  Comet 103P/Hartley~2 was observed on Nov. 1-6, 2010, coinciding with the
fly-by of the space probe EPOXI. The goal was to connect the large scale
phenomena observed from the ground, with those at small scale observed from the
spacecraft. The comet showed strong activity correlated with the rotation of
its nucleus, also observed by the spacecraft. We report here the
characterization of the solid component produced by this activity, via
observations of the emission in two spectral regions where only grain
scattering of the solar radiation is present. We show that the grains produced
by this activity had a lifetime of the order of 5 hours, compatible with the
spacecraft observations of the large icy chunks. Moreover, the grains produced
by one of the active regions have a very red color. This suggests an organic
component mixed with the ice in the grains.
