Space Weather Activities at the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy

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

One of the current main activities of the Institute 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. Within the frame of ESA’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Program for Space Weather, BIRA-IASB has been attributed the role of coordinator of the Expert Service Centre (ESC) for space radiation and is managing the SSA Space Weather Coordination Centre (SSCC).

In parallel to providing services, the Institute is also involved in international projects that deal with studying the solar wind - magnetosphere interaction, radiation belts and plasmasphere modelling and the forecast & analysis of High Energy Solar Particle Events.

Over the years, the engineering team of BIRA-IASB has participated in a wide 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), EPT (PROBA-V), NOMAD (ExoMars mission), etc.

At the booth we highlight some projects within the domains of research, service development&provision and engineering.