The Herschel Science Ground Segment (H-SGS) consists of five elements: the Herschel Science Centre (HSC), an Instrument Control Centre (ICC) for each Herschel instrument (HIFI, PACS, SPIRE), and the NASA Herschel Science Center (NHSC).

Herschel Science Centre

The HSC (based at ESAC, Madrid) is the prime interface between Herschel and the science community. It provides information and user support related to the entire life-cycle of Herschel observations, including calls for observing time, the proposing procedure, proposal tracking, data access and data processing, as well as general and specific information about using Herschel and its instruments. It also performs scientific mission planning, produces observing schedules and provides these to the Mission Operations Centre (MOC, based at ESOC, Darmstadt) for uplink to Herschel. It systematically processes all Herschel data and makes the data and associated products available through the Herschel science archive. Further details can be found at the Herschel Science Centre web site.

Instrument Control Centres

The ICCs are provided by their respective principal investigators and are responsible for the successful operation of their respective instruments. They perform instrument monitoring and calibration, and develop and maintain instrument specific software and procedures for generating observations and for the processing of the data generated.

NASA Herschel Science Center

The NHSC (based at IPAC, Pasadena) provides additional user support primarily for the US-based users of Herschel, and offers science exploitation funding for Herschel investigators based in the USA.