman, Katherine L.; Bower, Geoffrey C.; Boyce, Hope; Bremer, Michael; Brinkerink, Christiaan D.; Brissenden, Roger; Britzen, Silke; Broderick, Avery E.; Broguiere, Dominique; Bronzwaer, Thomas; Byun, Do-Young; Carlstrom, John E.; Chael, Andrew; Chan, Chi-Kwan; Chatterjee, Shami; Chatterjee, Koushik; Chen, Ming-Tang; Chen, Yongjun; Chesler, Paul M.; Cho, Ilje; Christian, Pierre; Conway, John E.; Cordes, James M.; Crawford, Thomas M.; Crew, Geoffrey B.; Cruz-Osorio, Alejandro; Davelaar, Jordy; de Laurentis, Mariafelicia; Deane, Roger; Dempsey, Jessica; Desvignes, Gregory; Dexter, Jason; Doeleman, Sheperd S.; Eatough, Ralph P.; Falcke, Heino; Farah, Joseph; Fish, Vincent L.; Fomalont, Ed; Ford, H. Alyson; Fraga-Encinas, Raquel; Friberg, Per; Fromm, Christian M.; Fuentes, Antonio; Galison, Peter; Gammie, Charles F.; García, Roberto; Gentaz, Olivier; Georgiev, Boris; Gold, Roman; Gómez, José L.; Gómez-Ruiz, Arturo I.; Gu, Minfeng; Gurwell, Mark; Hecht, Michael H.; Hesper, Ronald; Ho, Luis C.; Ho, Paul; Honma, Mareki; Huang, Chih-Wei L.; Huang, Lei; Hughes, David H.; Ikeda, Shiro; Inoue, Makoto; Issaoun, Sara; James, David J.; Jannuzi, Buell T.; Janssen, Michael; Jeter, Britton; Jiang, Wu; Jiménez-Rosales, Alejandra; Johnson, Michael D.; Jung, Taehyun; Karami, Mansour; Karuppusamy, Ramesh; Kettenis, Mark; Kim, Dong-Jin; Kim, Jongsoo; Kim, Junhan; Koay, Jun Yi; Kofuji, Yutaro; Koch, Patrick M.; Koyama, Shoko; Kramer, Michael; Kramer, Carsten; Kuo, Cheng-Yu; Lauer, Tod R.; Levis, Aviad; Li, Yan-Rong; Li, Zhiyuan; Lindqvist, Michael; Lico, Rocco; Lindahl, Greg; Liu, Jun; Liu, Kuo; Liuzzo, Elisabetta; Lo, Wen-Ping; Lobanov, Andrei P.; Loinard, Laurent; Lonsdale, Colin; MacDonald, Nicholas R.; Mao, Jirong; Marchili, Nicola; Marrone, Daniel P.; Marscher, Alan P.; Martí-Vidal, Iván; Matsushita, Satoki; Matthews, Lynn D.; Medeiros, Lia; Menten, Karl M.; Mizuno, Izumi; Mizuno, Yosuke; Moran, James M.; Moriyama, Kotaro; Moscibrodzka, Monika; Müller, Cornelia; Musoke, Gibwa; Mejías, Alejandro Mus; Nagai, Hiroshi; Nagar, Neil M.; Nakamura, Masanori; Narayan, Ramesh; Narayanan, Gopal; Natarajan, Iniyan; Nathanail, Antonios; Neri, Roberto; Ni, Chunchong; Noutsos, Aristeidis; Okino, Hiroki; Olivares, Héctor; Ortiz-León, Gisela N.; Oyama, Tomoaki; Özel, Feryal; Palumbo, Daniel C. M.; Patel, Nimesh; Pen, Ue-Li; Pesce, Dominic W.; Piétu, Vincent; Plambeck, Richard; Popstefanija, Aleksandar; Porth, Oliver; Pötzl, Felix M.; Prather, Ben; Preciado-López, Jorge A.; Psaltis, Dimitrios; Pu, Hung-Yi; Rao, Ramprasad; Rawlings, Mark G.; Raymond, Alexander W.; Rezzolla, Luciano; Ricarte, Angelo; Ripperda, Bart; Roelofs, Freek; Rogers, Alan; Ros, Eduardo; Rose, Mel; Roshanineshat, Arash; Rottmann, Helge; Roy, Alan L.; Ruszczyk, Chet; Rygl, Kazi L. J.; Sánchez, Salvador; Sánchez-Arguelles, David; Savolainen, Tuomas; Schloerb, F. Peter; Schuster, Karl-Friedrich; Shao, Lijing; Shen, Zhiqiang; Small, Des; Sohn, Bong Won; Soohoo, Jason; Sun, He; Tazaki, Fumie; Tetarenko, Alexandra J.; Tiede, Paul; Tilanus, Remo P. J.; Titus, Michael; Toma, Kenji; Torne, Pablo; Trent, Tyler; Traianou, Efthalia; Trippe, Sascha; van Bemmel, Ilse; van Langevelde, Huib Jan; van Rossum, Daniel R.; Wagner, Jan; Ward-Thompson, Derek; Wardle, John; Weintroub, Jonathan; Wex, Norbert; Wharton, Robert; Wielgus, Maciek; Wong, George N.; Wu, Qingwen; Yoon, Doosoo; Young, André; Young, Ken; Younsi, Ziri; Yuan, Feng; Yuan, Ye-Fei; Zensus, J. Anton; Zhao, Guang-Yao; Zhao, Shan-Shan; Fermi Large Area Telescope Collaboration; Principe, G.; Giroletti, M.; D'Ammando, F.; Orienti, M.; H. E. S. S. Collaboration; Abdalla, H.; Adam, R.; Aharonian, F.; Benkhali, F. Ait; Angüner, E. O.; Arcaro, C.; Armand, C.; Armstrong, T.; Ashkar, H.; Backes, M.; Baghmanyan, V.; Barbosa Martins, V.; Barnacka, A.; Barnard, M.; Becherini, Y.; Berge, D.; Bernlöhr, K.; Bi, B.; Böttcher, M.; Boisson, C.; Bolmont, J.; de Lavergne, M. De Bony; Breuhaus, M.; Brun, F.; Brun, P.; Bryan, M.; Büchele, M.; Bulik, T.; Bylund, T.; Caroff, S.; Carosi, A.; Casanova, S.; Chand, T.; Chen, A.; Cotter, G.; Curyło, M.; Damascene Mbarubucyeye, J.; Davids, I. D.; Davies, J.; Deil, C.; Devin, J.; Dewilt, P.; Dirson, L.; Djannati-Ataï, A.; Dmytriiev, A.; Donath, A.; Doroshenko, V.; Duffy, C.; Dyks, J.; Egberts, K.; Eichhorn, F.; Einecke, S.; Emery, G.; Ernenwein, J. -P.; Feijen, K.; Fegan, S.; Fiasson, A.; de Clairfontaine, G. Fichet; Fontaine, G.; Funk, S.; Füßling, M.; Gabici, S.; Gallant, Y. A.; Giavitto, G.; Giunti, L.; Glawion, D.; Glicenstein, J. F.; Gottschall, D.; Grondin, M. -H.; Hahn, J.; Haupt, M.; Hermann, G.; Hinton, J. A.; Hofmann, W.; Hoischen, C.; Holch, T. L.; Holler, M.; Hörbe, M.; Horns, D.; Huber, D.; Jamrozy, M.; Jankowsky, D.; Jankowsky, F.; Jardin-Blicq, A.; Joshi, V.; Jung-Richardt, I.; Kasai, E.; Kastendieck, M. A.; Katarzyński, K.; Katz, U.; Khangulyan, D.; Khélifi, B.; Klepser, S.; Kluźniak, W.; Komin, Nu.; Konno, R.; Kosack, K.; Kostunin, D.; Kreter, M.; Lamanna, G.; Lemière, A.; Lemoine-Goumard, M.; Lenain, J. -P.; Levy, C.; Lohse, T.; Lypova, I.; Mackey, J.; Majumdar, J.; Malyshev, D.; Malyshev, D.; Marandon, V.; Marchegiani, P.; Marcowith, A.; Mares, A.; Martí-Devesa, G.; Marx, R.; Maurin, G.; Meintjes, P. J.; Meyer, M.; Moderski, R.; Mohamed, M.; Mohrmann, L.; Montanari, A.; Moore, C.; Morris, P.; Moulin, E.; Muller, J.; Murach, T.; Nakashima, K.; Nayerhoda, A.; de Naurois, M.; Ndiyavala, H.; Niederwanger, F.; Niemiec, J.; Oakes, L.; O'Brien, P.; Odaka, H.; Ohm, S.; Olivera-Nieto, L.; de Ona Wilhelmi, E.; Ostrowski, M.; Panter, M.; Panny, S.; Parsons, R. D.; Peron, G.; Peyaud, B.; Piel, Q.; Pita, S.; Poireau, V.; Noel, A. Priyana; Prokhorov, D. A.; Prokoph, H.; Pühlhofer, G.; Punch, M.; Quirrenbach, A.; Rauth, R.; Reichherzer, P.; Reimer, A.; Reimer, O.; Remy, Q.; Renaud, M.; Rieger, F.; Rinchiuso, L.; Romoli, C.; Rowell, G.; Rudak, B.; Ruiz-Velasco, E.; Sahakian, V.; Sailer, S.; Sanchez, D. A.; Santangelo, A.; Sasaki, M.; Scalici, M.; Schutte, H. M.; Schwanke, U.; Schwemmer, S.; Seglar-Arroyo, M.; Senniappan, M.; Seyffert, A. S.; Shafi, N.; Shiningayamwe, K.; Simoni, R.; Sinha, A.; Sol, H.; Specovius, A.; Spencer, S.; Spir-Jacob, M.; Stawarz, Ł.; Sun, L.; Steenkamp, R.; Stegmann, C.; Steinmassl, S.; Steppa, C.; Takahashi, T.; Tavernier, T.; Taylor, A. M.; Terrier, R.; Tiziani, D.; Tluczykont, M.; Tomankova, L.; Trichard, C.; Tsirou, M.; Tuffs, R.; Uchiyama, Y.; van der Walt, D. J.; van Eldik, C.; van Rensburg, C.; van Soelen, B.; Vasileiadis, G.; Veh, J.; Venter, C.; Vincent, P.; Vink, J.; Völk, H. J.; Vuillaume, T.; Wadiasingh, Z.; Wagner, S. J.; Watson, J.; Werner, F.; White, R.; Wierzcholska, A.; Wong, Yu Wun; Yusafzai, A.; Zacharias, M.; Zanin, R.; Zargaryan, D.; Zdziarski, A. A.; Zech, A.; Zhu, S. J.; Zorn, J.; Zouari, S.; Żywucka, N.; MAGIC Collaboration; Acciari, V. A.; Ansoldi, S.; Antonelli, L. A.; Engels, A. Arbet; Artero, M.; Asano, K.; Baack, D.; Babić, A.; Baquero, A.; de Almeida, U. Barres; Barrio, J. A.; Becerra González, J.; Bednarek, W.; Bellizzi, L.; Bernardini, E.; Bernardos, M.; Berti, A.; Besenrieder, J.; Bhattacharyya, W.; Bigongiari, C.; Biland, A.; Blanch, O.; Bonnoli, G.; Bošnjak, Ž.; Busetto, G.; Carosi, R.; Ceribella, G.; Cerruti, M.; Chai, Y.; Chilingarian, A.; Cikota, S.; Colak, S. M.; Colombo, E.; Contreras, J. L.; Cortina, J.; Covino, S.; D'Amico, G.; D'Elia, V.; da Vela, P.; Dazzi, F.; de Angelis, A.; de Lotto, B.; Delfino, M.; Delgado, J.; Delgado Mendez, C.; Depaoli, D.; di Pierro, F.; di Venere, L.; Do Souto Espiñeira, E.; Dominis Prester, D.; Donini, A.; Dorner, D.; Doro, M.; Elsaesser, D.; Ramazani, V. Fallah; Fattorini, A.; Ferrara, G.; Fonseca, M. V.; Font, L.; Fruck, C.; Fukami, S.; García López, R. J.; Garczarczyk, M.; Gasparyan, S.; Gaug, M.; Giglietto, N.; Giordano, F.; Gliwny, P.; Godinović, N.; Green, J. G.; Green, D.; Hadasch, D.; Hahn, A.; Heckmann, L.; Herrera, J.; Hoang, J.; Hrupec, D.; Hütten, M.; Inada, T.; Inoue, S.; Ishio, K.; Iwamura, Y.; Jiménez, I.; Jormanainen, J.; Jouvin, L.; Kajiwara, Y.; Karjalainen, M.; Kerszberg, D.; Kobayashi, Y.; Kubo, H.; Kushida, J.; Lamastra, A.; Lelas, D.; Leone, F.; Lindfors, E.; Lombardi, S.; Longo, F.; López-Coto, R.; López-Moya, M.; López-Oramas, A.; Loporchio, S.; Machado de Oliveira Fraga, B.; Maggio, C.; Majumdar, P.; Makariev, M.; Mallamaci, M.; Maneva, G.; Manganaro, M.; Mannheim, K.; Maraschi, L.; Mariotti, M.; Martínez, M.; Mazin, D.; Menchiari, S.; Mender, S.; Mićanović, S.; Miceli, D.; Miener, T.; Minev, M.; Miranda, J. M.; Mirzoyan, R.; Molina, E.; Moralejo, A.; Morcuende, D.; Moreno, V.; Moretti, E.; Neustroev, V.; Nigro, C.; Nilsson, K.; Nishijima, K.; Noda, K.; Nozaki, S.; Ohtani, Y.; Oka, T.; Otero-Santos, J.; Paiano, S.; Palatiello, M.; Paneque, D.; Paoletti, R.; Paredes, J. M.; Pavletić, L.; Peñil, P.; Perennes, C.; Persic, M.; Moroni, P. G. Prada; Prandini, E.; Priyadarshi, C.; Puljak, I.; Rhode, W.; Ribó, M.; Rico, J.; Righi, C.; Rugliancich, A.; Saha, L.; Sahakyan, N.; Saito, T.; Sakurai, S.; Satalecka, K.; Saturni, F. G.; Schleicher, B.; Schmidt, K.; Schweizer, T.; Sitarek, J.; Šnidarić, I.; Sobczynska, D.; Spolon, A.; Stamerra, A.; Strom, D.; Strzys, M.; Suda, Y.; Surić, T.; Takahashi, M.; Tavecchio, F.; Temnikov, P.; Terzić, T.; Teshima, M.; Tosti, L.; Truzzi, S.; Tutone, A.; Ubach, S.; van Scherpenberg, J.; Vanzo, G.; Vazquez Acosta, M.; Ventura, S.; Verguilov, V.; Vigorito, C. F.; Vitale, V.; Vovk, I.; Will, M.; Wunderlich, C.; Zarić, D.; VERITAS Collaboration; Adams, C. B.; Benbow, W.; Brill, A.; Capasso, M.; Christiansen, J. L.; Chromey, A. J.; Daniel, M. K.; Errando, M.; Farrell, K. A.; Feng, Q.; Finley, J. P.; Fortson, L.; Furniss, A.; Gent, A.; Giuri, C.; Hassan, T.; Hervet, O.; Holder, J.; Hughes, G.; Humensky, T. B.; Jin, W.; Kaaret, P.; Kertzman, M.; Kieda, D.; Kumar, S.; Lang, M. J.; Lundy, M.; Maier, G.; Moriarty, P.; Mukherjee, R.; Nieto, D.; Nievas-Rosillo, M.; O'Brien, S.; Ong, R. A.; Otte, A. N.; Patel, S.; Pfrang, K.; Pohl, M.; Prado, R. R.; Pueschel, E.; Quinn, J.; Ragan, K.; Reynolds, P. T.; Ribeiro, D.; Richards, G. T.; Roache, E.; Rulten, C.; Ryan, J. L.; Santander, M.; Sembroski, G. H.; Shang, R.; Weinstein, A.; Williams, D. A.; Williamson, T. J.; Eavn Collaboration; Hirota, Tomoya; Cui, Lang; Niinuma, Kotaro; Ro, Hyunwook; Sakai, Nobuyuki; Sawada-Satoh, Satoko; Wajima, Kiyoaki; Wang, Na; Liu, Xiang; Yonekura, Yoshinori, In 2017, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration succeeded in capturing the first direct image of the center of the M87 galaxy. The asymmetric ring morphology and size are consistent with theoretical expectations for a weakly accreting supermassive black hole of mass ∼6.5 × 109 M o˙. The EHTC also partnered with several international facilities in space and on the ground, to arrange an extensive, quasi-simultaneous multi-wavelength campaign. This Letter presents the results and analysis of this campaign, as well as the multi-wavelength data as a legacy data repository. We captured M87 in a historically low state, and the core flux dominates over HST-1 at high energies, making it possible to combine core flux constraints with the more spatially precise very long baseline interferometry data. We present the most complete simultaneous multi-wavelength spectrum of the active nucleus to date, and discuss the complexity and caveats of combining data from different spatial scales into one broadband spectrum. We apply two heuristic, isotropic leptonic single-zone models to provide insight into the basic source properties, but conclude that a structured jet is necessary to explain M87's spectrum. We can exclude that the simultaneous γ-ray emission is produced via inverse Compton emission in the same region producing the EHT mm-band emission, and further conclude that the γ-rays can only be produced in the inner jets (inward of HST-1) if there are strongly particle-dominated regions. Direct synchrotron emission from accelerated protons and secondaries cannot yet be excluded., The financial support of the German BMBF, MPG and HGF; the Italian INFN and INAF; the Swiss National Fund SNF; the ERDF under the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (MICINN) (FPA2017-87859-P, FPA2017-85668-P, FPA2017- 82729-C6-5-R, FPA2017-90566-REDC, PID2019-104114RBC31, PID2019-104114RB-C32, PID2019-105510GB-C31,PID 2019-107847RB-C41, PID2019-107847RB-C42, PID2019- 107988GB-C22); the Indian Department of Atomic Energy; the Japanese ICRR, the University of Tokyo, JSPS, and MEXT; the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science, National RI Roadmap Project DO1-268/16.12.2019 and the Academy of Finland grant No. 320045 is gratefully acknowledged. This work was also supported by the Spanish Centro de Excelencia “Severo Ochoa” SEV-2016-0588 and CEX2019- 000920-S, and “Maria de Maeztu” CEX2019-000918-M, the Unidad de Excelencia “Maria de Maeztu” MDM-2015-0509- 18-2 and the “la Caixa” Foundation (fellowship LCF/BQ/ PI18/11630012) and by the CERCA program of the Generalitat de Catalunya; by the Croatian Science Foundation (HrZZ) Project IP-2016-06-9782 and the University of Rijeka Project 13.12.1.3.02; by the DFG Collaborative Research Centers SFB823/C4 and SFB876/C3; the Polish National Research Centre grant UMO-2016/22/M/ST9/00382; and by the Brazilian MCTIC, CNPq, and FAPERJ. This research is supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution, by NSERC in Canada, and by the Helmholtz Association in Germany. This research used resources provided by the Open Science Grid, which is supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, and resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. We acknowledge the excellent work of the technical support staff at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory and at the collaborating institutions in the construction and operation of the instrument.

HARMONI is the adaptive optics assisted, near-infrared and visible light integral field spectrograph for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). A first light instrument, it provides the work-horse spectroscopic capability for the ELT. As the project approaches its Final Design Review milestone, the design of the instrument is being finalized, and the plans for assembly, integration and testing are being detailed. We present an overview of the instrument's capabilities from a user perspective, provide a summary of the instrument's design, including plans for operations and calibrations, and provide a brief glimpse of the predicted performance for a specific observing scenario. The paper also provides some details of the consortium composition and its evolution since the project commenced in 2015.

International audience; We demonstrate an asymmetric supercapacitor in a potassium acetate-based water-in-salt electrolyte, where 2-D titanium carbide MXene and manganese oxide were used as negative and positive electrode materials, respectively. Use of water-in-salt electrolyte enables the assembled asymmetric device to be operated up to a cell voltage of 2.2 V, which overcomes the limited cell voltage issue in aqueous pseudocapacitors (1.2 - 1.4 V). This cell shows excellent rate capability (~48%) between 5 and 100 mV s-1 and good stability (~93%) throughout 10,000 charge-discharge cycles (at 1 A g-1) and 25 h voltage-hold at 2.2 V, which is competitive when compared with the performance of known asymmetric supercapacitors designed with activated carbon electrodes and fluorinated-imide based water-in-salt electrolytes. Moreover, our device shows slower self-discharge and ~32% higher volumetric energy density than activated carbon-based supercapacitors and is promising for applications where volumetric energy density is critical.

WEAVE is a new wide-field multi-object spectroscopy (MOS) facility proposed for the prime focus of the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope (WHT), situated on the island of La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. To allow for the compensation of the effects of temperature-induced and gravity-induced image degradation, the WEAVE prime focus assembly will be translated along the telescope optical axis. The assembly comprises the prime focus corrector (PFC), a central mount for the corrector known as FTS[1], an instrument rotator and a twin-focal-plane fibre positioner. SENER, that manufactured and delivered the FTS, is also responsible for the final design, manufacturing, integration, alignment and testing of the PFC and its ancillary equipment. This manuscript describes the final design of the PFC along with the analyses and simulations performed and presents the procedures for the integration and alignment of the lenses in the corrector.

WEAVE is the next-generation spectroscopic facility for the William Herschel Telescope (WHT) 1,2. WEAVE offers multi-object (1000 fibres) and integral-field spectroscopy at two resolutions (R 5000, 20000) over a 2-deg field of view at prime focus and will mainly provide follow up of ground-based (LOFAR) and space-based (GAIA) surveys. The Observatory Control System (OCS) is responsible for providing the software control and feedback framework through which WEAVE will be operated. This paper summarizes the design of the different OCS subsystems and the interfaces between them and other WEAVE components. In the remainder of this paper, Section 2 outlines the other WEAVE systems with which the OCS interacts, Section 3 describes the system architecture, Section 4 comments on system-architecture decisions, Section 5 describes the main components of the OCS, Section 6 outlines the life-cycle of an OCS Observing Block and, finally, Section 7 gives an overview of the OCS testing plan.

Both meteorology and optical conditions are crucial for selecting the best site to host extremely large telescopes such as the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and the European project (E-ELT). For the E-ELT, a year-long meteorological campaign was performed at our two reference sites, the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) and Cerro Ventarrones (very close to the VLT site at Paranal), and at other sites also considered as alternatives to the reference sites: Aklim, Macon, and Izana (Observatorio del Teide; OT). In this article, we present a statistical analysis of the ground meteorological properties recorded at these sites, making use of automatic weather stations (AWSs) equipped with standard meteorological sensors providing the air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed, and wind direction, using standard procedures across all sites. Meteorology offers but one discriminant in the complicated question of where to site such a major facility as the E-ELT (other factors being seeing, local geology, the economics of the logistics, etc.), both for determining the feasibility of telescope and instrumentation design and construction and for determining the useful observing time. However, the final decision of where to locate a major telescope depends in part on all these—and other—considerations and not on any one criterion alone. In summary, for 90% of the nighttime, the wind speed is lower than 18 m s-1, the telescope operational limit at all the sites except Macon. For this reason, Macon was discarded in the final site selection as, for 25% of the time, the wind speed is greater than 17 m s-1. The smallest nighttime temperature gradient is at ORM, whereas the lowest mean relative humidity value is reached at the Ventarrones site. Izana was discarded in the site selection study from the very beginning due to lack of funding to install further site-testing equipement (e.g., Multi-Aperture Scintillation Sensor-Differential Image Motion Monitor (MASS-DIMM)). We investigate the statistical distributions of annual and monthly meteorological conditions for day and night separately. This is the third paper in a series discussing the E-ELT FP6 site characterization project.

WEAVE is a new wide-field spectroscopy facility proposed for the prime focus of the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope (WHT), placed in La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. To allow for the compensation of the effects of temperature-induced and gravity-induced image degradation, the WEAVE prime focus assembly will be translated along the telescope optical axis. The assembly comprises the prime focus corrector with integrated ADC, a central mount for the corrector, an instrument rotator and a twin-focal-plane fibre positioner. Translation is accomplished through the use of a set of purpose-built actuators; collectively referred to as the Focus Translation System (FTS), formed by four independently-controlled Focus Translation Units (FTUs), eight vanes connecting the FTUs to a central can, and a central can hosting WEAVE Instrument. Each FTU is capable of providing a maximum stroke of ±4mm with sufficient, combined force to move the five-tonne assembly with a positional accuracy of ±20µm at a resolution of 5µm. The coordinated movement of the four FTUs allows ±3mm WEAVE focus adjustment in the optical axis and ±0.015º tilt correction in one axis. The control of the FTS is accomplished through a PLC-based subsystem that receives positional demands from the higher-level Instrument Control System. SENER has been responsible for designing, manufacturing and testing the FTS and the equipment required to manipulate and store the FTS together with the instrument. This manuscript describes the final design of the FTS along with the analyses and simulations that were performed, discusses the manufacturing procedures and the results of early verification prior to integration with the telescope. The plans for mounting the whole system on the telescope are also discussed.

WEAVE is the next-generation optical spectroscopy facility for the William Herschel Telescope and aims at spectroscopic follow-up of ground-based (LOFAR) and space-based (Gaia) surveys. WEAVE places in the re-fitted prime focus either 1000 fibres, 20 fibre-coupled mini-IFUs or a single large 600 fibre IFU. A spectrograph on the Nasmyth platform analyses the light and supports, in a single exposure, either R~5,000 observations over the full 366- 975 nm wavelength range or simultaneous R~20,000 observations over two out of three pre-specified bands within this wavelength range. This paper describes the requirements, optical design and mechanical design of the WEAVE spectrograph.

We present an overview of and status report on the WEAVE next-generation spectroscopy facility for the William Herschel Telescope (WHT). WEAVE principally targets optical ground-based follow up of upcoming ground-based (LOFAR) and space-based (Gaia) surveys. WEAVE is a multi-object and multi-IFU facility utilizing a new 2-degree prime focus field of view at the WHT, with a buffered pick-and-place positioner system hosting 1000 multi-object (MOS) fibres, 20 integral field units, or a single large IFU for each observation. The fibres are fed to a single spectrograph, with a pair of 8k(spectral) x 6k (spatial) pixel cameras, located within the WHT GHRIL enclosure on the telescope Nasmyth platform, supporting observations at R~5000 over the full 370-1000nm wavelength range in a single exposure, or a high resolution mode with limited coverage in each arm at R~20000. The project is now in the final design and early procurement phase, with commissioning at the telescope expected in 2017., Comment: 11 pages, 11 Figures, Summary of a presentation to Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014

We present the preliminary design of the WEAVE next generation spectroscopy facility for the William Herschel Telescope (WHT), principally targeting optical ground-based follow up of upcoming ground-based (LOFAR) and space-based (Gaia) surveys. WEAVE is a multi-object and multi-IFU facility utilizing a new 2 degree prime focus field of view at the WHT, with a buffered pick and place positioner system hosting 1000 multi-object (MOS) fibres or up to 30 integral field units for each observation. The fibres are fed to a single spectrograph, with a pair of 8k(spectral) x 6k (spatial) pixel cameras, located within the WHT GHRIL enclosure on the telescope Nasmyth platform, supporting observations at R-5000 over the full 370-1000nm wavelength range in a single exposure, or a high resolution mode with limited coverage in each arm at R-20000. © 2012 SPIE.

This is the second article of a series devoted to European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) site characterization. In this article we present the main properties of the parameters involved in high angular resolution observations from the data collected in the site testing campaign of the E-ELT during the Design Study (DS) phase. Observations were made in 2008 and 2009, in the four sites selected to shelter the future E-ELT (characterized under the ELT-DS contract): Aklim mountain in Morocco, Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) in Spain, Mac\'on range in Argentina, and Cerro Ventarrones in Chile. The same techniques, instruments and acquisition procedures were taken on each site. A Multiple Aperture Scintillation Sensor (MASS) and a Differential Image Motion Monitor (DIMM) were installed at each site. Global statistics of the integrated seeing, the free atmosphere seeing, the boundary layer seeing and the isoplanatic angle were studied for each site, and the results are presented here. In order to estimate other important parameters such as the coherence time of the wavefront and the overall parameter "coherence \'etendue" additional information of vertical profiles of the wind speed was needed. Data were retrieved from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) archive. Ground wind speed was measured by Automatic Weather Stations (AWS). More aspects of the turbulence parameters such as their seasonal trend, their nightly evolution and their temporal stability were also obtained and analyzed., Comment: 46 pages and 17 figures. Accepted to be published in PASP

During the last 20 years, many DIMM instruments have been developed to measure astronomical seeing. The IAC has been involved in several projects to run different campaigns to characterize its observatories. However, the cost in manpower to maintain and operate these instruments has been too high and it is mandatory to minimize this effort by constructing a reliable, robust and available seeing monitor. A review of all sources of errors has been done in order to fit very reliable measurements: acquisition parameters, box size, signal threshold, SNR threshold, flux, deformations and vibrations for centroid calculations, best pixel scale, jitter in the images sampling, light bandwidth, CCD noise, as well as the centroid calculation algorithm. Experimental measurements about the influence of exposure time, number of images for computing the seeing or defocus have been carried out to identify the practical limits of the instrument. The IAC automatic DIMM design has been reviewed to improve its robustness and its availability to guarantee the minimum down-time and to maximize the time between failures. The new design will be shown as part of this work.

We present in this paper the new cute-SCIDAR instrument, entirely developed by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC), delivered recently at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Paranal Observatory (Chile). This instrument, supported by the European Community (Framework Programme 6, Extremely Large Telescope Design Study), carries out the generalized SCIntillation Detection And Ranging (g-SCIDAR) technique to obtain the temporal evolution of turbulence profiles C N2 with height. A new design was made in order to fit the VLT Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) interfaces and control requirements. Also, a new software arch itecture allows a full remote control, and a data analysis pipeline provides turbulence profiles in real-time, which is the main achievement of this new cute-SCIDAR. Details of its design and results of its excellent performance are included. Keywords: atmospheric optical turbulence, site testi ng, site characterization, instrumentation 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The SCIDAR technique SCIDAR has proved to be the most efficient and reliable technique to measure with accuracy the optical vertical structure of the atmospheric turbulence strength obtained from ground level. The concept (Vernin & Roddier, 1973

Quantitative seeing measurements have been provided at the Canarian Observatories since 1990 by differential image motion monitors (DIMMs). Image quality needs to be studied in long term (routine) measurements. This is important, for instance, in deciding on the siting of large telescopes or in the development of adaptive optics programmes, not to mention the development and design of new instruments. On the other hand, the continuous real time monitoring is essential in the day-to-day operation of telescopes.These routine measurements have to be carried out by standard, easy-to-operate and cross- calibrated instruments that required to be be operational with minimum intervention over many years. The DIMMA (Automatic Differential Image Motion Monitor) is the next step, a fully automated seeing monitor that is capable of providing data without manual operation and in remote locations. Currently, the IAC has two DIMMs working at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM) and Teide Observatory (OT). They are robotic and require an operator to start and initialize the program, focus the telescope, change the star when needed and turn off at the end of the night, all of which is done remotely. With a view to automation, we have designed a code for monitoring image quality (avoiding spurious data) and a program for autofocus, which is presented here. The data quality control protocol is also given.

We present the statistical results of the optical-turbulence profiles at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos over a period of six consecutive months. The data were obtained using the generalized SCIDAR technique at the 1m Jacobous Kaptein Telescope. In general, most of the turbulence is concentrated close to the observatory level (2400 m above sea level) with no more than two turbulent layers at higher altitudes. The temporal evolution along six consecutive months indicates that the turbulence is concentrated at lower altitude layers during winter. Large isoplanatic angles are also reached in winter compared to the values in spring. For the turbulence profiles measured in February, March and April we have analized the statistical position of demorfable mirrors in an ideal Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics system (with two or three deformable mirrors) and the improvements in the isoplanatic angles.

In the planning stage of extremely large telescopes, site testing and study of high performance adaptive optics systems plays very important roles. Site testing is a very time consuming task, therefore, we have built a fully automatic device - the CUTE SCIDAR instrument with a user-friendly interface and real time processing. This instrument is already in operation and now has been installed in the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope of Roque de los Muchachos Observatory at La Palma for periodical turbulence profiling. A second version with an additional phase sensor bench contains a motorized field stop, a field lens, a collimator lens, and a Shack-Hartmann sensor. This instrument measures the turbulence from both amplitude and phase variations of the same distorted wave at high frequency bandwidth, with a high resolution and dynamic range. On the one hand, this will solve the calibration problem between different turbulence sensors. On the other hand, it allows investigating the performance of multi-conjugated wavefront sensing using real time information from SCIDAR data and proving validity of the near field assumption. From preliminary Shack-Hartmann measurements we conclude that the instrument should be flexible to change optical layout and detection parameters according to the turbulence conditions. Therefore, the phase sensor branch includes automatically controlled moveable devices, and in the future, fast communication facilities between control computers of both SCIDAR and wavefront sensing are previewed. In this paper, we will present our objectives of building such an instrument, give a detailed state of art design, and considerate the preparation of first observational campaigns, that are the first scientific tasks to do.

We present a new generation SCIDAR instrument that is a fully automatically controlled device with a user-friendly interface. Alignment and observation are reduced to easy and rapid handling without the effort operating in the dome. This instrument is installed in the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope on La Palma. We describe our progress from prototype to second generation instrument, emphasizing the design and the software for Cute SCIDAR, and show profiles from systematic monitoring using the prototype instrument on Tenerife and Cute SCIDAR on La Palma.

The statistics of vertical structure of the turbulence affect the complexity of the design and implementation of Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO) systems. The operation of these systems could be optimized if the stability of the layers were such as to permit to fix the deformable mirrors (DMs) at specific heights. Moreover, it is desirable to know the effects on the placement of the DMs and the gain of the isoplanatic angle in terms of site characterization. From the turbulence profiles measured with the G-SCIDAR technique we have analyzed the statistics of the heights of the DMs and the resulting isoplanatic angles. These results are based on the data from a long ongoing campaign at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (La Palma) and Teide Observatory (Tenerife) with the highest statistical coverage to date. We have used two ideal MCAO systems, consisting of two and three DMs, and, from a specific comparison in simultaneous measurements over two nights, we show the evolution of the position of DMs and isoplanatic angles in both sites, which can sporadically reach values greater than 60" in 500 nm. We also study the effects of the stability of the conjugate planes on the improvements in the isoplanatic angles.

LIRIS is a near-infrared (1-2.5 microns) intermediate resolution spectrograph (R=1000-3000) with added capabilities for multi-slit, imaging, coronography, and polarimetry, built by the IAC to be a common instrument for the WHT (La Palma). Here we report the results of the two commissioning periods. The image quality was checked, obtaining a FWHM of 0".5 in the Ks band over the whole field of view (4'.2 x 4'.2). Zero points and sky brightness were measured, and very low values were found in the latter. The long slit spectra obtained matched the expected spectral resolution (2.6 pixels for a 0".65-wide slit). Flexure tests were carried out with good results. Several science targets were observed, the most note-worthy result being the detection of the CIV 154.9 nm line in the most distant qso at z=6.41.

SCIDAR has proved to be the most efficient technique to obtain the optical vertical structure of the atmospheric turbulence measured from ground level. However, the common procedure of obtaining the data, as well as its 'a posteriori' treatment, requires a huge number of highly qualified human resources. A systematic monitoring program becomes really onerous. Consequently, the development of a full automatically controlled SCIDAR device seems to be evidently justified. We have recently developed a SCIDAR instrument providing high performances in automatic control and data reduction, presently in test pahse. It has been designed for the Jacobus Kapstein Telescope at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, with the goal of monitoring the vertical turbulence with a high temporal coverage. This device is not only restricted to the JKT but can also be used for other telescopes.

Knowledge of vertical structure of the turbulence in a site is an essential input for the requirements, performances and operation of Adaptive Optics systems. The statistics of the turbulence intensity and the coherence time of the layers affect the complexity of the design and implementation of a particular MCAO system. On the other hand, the operation of such systems could be optimized if the height and velocity of the layers were available in real time. We present statistical results of the SCIDAR turbulence profiles obtained at the observatories Canary Islands. Statistics of characteristic parameters, of special interest for MCAO, are presented here, together with their temporal evolution. The results have been checked with simultaneous meteorological measurements. We have used the balloon sounding meteorological database of the Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia of the Santa Cruz station (Tenerife) to evaluate the physical conditions related with the behavior of the optical propagation. We have compared this study with the database of indirect measurements from satellites. The reliability of these data has been proved in relation to the balloon meteorological database for all height levels on Tenerife.

LIRIS is a near-infrared (0.9 - 2.4 microns) intermediate resolution spectrograph (R = 1000-3000) conceived as a common user instrument for the (WHT) at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) La Palma. LIRIS is now being assembled, integrated and virified at the Instituto Astrofisico de Canarias (IAC). LIRIS will have imaging, long-slit and multi-object spectroscopy working modes. Coronography and polarimetry capabilities will eventually be added. Image capability will allow easy target acquisition.

LIRIS is a near-infrared (0.9–2.4 microns) intermediate resolution spectrograph (R = 1000 − 4000) with added capabilities for multi-object, imaging, coronography, and polarimetry. This instrument is now be­ing assembled and integrated at the IAC, and upon verification will be installed on the 4.2 m William Herschel Telescope (WHT) at the Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos (ORM, La Palma). First commissioning is expected in February 2002 and scientific operations, as a common user instrument, in semester 2003B.

LIRIS is a near-infrared (0.9–2.4 microns) intermediate resolution spectrograph (R = 1000 – 8000) with added capabilities for multi-object, imaging, coronography, and polarimetry. This instrument is now being constructed at the IAC, and upon complexion will be installed on the 4.2 m William Herschel Telescope (WHT) at the Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos (ORM, La Palma).

Aims. Within the framework of site qualification for the future European large telescope E-ELT, a campaign of measurements was carried out for ten nights in December 2007 at Paranal using six independent instruments. Methods. To characterize the optical turbulence, two techniques were used: the statistical analysis of the fluctuations of the angle of arrival and the scintillation of the observed objects which are, in this case, a single star for DIMM, GSM, and MASS, a double star for Cute-SCIDAR, and Moon limb for MOSP and LuSci. Results. The optical parameters measured in this campaign and presented here are the seeing, the isoplanatic angle, the coherence time, and the outer scale. We obtain a good agreement with the value measured in previous campaigns. We also extracted the vertical profile of the turbulence given by C 2(h), and the profiles of the outer scale for the first time at Paranal. A comparison of the different results that we present here allows the determination of the energy distribution in the free atmosphere, on the ground layer as well as in the first meters above ground. This reveals a significant contribution of the surface layer to the degradation of the global seeing.