You are here: Geophysical Center of Dourbes » Research » Division Ionospheric Profiles
Division Ionospheric Profiles
I. Background
The ionosphere is a layer of the atmosphere that extends from 50 km to 1000 km above the Earth’s surface. The ionosphere plays an important role in radio wave propagation. Indeed, the ionosphere is defined as the atmospheric layer where the free electron concentration is sufficient to affect radio wave propagation.
Nowadays, our modern society relies on sophisticated technological systems which are based on the emission and/or reception of radio waves: ground-to-ground or ground-to-space telecommunications, radars, Global Navigation Satellite Systems like GPS or Galileo, …
Disturbed ionospheric activity conditions can strongly affect the performances of such technological systems. It is therefore important to monitor and to model the ionospheric activity and its effects on radio wave propagation.
II. Main activities
Division Ionospheric Profiles main research fields are:
- The monitoring and modeling of the ionospheric activity and of the different parameters which can influence the ionospheric activity;
- The monitoring and modeling of ionospheric effects on Global Navigation Satellite Systems;
- The measurement of cosmic rays.
All the instruments our Division is operating are located at the Geophysical Center of Dourbes. One part of our Division’s staff is working at Dourbes and the other part is working at Uccle (Brussels).
III. Main products and services
Division Ionospheric Profiles develops products and services for different user communities, mainly for the national and international scientific communities and for the users of Global Navigation Satellite Systems. These products and services are made available through 2 web sites:
http://swans.meteo.be
http://digisonde.oma.be
IV. Research projects
Our Division has been and is presently involved in different national and international research projects which are mainly granted by ESA (European Space Agency), GSA (GNSS Supervising Authority) and by Belgian Science Policy Office.
Division Ionospheric Profiles has established a long-term collaboration with the University of Liege (ULg) - Unit of Geomatics: we supervise students from ULg who come to our Division to make a Ph. D. Thesis mainly in the field of Satellite Navigation.
List of recent projects
V - Instruments
In the frame of its scientific research activities, our Division is responsible of different instruments installed at the Geophysical Center of Dourbes:
- an ionosonde (Digisonde 256) which monitors the main ionospheric activity parameters ;
- a neutron monitor for cosmic ray monitoring;
- a GPS receiver (ionospheric scintillation monitor) installed on top of the main building by the University of Nottingham.
VI. Contact
Prof. R. Warnant
Head of Division (acting)
Tel : 32-(0)2-373 02 51
Fax : 32-(0)2-374 67 88
Email : Rene.Warnant@oma.be