Earth’s atmosphere provides the background for the “sea of plasmas” surrounding Earth via its Ionosphere and the upper and middle Atmosphere, providing an interface layer through which a broad diversity of solar-terrestrial energy transfer processes takes place. Developing an integrative understanding of global geospace energy transfer processes affecting this layer is a major scientific challenge with important societal implications. The disciplines covering this interaction have a large, diverse and active international community, with significant expertise and heritage in the European Space Agency and Europe. Several ESA directorates have activities directly connected with this topic, and an ESA Heliophysics Working group has been appointed by several ESA Directors, under the direction of the ESA Director General, to work on optimizing synergies and to act as a focus for discussion, inside ESA, of the scientific interests of the Heliophysics community.

Very recently, a Forum at the International Space Science Institute was set up, involving some of the above WG, to look towards developing a deeper understanding of the solar-terrestrial interactions between the Ionosphere and the upper- and middle atmosphere, thus possibly enabling the detection of signatures by natural and anthropogenic hazards.

This presentation will provide a brief introduction to ongoing internal ESA cross discipline approaches, and then note some of the outcomes of this recent ISSI forum to set out a pathway to address this intriguing topic.

How to cite: Taylor, M., Floberghagen, R., Strømme, A., Rast, M., Baddeley, L., Blanc, M., Donovan, E., Doornbos, E., Haagmans, R., Kauristie, K., Kepko, L., Milan, S., Opgenoorth, H., Partamies, N., Stockdale, T., and Stolle, C.: A cross-discipline approach to examine the physical links between Weather in Space and the Lower Atmosphere, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-9081, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-9081, 2023.

The ESA Virtual Space Weather Modelling Centre (VSWMC) project was defined as a long term project including different successive parts. Parts 1 and 2 were completed in the first 4-5 years and designed and developed a system that enables models and other components to be installed locally or geographically distributed and to be coupled and run remotely from the central system. A first, limited version went operational in May 2019 under the H-ESC umbrella on the ESA SSA SWE Portal. It is similar to CCMC but interactive (no runs on demand) and the models are geographically distributed and coupled over the internet. The goal of the ESA project "Virtual Space Weather Modelling Centre - Part 3" (2019-2022) was to further develop the Virtual Space Weather Modelling Centre, building on the Part 2 prototype system and focusing on the interaction with the ESA SSA SWE system. The objectives and scope of this new project include maintaining the current operational system, the efficient integration of 11 new models and many new model couplings, including daily automated end-to-end (Sun to Earth) simulations, the further development and wider use of the coupling toolkit  and front-end GUI, making the operational system more robust and user-friendly.

The 11 new models that have been integrated are Wind-Predict (a global coronal model from CEA, France), the Coupled Thermosphere/Ionosphere Plasmasphere (CTIP) model, Multi-VP (another global coronal model form IRAP/CNRS, France), the BIRA Plasma sphere Model of electron density and temperatures inside and outside the plasmasphere coupled with the ionosphere (BPIM, Belgium), the SNRB  (also named SNB3GEO) model for electron fluxes at geostationary orbit (covering the GOES 15 energy channels >800keV and >2MeV) and the SNGI geomagnetic indices Kp and Dst models (University of Sheffield, UK), the SPARX Solar Energetic Particles transport model (University of Central Lancashire, UK), Spenvis DICTAT tool for s/c internal charging analysis (BISA, Belgium), the Gorgon magnetosphere model (ICL, UK), and the Drag Temperature Model (DTM) and operations-focused whole atmosphere model MCM being developed in the H2020 project SWAMI. Many new couplings have also been implemented which can be used interactively. Moreover, daily runs are implemented of several model chains covering the whole Sun-to-Earth domain. The results of these daily runs are made available to all VSWMC users. We will provide an overview of the state-of-the-art, including the new available model couplings and daily model chain runs, and demonstrate the system.

How to cite: Poedts, S. and the VSWMC-P3 team: Running web-based model chains via ESA’s Virtual Space Weather Modelling Centre, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-3356, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-3356, 2023.

In times of highly precise and increasingly autonomous GNSS applications, the influence of space weather on their system performance is increasingly becoming the focus of current research and development. The complex monitoring and research of space weather in its variety of phenomena and with its effects, for example in satellite technology, aerospace, telecommunications and navigation, is an increasingly important mission.

The DLR Institute for Solar-Terrestrial Physics in Neustrelitz is investigating the influence of space weather on both critical systems and services such as GNSS or RF communications, as well as ground- and space-based infrastructures such as power grids or satellites. Of outstanding importance is the efficient implementation of the interfacing between the increasing scientific expertise and the most diverse user requirements from the national and international public and private sectors, academia and industry.

As an essential core component of this interface, the working group "Pre-operational Services" develops and operates the "Ionosphere Monitoring and Prediction Center (IMPC)" in cooperation with the "German Remote Sensing Data Center" of the DLR. With its special combination of scientific know-how on GNSS based remote sensing and modelling of the ionopshere, instrumentation (e.g. high rate GNSS receiver network, Global Ionospheric Flare Detection System (GIFDS), Callisto) and the use of state-of-the-art data processing technologies, the IMPC contributes significantly to monitoring the impact of space weather on today's technologies in near-real time and to avoiding or reducing it through the application of a wide range of products and services.
This contributionwill present IMPC's pre-operational services and their incorporation into relevant national and international networks (e.g. NOAA-SWPC RTSW, ESA S2P, PECASUS). Furthermore, the unique instrumentation, applied technology approaches and already developed and planned products and services will be presented.

How to cite: Kriegel, M., David, P., Tagargouste, Y., Vasylyev, D., Wenzel, D., and Berdermann, J.: Pre-operational Space Weather Services at the DLR Institute for Solar-Terrestrial Physics, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-16351, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-16351, 2023.

Geomagnetic storms are capable of triggering thermospheric density variations which in turn have an influence on the trajectory of low Earth orbiting satellites (LEO). The strongest of these disturbances of the thermosphere are caused by interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs). Due to increases in the neutral mass density during such ICME induced geomagnetic storms the altitude of satellites will decrease. Therefore, ICME induced orbit decays are important for long-term orbit prediction as well as short-term as the prominent example of the so called ‘Starlink’ event of February 2022 showed where 40 satellites reentered the atmosphere.

In order to calculate the ICME induced orbit decay we calculated the thermospheric neutral mass density through the deceleration due to drag. This is done either with an observation approach using the high orbiting global navigation satellite system (GNSS) or calibrated data from onboard accelerometers. We then relate the solar wind plasma and magnetic field measurements taken at L1 from the ACE (Advanced Composition Explorer) and the DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) satellites to the calculated ICME induced orbit decays. 299 ICMEs occurred during the operation of the GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) satellite which orbits at an altitude of around 490 km. Analysis of the ICME induced orbit decays and the interplanetary magnetic field at L1 show a strong correlation as well as a time delay between the ICME and the associated thermospheric response of around 15 hours on average. This correlation is implemented in the real time forecasting tool SODA (Satellite Orbit DecAy). Because the ICME induced orbit decay strongly depends on the altitude we additionally processed data from the CHAMP (CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload) satellite mission to cover the range of 400 km altitude. The GRACE focused forecast algorithm SODA is part of the project SWEETS and ESPRIT, which will be implemented in the ESA Space Safety Program (Ionospheric Weather Expert Service Center) in 2023.

How to cite: Drescher, L., Kroisz, S., Krauss, S., Temmer, M., Suesser-Rechberger, B., and Strasser, A.: Forecasting ICME induced Satellite Orbit Decays, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-5613, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-5613, 2023.

High-resolution thermospheric mass density (TMD) measurements from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellites are valuable to accurately estimate the short-term atmosphere abrupt disturbances, triggered by magnetospheric forcing. A good characterization of TMD variation ahead of the arrival geomagnetic storms can benefit LEO operations and crucial for both orbit propagation and collision avoidance. In this contribution, we will reveal the most probable feature of TMD variation during the initial stage of solar cycle 25, at the same time, we proved Wygant function as a better geomagnetic events indicator.

In this study, GRACE-FO 10s accelerometer-derived TMD measurements were employed and normalized at altitude of 505km by the NRLMSISE-00 (Naval Research Laboratory Mass Spectrometer and Incoherent Scatter Radar Exosphere 2000) empirical atmosphere model to investigate the status of solar cycle 25 between September 1 and December 31, 2020. With the high-inclination orbit global coverage, three magnetic latitude regions were separated and divided into day and nighttime using magnetic local times (MLT). 4-month enhancing disturbances observations suggest solar activities will shift from its relatively quiet condition to a much more active behavior, which reveal unexpected dependencies on the temporal and spatial characteries. Our detailed analysis shows that (1) TMD spreads from high latitudes to low latitudes and as same as time lag, (2) TMD enhancement in the Southern hemisphere is more intense than in the Northern one, reaching peak value around 15:00 MLT; geomagnetic activities cause TMD to increase up to 0.86×10^-13 kg/m³ at night side, 3.4×10^-13 kg/m³ at day side, and (3) the TMD enhancement was symmetric in both N- and S- hemispheres before the equinox. In general, thermospheric mass density analysis reveals the significant impact of solar and geomagnetic activities, providing the most relevant and probable characteristic of the TMD disturbances driven by solar wind.

Additionally, we try to use different geomagnetic indices for a complete description of geomagnetic storms and their phases. The S_10.7 index is used as a proxy for solar irradiation. These indicators show high correlation with the TMD variation during recurrent geomagnetic activities. What’s more, the cross-correlation analysis reflects a high correlation of to the Wygant function E_WAV found both at three latitude bins.

Even thought our study is considered a minor to moderate geomagnetic storm of the upcoming solar cycle 25 maximum, the high-speed stream injection into the thermosphere still caused thermosphere expansion that significantly enhanced the neutral density in the LEO environment. Therefore, all these findings provide a possibility to improve our understanding of LEO orbital drag.

How to cite: Wang, B., Meng, X., Sun, Y., Männel, B., and Wickert, J.: Thermospheric mass density variations based on GRACE-FO during the ascending phase of solar cycle 25, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-4467, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-4467, 2023.

We present the results of a study of the electric field properties in the auroral oval (AO) region. We exploit more than one year of electric field measurements taken by the EFD instrument onboard the China-Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite 01 (CSES-01) spacecraft, orbiting sun-synchronously at around 500 km of altitude inside the Earth ionosphere. To exploit the high temporal resolution of EFD, we devise a new technique that allows to detect the crossing of the AO by CSES-01 using electric field measurements only. This new technique combines a median-weighted local variance measure and Iterative Filtering to automatically isolate high levels of electromagnetic activity caused by, e.g., particle precipitation and Field Aligned Currents (FAC) at auroral latitudes. We validate this new method on few selected orbits against other standard proxies, such as the SWARM single-FAC product and the auroral radiance emission measured by SSUSI onboard the DMSP constellation. Furthermore, we identify ~3 000 orbits (on a dataset of ~10 000) of high geomagnetic activity where CSES either crossed the AO boundary or the polar cap region and characterize the multiscale (down to characteristic electron scales) statistical properties of the electric field. This work represents the first systematic study of the Auroral electric field, with many potential applications to space-weather studies, thanks to the large amount of continuous observations of the ionosphere carried out by CSES-01. 

How to cite: Papini, E., Piersanti, M., Diego, P., Consolini, G., D'Angelo, G., Recchiuti, D., and Zhima, Z.: Multiscale properties of the ionospheric electric field in the auroral region from a one-year survey with CSES-01., EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-7023, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-7023, 2023.

Space weather poses a hazard to grounded electrical infrastructure such as power transmission networks, through the induction of geomagnetically induced currents (GIC). Modelling GIC in real-time, as well as historical events and extreme event scenarios is of great importance for understanding and mitigating the effects on power networks. We have constructed a model of the interconnected European power networks using open-source data, to provide estimates of GIC across the whole continent, with the goal of creating a real-time operational warning system.

In recent years there have also been improvements in forecasting the ground geomagnetic field from L1 solar wind measurements using magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models, and the development of models which forecast the solar wind itself days ahead of time. As part of the EUHFORIA2.0 Horizon 2020 project we have coupled models for the full Sun-to-Earth system to generate forecasts of geomagnetic fields, geoelectric fields and ultimately GIC across Europe.

How to cite: Richardson, G., Beggan, C., Wang, G., Florczak, E., and Clarke, E.: Developing geomagnetically induced current forecasting capability across Europe, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-11740, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-11740, 2023.

Extreme space weather events can produce geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) that flow along long conductor systems such as power grids and pipelines. GICs can interrupt the operation of these systems by damaging transformers and increasing the rate of pipeline corrosion. GICs depend on the enhancement of the geoelectric field, where the magnitude, geographic location, and occurrence depend on the solar wind-magnetospheric-ionospheric coupling processes and the ground conductivity. Thus, countries at high latitudes are potentially more vulnerable to GICs due to higher geomagnetic activity.

Magnetic field measurements (e.g. dB/dt) have been used for a long time as a proxy for GICs with some success. However, studying the behaviour of the geoelectric field is required to fully understand the GIC response during extreme space weather events. In this study, the geoelectric field was computed using data from the IMAGE network and a 1D conductivity model (SMAP) across Sweden. A 19-year statistical analysis of the daily maximum magnitude of the geoelectric field (E) has been performed for solar cycles 23 and 24. We examine the temporal and spatial distribution of the geoelectric field in Sweden to determine the importance of including the ground conductivity when assessing the strongest events and their implications to GICs.

 We found that the daily maximum E is more frequently registered in the dusk sector related to the eastward convection electrojet and a second relative maximum is observed in the dawn sector related to westward convection electrojet. The stronger E values are related to well-known extreme space weather events. However, these events produce different responses at different latitudes due to the changes in ground conductivity and ionospheric response. Therefore, the strongest geoelectric fields at different geographical locations are not all driven by the same events.

How to cite: Lanabere, V., Dimmock, A., Rosenqvist, L., Juusola, L., and Viljanen, A.: Analysis of the geoelectric field in Sweden over solar cycles 23 and 24: spatial and temporal variability during strong GICs events, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-1377, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-1377, 2023.

In our view, machine/deep learning for flare forecasting is still more a promise for future scenarios than the reference framework for current operational facilities. This delay from the application of AI methods in research settings to their use for real-time forecasting is probably due to the persistence of technical open issues involving, by instance, the optimization strategy of the training phase, the quantitative assessment of the prediction performances, the reduction of the computational burden. This talk proposes a video-based deep learning approach to flare forecasting in which the optimization of the network’s parameters is realized by means of a probabilistic score-oriented loss function, the training procedure accounts for the part of the solar cycle progression when the prediction is requested, and the prediction performances are assessed by means of value-weighted skill scores that give greater importance to the values of the prediction than to its quality. The talk will also show the operational potentialities of this approach and discuss how feature selection may reduce the information redundancy, thus increasing the computational efficiency.

How to cite: Guastavino, S., Marchetti, F., Benvenuto, F., Campi, C., Massone, A. M., and Piana, M.: The path from scientific to operational flare forecasting: a deep learning approach, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-2728, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-2728, 2023.

For human spaceflight beyond low-Earth orbit, particularly outside the Earth's magnetosphere, it is essential to provide accurate predictions of Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) occurrences. SEPs with energies ranging from tens of keV to a few GeV, are a significant component in the description of the space environment. SEP events feature a wide range of energy spectrum profiles and can last for a few hours to several days or even weeks. As well as posing a threat to modern technology that heavily relies on spacecraft and posing a major radiation hazard to astronauts, they can also constitute a threat to avionics and commercial aircraft in extreme circumstances. The SEP Real-Time Forecasting HESPERIA products have been developed under the HESPERIA H2020 project (Project Coordinator: Dr. Olga Malandraki) and since 2015 provide significant results concerning the prediction of SEP events. More specifically, the HESPERIA UMASEP-500 product makes real-time predictions of the occurrence of >500 MeV proton events and Ground Level Enhancement (GLE) events based on the analysis of soft X-ray and high energy differential proton fluxes measured by the GOES satellite network. The HESPERIA REleASE product, based on the Relativistic Electron Alert System for Exploration (REleASE) forecasting scheme, generates real-time predictions of the proton flux (30-50 MeV) at L1, making use of relativistic and near-relativistic electron measurements by the SOHO/EPHIN and ACE/EPAM experiments, respectively. Lastly, the HESPERIA REleASE Alert is a notification system based on the forecasts produced by the HESPERIA REleASE product and informs about the expected radiation impact in real-time using an illustration and a distribution system for registered users. The real-time and highly accurate forecasts as well as the timely performance offered by the HESPERIA products have attracted the attention of various space organizations (e.g. NASA/CCMC, SRAG) and also led to the selection and integration of them into the ESA Space Weather (SWE) Service Network (https://swe.ssa.esa.int/noa-hesperia-federated). The integration process, based on the strict guidelines posed by ESA, has determined the current form of the HESPERIA products using state-of-the-art technologies and paradigms concerning both the graphical user interface and the mechanisms to provide the forecasting results to the end users with a high-quality experience. We will present the HESPERIA products as provided through the ESA SWE Service Network under the Space Radiation Expert Service Centre (R-ESC). Moreover, solar radiation storms successfully predicted during Solar cycle 25 will also be presented and discussed. (Work performed in the frame of ESA Space Safety Programme’s network of space weather service development and pre-operational activities and supported under ESA Contract 4000134036/21/D/MRP).

How to cite: Malandraki, O., Karavolos, M., Kokkinis, D., Milas, N., Crosby, N., Dierckxsens, M., Nunez, M., and Kuehl, P.: Forecasting and analysis of solar particle radiation storms: A state-of-the-art solution provided by the HESPERIA SEP Real-Time Forecasting products, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-17050, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-17050, 2023.

Our current capability of space weather prediction in the Earth's radiation belts is limited to only an hour in advance using solar wind monitoring at the Lagrangian L1 point. To mitigate the impacts of space weather on telecommunication satellites, advancing the lead time of the prediction is a critical task. We develop a prototype pipeline called "Helio1D" to forecast ambient solar wind conditions (speed, density, temperature, tangential magnetic field) at L1 with a lead time of 4 days. This pipeline predicts Corotating Interaction Regions (CIRs) in which their compressed stream interfaces and high-speed streams can increase high-energy fluxes in the radiation belts. The Helio1D pipeline connects the Multi-VP model, which provides real-time solar wind emergence at 0.14 AU, and the 1D MHD model. Using the long-term data from Multi-VP, we benchmark the Helio1D pipeline for solar wind speed against the observation data in 2004 - 2013 and 2017 - 2018. We developed a framework based on the Fast Dynamic Time Warping technique that allows us to continuously compare time-series outputs containing CIRs to observations to measure the pipeline's performance. In particular, we use this framework to calibrate and improve the pipeline's performance for operational forecasting. Since the 1D MHD model is computationally inexpensive, we provide daily ensemble forecasting of 21 members, including several targets around the Earth to account for the uncertainties. This pipeline can be used to feed real-time, daily solar wind forecasting to predict the dynamics of the inner magnetosphere and the radiation belts. In this presentation, we will share the lessons from this research-to-operation project and discuss ways to effectively implement operational space weather pipelines.  

How to cite: Kieokaew, R., Pinto, R., Indurain, M., Samara, E., Lavraud, B., Brunet, A., Poedts, S., Génot, V., Rouillard, A., Bourdarie, S., and Daglis, I.: From research to the operation of solar wind forecasting with SafeSpace Helio1D: lessons learned and ways forward, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-11771, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-11771, 2023.

An update on our project aiming to provide space weather predictions that will be initiated from observations on the Sun and to predict radiation in space and its effects on satellite infrastructure. Real-time predictions and a historical record of the dynamics of the cold plasma density and ring current allow for evaluation of surface charging, and predictions of the relativistic electron fluxes will allow for the evaluation of deep dielectric charging. The project aims to provide a 1-2 day probabilistic forecast of ring current and radiation belt environments, which will allow satellite operators to respond to predictions that present a significant threat. As a backbone of the project, we use the most advanced codes that currently exist and adapt existing codes to perform ensemble simulations and uncertainty quantifications. This project includes a number of innovative tools including data assimilation and uncertainty quantification, new models of near-Earth electromagnetic wave environment, ensemble predictions of solar wind parameters at L1, and data-driven forecast of the geomagnetic Kp index and plasma density. The developed codes may be used in the future for realistic modelling of extreme space weather events. The PAGER consortium is made up of leading academic and industry experts in space weather research, space physics, empirical data modelling, and space environment effects on spacecraft from Europe and the US.

How to cite: Bianco, S., Shprits, Y., Vasile, R., Wutzig, M., Wang, D., Burns, M., Haas, B., Arber, T., Bennett, K., Santolik, O., Kolmasova, I., Taubenschuss, U., Liemohn, M., van der Holst, B., Forest, J., Trouche, A., and Tezenas du Montcel, B.: Prediction of Adverse effects of Geomagnetic storms and Energetic Radiation (PAGER), EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-8128, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-8128, 2023.

The Earth’s ring current is a complex, dynamic system that plays an important role in geomagnetic storms. This ring-shaped current environment changes its structure and intensity on different time scales as a result from the incoming solar wind.  The different particle populations display very different behaviors, making it extremely hard to develop physics-based forecasting models for this environment.

Satellite data provides electron point measurements that can be used to study the different physical processes occurring in the Earth’s magnetospheric ring current. However, in order to fully understand the particle dynamics and injection processes in this region, high temporal and spatial data resolutions are required.

We tackle this issue by using a combination of electron-flux observations from different satellite missions and instruments in order to improve the global resolution of this dynamic environment by intercalibrating POES, GOES, THEMIS and RBSP. To illustrate a use for this combined data set, we present a global reconstruction of the ring current population and a comparison of the observed electron flux environment with a re-analysis of the ring current region.

How to cite: García Peñaranda, M., Shprits, Y., and M. Castillo Tibocha, A.: Satellite Data Intercalibrationof Ring Current Observations, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-14687, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-14687, 2023.

Interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) are one of the main drivers for space weather disturbances. In the past, different approaches have been used to automatically detect events in existing time series resulting from solar wind in situ observations. However, accurate and fast detection still remains a challenge when facing the large amount of data from different instruments. For the automatic detection of ICMEs we recently published a deep learning pipeline which has been trained, validated and tested on Wind, STEREO-A and STEREO-B data. We shortly present results of this work and talk about our current attempt to extend its application to a real time scenario in order to investigate its eligibility for functioning as an early warning system.

How to cite: Rüdisser, H. T., Windisch, A., Amerstorfer, U. V., Amerstorfer, T., Möstl, C., Bailey, R. L., and Reiss, M. A.: Automatic Detection of Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections in Solar Wind in Situ Data, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-5010, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-5010, 2023.

The primary condition to produce eruptive solar flare events and solar energetic particles is the opening of magnetic field lines into interplanetary space. In that respect, real-time radio spectra cover important observational information with substantial lead time for space weather warnings. For Space Weather forecasting an objective detection of radio type III and type II bursts is key. We present an algorithm using multiple e-CALLISTO radio stations to detect a) type III bursts, distinguishing between confined and eruptive flares and b) type II bursts, identifying shocks produced by fast coronal mass ejections. We present statistical results for the detection rates and an outlook of the implementation of the algorithm to the e-CALLISTO station at the University of Graz in Austria as well as to the entire international network.

How to cite: Höfig, L., Temmer, M., Koller, F., Drescher, L., and Monstein, C.: ROBUST – a radio burst identification algorithm using the e-CALLISTO station at University of Graz, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-7754, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-7754, 2023.

The global network of neutron monitors comprises predominantly of the monitor standardised by Carmichael in 1964, the NM-64.  The design of these existing monitors and their instrumentation have changed very little over the last sixty years.  For example, their neutron detectors rely on gas filled proportional counters that are either filled with highly toxic boron trifluoride (BF₃) or helium-3 (³He) in an arrangement not optimised for this detector type.  We have designed a new neutron monitor optimised for fully modernised, 1” diameter, gas-filled ³He detectors.  Our new design is optimised for cost savings, compactness and efficient use of ³He.  Benchmarked against a 6-NM-64, our design has a 71% smaller footprint, 83% smaller volume, and is 55% lighter.  It is estimated to be ~50% cheaper, excluding cost reductions associated with the shipping, installation, housing, maintenance and operation of a more compact instrument.  It is suited for unattended operation in relatively remote locations and designed to produce comparable results to a 6-counter NM-64 typically used in the existing global network.  We provide a progress update and latest validation results relating to the implementation of the new design at the UK Metrological Office’s Camborne observatory near Cornwall.  Funded by UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), this research is part of the Space Weather Instrumentation, Measurement, Modelling and Risk (SWIMMR) programme.

How to cite: Aspinall, M., Wild, J., Croft, S., Joyce, M., Alton, T., Packer, L., Bradnam, S., Turner, T., and Binnersley, C.: An update on the UK ground level neutron monitor implementation phase., EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-15816, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-15816, 2023.

The state of geomagnetic environment as observed at the ground level is characterized by numerous indices, derived from measurements from numerous magnetic observatories scattered over many longitudes and latitudes. In support, patrol measurements of geomagnetic field components are carried out in near-Earth space using onboard magnetometers that constantly cross geomagnetic field thanks to the orbital motion of the spacecraft. In the same way, high-energy charged particle fluxes trapped by the Earth's magnetic field are monitored along the satellite orbit. In the geomagnetic radiation belts’ environment, the distribution of proton fluxes is mostly less variable, while electron fluxes experience strong variations associated even with weak fluctuations of well-known indices: mid-latitude K_p, and equatorial D_st (related to weak geomagnetic storms). During very strong geomagnetic storms an additional electron radiation belt appears in a slot between outer and inner Van Allen belts. However, even during the period of minimum solar activity when small variations of the geomagnetic field prevail, noticeable changes in electron fluxes are being recorded, including recently discovered presence of additional electron radiation belt at by L=1.6 McIllwain surface.

In present research, we used data collected by the two instruments placed next to each other aboard the low Earth (h ≈ 550 km) near polar (φ ≈ 82.5⁰) orbit CORONAS-Photon satellite. We studied responses of the Satellite Telescope of Electrons and Protons (STEP-F) and the Solar photometer in X-rays (SphinX) in May 2009, a period which was characterized by a very weak solar and geomagnetic activity. As geomagnetic indicators we used K_p, D_st-, and SYM-H indices. For SphinX measurements, we extracted 5-second data in the highest energy bin sensitive to detection of charged particles. For STEP-F we analysed 2-second data records in the upper silicon position-sensitive detector while the satellite crossed all three electron radiation belts present in the magnetosphere. We demonstrate variable, belt-dependent high amplitude responses due to energetic electron presence in all three belts as well as specific time-dependent features due to presence of directed particle streams. Examples will be provided and discussed.

How to cite: Dudnik, O., Yakovlev, O., Kowaliński, M., Podgórski, P., and Sylwester, J.: STEP-F and SphinX particle and X-ray detector as sensitive actuators for radiation environment of near-Earth space, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-17272, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-17272, 2023.