EChO - Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2017

This book comprises 26 articles on the EChO science cases, mission pre-assessment and assessment, phase-studies, the payload, the instrumentation and software. They are reprints of articles published in a special issue on EChO ? Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory of the journal Experimental Astronomy.

Originally published in Experimental Astronomy, Volume 40, Nos. 2-3 (2015)

Editorial, G. Tinetti, P. Drossart.- The EChO science case, G. Tinetti et al.- The phase 0/A study of the ESA M3 mission candidate EChO, L. Puig et al..- The EChO payload instrument – an overview, P.Eccleston et al..- On the (anticipated) diversity of terrestrial planet atmospheres, Jeremy Leconte, Ph.D..- Chemical modeling of exoplanet atmospheres, Olivia Venot, Ph.D..- Unveiling the atmospheres of giant exoplanets with an EChO-class mission., Vivien Parmentier.- The role of planetary formation and evolution in shaping the composition of exoplanetary atmospheres, Diego Turrini, PhD.- Transit spectroscopy of exoplanets from space: how to optimize the wavelength coverage and spectral resolving power, Encrenaz T. et al..- Exoplanet atmospheres with EChO: spectral retrievals using EChOSim, Joanna K. Barstow, DPhil.- The Status of Spectroscopic Data for the Exoplanet Characterisation Missions, Jonathan Tennyson.- The contribution of the major planet search surveys to EChO target selection, Giuseppina Micela, Ph.D..- The Gaia Survey Contribution to EChO Target Selection and Characterization, Alessandro Sozzetti, Ph.D..- EChOSim: The Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory software simulator, Enzo Pascale.- Generation of an optimal target list for the Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory (EChO), Ryan John Varley.- Data analysis Pipeline for EChO end-to-end simulations, Ingo Peter Waldmann, PhD.- Scheduling the EChO survey with known exoplanets, Juan Carlos Morales, Ph.D..- Artificial Intelligence for the EChO Mission Planning Tool, Alvaro Garcia-Piquer, Ph.D.- Correcting EChO data for stellar activity by direct scaling of activity signals, Enrique Herrero.- EChO spectra and stellar activity II. The case of dM stars., Gaetano Scandariato, Ph.D..- EChO spectra and stellar activity - I. Correcting the infrared signal using simultaneous optical spectroscopy, Giuseppina Micela, Ph.D..- Brown dwarf characterization with EChO, Morales et al..- The Visible and Near Infrared module of EChO, Giancarlo Bellucci.- Thermal control system of the Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory Payload: design and predictions, Morgante et al.- The Long wave (11 -16 µm) spectrograph for the EChO M3 Mission Candidate study., Neil Edward Bowles, Ph.D.- EChO Payload electronics architecture and SW design, , Mauro Focardi, Ph.D..

Giovanna Tinetti is Professor of Astrophysics at UCL. She works on galactic planetary science, trying to understand the chemical composition of planets in our Galaxy, how do they form and evolve and why are they so diverse. She was lead scientist or principle investigator of several international projects. She is an Editor of Icarus, the American Astronomical Society DPS journal and guest editor of the special issue on EChO, Experimental Astronomy, Springer (2015).

Pierre Drossart is Director of LESIA (Laboratoire d’Etudes Spatiales et d’Instrumentation en Astrophysique), at the Observatoire de Paris. His field of research is planetology and the physics and spectroscopy of planetary atmospheres and their dynamics. He is envolved in the development of instrumentation like infrared spectrometers, spectro-imagers and space intrumentation. He has been co- and principle investigator of several space experiments.

Comprehensively covers work done in preparation of the ESA M3 mission candidate ECh.