Space Weather Activities at the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy

by Erwin De Donder and Laszlo Hetey

Since the mid eighties the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB) has been active in Space Weather related projects covering basic science to applications.

Today, one of its main activities is to increase the Space Weather awareness among the concerned sectors, including industry, policy makers and the general public by providing Space Weather related services. They are built on the scientific and technical expertise of the Institute in the field of the hazardous space environment and its effects. Examples include the ESA SPENVIS (SPace ENVironment Information System), EU FP7 COMESEP (COronal Mass Ejections and Solar Energetic Particles) project and ESA's Solar Energetic Particle Environment Modelling (SEPEM) application server.

In parallel to providing services, the Institute is also involved in projects that deal with Space Weather modelling like the EU FP7 SWIFF (Space Weather Integrated Forecasting Framework), ESA VSMC (Virtual Space Weather Modelling Centre) and ESA's EPT (Energetic Particle Telescope) project.

Over the years, our engineering team has participated in a whole range of space mission projects. They are responsible for the design and manufacturing of the necessary instruments in collaboration with Belgian industrial partners and for the technical support of the scientists. Examples are ROSINA-DFMS (Rosetta mission), SPICAM-S, SOIR (Venus Express mission), etc.



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