Tromsø Geophysical Observatory Faculty of Science and Technology University of Tromsø, Norway Tromsø Geophysical Observatory Status and future plans Magnar Gullikstad Johnsen Norsk Geofysisk Forening, Årsmøte Geilo, September 2013 1
Overview Tromsø Geophysical Observatory Real-time geomagnetic measurements Space Weather applications ESA SSA program EU FP-7 programmes AFFECTS & ESPAS AFFECTS: Real-time Auroral Oval determination Future plans Riometer operations 2
Tromsø Geophysical Observatory (TGO) Unit directly under the Faculty of Science and Technology at UiT the Arctic Unviersity of Norway Situated at the Auroral Observatory in Tromsø (established in 1928), Norway At present 7 employees (3 engineers, 3 scientists and 1 PhD student) 3
Tromsø Geophysical Observatory Main Responsibility: Maintain observational time series (1928/32 future) of the geomagnetic field in Norway (magnetometers) and electron density profile above Tromsø (ionosonde). Responsible for the Ramfjordmoen Research Station outside Tromsø (co-located with the EISCAT Incoherent Scatter Radar) 4
Tromsø Geophysical Observatory main responsibilitiy in a nutshell: Long time series 5 (From Hall et al. 2011)
TGO - Instrumentation 14 magnetometers distributed across mainland Norway and Arctic Ocean Ionosonde outside Tromsø (with Qinetiq) Skibotn Single beam riometer (31 MHz) Tromsø Tourist All-sky Imager (http://fox.phys.uit.no/asc/) SOUSY MST radar on Svalbard Ramfjordmoen MF radar in cooperation with U. Saskatchewan an U. of Nagoya. Operating three Meteor radars for U. of Nagoya and NIPR (Japan) Hosting a wide range of other instruments such as GPS receivers, LIDAR, spectrometers, photometers, camera systems, etc. many which are Japanese. Supporting UiB scintillation receivers at Hopen and Bjørnøya UiO All-sky Imager at Skibotn coming soon Will start deploying riometers and more ionosondes 6
TGO Magnetometers (tgo.uit.no) 11 variometer stations and 3 magnetic observatories Close collaboration with DTU and FMI/SGO in providing real-time data. TGO, DTU and FMI/SGO covers the Polar Cap and Auroral Zone in the European Sector and Greenland Near real-time data access (within 5 minutes) from >70 magnetometers through TGO web-pages (plots and ascii data) (even from Russia!) 7
(TGO) Magnetometers (tgo.uit.no) 8
Space Weather applications TGO is participating in several European Union (AFFECTS) and European Space Agency (SSA) space weather related projects where both near real-time data and derived products are provided. The petroleum industry is benefiting from our real-time data services for directional drilling 9
ESA Space Situational Awareness Program SWE segment ESA s SWE system will enable end-users in a wide range of affected sectors to mitigate the effects of space weather on their systems, reducing costs and improving reliability. The SSA SWE Segment focuses on developments enabling services to customers working in: Satellite design Satellite operation Human spaceflight Launch operations Trans-ionospheric radio communications SSA surveillance and tracking Non-space systems operation such as the aviation sector and power grid operators... and many more. A number of Expert Service Centres (ESCs) based on existing centres of expertise has been established in the SWE-participating Member States. These centres each link a number of expert groups and focus on specific capabilities. ESCs act as focal points within the SWE architecture for expertise, data and products in that area from across Europe. TGO: Expert Service Center (ESC) for Geomagnetism. Role to coordinate SSA products related to Geomagnetic disturbances. ESA SSA web-page and SSA Space Weather Service Network 10
ESA Space Situational Awareness Program SWE segment 11
AFFECTSAdvanced Forecast For Ensuring Communications Through Space AFFECTS will provide advanced early space weather warning to protect communication systems www.affects-fp7.eu TGO work package leader (WP 2 "Data, Calibration, Maintenance and Instrumentation") TGO provides real-time ionosonde data, geomagnetic data and indices and a Real-time auroral oval tracker
Real-time tracker (normal conditions) (fox.phys.uit.no/affects) 13
Real-time tracker disturbed conditions (fox.phys.uit.no/affects) 14
Near-Earth space data infrastructure for e-science A platform to integrate heterogeneous data from earth s thermosphere, ionosphere, plasmasphere & magnetosphere Supports the systematic exploration of multipoint measurements from the nearearth space through homogenised access to multi-instrument data Provides access to 40+ datasets from : Cluster, EISCAT, GIRO, DIAS, SWACI, CHAMP, SuperDARN, FPI, magmetometers INGV, SGO, DTU, IMAGE, TGO, IMAGE/RPI, ACE, SOHO, PROBA2, NOAA/POES, etc. Supports data visualization, search, statistics, modelling ESPAS User Interface is accessible through http://www.espas-fp7.eu Next ESPAS release: in October 2013 Final ESPAS release: in April 2015
Future developments Jan Mayen magnetometer Eastern Finnmark magnetometer Riometer network (NYA, BJN, JAN) Rehabilitation of instrumentation) Skibotn Observatory Ny-Ålesund ionosonde More oportunities in ESA SSA program (riometer, guest Phase 2 about to start Geomagnetic forecasting More real-time products for geomagnetic conditions 16
Skibotn Riometer (first results) 17
Thank you! Questions? 18 Photo: Njaal Gulbrandsen