norwegian ilws activities - ilwsonline.orgilwsonline.org/norway_ilws2010.pdf · of space weather...

P. Brekke 1 ILWS Bremen, 2010

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Norwegian ILWS activities

Pål Brekke Norwegian Space Centre


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Radio communication

The Norwegian Defense Research Establisment has probably the longest tradition within the field of space weather activities in Norway

Involved in predicting conditions for radio transmission propagation as a service to military and civil users since the 1950´s

Relevant also for transfer of data


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Navigation LORAN C

Norwegian Defense Communications and Data Services Administration

LORAN C


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Power grid and pipelines.

Statnett, the Norwegian Power Grid Company, supervises and co-ordinates the operation of the entire Norwegian power system.

Monitored GIC for about 15 years.

Their conclusion: The Norwegian grid is fairly robust


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Satelitte operators

Currently only one satellite operator: Telenor Satellite Services provides regional and global satellite communication solutions to businesses and consumers

Owns 5 satellites (Thor I - V) operated from Norway. Claims their satellites are fairly robust against SW effects.

Future: Norway has built a AIS satellite (ship detection) to be launched in June 2010.

Test of AIS from ISS in June. Green dots are detected ships (Norwegian Defence Research Establishment)


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Infrastructure ”under” Space Weather phenomena


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Andøya Rocket Range (ARR)

Rocket launches need real time space weather input to determine launch time.


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ICI-2 (Investigation of Cusp Irregularities)

UiO and French/Japanese rocket project to study the turbulence and disturbances in radiocommunication during aurora activities. Also related to uncertainties in satellite navigation.

New study to develope a new generation Langmuire probe:

light weight - less than 100g - easy to piggyback on ESA SW satellites


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ALOMAR

The ALOMAR Observatory instrumentation covers all atmospheric layers from the troposphere to the lower thermosphere. Additional instruments looking at physical parameters in the ionosphere, magnetosphere and auroral oval are making ALOMAR a full size atmospheric laboratory in the arctic.


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EISCAT

EISCAT (European Incoherent Scatter) studies the interaction between the Sun and the Earth as revealed by disturbances in the magnetosphere and the ionised parts of the atmosphere

The EISCAT Scientific Association is an international research organisation operating three incoherent scatter radarsystems, at 931 MHz, 224 MHz and 500 MHz, in Northern Scandinavia.


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ESR Plasma clouds can affect GPS signals

GPS


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Space Debris observed from EISCAT

Space debris passin the through the ESR radar beam each hour in 2007, compared with the corresponding rates one year ago.

The debris cloud, formed by the destruction of the Chinese weather satellite, is clearly seen passing through the radar beam twice each day.

Analysis of the data indicates that this new debris cloud is in a slowly precessing, sun-synchronous polar orbit, as often selected for weather satellites.


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Magnetometer chain - All sky cameras

http://geo.phys.uit.no/geomag.html


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Oil Drilling - using magnetometer data

•  Directional drilling

–  Oil industry relies on geomagnetic maps to giude the drill and monitor the dwell direction –  Relies on corrections from ground based magnetometers –  Receives alerts (SMS, E-mail etc.)


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Rent a ”A rom with a view” New Aurora observatory at Svalbard

•  25 instruments as of today from 15 institutions from 8 countries •  Still vacancy – more instruments are welcome. Verey low rent. •  24 h (summer) radioburst monitor?


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SPEAR: a high power transmitter, installed to modify locally the polar ionosphere.

SOUSY radar: radar studying waves and turbulence in the middle atmosphere.

Svalbard Science Park: Svalbard Science Park, located in Longyearbyen, is the home of the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS).

The Space-Geodetic Observatory at Ny-Ålesund: VLBI and GPS antennas

Some other installations


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Accurate GPS information


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Accurate GPS information not crucial for all


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..but for some it is crucial


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Challenges in the Arctic


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Limited EGNOS correction at high latitudes!

•  EGNOS provides corrections, but limited coverage far north.

•  Two new EGNOS stations installed this year (Svalbard and Jan Mayen)

•  Another challenge: How will tracking of EGNOS signals via geostationary satellites work in the high north?

•  These satellites are extremely low in the horizon and it is a challenge to decode data from them


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The Norwegian Mapping Authority

•  Permanent Geodetic Stations on Norwegian Mainland and Svalbard

•  The Norwegian Mapping Authority (NMA) has developed an ionospheric model based on the GNSS network.

•  High ionospheric activity causes problems for calculating GPS-corrections in SATREF®

–  SATREF® is a correction service they provide to the users –  Will be useful at high latitudes

•  NMA receive space weather warnings from USA, which is forwarded to the users in the field for planning purposes.

•  The goal is to have more regional information and to study local variation.

•  Plan to extend the number of reference stations


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Fugro-Geoteam AS

•  Seismic exploration surveys with five 2D vessel and one 3D vessel •  High precision Navigation and positioning services, mainly Differential GPS in

conjunction with Fugro-Starfix Europe.

Norwegian company part of Dutch Fugro concern:

•  Geomagnetic storms cause abnormal deviations on compasses attached to the streamers towed by vessel, thus jeopardizing the calculation of streamer rotation

•  Internet online service of historical magnetograms supplied by University of Tromsø in use onboard by navigation supervisors

•  Solar Warning and Realtime Monitor from the Solar Terrestrial Despatch in use by office navigation processing supervisor

Seismic exploration surveys:


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Kongsberg Seatex

Market leader in dynamic positioning: Delivers high advanced navigation- and positioning systems (hardware, software and services) for maritime and offshore sectors.


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Possible Improvements

25

Traditional DGPS

DGPS/GLONASS, Dual freq. At several ref-stations and DPS 200 system

Source: Kongsberg Seatex


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Asymmetric auroral intensities in the Earth's Northern and

Southern hemispheres

IPY-ICESTAR scientists K.M. Laundal and N. Østgaard, both at the University of Bergen, present in a Nature letter images of the aurora taken simultaneously in the Northern and the Southern hemispheres. These images reveal indisputable evidence that the auroras in the two hemispheres can be totally asymmetric. These findings contradict the commonly made assumption of aurora being mirror images of each other.

See http://web.ift.uib.no/Romfysikk/RESEARCH/PROJECTS/IPY_ICESTAR/ for further details on IPY-ICESTAR, ID63.

Nature 460, 491-493 (23 July 2009) | doi:10.1038/nature08154; Received 17 March

2009; Accepted 21 May 2009

IPY - ICESTAR


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IPY - ICESTAR


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Space Weather application!

•  Aurora forcasting on a weather service site


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Norways Role in an ESA SW program

•  Norway has a lot of relevant infrastructure in the polar region

•  Navigation/radiocommunication is an area where Norway has an interest - and also a responsibility. In particular for the expected increased activity in these areas.

•  Several government authorities are very interested in SW (e.g. The Mapping Authority, Norwegian Costal Admin.).

•  Norways position is to have an active role in practical SW activities.

ESA's SSA programme issued ITTs this spring for preparatory work on spaceweather services and space weather instruments for satellites. Norwegianinstitutes are involved in several teams that have responded to the ESAITTs. The outcome of the evaluation is not known yet.


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Norways possible role in ESAs SSA program

Norway will be especially interested in the rapid ionospheric changes affecting navigation accuracy over the large ocean areas in the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea, as Norway has responsibility for issuing navigation accuracy warnings to seafarers in these areas.

Dynamic positioning of oil drilling ships/platforms, directional drilling, radiocommunication, and helicopter operations in the polar night have especially strong needs for space weather information.

May establish a SW Field Centre in Norway.

•  Coordinate and integrate observations and coordinate operation of several ground based sensors.

•  Feed data to ESAs SW Centres •  Feed selected data or warnings/forecasts to national users

•  Provide access for new instrumentation (Radiotelescopes?)

•  Location at Tromsø and/or Svalbard (UNIS or the new KH Observatory)

norwegian ilws activities - ilwsonline.orgilwsonline.org/norway_ilws2010.pdf · of space weather...

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