ESA Space Environments & Effects
The space environment and effect section's website is split into this website and a general ESA website. General information on space environments and their effect in general and a section overview can be found there.
More detailed information of the section's activities can be found here.
Highlights
JUICE support
The
JUpiter Icy moons Explorer,
previously known as Laplace, was recently chosen as the first “large”-class
Science mission of the ESA Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme. The mission will
encounter the highly severe radiation environment of Jupiter, against which
special shielding and design countermeasures will need to be taken. The Jovian
plasma and micrometeorite environments are also unique and need to be carefully
considered. To aid the formulation and eventual design activities of the
mission, various capabilities have been developed under various space
environments and effects contracts.
These include
- A new radiation environment model 'JOSE', based on reviews of various past data and models,
providing energetic electron and proton fluxes as a function of distance up to
100 Rj from the planet*
- 'SHIELDOSE-2Q', an extension of the SHIELDOSE-2 radiation
shielding tool to cover a broad range of materials relevant for JUICE*
- 'PLANETOCOSMICS-J' a Geant4-based application to treat radiation
environment in the vicinity of the Galilean moons, including depletion of
trapped particles*
- A new genetic algorithm-based shielding optimisation tool
'GARSO' to help identify improved radiation shields through natural selection
processes*
- A simulation framework (REST-SIM) giving access to Geant4/GRAS
in an advanced radiation analyses workflow, made available to the science
payload developer communities
- Improvements
and validation of Geant4-based electron transport simulations for shielding
assessment (ELSHIELD)
- Developments of the spacecraft plasma interactions system (SPIS) to support evaluation of plasma payload electrostatic
interference issues
- Design for a dedicated radiation monitor capable of measuring
the highly energetic Jovian electrons
Because
of the harsh environment, continued vigilance will be needed of radiation,
plasma and solid particle effects, and a continuous programme for hardening
will be necessary during the design and development of the spacecraft and its
payloads.
*integrated in SPENVIS v4.6.6
March Solar Proton Event
Following a quiet period in February, March has brought increased solar activity and with it the largest solar energetic particle event of cycle 24 so far. A cluster of sunspots designated sunspot 1429 appeared at on the Eastern limb of the solar disk, on the 2nd of March. This produced an M3 class solar flare, which was followed in the morning of the 5th of March with an X1.1 class solar flare and an impressive associated CME visible on the LASCO C2 images at 04:00:05.
Read more...
10 Years of Proba-1 SREM data
The
Project for On-Board Autonomy (Proba) is a technology demonstration mission of the European Space Agency, funded within the frame of ESA’s General Support Technology Programme (GSTP). It is managed by ESA’s Control and Data Systems Division within the Department of Electrical Engineering, part of the Directorate for Technical and Operational Support at ESA/ESTEC.
A
Standard Radiation Monitor (SREM) was include as a payload on Proba-1, with the first data provided on the 29th October, 2001.
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SEPEM release
The SEPEM (Solar Energetic Particle Environment Modelling) Application Server is now open for registration. The server allows users to plot and download data from Solar Energetic Particle Events and to create statistical models for long-term predictions of the SEP environment. This includes well known methodologies such as ESP and JPL as well as new models using virtual timelines.
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The 2011 Draconid meteor shower
On 8 October 2011, the Earth will cross a stream of dust particles that have been ejected from the comet 21/P Giacobini-Zinner more than a century ago.
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First Solar Particle Event of Solar Cycle 24
The first Solar Particle Events of the new Solar Cycle 24 have taken place. While the event on 14 August 2010 was rather small in amplitude, it was detected by ESA's Standard Radiation Environment Monitor (SREM) units flying on Herschel, Planck and INTEGRAL missions. The images below show the energetic proton fluxes at Herschel and Planck as derived from the raw SREM counts by the Singular Value Decomposition method developed at ISARS/NOA (GR).
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First SREM data from Herschel/Planck
After their successful launch yesterday (14 May 2009), the first SREM data have been received from both the
Herschel and Planck spacecraft.
The SREM instruments on the two spacecraft were switched on at slightly different times, but clearly show very similar count rates in all channels.
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GIOVE-B
The GIOVE-B satellite, is the second Galileo in-orbit validation
element preparing the way for the deployment of the Galileo satellie
system. It carries a radiation monitor known as SREM, designed by the
Paul Scherrer Institute and built by
Oerlikon Space, both in Switzerland.
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DEBIE-2
DEBIE-2 impact
detector launched to ISS onboard Columbus. The in-situ impact
detector DEBIE-2 is one of the payloads of the European Technology
Exposure Facility (EUTEF). DEBIE-2 will measure the sub-mm size
populations of meteoroids and space debris particles in space.
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CHAMP/SWARM Modelling Using SPIS
The CHAllenging Mini-satellite Payload (CHAMP) satellite is a small German satellite mission for geoscientific and atmospheric research.
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Solar Wind Shock simulation
Solar energetic particle (SEP) events represent one of the most severe hazards in space environment.
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