November 5 - 9, 2012, Brussels, Belgium
Space Weather Fair
This year's event will also include a space weather fair, where users and service providers will have the opportunity to interact in an informal working environment.
The fair is an opportunity for academics - scientists - companies - non-academici - clients - service providers - ... to profile their activities and learn what there is to know in the field of Space Weather.
The fair is followed by a science cafe where you will have the opportunity to taste some beers while discussing scienc and other interesting stuff.
Stand Holders
| AFFECTS - Advanced Forecast For Ensuring Communications Through Space Volker Bothmer (University of Goettingen) and the AFFECTS Team AFFECTS is a space research project under the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union. In the AFFECTS space weather project, European and US scientists are developing an advanced prototype space weather warning system to safeguard the operation of telecommunication and navigation systems on Earth to the threat of solar storms in the timeline of March 2011 until February 2014. The warning system is developed by analysing data from dedicated NASA and ESA space missions currently in operation: STEREO, SDO, SOHO, ACE, Proba 2 and the international space station ISS. Using model calculations and computer simulations the effects of flares and the arrival times of coronal mass ejections, including their expected impact, are predicted quantitatively. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under the grant agreement No. 263506 (www.affects-fp7.eu). |
| STAFF viewer: a powerful tool for space weather forecasters Cis Verbeeck (STCE/ROB, Belgium), Vincent Malisse (STCE/ROB, Belgium), Bram Bourgoignie (STCE/ROB, Belgium) and the AFFECTS Team The Solar Timelines Viewer for AFFECTS, STAFF is a dynamical online viewer that provides a range of timelines related to solar activity and space weather. STAFF allows the user to view and compare timelines from different data sources in any time interval, ranging from real time to the full archive of past data. Since it is tailored to space weather operations, STAFF provides easy and dynamical access to real time space weather timelines such as GOES X-ray curves, ACE data and geomagnetic indices. It also serves solar activity timelines such as the International Sunspot Number and the F10.7 radio flux. Furthermore, STAFF features some brand new proxies extracted automatically from coronal EUV images (AIA, SWAP, EIT), like the total flux observed in the telescope passband, active region area, and total EUV intensity within active regions. We present an online demo of the STAFF viewer, demonstrating its power and ease-of-use for the user. STAFF is a web-based application based on JSP, HTML, CSS and javascripts and is built on top of a PostGreSql database. It is developed at the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB) as part of the FP7 project AFFECTS - Advanced Forecast For Ensuring Communications Through Space. |
| The Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence - bringing together Sun-Space-Earth know how Sophie Raynal, Jan Janssens, Petra Vanlommel (STCE, Belgium) The Belgian government created a tight network for the Sun-Space-Earth activities and expertise of 3 Belgian federal scientific institutes: the Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence, the STCE in short. The STCE mingles strong scientific research, state-of-the-art developments and applications, involvement in space and earth based missions and a vision focused on the future. The STCE does make a difference on the international level. The STCE is a VIP, a Very Important Partner for Sun-Space-Earth research, applications and projects. Meet us at the STCE-stand. |
| Near-real time geomagnetic forecast tool Aleksei Parnowski, Anna Polonska, and Oleg Semeniv (Space Research Institute, Kyiv, Ukraine) The forecast of geomagnetic activity is crucial for every kind of space weather application. We present a software tool capable of forecasting the Dst geomagnetic index up to 4 hours ahead in near-real time, developed specifically for the AFFECTS project. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under the grant agreement No. 263506 (www.affects-fp7.eu). |
| TOSCA : a COST action on the Sun-climate connection Thierry Dudok deWit (Univ. of Orleans, France) and the TOSCA team TOSCA is a European COST action for researchers working together on the connection between the Sun and the Earth's climate. Earth's climate is changing, and it is potentially sensitive to many different factors because the effects may be reinforced by changes in the climate itself. TOSCA's aim is to present all known facts underpinning our understanding of climatic change, with a basis in scientific principles of openness/transparency, replicability, and objectivity. |
| ESA SSA Space weather Service Coordination Centre and Portal to the SSA-SWE Precursor Service Network SN-IV Consortium The ESA Space Situational Awareness Preparatory Programme was launched in January 2009. As part of the activities in the area of space weather, precursor services have been federated into an initial service network. The services include several applications which have been re-deployed to operate the SSA SWE Data Centre, located in Redu, Belgium, as well as services and space weather products provided by different European Expert Groups. The Space weather Service Coordination Centre (SSCC)coordinates the service provision and handles the day-to-day operation of the service network. Operated from the Space Pole in Brussels, the SSCC is monitoring the space weather services ensuring their availability to the users and their nominal performance. It also provides the first level user support for the services. This stand will provide an overview of the SSCC and opportunity to meet the team behind its operation. An introduction to the SWE precursor service network will be given through demonstration of the SWE precursor service network functionalities via the SSA-SWE portal. |
| Lucky Imaging - the Sun and planets in view Emil Kraaikamp (ROB, Belgium) Lucky Imaging is a technique to compensate for atmospheric distortions by sorting out many short-exposure images made with a video camera attached to an often small telescope. Using relatively cheap equipment, high resolution images of the brighter objects within our solar system can be obtained. This includes images of the Sun in white light, Ca or H-alpha, but also high resolution images of the planets within our solar system can be obtained. At this stand both hardware and software necessary to perform Lucky Imaging will be presented. |
| ATMOP - Advanced Thermosphere Modelling for Orbit Predictions Noelia Sanchez Ortiz (DEIMOS Space) and the ATMOP consortium Between Earth and space, the thermosphere is home to thousands of satellites and the International Space Station. Thermosphere conditions change rapidly, yet our ability to monitor and predict it lacks precision. The ATMOP project addresses the development of a new thermosphere space weather model to improve the accuracy of orbit computations. ATMOP brings together scientists who are leading in the world in the areas of geomagnetic and Solar activity proxies, semi-empirical thermosphere modeling, and physical modelling of the atmosphere. The aim is to develop a new Drag Temperature Model (DTM), which may ultimately become the successor to existing semi-empirical models, and enable Europe to undertake real-time thermosphere prediction and provide operational services for space weather forecasts. |
| PROBA2 ready to service SSA-Space Weather for another 4 years The ROB PROBA2 team |
| RHEA - Engineering Services for Space and Security Gareth Lawrence, Omar Valdes, Noel Parmentier, Simon Reid RHEA is an independent Space Engineering Consulting and Software company offering knowledge-based services and innovative solutions to the space industry. RHEA has supported over 40 space missions in the last 20 years, with customers and partners including ESA, Eumetsat, EADS Astrium, Thales Alenia Space and others. RHEA provides core competencies to a range of programmes via diverse department such as: * Systems and Solutions: SSA Services; Systems and Software Engineering, * MOIS: mission preparation and operations scheduling toolkit, * J-CDS: state-of-the-art Concurrent Design Facility, * GSA Services in support of Europe's Galileo flagship programme, which have made RHEA a recognised leading European industrial prime in the areas of space weather and space environment, and well suited for industrial roles within ESA's Space Situational Awareness framework. |
| SWACI Henrike Barkmann (German Aerospace Centre, DLR, Germany) The Space Weather Application Center - Ionosphere (SWACI) is a joint project of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Communications and Navigation (IKN) and the German Remote Data Center (DFD). SWACI is a research project for developing the fundamentals of a space weather center whose service is focused on ionosphere issues. The project was supported by the German state government of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The aim of SWACI is serving a global and especially European community by providing warnings, nowcast and forecast as well as historical data of the ionospheric state and related space weather issues. This is accomplished mainly by monitoring trans-ionospheric radio links and deriving physical parameters from it. Radio signals, transmitted by modern communication and navigation systems may be heavily disturbed by space weather hazards. Thus, severe temporal and spatial changes of the electron density in the ionosphere may significantly degrade the signal quality of various radio systems which even may lead to a complete loss of the signal. By providing specific space weather information, in particular now- and forecast of the ionospheric state, the accuracy and reliability of impacted communication and navigation systems will be improved. |
| EISCAT Esa Turunen (EISCAT Scientific Association, Kiruna, Sweden) and the EISCAT_3D project team EISCAT_3D will be a world-leading international research infrastructure using the incoherent scatter technique to study the atmosphere in the Fenno-Scandinavian Arctic and to investigate how the Earth's atmosphere is coupled to space. The EISCAT_3D phased-array facility will be operated by EISCAT Scientific Association, which has successfully been running incoherent scatter radars on Svalbard and on the Scandinavian Mainland for 30 years. The current EISCAT Associates are China, Finland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. We demonstrate the current status and newest visualizations EISCAT_3D, which is distributed across 3 countries. The baseline design suggests a core site that will be located close to the intersection of the Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish borders and four receiving sites located within approximately 50 to 250 km from the core. The project is currently in its preparatory phase and can smoothly transit into implementation in 2014, provided that sufficient funds are allocated. Construction can start in 2015 with first operations in 2018. The full implementation of E3D depends on the level of funding to be provided by the current EISCAT Associates and by new members. The current estimate of the investment required for E3D amounts to 135 MEUR including 12 MEUR contingency. The Norwegian EISCAT_3D Consortium, led by the University of Tromso, has recently submitted a major proposal of 29 MEUR to obtain funding within the National Financing Initiative for Research Infrastructures in Norway. Corresponding financing applications will be prepared in 2013 and 2014 in the other EISCAT Host countries Sweden and Finland, and similarily financing is expected as well by the current associates Japan, UK, and China. Possible new members and other sources of financing are also sought for. The Swedish Research Council has nominated E3D to the EC Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy for support through regional funds for RIs in the Horizon 2020 Programme and has offered to work with EISCAT and authorities in Sweden, Finland and Norway to obtain regional funds for E3D. Check www.eiscat3d.se |
| Ground based monitoring of space weather Potapov A.S. (Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Irkutsk, Russia) Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) has dealt with space physics since foundation, long before the term "space weather" became known. Now the Institute has seven large observatories monitoring different kinds of space weather disturbances, from the Sun down to the Earth's surface. All together the observatories comprise an integrated spaced instrument. Objects of research are solar magnetic fields, flares and coronal holes, solar wind, cosmic rays, magnetosphere, terrestrial electromagnetic field, ionosphere, upper atmosphere, and ionospheric wave propagation. New methods are being developed to predict space weather storms and evaluate severity of their consequences using ground-based and satellite observations. Problems of space debris, near-Earth environment pollution and hazards from cosmic radiation are among the main topics we are working on. |
Practical Information
The fair takes place on Wednesday Nov 7, 16:30-18:30 in the coffee area.
Registration fair stand: 180 Euro, which can be offset against registration fees.
This means that a participant that registered for the whole week, can have a stand without additional payment. Or reverse, registration for a fair stand includes registration for one participant for the whole week or 3 day registrations for 3 participants for the day of the fair.
The deadline for requests is Oct 19, 2012.
Click here to register for a fair stand.
In case of questions, don't hesitate to ask: petra.vanlommel at oma.be.
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