ILWS activity in Romania

Transcription

1 Institute of Space Science romanian space agency ILWS activity in Romania Dumitru HASEGAN 1,2. Octav MARGHITU 1 1-ISS, 2-ROSA

2 Outline A. Introduction Historical synopsis B. Research themes 1. Solar-Terrestrial Interactions 2. Fundamental processes in collisionless plasmas 3. Spacecraft missions C. International cooperation and visibility D. Prospects

3 A Introduction Historical Synopsis Before 1989: First Romanian magnetometers launched in space on Intercosmos (IK) satellites. Early to mid 1990 s: Improved magnetometers launched on the Czech satellites Magion-2, 3, 4, 5, of Aktivnyi (IK-24), Apex (IK-25), Interball-Tail, Interball-Aurora. Consolidation of expertise by international cooperation, PhD abroad Since 2007, the collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), under the Plan for European Cooperating States (PECS). Contribution to the analysis of data from Cluster (ESA), THEMIS (NASA), FAST (NASA), and Venus Express (ESA), as well as numerical simulation and theoretical modelling.

4 A Introduction Historical Synopsis At present - the preparation for the new framework created by the accession of Romania to ESA as full Member State, with potential contributions to science, data calibration and validation, as well as hardware projects. December 2012: Romania - Participating State to the ESA Optional Programmes relevant to ILWS: Earth Observation ESA Space Situational Awareness Programme (SSA) the Near Earth Objects (NEO) the Space Weather (SW) PRODEX

5 B Research Themes 1 Solar Terrestrial Interactions with emphasis on magnetospheric physics and the coupling of the magnetosphere with the solar wind and the ionosphere thermosphere. Disturbances in geospace and connections to the Earth, for example space weather or electromagnetic phenomena associated with earthquakes. Hardware development and software tools, including particle and magnetic field sensors, in-flight calibration, advanced data analysis, and numerical simulation techniques.

6 B Research Themes 2 Fundamental processes in collisionless plasmas Fundamental processes in collisionless plasmas, including shocks, reconnection, turbulence, parallel electric fields, MHD and kinetic waves, instabilities. Geography and Physics of the magnetosphere

7 B3 Contributions to Spacecraft Missions Fluxgate magnetometers for Magion-2 (Aktivnyi), Magion-3 (Apex), Magion-4 (Interball-Tail) and Magion-5 (Interball-Aurora). Participation in the analysis of space plasma data provided by the missions: Fast Auroral SnapshoT (FAST) Cluster (science and calibration for FGM and HIA) Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) Venus Express Swarm (upcoming) Involvement in proposal consortia, under ESA Cosmic Vision: Cross Scale reconnection, shocks, turbulence in the magnetospheric plasma lab. M-Class mission Call from 2008 Alfvén auroral physics with emphasis on the acceleration region. M-Class mission Call from Interest to participate in KuaFu (Chinese Icarus).

8 B3 Ongoing Collaborations Cluster Mission Cornerstone ESA mission, 4 satellites, in orbit since PhD theses and PostDoc work. CIS and FGM Co-Is. CIS/HIA and FGM calibration. 19th Cluster workshop. Key mission for two PECS projects

9 B 3 Ongoing Collaborations FAST Mission Fast Auroral SnapshoT (FAST) 2 nd NASA Small Explorer mission, , over 50,000 orbits, 4,000 x 400 km, 83 o. Fully equipped for high resolution plasma measurements (electrons, ions, mass spectrometry, magnetic field, electric field), down to 100 m scale. PI UCB/SSL; MPE contribution to the mass spectrometer. Inst of Space Science involvement made possible by the collaboration with MPE. Later on, full access to the FAST database.

10 B3 Ongoing Collaborations Swarm Mission ESA Earth Observation mission: Magnetic field from internal and external sources (DLR CHAMP heritage). Also, M I coupling and aurora. 3 satellites: Magnetic field, electric field, accelerometer, GPS receivers Launch scheduled at mid 2013 Swarm Science and Validation Opportunity (SSVO) Call (August 2011). PI for Auroral electrodynamics with Swarm (ALEOS). Co-I for a data validation proposal (PI GFZ Potsdam)

11 B3 M I Coupling: Swarm Contribution Swarm Present M I coupling investigations can use data from the 3 inner THEMIS probes in the inner plasma sheet, from the Cluster satellites at the topside AAR, and from the dense network of low altitude satellites and ground observatories, encompassing the whole M I system => e.g. ISSI, Berne, project POLARIS, Swarm could contribute multi-point data at the ionospheric end, to characterize FACs and Alfvén waves => 50 Hz B resolution ok, 16 Hz E resolution better than 2 Hz. Three-spacecraft tools based on Cluster heritage (Vogt et al., 2009), could be used at all key levels of the auroral current circuit.

12 C International Cooperation Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Bruxelles, Belgium (kinetic models and simulations, M I coupling); University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada (numerical simulations by Liouville mapping); University of Oulu, Finland (space weather); Centre d Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements, Toulouse, France Cluster/CIS); Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany (Cluster/CIS, FAST); Institute for Geophysics and Extraterrestrial Physics Braunschweig, Germany (Cluster/FGM, THEMIS); Jacobs University Bremen, Germany (Cluster, Swarm); Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden (auroral electrodynamics); Institute of Space Physics, Kiruna, Sweden (Cluster, Venus Express); Physics Department of the Umeå University, Sweden (magnetotail physics); Space Sciences Lab., UC Berkeley, USA (FAST, THEMIS); JHU/APL, USA (neural networks). (PI

13 C Visibility: Events in Romania Solar terrestrial interactions from micro-scale to global models (STIMM , STIMM ). 6th COSPAR Capacity Building Workshop, Solar terrestrial interactions: Instrumentation and Techniques (STIINTE 2007). Cluster CIS/HIA Whisper intercalibration workshop (2009). 19th Cluster Workshop, Multipoint investigations of magnetosphere ionosphere coupling and aurora (2010).

14 D Prospects The accession of Romania to ESA as full member state is expected to have a positive influence on the future development of space research including space plasma research. The strong involvement in the multi-spacecraft ESA Cluster mission is expected to continue, together with contributions to NASA multi-spacecraft missions, like THEMIS (launched in 2007) and MMS (to be launched in 2014). Involvement in data validation and exploitation proposals for the 3- satellite ESA Swarm mission, to be launched in July Interest to participation in solar missions like Solar Orbiter, KuaFu The participation in hardware projects and lab experiments / technology development, may benefit as well from the accession to ESA