Responsible person: Hervé Lamy
Overall description
Space environment monitoring begins with the availability of data. The Institute is targeting a more active participation in the construction and/or operation of space weather-related instruments.
Magnetometer
Long Term Goal
Harbor a baseline expertise for initiating such participations and initial feasibility study, while specific proposals remain under the umbrella of GSTP (General Support Technology Program) or PRODEX programs of ESA. Eventually, a fleet of micro-satellites, each carrying such a magnetometer, will be able to map large-scale and spatial changes in the near-Earth magnetic field. Such spacecraft constellations are needed to forecast space weather.
Short Term Goal
- Study the feasibility of developing a resonating Xylophone Bar Magnetometer suited to miniaturization using microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technologies,
- Creation of a prototype + preliminary tests to emphasize factors and dimensions that increase the sensitivity of the device,
- Introduction of a GSTP.
Polarization
Long Term Goal
We want to better understand the magnetosphere/ionosphere coupling and the physics of the ionosphere.
- Use of the polarization of the red line as a proxy to constrain the thermospheric models.
- Three-dimensional tomography of the polarized auroral emissions.
- Application to other planetary atmospheres.
Short Term Goal
- Feasibility of the measurement of the polarization of auroral lines with the current ALIS cameras.
- Development of a new instrument dedicated to polarization + possibility of using empty existing ALIS stations.
Meteors
Long Term Goal
- Relationships to comets and asteroids, important information on the solar system origin.
- Better characterizing of space environments, input for SPENVIS.
- Importance of the ion metallic layers released by meteors for the chemistry of upper atmospheres.
- Modeling of the meteor trail as a plasma.
Short Term Goal
- Construction of one or two beacons dedicated to radio meteor detections.
- Extension of the current network of radio meteor stations in Belgium to have a better spatial coverage.
- Use simultaneous detections of meteor echoes from several emitters (beacons) to retrieve physical parameters of the meteors.
