ARIEL Payload STOP Analysis: updated results on the in-flight operational cases for the Telescope Assembly

At payload level, a Structural, Thermal, and Optical Performance (STOP) analysis is carried out to evaluate how thermo-elastic effects may impact the instrument’s optical performance. A STOP analysis integrates structural, thermal, and optical models to predict how temperature variations and mechanically induced deformations propagate through the telescope assembly and ultimately affect key optical metrics such as alignment, wavefront error, and imaging quality. This coupled approach enables the estimation of performance degradation under representative environmental load cases and supports verification of compliance with scientific and engineering requirements. This document presents the updated results of the optical design analysis performed to predict the in-flight performance for the Telescope Assembly of the ESA M4 mission Ariel according to the operational scenarios defined for Cycle C-2.