About

We design, build and operate state-of-the-art instrumentation to expand our understanding of the Universe through Earth observation, airborne and space-based experiments.

We're heavily involved in the development of virtually all far infrared space technologies. Current and previous work includes:

• ESA’s Herschel and Planck space missions
• NASA’s Mars and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiters
• ground-based observatories such as the SCUBA-2 instrument on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), and the South Pole Telescope (SPT)
• balloon-borne experiments such as BLAST and PIPER
• Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope and the Simons Observatory
• future space missions such as the Japanese-led LiteBIRD satellite and the NASA Far Infrared Probe concept mission, PRIMA.

We typically operate in the infrared to very far-infrared wavelength region meaning that our instruments need to be cooled to very low temperatures, typically of order 0.1 degree above absolute zero (100mK). Due to the long wavelengths at which our instruments operate, the technology and telescopes using them are much larger than those in the visible wavelength region.

As part of the Cardiff Hub for Astrophysics and Technology (CHART), the umbrella group for all of our astrophysicists and one of the largest in the UK, we're closely aligned with the research areas of the Astronomy Group.