November 12-15, 2013
KULeuven, Belgium

 

• Registration and practical details
• Schedule
• Venue
• Secretariat

Motivation

The whole set of complex effects of the radiation and the plasma stream from the Sun on the Earth and her magnetosphere, our technological systems, our climate and the people determines most of the so-called Space Weather. The explosions that occur frequently on the Sun and especially the magnetic plasma clouds – the coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – associated to them are the most important, but not the only, solar drivers of the space weather. The detectable effects on Earth and its spatial environment appear in a broad spectrum of time and length scales and have various harmful effects for human health and for our technologies. Polar light (aurora) is one of the nicest and least harmful space weather effects but alas, the space weather can also have less amusing effects on Earth. Bad weather conditions in space can hinder or damage satellite operations and disturb or even disrupt tele-communication and navigation systems and the related geo-magnetic storms induce peak currents in pipelines and even cause power grid outages leading to a variety of tremendous socio-economic losses. Moreover, it causes radiation risks for the crew and passengers on air planes and astronauts in space. Last but not least, it can influence global climate changes, which is of topical interest today. The introductory session gives an overview of these effects and the physical mechanisms behind them and explains how these can be modeled and predicted.

Class on HF communications and trans-ionospheric propagation

The earth’s ionosphere is a very dynamic region strongly affected by the solar activity, such as flares, solar radio bursts and coronal mass ejections, producing disturbances to the ionosphere (irregularities, travelling ionospheric disturbances, ionization depletions and enhancements, radio noise) leading to various effects depending on the local time, the latitudinal zone and the altitude as well as the type of the operational system.

The course on the effects of space weather to HF communications and trans-ionospheric propagation aims at presenting the physical mechanisms that take place in the bottom side and topside ionosphere, analyzing the effects of these mechanisms to operational systems (HF broadcasting, aircraft HF communications, satellite and terrestrial broadcasting, terrestrial and satellite mobile communication networks), and proposing mitigation solutions.

Computer classes will follow the lectures, to teach, based on specific examples, how data indicative of space weather conditions (satellite observations, solar and geomagnetic indices, ionospheric now casts and forecasts) can be easily accessed, how can be interpreted to evaluate the potential effect of space environment to specific operational systems, and how mitigation techniques can be designed and implemented when forecasting models predict forthcoming ionospheric disturbances.

Class on the effects of Space Weather on GNSS precision

A special example of a trans-ionospheric communication, is the GPS (or more in general GNSS). Due to its importance, being widely deployed, be it for navigation, network synchronization or many other things, this topic is treated separately during the course.

First the basics of GPS are briefly reviewed in order to get a better understanding of how space weather degrades the GPS signals, its reception, and the position and time obtained from it. Then possible solutions will be discussed. Some of these solutions, such as multi sensor fusion, add robustness that helps mitigating many other, maybe more common, problems many GPS users are facing, such as (un)intentional interference or spoofing.

Class on case studies

The goal of this session is to analyze one, or several, or a set of, space weather cases that already happened in order to have the participants ready to react at the next event. The lecturers will show where to get the data, how to understand them, give their analysis and explain why they give this analysis, and challenge the participants in asking them what they would do in case the same set of events would happen.

Preliminary Schedule:

Day 1: Tuesday, 12 November 2013 (PM)

• slot 1: introduction on SW mechanisms
• slot 2: introduction on SW effects

Day 2: Wednesday, 13 November 2013

• AM slot 1: HF classroom
• AM slot 2: HF practicum
• PM slot 3: trans-ionospheric propagation classroom
• PM slot 4: trans-ionospheric propagation practicum

Day 3: Thursday, 14 November 2013

• AM slot 1: GNSS effects classroom
• AM slot 2: GNSS effects classroom
• PM slot 3: GNSS effects practicum
• PM slot 4: GNSS effects practicum

Day 4: Friday, 15 November 2013  (AM)

• slot 1: 2 or 3 case studies (event, observations, analysis, ...)
• slot 2: case studies continued

Venue

KU Leuven, CBA, Willem de Croylaan 6, 3001 Leuven (Heverlee), Belgium

Secretariat

• Course director: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Course co-directors: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• KULeuven secretariat (LOC): This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Celestijnenlaan 200B, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
• ROB secretariat (registration and payments): This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Ringlaan 3 Av. Circulaire, 1180 Brussels, Belgium

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