Space Weather

Determination of duration of high speed solar wind from last 120 days obtained from the HPARC/ST product.

The service "Spacecraft Design - Space Weather in the Solar System" aims to provide information supporting the specification and design of spacecraft that will operate within the heliospheric domain. These missions are primarily solar system science exploration missions but in future could include other missions such as space weather assets located away from the Earth (such as L4 and L5). The service area is also relevant to the heliocentric orbits close to the earth (such as L1 and L2). Many of the products relevant to the in-orbit spacecraft design service are also relevant here although in some cases will need to be scaled according to the specifics of the interplanetary trajectory and heliospheric target. This information includes statistics on the space environment (background solar wind and transient features including coronal mass ejections, stream interaction regions and solar energetic particles as well as solar UV).

This service is implemented through a combination of products, tools and alerts which can be found through the following tabs along with expert support provided by the teams constituting the SWE Network. Should you require further guidance in the use of this service, or have specific questions about any aspects of the service presented here, don't hesitate to contact the Helpdesk.

SPENVIS

SEDAT

SEPEM

HPARC/PB

AMDA

MAGCTOOL

SWE Data

A set of models and in-orbit sensor datasets are provided with the help of tools and products such as

• SPENVIS (Space Environment Information System) is a web-based interface for assessing the space environment and its effects on spacecraft systems and crews. SPENVIS currently includes models related to the space environment of Mars and Jupiter. The system is used for mission analysis and planning.
• SEDAT (Space Environment Data System) is a tool for the engineering analysis of spacecraft charged particle environments. The facility provides access to the ODI database containing a large and comprehensive set of data about that environment as measured in-situ by a number of space missions.
• SEPEM (Solar Energetic Particle Environment Modelling) is a WWW interface to solar energetic particle data and a range of modelling tools and functionalities intended to support space mission design. The system provides an implementation of several well known modelling methodologies, built on cleaned datasets.
• HPARC/PB (H-ESC Product Browser) provides an archive of H-ESC products that can be used to review the heliospheric weather conditions that were being reported at a given time.
• The AMDA system provides a science archive of planetary, solar wind, Earth magnetosphere and ionosphere mission and ground based products. In addition it supports a range of standard models such as magnetic footprints, magnetic fields, solar wind propagation to planets and probes as well as access to external databases of observations and simulations.
• The MAGCTOOL provides the magnetic connectivity between a target spacecraft and the solar surface. This can be used to assess the proximity of the spacecraft magnetic track to active regions on the Sun that may give rise to enhanced space weather conditions.

This service page is curated by the Heliospheric Weather ESC. For further information, please contact SSCC Helpdesk.

The particular space environment considerations for solar system missions depends on the heliospheric trajectory and solar system target(s) relevant to the mission. These include solar energetic particle radiation, plasmas and micro-particles and additionally trapped radiation and atmospheric effects where relevant to planetary bodies with magnetospheres and/or atmospheres. 

The usual starting point will be the Space Environment Standard ECSS-E-ST-10-04 (see Auxiliary Info) which provides the minimum environmental standards that should be designed for. These standards are implemented in the Space Environment Information System (SPENVIS). In addition SPENVIS provides access to other relevant models and statistical tools for assessing mission level plasma and radiation environments. Support for a number of planetary bodies including Mars and Jupiter is also provided within SPENVIS.

The H-ESC archive product (HPARC/PB) provides access to previous met Office Enlil model runs, CME characterisations and human forecaster commentary. The timeline of events HPARC/PR can be a useful starting point. The archived H-ESC products can therefore be used to provide the context for post event analysis and for assessing potential conditions that must be considered during design activities.

The Magnetic Connectivity Tool (MAGCTOOL) provides the mapping of the magnetic footprint of a spacecraft to the solar surface. Since solar energetic particles are guided by the interplanetary magnetic field, the proximity of the magnetic footprint to a solar active region can aid the assessment of a flare related SEP event affecting the target. Using the archive function of the tool it is possible to assess whether the magnetic footprint of a spacecraft was close to an active region on the solar surface. This can help to link anomalies to space weather phenomena.

Additional contextual information can be obtained from the historical solar system mission archives (see the AMDA product) which provide access to calibrated science quality measurements obtained from a range of solar system locations and undertaken during different solar cycle conditions. The AMDA product also provides data mining tools to help drill down into the data based on users individual needs.

For further information, please contact SSCC Helpdesk. 

The products provided for this service consist of access to archives and reconstructed information on 1) Solar Activity; 2) Interplanetary Medium at L1; 3) Interplanetary Medium Outside L1 and 4) Alerts related to these domains. The Solar activity provides the driver for space weather effects within the solar system and on planetary environments. The L1 and Outside L1 products provide historical data on the enviroment at those locations.

The tools that are currently provided support 1) Access to space environment tools that can help to predict the likely environment to be encounted; 2) Archive data mining;

No real-time alerts are associated with this service since it is targeted at design activities. Archived alerts can be found under the appropriately named section within the products tab.

This section provides links to web pages or resources that are not part of the ESA Space Weather Network or esa.int domain.  These sites are not under ESA control and therefore ESA is not responsible for any of the information or links that you may find there. 

Reference documents

• 2020: ECSS-E-ST-10-04C Rev.1 Space environment (15 June 2020)