Royal Belgian Institute for Space AeronomyPhysics and chemistry of the atmosphere of the Earth and other planets, and of outer space.
Space Physics
Auroral activity occurs in oval-shaped regions centered at the two geomagnetic poles.
When energetic particles from the Sun disrupt the normal flux of the solar wind and threaten space missions.
Nuclear fusion reactions in the Sun transform hydrogen into helium releasing large amounts of energy.
The region of our galaxy, the Milky Way, in which matter comes mainly from the Sun.
1992 mission with experiments for understanding the interaction between the sun and the Earth's atmosphere. Belgian astronaut Dirk Frimout flew along.
Meteoroids, when pieces of asteroids break off. Meteors burn up in the atmosphere.
The three most active meteor showers: Perseids (in August), Geminids (in December) and Quadrantids (in January).
Scientist use meteors to learn more about the ionosphere, comets, the formation of the solar system and space travel.
In radio detection of meteors, reflected radio waves provide information about the trajectory, speed and mass of shooting stars.
An inner part of the magnetosphere, doughnut-shaped region of charged particles (plasma) centred around the planet's equator.
Space weather refers to the environmental conditions in Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere and thermosphere due to the Sun and the solar wind.
Insight in the behaviour of the Sun in relation to power failure, satellite break down and astronaut exposure to radiation.
The radiation belts (also known as the van Allen belts) are toroidal regions encircling the Earth, in which very energetic particles are found.
Plasma is electrically charged (ionized) gas, a mixture of electrons and positive charged ions.
The visible phenomenon due to the flight of a meteoroid, a particle of debris in the Solar System, through the atmosphere is called a meteor.
Earth's magnetic field, our protection against solar radiation, varies from one place to another and in time as well.
The upper ionised layer of Earth's atmosphere affects the quality of satellite and traditional radio communication. It has an important effect on global navigation satellite systems.
Similar to a boat that moves through water, the solar wind flow is affected by the presence of the Earth. The Earth's magnetic field contains a space filled with particles from terrestrial origin. The boundary of the magnetosphere is formed.
From ground to space each layer is characterized by specific temperatures: troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere
The upper layer -partly ionised- starts at about 80 km altitude and reaches up to more than 1000 km
Dust that is released from the comet nucleus is pushed behind the comet by solar radiation to form a diffuse dust tail more or less along the curved orbit.
The colour of polar lights (or auroras) teaches us something about the chemical elements in our atmosphere.
Blue, green, red. Twisting, diffuse or curtain-like… Auroras occur when the Earth’s magnetosphere traps or diverts the charged particles from the Sun.
The Earth is protected against corpuscular radiation by its magnetic field. This protective bubble around the Earth is the magnetosphere.
One speaks of fast solar wind with speeds of 800km/s and slow slower wind with speeds of around 400km/s.
The solar wind is a plasma, a stream of charged particles (ions and electrons) which are continuously escaping from the Sun into the interplanetary medium.
Comets, composed of a rocky nucleus, the coma, a dust tail and a plasma tail, can inform us about the early history of the Sun and the planets.
The heart of a comet is a solid body, a dirty snowball of ice and rock, which is called the nucleus. Near the Sun ices on its surface begin to evaporate.
The escaping gas of a comet creates a sort of atmosphere around the nucleus which is picked up by solar radiation to form plasma tail.
A multidisciplinary science based on observations of the atmospherical environment (terrestrial and extraterrestrial).