Session 11 - Space Weather Instrumentation
Sylvie Benck (Universite Catholique de Louvain), Mervyn Freeman (British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge), Grigory Protopopov (URSC-ISDE, Moscow), Volker Bothmer (Institut für Astrophysik, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)
Friday 9/11, 09:00-10:30 & 11:15-12:45
MTC 00.10, Large lecture room
Space weather science, research and forecasting operations rely on data and observations generated by specialized sensors and instrumentation. The purpose of this session is to provide a forum dedicated to Space Weather Instrumentation issues and concepts. Topics to be covered include: - Emerging requirements and needs for Space Weather Instrumentation and data;
- Ground based Space Weather Instruments ;
- Space based in-situ sensors measuring cause (particles and fields) and effect (internal charging, surface charging, solar cell degradation etc);
- Space based remote sensing instruments (coronagraphs etc);
- Novel use cases for heritage Space Weather Instruments, allowing re-use of existing assets.
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Talks : Time scheduleFriday November 9, 09:00 - 10:30, MTC 00.10, Large lecture room| 09:00 | In-situ environment monitoring by space weather missions to the Sun-Earth Lagrange points | Rae, J et al. | Oral | | | Jonathan Rae[1], LGR InSitu Team[2] | | | [1] Mullard Space Science Laboratory [2]Imperial College, IWF, PSI, Isaware, CAS, Airbus | | | In-situ monitoring of the magnetic, plasma and radiation environment of interplanetary space is essential for any advanced space-weather early warning system. Near real-time measurements from well-chosen locations are extremely valuable in alerting satellite operators and utility providers on Earth when there is an increased risk of hazards from geomagnetic storms and other space weather effects.
Space weather causes of interest include, but are not limited to, high speed solar wind streams, stream interaction regions, solar energetic particle events and interplanetary coronal mass ejections. Towards this goal, the European Space Agency initiated assessment studies for space weather monitoring missions to the L1 and L5 Solar Lagrangian points within its Space Situational Awareness (SSA)Programme.
Phase A/B1 studies are now well underway on space weather monitoring from an L5 mission. In order to provide effective forecasts and warnings, such missions must carry an in-situ instrument suite to measure the energetic particle environment, bulk solar wind conditions, solar X-ray emissions and the interplanetary magnetic field.
We discuss science and measurement requirements for space weather monitoring missions at L1 and L5, including operational needs and key challenges for reliable in-situ environment monitoring. We also highlight the value of joint measurements at both L5 and L1 for improving existing models of the inner heliosphere that will, in turn, improve space weather prediction capabilities. Finally, we will present a brief overview of the types of instruments and techniques available for such a mission.
| | 09:18 | Lagrange Remote Sensing Instruments: the Extreme UltraViolet Imager (EUVI) | Kintziger, C et al. | Oral | | | Christian Kintziger[1], Serge Habraken[1], Philippe Bouchez[1], Manfred Gyo[2], Margit Haberreiter[2], Matthew J West[3], David Berghmans[3] | | | [1] Centre Spatial de Liège (CSL), [2] PMOD/WRC, Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB) [3] | | | The EUVI instrument is part of the Lagrange Missions Remote sensing instruments Phase A/B1 Study & Predevelopments. It will provide images of the solar disc and a part of its corona in the Extreme Ultra Violet (EUV) wavelength.
Several EUV imaging telescopes have been developed for scientific solar spacecraft, e.g. SOHO/EIT, TRACE, Proba-2/SWAP, STEREO/SECCHI-EUVI, SOLAR ORBITER/EUI. Another study was performed until 2015: ESIO, based on an ESA General Support Technology Programme activity, was also performed jointly by the Centre Spatial de Liège (CSL) and the Royal observatory of Belgium (ROB). The name of the instrument designed in that frame was the EUV Solar Imager for Operations (ESIO). The ESIO instrument is intended to provide solar EUV images for operational use as part of the ESA SSA (Space Situational Awareness) programme. The ESIO design is a low resolution, low data rate, compact solar EUV imager associated to a flux monitor for operation use in space weather monitoring and forecasting.
The proposed EUV Imager (EUVI) takes heritage of the SWAP instrument optical design (off-axis elliptical primary mirror and a spherical secondary mirror, made with a super-polished optical surface for scattering reduction and ESIO mechanical design (lightweight and stiff structure). Multiple wavelengths observations is achieved using two similar channels, one with a filter wheel and mirror dual-band EUV coating.
The spectral selection is achieved with a set of thin aluminium foil filters, together with EUV reflective multilayer coatings deposited on the mirrors. The overall stack is specifically designed to provide reflectivity in the extreme ultraviolet range, and to achieve the spectral selection in a narrow band pass (1.5 nm at full width half maximum). The accuracy on central wavelength adjustment is within +/- 0.2 nm.
The camera comprises an EUV sensitive CMOS detector, a decontamination heater located on the sensor (periodically used to outgas the condensed layer that builds up on the cold sensor), a proximity front-end electronics (FEE) that reads out the sensor, and a thermal link to the cold space for the detector cooling down.
The presentation will introduce the actual status of the EUVI instrument currently in its Phase A study. | | 09:36 | Space Weather Monitoring with the NOAA GOES-16 Spacecraft: Instruments, Products and Initial Observations | Lotoaniu, P et al. | Oral | | | R. Redmon[1], J. Rodriguez[1,2], Paul T.M. Loto’aniu[1,2],J. Machol[1,2], D. Seaton[1,2], S. Califf[1,2], B. Kress[1,2], J. Darnel[1,2], W. Rowland[1,2], M. Tilton[1,2], A. Boudouridis[1,2], S. Codrescu[1,2], V. Hsu[1,2], H. J. Singer[1] | | | [1]NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information; [2]Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences University of Colorado | | | Since their inception in the 1970s, the NOAA GOES satellites have monitored the sources of space weather on the sun and the effects of space weather at Earth. The GOES-16 spacecraft, the first of four satellites as part of the GOES-R spacecraft series mission, was launched in November 2016. The space weather instruments on GOES-16 have significantly improved capabilities over older GOES instruments. Solar instruments will image the sun’s atmosphere in extreme-ultraviolet and monitor solar irradiance in X-rays and UV, while in-situ observations will monitor solar energetic particles, magnetospheric energetic particles, galactic cosmic rays, and the Earth’s magnetic field. These measurements are important for NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center warnings, watches and alerts that are used by many worldwide customers; including satellite operators, airlines, power utilities, and NASA’s human activities in space. This presentation reviews the capabilities of the GOES-16 space weather instruments and presents initial observations along with a discussion of calibration activities and the current status of the instruments. We also describe the space weather Level 2+ products that are being developed for the GOES-R series including solar thematic maps, automated magnetopause crossing detection and spacecraft charging estimates. These new and continuing data products will be an integral part of NOAA space weather operations in the GOES-R era and will provide tremendous value to the research community. | | 09:54 | The Space Weather Alternative In-Situ Demonstrator (SWAID) Mission Concept: An alternative to the GOES spacecraft in-situ observations | Redmon, R et al. | Oral | | | Robert Redmon[1], Samuel Califf[1][2], Juan Rodriguez[1][2], Paul T.M. Loto’aniu[1][2], William Rowland[1][2] | | | [1]NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information,[1]Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences University of Colorado
| | | The NOAA GOES satellites have continuously monitored space weather on the sun and the effects of space weather at Earth since the 1970s. GOES data are also very important for space physics research, with the GOES observations being the most used space physics data, after solar wind observations, on the NASA-CDAWeb Space Physics Data Facility website. The GOES spacecraft program is, however, expensive. Furthermore, the GOES spacecraft on-orbit configuration is not ideal for calibration of the magnetometer and particle space weather instruments. Indeed, the space weather instruments are considered 2nd-tier instruments because the terrestrial weather imager is the most important GOES instrument. Recently, NOAA has started to look at alternatives for meeting their in-situ space weather observational requirements at geostationary orbit. We present the Space Weather Alternative In-Situ Demonstrator (SWAID) mission concept, an ongoing study proposing a geostationary spacecraft mission that would be cheaper but more effective at meeting these NOAA in-situ space weather requirements. The SWAID mission would be comprised of two or four identical spacecraft probes with a payload consisting of a fluxgate magnetometer and particle sensors similar to those on the GOES-R series satellites. Locating the probes at geostationary orbit satisfies NOAA requirements while providing continuity with historical observations. With a two-probe mission the probes would be separated by 180 degrees longitude, while four probes would be located at 0, 90, 180 and 270 degrees longitude. The purpose of the multi-longitudinal separation is to allow forecasters to simultaneously observe the space environment at multiple local times. For example, given a storm commencement or a magnetic field compression on the dayside the forecaster may observe how the local midnight region responded. The Galaxy 15 spacecraft anomaly showed that the local spacecraft environment can be very intense even if the storm that produced it was moderate. Observing the geophysical conditions at just one location is not optimal utilization of geostationary observations. Developing a mission that is low-cost but satisfies the NOAA geostationary in-situ requirements are challenging for many reasons. We will discuss some of these challenges and how we might overcome them. | | 10:12 | Analysis of the new Environmental Monitoring Units on-board EU Galileo satellites | Sandberg, I et al. | Oral | | | Ingmar Sandberg[1], Sigiava Aminalragia-Giamini[2], George Provatas[3], Alex Hands[4], Keith Ryden[5], Daniel Heynderickx[6], Antonis Tsigkanos[7], Constantinos Papadimitriou[8], Tsutomu Nagatsuma[9], Hugh Evans[10], and David Rodgers[11] | | | [1] Space Applications & Research Consultancy, Athens, Greece [2] Space Applications & Research Consultancy, Athens, Greece [3] Space Applications & Research Consultancy, Athens, Greece [4] Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey, United Kingdom [5] Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey, United Kingdom [6] DH Consultancy, Leuven, Belgium [7] Space Applications & Research Consultancy, Athens, Greece [8] Space Applications & Research Consultancy, Athens, Greece [9] National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Tokyo, JAPAN [10] ESTEC, European Space Agency, Noordwijk, The Netherlands [11] ESTEC, European Space Agency, Noordwijk, The Netherlands | | | The radiation environment in medium earth orbit (MEO) is rather severe. MEO orbit lies in the core of the dynamic outer electron radiation belt and it is subject to intense solar proton and heavy ion intermittent fluxes. In the Galileo constellation, two Environmental Monitoring Units (EMU) are currently flying in two different orbital planes. These units monitor the radiation environment and provide critical information related to space weather hazard for the host spacecraft and its payload. The SURF sensor measures internal surface charging currents. Its design, despite its simplicity, is highly resistant to proton contamination. In addition, SURF does not require any dead time corrections and thus avoids pulse-pile-up problems. The derivation of EMU electron flux datasets is a step towards the improved understanding of the radiation belt dynamics and the characterization of MEO environment at different time-scales. In this work, we show that the performed numerical calibration of EMU sensors and the application of dedicated numerical unfolding techniques enable the derivation of high-quality differential fluxes of energetic trapped electrons and solar protons. Selected results from the analysis of Galileo/EMU are provided, supported by the data analysis of Space Environment Data Acquisition Monitor (SEDA) – an identical to EMU device - on-board Himawari GEO satellites.
Acknowledgment
This work has been supported by ESA/ESTEC contract No. 4000119253/17/NL/LF/hh. The authors acknowledge the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (Japan) for providing us access to Space Environment Data Acquisition Monitor (SEDA) data. |
Friday November 9, 11:15 - 12:45, MTC 00.10, Large lecture room| 11:15 | Timepix Detector Spacecraft Instrumentation and Radiation Monitor Payloads for Satellites and Cubesats | Granja, C et al. | Oral | | | Carlos Granja[1], Jan Jakubek[1], Benedikt Bergmann[2], Stanislav Pospisil[2], Vladimir Daniel[3], Pavel Soukup[1], Daniel Turecek[1], Stepan Polansky[1], Petr Svoboda[3], Tomas Baca[4] | | | [1] ADVACAM, Prague, [2] Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, Czech TU Prague, [3] Czech Aerospace Research Centre, VZLU, Prague, [4] Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech TU Prague | | | Compact low-power radiation monitoring payloads equipped with the semiconductor pixel detector Timepix are deployed in LEO orbit. SATRAM-Timepix operates at 820 km since May 2013 on board the Proba-V satellite. A focal plane X-ray imaging Timepix, part of an X-ray optics telescope, operates at 500 km since June 2017 on board the Czech cubesat VZLUSAT-1. Presently a miniaturized radiation monitor MIRAM-Timepix is being developed for telecommunication satellites in GEO orbit. In addition, novel detector array architectures based on new generation Timepix-3 and Timepix-2 ASIC chips are being built currently at low TRL. The configurable detector arrays are intended for space weather and radiation effects studies as highly integrated instruments for wide field-of-view detection of energetic charged particles with high angular resolution or for directional detection of gamma rays. The devices can be implemented for various spacecraft platforms, from cubesats to micro satellites and large spacecraft. A summary of these new developments is presented including evaluation of radiation detection sensitivity, resolving power, spectral and flux ranges and acceptance angle. Research supported by ESA. | | 11:33 | The Energetic Particle Telescope (EPT): its performances and its proposed miniaturization | Borisov, S et al. | Oral | | | Stanislav Borisov, Sylvie Benck and Mathias Cyamukungu | | | Center for Space Radiations, Earth and Life Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, (UCL/ELI/CSR), Place Louis Pasteur, 3, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (e-mail: stanislav.borisov@uclouvain.be) | | | Science class space radiation spectrometers are embarked on satellites to collect data for various usages including validation / improvement / development of radiation environment models and space weather services, as well as characterization of the dynamics of the space radiation environment.
The EPT is actually flying on-board PROBA-V as technology demonstration payload. The operational principle of the EPT (predominantly a range telescope) has led to an instrument with an excellent in-flight particle discrimination capability and immunity to contamination by off-FOV (Field of View) particles. Now that the concept has been demonstrated to lead to the expected performances, it was decided to develop a miniaturized version of the instrument.
The objective of the miniaturised EPT (mEPT) development is to produce a compact radiation telescope that can be packaged as a hybrid chip of size <200 cm3, but whose performances are comparable to that of the EPT. This implies reliable particle discrimination capability within their respective energy range (electrons: 100 keV – 7 MeV, protons: 3 MeV – 400 MeV, heavier ions: >10 MeV) and the possibility to reconstruct the incident particle spectra with no constraint on the spectral shape. The instrument is designed to cope with fluxes of up to 10^8 #/cm2/s, thus capable of broad sensing of energetic charged particles in GEO, GTO and MEO orbits as well as during Electric Propulsion orbit raising. The targeted power consumption of the device should be <1 W. The required performances are achieved by use of adapted integrated circuit (IC) technology, among others.
In this presentation, the main assets and achievements of the EPT will be briefly revisited and an introduction to the miniaturized instrument and its key features will be presented. | | 11:51 | Low resource magnetometer for space weather applications and implementation on RadCube | Palla, C et al. | Oral | | | Chiara Palla[1], Patrick Brown[1], Henry Eshbaugh[1], Tim Oddy[1], Jonathan Eastwood[1], Balazs Zabori[2], Dominik Nolbert[3], Gábor Marosy[4] | | | [1]Space and Atmospheric Physics Group, Imperial College London, UK, [2]MTA Centre for Energy Research, Hungary, [3]Astronika, Poland, [4]C3S, Hungary | | | The European Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Programme is currently focussed on developing and enhancing space weather products and services for the period 2017-2020. The ability to monitor space weather is of key importance to protect infrastructure both in space and on the ground from its adverse effects.
Space weather monitoring in the Earth’s magnetosphere requires a constellation approach where in situ observations are made at many points simultaneously (analogous to weather stations on the ground), but large constellations require a baseline design that is smaller and simpler than traditional scientific satellites. An interesting solution is to exploit CubeSat platforms, which are a constantly growing market segment.
However, heritage magnetometer instruments (e.g. flux-gate sensors) are typically not employed on CubeSats, where mass, volume and power budgets are limited.
MAGIC (MAGnetometer from Imperial College), a miniaturised magnetometer, optimises the noise performance while minimising the power consumption by utilising a hybrid anisotropic magnetoresistive sensor triad. This solution is suitable for CubeSats: it has flown on three of them to date (TRIO-CINEMA) and an improved design was developed for the Sunjammer microsatellite. The next mission is the ESA RadCube satellite, scheduled for launch in 2019.
This paper describes the design and technical development of MAGIC for RadCube.
The mechanical design of MAGIC draws strongly on flight heritage. The sensor system fundamentally consists of three magnetoresisitive chips mounted orthogonally on a ceramic tile, together with the associated drive electronics. The sensor assembly is housed within a mechanical chassis. The sensor is deployed by means of a tape spring boom driven by motor.
Although the main sensor and control loop is at TRL 9, the proposed magnetometer design requires some technical development. For example, a major addition from the CINEMA design is the inclusion of intelligence via the addition of an Atmel ATmega128. This enables use of standard communications protocol to the bus. MAGIC will be implemented on a PCB compliant with CubeSat form factor, with components optimized for a longer lifetime mission than CINEMA.
The paper also discusses the expected scientific return from RadCube. The primary goal is to improve our understanding of field aligned currents and the ring current during geomagnetically disturbed conditions.
Achieving this improved design will enable an optimized and more resilient magnetometer instrument, implementable as a "plug and play" sensor on CubeSat platforms or as a hosted payload for space weather monitoring. | | 12:09 | New space-derived small platforms are generating in-orbit opportunities for space weather instrumentation | Boithias, H et al. | Oral | | | Hélène Boithias | | | Airbus Defence & Space | | | Space Weather research and operations always have sooner or later to face the problematics of getting the instruments into space.
The challenge is often to find an affordable, reliable and flexible enough solution to cope with the constraints the research and operational centres are living with such as a launch at the right time, a payload sometimes heavier than planned, an innovative instrument TRL to raise, and above all a limited budget.
Space industries like Airbus have always been strongly involved in scientific and operational missions.
In particular they are used to develop big and complex satellites for deep space exploration or ultimate scientific performances. On the other hand, recent private industrial actors known as NewSpace have entered the scene.
The combination of the two worlds is opening a new paradigm for space research.
OneWeb is a LEO constellation of 648 low-cost small satellites for providing global Internet broadband service to individual consumers as early as 2019.
The next step now is the development of a OneWeb-derived platform able to host small to medium scientific instruments through a standardized plug-and-play approach, where the scientists book the capacities they need among the resources available on-board and enjoy a secure 24/7 online access to their instruments.
Such service is going to help lowering the entry barriers faced by institutes wishing to demonstrate, validate new and advanced technologies, instrumentation and applications in a representative operational environment.
It also provides an economic one-stop-shop service in Earth orbit with a guaranteed lifetime for scientists or operational centers.
We will present the on-going activities and the opportunities they generate for space weather instruments and operations.
| | 12:27 | LOFAR4SpaceWeather: Towards Space Weather Monitoring with Europe’s Largest Radio Telescope | Fallows, R et al. | Oral | | | Richard Fallows[1], Nicole Vilmer[2], Peter Gallagher[3], Eoin Carley[3], Mario Bisi[4], Joris Verbiest[5], Hanna Rothkaehl[6], Michael Olberg[7], and Rene Vermeulen[1] | | | [1]ASTRON - the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, [2]Observatoire de Paris, [3]Trinity College Dublin, [4]UKRI STFC, [5]Universitat Bielefeld, [6]Centrum Badan Kosmicznych Polskiej Akademii Nauk, [7]Onsala Space Observatory | | | The Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) is a radio astronomy array consisting of a dense core of 24 stations within an area of diameter ~4km, 14 stations spread further afield across the north-east of the Netherlands, and a further thirteen stations internationally (six across Germany, three in Poland, and one each in France, Ireland, Sweden and the UK). Each station is capable of observing over a wide bandwidth across the frequency range 10-250 MHz, at high time and frequency resolutions, and forming multiple beams to point in any direction on the sky. Any number of the stations can be combined as an interferometer for radio imaging, and/or the core stations combined to form up to ~200 narrow pencil beams (“tied-array beams”). The latter enables raster imaging techniques to be used or multiple radio sources to be observed simultaneously. These capabilities make LOFAR one of the world’s most flexible radio instruments and enable studies of several aspects of space weather to be advanced beyond the current state-of-the-art. This includes high time and frequency resolution dynamic spectra and imaging of the Sun, using interplanetary scintillation to observe the solar wind and the passage of Coronal Mass Ejections, attempting measurement of the interplanetary magnetic field in the inner heliosphere, and expanding the view of ionospheric scintillation beyond single frequency time series’. LOFAR4SW is a design study, awarded a Horizon2020 INFRADEV grant, to commence investigations into upgrading LOFAR to enable regular space weather monitoring observations in parallel with radio astronomy operations. In this talk, we summarise the aims of the LOFAR4SW study, the longer-term goals envisaged for LOFAR to become a major instrument for space weather monitoring observations, and the progress made so far in the design and the space weather science we envisage it enabling. |
Posters| 1 | Plasma spectrometers with beam tracking strategies for space weather science applications | De keyser, J et al. | p-Poster | | | Johan De Keyser[1], Benoit Lavraud[2], Lubomir Prech[3], Romain Maggiolo[1], Iannis Dandouras[2] | | | [1] Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), Ringlaan 3, B-1180 Brussels, Belgium, [2] Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, CNES, Toulouse, France, [3] Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Prague, Czech Republic | | | Space plasma spectrometers have often relied on spacecraft spin to collect three-dimensional particle velocity distributions, which simplifies the instrument design and reduces its resource budgets, but limits the velocity distribution acquisition rate. This limitation can in part be overcome by the use of electrostatic deflectors at the entrance of the analyser. The present contribution demonstrates – for several space weather relevant plasmas – how the operation of such an instrument can be optimized through the use of beam tracking strategies.
By mounting a beam tracking spectrometer on a sun-pointing spacecraft, solar wind ion distributions can be acquired at a much higher rate because the solar wind ion population, which is a cold beam that fills only part of the sky around its mean arrival direction, always remains in view. The underlying idea is that it is much more efficient to cover only that part of the energy spectrum and those arrival directions where the solar wind beam is expected to be. Simulations based on actual solar wind observations are presented that demonstrate the usefulness of energy and angular beam tracking, how these can be implemented, and how one can recover from potential beam loss situations.
Another application would be to apply energy and angular beam tracking to focus on the details of precipitating and upwelling ion or electron beams in the auroral regions: such beams typically are narrow in angular extent as they tend to follow the magnetic field, and they are nearly mono-energetic with an energy that can range from tens of eV up to 10 keV, at least for electrostatically accelerated particles. Again, simulations are presented that demonstrate the potential of beam tracking spectrometers.
The advantages of beam tracking are a faster velocity distribution acquisition for a given angular and energy resolution, or higher angular and energy resolution for a given acquisition rate. Beam tracking strategies can be very effective and can be implemented fairly easily with present-day on-board processing resources.
| | 2 | High Spectral and Temporal Resolution Spectro - Polarimeter near the Ionospheric cut - off for solar radio observations and preliminary results | Kumari, A et al. | p-Poster | | | Anshu Kumari[1], Mugundhan Vijayraghvan[2], Indrajit V. Barve[1], G.V.S. Gireesh[1], R. Ramesh[1], C. Kathiravan[1] | | | [1] Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, India, [2] Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India | | | We have designed a new antenna front-end and backend system for spectro-polarimetric monitoring of the solar corona in the frequency range 85-15 MHz, which corresponds to ≈ 1.6 – 1.9R . The first component this system is a Log-Periodic Dipole Antenna (LPDA) and digital correlation is implemented on a ROACH1 board, provided by CASPER 2 community. The high and low frequency cut-offs (85 MHz and 15 MHz, respectively) were chosen on the following basis: to avoid the FM band ( 88 – 108 MHz) and the ionospheric cut-off at Gauribidanur (< 15 MHz).We present here the detailed design of this specro-polarimeter, which includes the antenna design and digital correlator design. The spectral and temporal resolution of this instrument is ≈ 100 kHz and ≈ 100 ms. Thorough characterization of the instrument was done and residual polarization due to the instrument was also determined. At the end, we discuss preliminary results of solar observations obtained with this instrument. A narrow band splitband type II burst was recorded with this instrument. The detailed analysis and its association with CME will also be discussed.
| | 3 | The GOES-16 Energetic Heavy Ion Sensor (EHIS) | Rodriguez, J et al. | p-Poster | | | James. J. Connell[1], Clifford Lopate[1] and Juan V. Rodriguez[2,3] | | | [1]The University of New Hampshire, [2]University of Colorado CIRES, [3]NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information | | | The Energetic Heavy Ion Sensor (EHIS) was built by the University of New Hampshire, subcontracted to Assurance Technology Corporation, as part of the Space Environmental In-Situ Suite (SEISS) on the new GOES-16 satellite (formerly GOES-R) in Geostationary orbit. EHIS is the first heavy-ion instrument to fly on a NOAA operational satellite. EHIS measures energetic ions over the range 10-200 MeV for protons, and energy ranges for heavy ions corresponding to the same stopping range (e.g., 19-207 MeV/u for carbon and 38-825 MeV/u for iron). EHIS uses the Angle Detecting Inclined Sensors (ADIS) technique to provide single-element charge resolution. With a high rate of on-board processing (~2000 events/s), EHIS will provide exceptional statistics for ion composition measurements in large SPEs. EHIS is designed to function in fluxes equal to the highest yet observed in Earth orbit. For the GOES Level 1-B and Level 2 data products, heavy ions are distinguished in EHIS using pulse-height analysis with on-board processing producing charge histograms for five energy bands. Maximum likelihood fits to these data are normalized to priority rate data on the ground. The instrumental cadence for histograms is 1 minute and the primary Level 1-B heavy ion data products are 5-minute averages. We discuss the preliminary EHIS heavy ion data results which show elemental peaks through Ni. Though on an operational mission for Space Weather monitoring, EHIS can also provide a new source of high quality Solar Particle Event (SPE) data for science studies.
The EHIS instrument development project was funded by NASA under contract NNG06HX01C.
| | 4 | System of space radiation exposure monitoring based on semiconductor sensitive elements | Protopopov, G et al. | p-Poster | | | Vasily S. Anashin, Pavel A. Chubunov, Grigory A. Protopopov, Egor V. Bulaev, Petr A. Zimin | | | Branch of JSC URSC - ISDE | | | One of Branch of JSC URSC – ISDE activities is developing and exploitation of space radiation exposure monitors, which are able to measure the results of space radiation exposure on electronic components characteristics such as absorbed dose and single event rate. We use semiconductor sensitive elements because the effects in it are close to real radiation effects in electronic components.
The features of ready detectors and also results of its exploitation will be presented. Also we will show and discuss the calibration results of our new dose and single event sensitive elements and its features. The possible methods of flight results interpretation of single events sensitive elements will be discussed. | | 5 | PECASUS: Space Weather instrumentation for a global space weather service to support civil aviation | Kauristie, K et al. | p-Poster | | | Tiera Laitinen[1], Jesse Andries[2], Nicolas Bergeot[2], Peter Beck[3], David Berghmans[2], Claudio Cesaroni[4], Norma Crosby[2], Erwin De Donder[2], Mark Dierckxsens[2], Domenico Di Mauro[4], Mark Gibbs[5], Haris Haralambous[6], Marcin Latocha[3], Loredana Perrone[4], Vincenzo Romano[4], Luca Spogli[4], Iwona Stanislawska[7], Peter Thorn[5], Lukasz Tomasik[7], Volker Wilken[8] and Martin Kriegel[8] | | | [1]Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland; [2]Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence, Belgium; [3] Seibersdorf Labor GmbH, Austria; [4] Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Italy; [5]UK Met Office, United Kingdom; [6]Frederick University, Cyprus; [7]Centrum Badan Kosmiccznych Polskiej Akademii Nauk (SRC), Poland; [8]Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR), Germany | | | The PECASUS[*] consortium was created in response to the call from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to provide global or regional Space Weather Information Services. The requested services should focus on the dissemination of warning messages ('advisories') towards aviation actors and corresponds to extreme space weather events with impact on aviation GNSS systems, HF communication and radiation levels at flight altitudes. In this poster we will describe the ground-based instrument networks and satellite missions that the PECASUS partners are currently using in their operational services. We will also discuss how the consortium proposes to integrate these assets to build a unified observation network for a global space service.
[*] Pan-European Consortium for Aviation Space weather User Services
| | 6 | The in-situ detection of ultra-relativistic electrons by LYRA, an UV radiometer on board PROBA2 | Katsiyannis, T et al. | p-Poster | | | Athanassios C. Katsiyannis[1], Marie Dominique[1] | | | [1] Royal Observatory of Belgium | | | The Large Yield RAdiometer (LYRA) instrument on board ESA's Project for On-board Autonomy 2 (PROBA2) satellite is a UV light radiometer designed to observe the Sun in four pass bands. Nevertheless, although the instrument had not been designed for in-situ detection, Katsiyannis et al (2018) reported detections of relativistic electrons from two of the four LYRA optical channels. This presentation will discuss the potential, the opportunities but also the challenges that arise form the use of EUV radiometers as in-situ electron detectors. | | 7 | Edge computing for space applications: probabilistic description of data | Echim, M et al. | p-Poster | | | Norbert Deak[1], Marius Echim[2,3], Octavian Cret[1], Lucia Vacariu[1], Catalin Negrea[2], Eliza Teodorescu[2], Costel Munteanu[2] | | | [1] Universitatea Tehnica Cluj-Napoca, Romania; [2] Institute of Space Science, Romania; [3] Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Belgium | | | The limited telemetry bandwidth and the increasing resolution of scientific instrument raise challenges for data transmission and their scientific analysis. As the bandwidth limitations cannot be significantly increased and since the performance of scientific instruments continues to improve, a solution is to adopt edge computing techniques. Indeed, performing on-board scientific analysis of data can increase the amount of processed data and implicitly the scientific return of the mission. We present a hardware architecture for on-board computing of probabilities of data fluctuations. The solution is provided as an FPGA chip that analyzes large portions of the data available on-board and transfers to the ground only the final result, the Probability Distribution Functions (PDFs). We discuss an implementation of the computation of PDFs in FPGA chips that can be used not only in the spatial context, but also for other types of applications. The solution is optimized for computing space and speed and needs power resources two orders of magnitude smaller compared to classical solutions. Experimental testing performed with synthetic and real data on a laboratory FPGA configuration shows that the design has excellent results and could easily be ported on space qualified FPGAs. | | 8 | RadMag space weather instrument development | Zabori, B et al. | p-Poster | | | Balazs Zabori[1], Attila Hirn[1], Sandor Deme[1], Jonathan Eastwood[2], Patrick Brown[2], Tim Oddy[2], Chiara Palla[2], Dominik Nolbert[3], Petteri Nieminen[4], Giovanni Santin[4], Gabor Marosy[5] | | | [1]MTA Centre for Energy Research, [2]Imperial College London, [3]Astronika Sp. z.0.0., [4]European Space Agency, [5]C3S Electronics Development LLC. | | | To study space weather environment in space, as a first step, it is necessary to develop and establish an advanced, real-time monitoring system. Such a monitoring system may be able to provide scientific data on space radiation (electron and proton spectra, flux of heavier ions) and the status of the magnetosphere in order to gain the possibility for a reliable forecast capability. The expansion of the CubeSat/SmallSat industry will make it possible in the near future to launch orbital constellations with relevant, miniaturised instrumentation in order to study the space weather environment in near real-time. Thus the development of RADCUBE, a 3U CubeSat demonstration mission lead by a Hungarian company, called C3S LLC, for space weather monitoring purpose, has begun within the European Space Agency (ESA) CubeSat programme. As part of the development a new, combined, space weather monitoring instrument package (called RadMag) has been initiated at the Centre for Energy Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences in the framework of ESA General Support Technology Programme (GSTP) in collaboration with Imperial College London and Astronika. By the end of 2018 the instrument design shall reach the detailed design level at the end of Phase C concluded by Critical Design Review at ESA. The present paper will address the detailed design description of the instrument, the measurement capabilities and performances including the first radiation test measurement results, the description of the RADCUBE demonstration mission and the expected launch details. | | 9 | CLARA on NorSat-1: A new operational space experiment to measure Total Solar Irradiance | Schmutz, W et al. | p-Poster | | | Werner Schmutz[1], Benjamin Walter[1], Wolfgang Finsterle[1], Bo Andersen[2] | | | [1] Physikalisch Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos and World Radiation Center (PMOD/WRC), Dorfstrasse 33, 7260 Davos Dorf, Switzerland; [2] Norsk Romsenter, Drammensveien 165, 0277 Oslo, Norway | | | The Compact Lightweight Absolute Radiometer (CLARA) is an absolute radiometer built by PMOD/WRC, which has been launched on July 14, 2017 as payload on the Norwegian micro satellite NorSat-1. CLARA is a state-of-the-art substitution radiometer to measure the Total Solar Irradiance (TSI). CLARA was end-to-end calibrated against the SI traceable cryogenic radiometer of the TSI Radiometer Facility (TRF) in Boulder (Colorado). The measurement uncertainties for the three SI-traceable TSI detectors are 567, 576, and 912 ppm (Walter et al., Metrologia 54, 674, 2017)), for heads A to C respectively. From first light on 25 August 2017 we derive an absolute value of the Total Solar Irradiance, which is consistent with the measurement of VIRGO/SOHO and TIM/SORCE. It is planned that NorSat-1 is operational in the coming years and that CLARA contributes to the long-term stability of the TSI composite. In particular, it will be interesting to find out if the solar energy input is declining with the anticipated decrease in solar activity. | | 10 | Imaging the far corona in EUV: SUVI Extended Corona Observations | Hurlburt, N et al. | p-Poster | | | Neal Hurlburt[1], Dan Seaton[2], Lawrence Shing[1], Greg Slater[1], Margaret Shaw[1], Ralph Seguin[1], Robin Minor[3], Calvin Nwachuku[3], Meng Jin[1,4] | | | [1]Lockheed Martin ATC, [2]NOAA/CIRES, [3]NASA/GSFC, [4]SETI | | | Direct imaging of the solar corona well beyond the fields of views of existing EUV instruments has recently been demonstrated by SDO/AIA and Proba/SWAP off-pointings. They demonstrate that there is a measurable signal out to almost 2.5 Rsun. These encouraging results inspired the SUVI team to investigate even wider fields of view, to over 4 Rsun. The Lockheed Martin SUVI team in conjunction with NOAA and NASA collected data using the SUVI instrument on GOES-16 at different pointings to assess the feasibility of directly imaging the outer corona. This was initially done twice during the week of February 12, 2018, with two programs involving different patterns and exposures. Significant signal was found in the longer exposures out to the edge of the extended FOV, even though the Sun and its corona were in quiet states at the time. This initial study informed a series of more extensive and higher-performing sequences that are being caried out with the SUVI instrument on the recently-launched GOES-17 satellite. Here we present results from these various experiments and discuss how such observations may fit in to future space weather missions. | | 11 | FORESAIL-1: Energetic particle and de-orbiting experiments with a CubeSat | Vainio, R et al. | p-Poster | | | Rami Vainio[1], Jan Gieseler[1], Hannu-Pekka Hedman[1], Syed Rameez Ullah Kakakhel[1], Philipp Oleynik[1], Juhani Peltonen[1], Juha Plosila[1], Arttu Punkkinen[1], Risto Punkkinen[1], Lassi Salomaa[1], Tero Säntti[1], Jani Tammi[1], Hannu Tenhunen[1], Jarno Tuominen[1], Eino Valtonen[1], Pasi Virtanen[1], Tomi Westerlund[1], Pekka Janhunen[2], Jouni Envall[2], Sean Haslam[2], Petri Toivanen[2], Jaan Praks[3], Arno Alho[3], Alexandre Bosser[3], Nemanja Jovanovic[3], Oskari Lahti[3], Petri Niemelä[3], Samuli Nyman[3], Bagus Riwanto[3], Maxime Grandin[4], Emilia Kilpua[4], and Minna Palmroth[4] | | | [1]University of Turku, Finland, [2]Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland, [3]Aalto University, Espoo, Finland, [4]University of Helsinki, Finland | | | The Finnish Centre of Excellence for Research of Sustainable Space (FORESAIL) is an eight-year project (2018-2025) led by the University of Helsinki, Finland, set to investigate the Earth's radiation environment and develop technological solutions that on one hand help the survival of CubeSats in space radiation and on the other demonstrate the revolutionary Coulomb drag mechanism enabling electric solar wind sailing as well as de-orbiting satellites reliably after their use. The centre will launch three CubeSat missions to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Geostationary Transfer Orbit and beyond, respectively. Here we describe the first mission, FORESAIL-1, set for launch in the end of 2019.
The FORESAIL-1 mission will be a 3-unit CubeSat launched to polar LEO. The spacecraft bus is based on a modular avionics stack, developed for higher reliability. The stack hosts an on-board computer, based on two cold-redundant ARM R4 based micro-controller units, an UHF radio communication system, an attitude determination and control system based on magnetorquers, and an electrical power system. The mass of the spacecraft is 4.0 kg.
FORESAIL-1 will carry a Particle Telescope (PATE), which has the primary objective of accurately measuring the 80-800 keV electrons precipitating in the atmosphere. For this, it needs an angular resolution good enough to separate the particles that are in the bounce loss cone from those that are not. This will be achieved by using two telescopes, one pointing along the spin axis of the satellite while the other scans the directions perpendicular to it at a rate of 4 rpm. The secondary science target is to observe energetic hydrogen (ions and atoms) at energies 300-8000 keV.
FORESAIL-1 will test an innovative application of space weather physics, namely de-orbiting of the satellite by means of Coulomb drag with the ionospheric plasma. FORESAIL-1 deploys a long, thin and negatively charged plasma brake tether, which disturbs the plasma ram flow to create braking thrust. The tether is so thin that it does not form a threat to other satellites. The baseline plan is to use the plasma brake in an early phase of the mission for going from synchronous to a somewhat lower drifting orbit so that the local time sampling characteristics of PATE are improved. The experiment demonstrates the capability of a plasma Coulomb drag device to modify the orbit and to de-orbit a satellite.
We will present the structure and goals of the FORESAIL-1 mission and give a status report on the development activities. | | 12 | Contributions of SuperDARN to space weather science and potential operational systems. | Lester, M et al. | p-Poster | | | Mark Lester[1], Steve Milan[1], Tim Yeoman[1] and alexandra Fogg[1] | | | [1] University of Leicester | | | The Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) is highly successful in providing a range of different data
products for space weather science. The network currently consists of over 30 radars operating in both the
northern and southern hemispheres and the radars receive backscatter from ionospheric irregularities in the
ionosphere as well as from the ground (or sea). In this paper we outline the types of space weather science
to which SuperDARN has and can contribute. Combining the observations of ionospheric velocity, SuperDARN
provides near global, and continuous observations of the ion velocity at polar, auroral and mid-latitudes.
The mapped convection patterns, at 2 minute cadence, can be supplemented with observations from other sources,
e.g. low earth orbiting spacecraft, or incoherent scatter radars. Observations at polar latitudes of the
convection can be used to track ionospheric density structures across the polar cap, while observations at
mid- and sub-auroral latitudes have demonstrated how large amplitude ionospheric flows, exceeding several
km s-1, often referred to as sub-auroral polarization streams (SAPS), form and impact on the structuring of
the plasma density. These flows will also play a significant role in enhancing Joule heating of the
thermosphere. Scattering from irregularities in the ionosphere, can also be used to trace regions of
scintillations as they form and move. Operating at frequencies between 8 and 20 MHz, the high frequency (HF)
band, the radars can also provide real-time information on the prevailing HF propagation conditions over a
range of latitudes. We summarise by considering new developments which can extend the potential space
weather operational capability of SuperDARN. | | 13 | Monitoring of space weather conditions with LOFAR station in Borowiec | Matyjasiak, B et al. | p-Poster | | | Mariusz Pożoga[1], Barbara Matyjasiak[1], Hanna Rothkaehl[1], Marcin Grzesiak[1], Katarzyna Budzińska[1], Dorota Przepiórka[1], Roman Wronowski[1] | | | [1] Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences | | | The LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) instrument have been shown as a very prominent tool for many astrophysical as well as space weather studies. It operates in 10-270 MHz frequency range, which besides being very useful for investigating astronomical radio objects, is also very suitable for studying weak scintillation regime that prevail in mid-latitude ionosphere. LOFAR gives the possibility of observation in the selected direction (beam forming) and due to its fully automated control can be switched to observe sources with different positions on the sky in a very short time. This allows observing distant as well as close radio sources such as Sun or Jupiter, but also study certain regions of the medium in between.
The PL610 is one of the Polish stations located in Borowiec near Poznań. Observations carried out during the local mode, when the station works as a single instrument not connected with the international stations, focus on many aspects of the space weather.
This work presents observations and analysis of measurement acquired mainly during local mode observation campaign dedicated to broadly understood monitoring of space weather conditions. Application of presented method for ionospheric parameters analysis from LOFAR data can deliver near-real time service for wider user community.
| | 14 | The Gaia spacecraft focal plane as a radiation monitor | Serpell, E et al. | p-Poster | | | Edmund Serpell | | | Telespazio VEGA at ESOC | | | Gaia is the ESA astrometry mission to precisely map over a billion stars in the milky way galaxy that has been in orbit around the second sun-earth Lagrange point since early 2014. The images from the giga-pixel CCD focal plane of Gaia are processed onboard with an algorithm designed to identify the tracks caused by the passage of charged particles through the devices. The counts of particles detected in this way are transmitted to the ground with high time resolution. We report on the effectiveness of Gaia as a monitor of the local radiation environment by comparison of the observed particle flux with data from the other satellites. In addition to this statistical function Gaia has been taking snapshot images of small areas of the focal plane and transmitting these images unprocessed to the ground. These images often contain particle tracks up to several millimeters that have been analysed to obtain values of the energy deposition rate (dE/dx). Inelastic collisions have occasionally been observed in these images where it has been possible to measure the change in dE/dx as a result of the collision. We also report how analyses of these particle tracks enhances the information about the radiation environment. | | 15 | Zenith: the upper atmosphere radiosonde detector | Dyer, A et al. | p-Poster | | | Alexander Dyer | | | University of Surrey | | | Solar energetic particle events create radiation risks for aircraft, notably single-event effects in microelectronics along with increased dose to crew and passengers. At present these alerts are based on proton flux measurements from instruments onboard satellites, so it is important that contemporary atmospheric radiation measurements are made and compared.
At Surrey Space Centre, we are developing a rapid-response system built around the use of radiosondes equipped with a radiation detector called Zenith, which can be launched from a Met Office weather station after significant solar proton level alerts are issued. The use of meteorological balloons provides a faster response time than using aircraft and also reaches a higher altitude (~35 km); multiple devices can also be launched covering the latitude range 50° - 60° N (Camborne, Cornwall and Lerwick, Shetland).
Zenith is a compact, battery-powered solid-state radiation monitor. It is being developed in to a multi-environment / connection device; accepting a wide range of voltages (5 - 28 V) and communication protocols (I2C, SPI, Micro-Wire and USB) as well as offering microSD storage support. Giving Zenith the flexibility to be operated as a stand-alone detector, connected to both the Vaisala RS92 and RS41 radiosondes and on unmanned aerial vehicles.
Zenith has been flown on the Met Office Civil Contingency Aircraft (MOCCA), taken to the European Organization for Nuclear Research-EU high energy Reference Field (CERF) facility for calibration and tested in the intense neutron environment at the Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) ISIS ChipIr facility. It has also been launched on a meteorological balloon at the Met Office’s weather station in Camborne. During this sounding, Zenith measured the Pfotzer-Regener maximum to be at an altitude of 18 – 20 km where the count rate was measured to be 1.15 counts.s-1cm-2 compared to 0.02 counts.s-1.cm-2 at ground level.
The next stage of development is to deliver a batch of Zeniths to the Met Office and test the rapid response capability, focusing on the details of triggering the launch of Zenith, ensuring this is a quick and easy process and the storing of Zenith’s data. In addition, a Zenith will also be set up at Surrey Space Centre for operation as a 24-hour ground based neutron monitor. | | 16 | Software defined radio technologies for monitoring of the solar activity | Marqué, C et al. | p-Poster | | | Christophe Marqué, Antonio Martínez Picar, Jasmina Magdalenić, Aydin Ergen | | | STCE - Royal Observatory of Belgium | | | Recent progress in hardware and open source libraries have made possible the use of Software Defined Radio receivers for a large spectrum of scientific applications, especially in radio astronomy.
This technological solution fits a series of constrains for the monitoring of solar activity in radio: usability, easy to replicate and versatility that allow to adapt to local observing conditions and to develop networks of nearly identical instruments.
We present here solutions that have been implemented at the Humain radioastronomy station, in Belgium, and focus on two new developments:
- A flux monitoring instrument (intensity and circular polarization) between 1 and 5 GHz, covering frequencies of interest for air traffic control, GNSS services, F10.7 and R.A protected bands.
- A small phase array of eight fixed antenna, for dynamic spectrum observations of solar bursts between 20 and 80 MHz.
We will present the first observations and the status of the ongoing developments to make both instruments fully operational for space weather applications. | | 17 | SMILE: Exploring Solar-Terrestrial Relationships in a Novel and Global Way | Branduardi-raymont, G et al. | p-Poster | | | Graziella Branduardi-Raymont[1], Chi Wang[2], Steve Sembay[3], Eric Donovan[4], Lei Dai[2], Lei Li[2], Tianran Sun[2], Huigen Yang[5], Dhiren Kataria[1], Rumi Nakamura[6], Jonny Rae[1], Andrew Read[3], Emma Spanswick[4], David Sibeck[7], Kip Kuntz[8], Philippe Escoubet[9], David Agnolon[9], Walfried Raab[9], Jianhua Zheng[2] | | | [1]Mullard Space Science Laboratory – UCL, Holmbury St Mary, United Kingdom, [2]National Space Science Center – CAS, Beijing, China, [3]University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom, [4]University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada, [5]Polar Research Institute of China, Shangai, China, [6]IWF, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Graz, Austria, [7]NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA, [8]Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA, [9]European Space Technology Centre, Noordwijk, The Netherlands | | | SMILE (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) aims to investigate the dynamic coupling of the solar wind with the Earth’s magnetosphere in a novel and global manner. From a highly elliptical Earth polar orbit, SMILE will combine charge exchange soft X-ray imaging of the Earth’s magnetic boundaries and polar cusps with simultaneous UV imaging of the northern aurora, while measuring solar wind/magnetosheath plasma and magnetic field conditions in situ.
SMILE is a scientific precursor of space weather operational satellites which are expected to forecast the arrival and impact of solar storms on geospace. SMILE does not provide forecasting capabilities, rather its measurements will inform the science underpinning our still limited understanding of space weather and its fundamental drivers. For the first time we will be able to trace and link the processes of solar wind injection in the magnetosphere with those acting on the charged particles precipitating into the cusps and eventually the aurora.
SMILE is a joint mission between the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, due for launch at the end of 2021. This presentation will cover the science that SMILE will deliver and its impact on our understanding of the way the solar wind interacts with the Earth’s environment; it will provide an overview of SMILE’s payload and mission at the current stage of development, and demonstrate the scientific potential of SMILE through simulations of the data that it will return.
| | 18 | An All-Sky Heliospheric Imager (ASHI) for Viewing Thomson-Scattered Light: Updates on Progress | Bisi, M et al. | p-Poster | | | Mario M. Bisi[1], Bernard V. Jackson[2], Andrew Buffington[2], Philippe Leblanc[2], Hsiu-Shan Yu[2], P. Paul Hick[2], and William Grainger[1]. | | | [1]UKRI-STFC-RAL Space, UK, and [2]CASS-UCSD, CA, USA. | | | NASA are currently funding the All-Sky Heliospheric Imager (ASHI) development for future missions through its ROSES H-TiDES program. The principal objective of ASHI is to achieve a precision photometric map of the inner heliosphere from deep space (for example, from L1) and to provide data suitable for space-weather forecasting and heliospheric reconstruction techniques. ASHI addresses the basic science question: “What are the shapes and time histories of heliospheric structures in the plasma parameters: density and velocity?” The design takes the lessons learned from previous white-light imagers; namely the photometers on the twin Helios spacecraft, the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) on the Coriolis satellite, and the Heliospheric Imagers (HIs) on the two Solar-TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft. The system that has been designed includes viewing the whole sky starting beyond a few degrees of the Sun, and covering an entire hemisphere or more of sky. This will aid greatly the space-weather capabilities and data sources available for monitoring and forecasting potential space-weather-causing events at Earth and elsewhere in the heliosphere. SMEI analyses have demonstrated the success of this technique and the input of data into the UCSD three-dimensional (3-D) tomography: when employed by ASHI, this will provide an order of magnitude better resolution in three dimensions over time. In addition, achieving direct velocity measurements across the ~180-degree field of view of ASHI will also be possible. Here, we discuss the simple concept behind ASHI, its key goals, as well as the instrument development progress to date, its characteristics and specifications, and when and where the future flight opportunities are currently being explored. | | 19 | Current status and future plans of NICT ionospheric observations | Tsugawa, T et al. | p-Poster | | | Takuya Tsugawa, Michi Nishioka, Kornyanat (Kukkai) Hozumi, Hiromitsu Ishibashi, Takumi Kondo, and Mamoru Ishii | | | NICT, Japan | | | National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) has been observing ionosphere by ionosondes and GNSS receiver networks in Japan and in the Southeast Asia for monitoring ionospheric condition and researching ionospheric disturbances. Domestic ionosondes have been replaced with Vertical Incidence Pulsed Ionospheric Radar 2 (VIPIR2) ionosondes which can separate the O- and X-modes of ionospheric echoes which have improved the availability of automatic scaling of the ionogram. Now the O- and X-modes separated ionograms are available online. We have tried to detect arrival directions of ionospheric echo using the 8ch receiving antenna array of the VIPIR2.
In addition to ionosonde observations, we are providing high-resolution two-dimensional maps of absolute TEC, detrended TEC, rate of TEC change index (ROTI), and loss-of-lock on GPS signal over Japan using the dense GNSS network, GEONET, on realtime basis. To expand TEC observation area and spatial resolution, we have tried to use multi-GNSS data including GPS and QZSS for routine data collection and processing.
In Southeast Asia, we has developed the Southeast Asia low-latitude ionospheric network (SEALION) for the purpose of monitoring and researching severe ionospheric disturbances, such as plasma bubble. SEALION mainly consists of five FMCW ionosondes in four countries in Southeast Asia. We are now developing a new FMCW ionosonde system which is GNU Radio based software defined system. We have an on-going project to install a VHF radar at Chumphon and multi-GNSS receivers at equatorial SEALION stations to study plasma bubbles and their effects on precise GNSS positioning. In this presentation, we will introduce current status and future plans of ionospheric observation in NICT. | | 20 | Solar radio observation from Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission: a potential new dataset for space weather services | Crapolicchio, R et al. | p-Poster | | | Raffaele Crapolicchio[1,2] Daniele Casella[1], Christophe Marqué[3], Nicolas Bergeot[3], Jean-Marie Chevalier[3] | | | [1] Serco Italia spa, [2] ESA-ESRIN, [3] Royal Observatory of Belgium | | | Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) is an Earth Explorer European Space Agency (ESA) mission launched in November 2009, in excellent operational status with plans to continue its operational phase beyond 2019. The payload of SMOS consists of the Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis (MIRAS) instrument, a passive microwave 2-D interferometric full polarization radiometer, operating at 1.413 GHz (wavelength of 21 cm). Due to the orbit geometry and the size of the MIRAS’s antennae the Sun appears in the antenna field of view and direct Solar radio observation is captured by MIRAS. The retrieved L-band Sun brightness temperature (Sun BT), even optimized for the Sun signal removal from the image, is a valuable information that can be further used for research in the fields of solar observation and space weather.
The results of a comparison exercise between estimated Sun brightness temperature from SMOS images derived with the new processor version v721 and various ground-based radio-telescope measurements will be presented
The new processor had improved the estimation of the Sun BT which is now performed also with Sun position on back of the antenna plane, extending the observation cycle up to 24H a day and for the full Stokes parameter (i.e full polarimetric measurements). The reference data set used is from the Humain solar radio telescope operated by "Observatoire royal de Belgique", from USAF Radio Solar Telescope Network (RSTN) and from the Nobeyama Radio Polarimeter of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan for both Sun flares events and quite Sun condition.
The comparison of the data sets which include several major Sun microwave burst (including the event of September 2017) has shown a strong timing correlation and a good correspondence for the entire Stokes parameters. Correlations of SMOS observed solar radio burst with GPS signal anomaly was also analyzed and will be reported at the conference.
SMOS Sun observation derived by the new algorithm v721 can integrate existing information to support space weather services in various areas such as: a) near-real time L-band proxy for solar activity monitoring and forecast, b) GPS anomaly analysis
| | 21 | Enhancing space weather forecast capabilities by vector-magnetograms obtained from deep space | Staub, J et al. | p-Poster | | | J. Staub[1], J. Hirzberger[1], J. Woch[1], A. Gandorfer[1], G. Fernandez Rico[1], S.K. Solanki[1], J. Davies[2] | | | [1] Max-Planck-Institute for Solar System Research, [2] RAL Space-STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory | | | In the upcoming years several deep space missions will provide solar observations from vantage points which are distinctly different from those obtained at Earth's viewpoint. In addition to the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission, ESA has launched a study for a dedicated space weather mission to be placed at Lagrange point L5. A novel aim of both missions will be obtaining solar vector-magnetograms from outside of the Sun-Earth line. We will present the Polarimetric Magnetic Imager (PMI) which is being studied as a part of the remote sensing instrument suite of ESA's L5 mission and the thus expected data products. Based on MHD simulations, the advantages of photospheric vector-magnetograms compared to line-of-sight data of the solar atmospheric magnetic field, which are usually used in space weather models, will be shown. In particular, the opportunity to obtain unambiguous 3D magnetic field information from stereoscopic observations, i.e. from coordinating vector magnetograms obtained at different viewpoints will be modeled.
| | 23 | The remote-sensing package for ESA's Lagrange mission | Davies, J et al. | p-Poster | | | J. Davies, S. Kraft and the Larange remote-sensing consortium | | | | | | The space weather element of ESA’s SSA programme was established to address the increasing risks of solar effects on human technological systems and health. Within its current Period 3, the SSA programme has been extended to include the additional Lagrange (LGR) element, targeted towards the development of an operational space weather mission to the L5 Lagrange point. Under the auspices of LGR, a number of Phase A/B1 studies are well underway; these studies cover the remote-sensing payload, the in-situ payload, and the overall system. In this presentation, we will review the status of the Phase A/B1 study of the remote-sensing instrument package, which includes a Photospheric Magnetic Field Imager (PMI), EUV Imager (EUVI), Coronagraph (COR) and Heliospheric Imager (HI). We will present the current instrument designs, including the instrument control and processing philosophy (in terms of a shared Instrument Processing and Control Unit, IPCU, albeit in conjunction with a dedicated PMI processor); we will also present the progress towards defining the baseline architecture for the End-to-End simulator for the whole instrument package. |
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