E. Gamby

Last upgrades and development of the space environment information system (SPENVIS)

The ESA operational software SPENVIS allows rapid analysis of the hazardous space environment and its effects. This news presents the upgrades of existing models and additional new models planned for the release of June 2009.

Instrumentation of the Belgian RAdio Meteor Stations (BRAMS)

BRAMS (Belgian RAdio Meteor Stations) is a network of radio receiving stations using forward scatter techniques to study the meteoroid population. The main goals are to compute meteoroid flux rates and mass indexes, determine individual meteor trajectories and orbital parameters of meteoroids, and to analyse meteor profiles in order to retrieve physical parameters of the meteoroids. For that purpose, a dedicated beacon is used together with 26 single-antenna receiving stations spread over Belgium, one dual antenna station and one interferometer. The instrumentation of this network is described in this paper.

Use of a Langmuir Probe Instrument on Board a Pico-Satellite

The sweeping Langmuir probe instrument is a part of the payload of PICo-satellite for atmospheric and space science observations (PICASSO), an ESA in-orbit demonstrator. It includes four thin cylindrical probes whose electrical potential is swept to measure both plasma density and electron temperature together with the spacecraft (S/C) potential. PICASSO is a triple unit CubeSat of dimensions

BRAMS: The Belgian RAdio Meteor Stations

340.5~\text {mm} \times 100~\text {mm} \times 100

Flexible Tools for Accessing the Cluster Archives

mm. The orbit is expected to be a high inclination low-earth orbit. The main issue implied by the use of a pico-satellite platform for a Langmuir probe instrument is the limited conducting area of the S/C, which leads to S/C charging and drift of the instrument’s electrical ground during the measurement. A specific measurement technique that includes the simultaneous measurement of the potential and current of different probes has been developed to retrieve consistent current–voltage characteristics that can be used to estimate the plasma parameters mentioned above.

Space Environment Information System (SPENVIS)

BRAMS (Belgian RAdio Meteor Stations) is a new facility currently developed in Belgium to detect and study meteors with radio forward scattering techniques. The transmitter is a dedicated beacon and 25 receiving stations (including one interferometer) are spread all over Belgium. The characteristics of BRAMS and the scientific goals of the project will be discussed. Preliminary results for the automatic detection and counting of meteor echoes will be presented as well as initial results obtained with the interferometer. The methods planned to calculate meteoroid flux densities and trajectories of individual meteoroids will be discussed.

Vlasov simulations of parallel potential drops

Nowadays, multi-spacecraft analysis is becoming common practice. The lack of homogeneity in data archive structure, access types and data formats results in a lot of time spent to search, retrieve and reformat data. We have developed a software model dealing with these issues. In this model, we integrate an abstraction layer for accessing and caching archive data from different providers. A second abstraction layer allows converting the specific data formats into a common working format. This model has been implemented in the MIM software, developed by the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy. In particular, it provides a framework for accessing the CAA (Cluster Active Archive) and for exploiting Cluster data with multipoint analysis tools such as, e.g., gradient computation and magnetopause reconstruction.