11. Data exploration and optimisation for the Euclid mission

ESA supervisor: Bruno Altieri
Collaborator(s): Sandor Kruk, Jos de Bruijne, Hector Canovas, Daniela Coia

Site: ESAC

The Euclid space mission is generating petabyte-scale datasets, with a major public release (DR1) of 2 PB planned for autumn 2026. This data will be accessible on the Euclid Data Space portal via the Euclid Science Archives and ESA Datalabs science platform.

To support users in navigating this vast resource, we are developing a suite of official Jupyter Notebooks. This will be complemented by contributions from the Euclid community of users. The internship will focus on identifying compelling use cases to showcase the data, optimising use cases such as catalogue cross-matching techniques for large tables (using software such as Dask and formats such as Parquet) and curating community-contributed notebooks to ensure a diverse and representative set of examples.

The trainee will also assess the performance of Euclid-related workflows on ESA Datalabs, ensuring they are robust, scalable, and responsive across a range of user scenarios. This will involve designing test cases, analysing performance metrics, identifying bottlenecks, and proposing optimisations. The trainee will collaborate closely with the ESAC Science Data Center and Data Science teams, gaining hands-on experience on the Euclid data and contributing to the operational readiness of Euclid DR1 tools. This role offers a unique opportunity to contribute to one of ESA’s flagship missions and support the scientific community in unlocking the potential of Euclid’s data.

Project duration: 6 months.

Desirable expertise or programming language:

  • Background in Data Science, Computer Science or Astronomy.
  • Proficiency with Python programming.
  • Experience with JupyterLab and Jupyter Notebooks.
  • Familiarity with software engineering practices and version control.
  • Experience with astronomical data analysis (for example, using astroquery) would be advantageous, but not essential.

To apply for this project please fill in an online application form through the following link.

To see the full list of Internships available at ESA please go to our website for ESA Career Opportunities.