Delivering valuable radiation data to the European Commission

How to efficiently protect satellites from damaging space radiation? Knowing when, where and how much is critical. As of Friday November 29^th, Space Norway delivers important space radiation data to the European Commission.

On board Space Norway’s Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ASBM) is NORM – a space radiation monitor developed by IDEAS with the support of the European Space Agency and the Norwegian Space Agency.

“Data from this satellite will benefit various EU space programs such as Gallileo, Egnos, SST and Iris². This partnership has flourished, demonstrating the close cooperation between Norway and the European union in the realm of space. This mission is really a statement to the power of international space cooperation”, says Christoph Kautz, Director for Satellite Navigation and Earth Observation, European Commission.

Since its launch on board ASBM-2 on August 11^th, 2024, NORM has been successfully collecting radiation data, including during the important initial phase of orbit-raising. Now, in its nominal orbit, it measures radiation levels all along ASBMs highly elliptical polar orbit and sends it to down to earth.

Gives early warning

NORM has already been able to return valuable insight on the proton flux in orbit, notably during the recent solar storm on October 9^th. The instrument observed a very large, rapid spike in proton differential flux over the course of a few days. Data such as this could be useful in providing early warning and assessing risks of ongoing solar activity. Preliminary in-orbit data from the electron channels illustrate the instrument’s ability to precisely characterise the outer radiation belt.

The satellite travels through both the inner and outer Van Allen Belts, enabling cross-calibration with other missions and providing observations of the highly variable particle intensities in these regions.

Representatives from the European Commission, Space Norway, IDEAS and The Norwegian Space Agency gathered in Oslo of Friday for a final review and to celebrate the conclusion of a successful project phase and start of operations.

“I really appreciate the relationships and trust we have been able to build between all parties in the project phase. I am also very happy to see that the service and data that we deliver to the EC is of good quality and in line with what we have worked towards over the last few years. We look forward to the continued cooperation and to deliver valuable data to the EC for many years to come,” says Matias Krogh Boge, SPN Project Director ASBM Radiation Data Service Project.

More information:

The Van Allen radiation belt consists of trapped particles from two belts of radiation that surround the Earth like enormous donuts. It is a zone of energetic charged particles, most of which originate from the solar wind, that are captured by and held around a planet by Earth’s magnetosphere. The magnetosphere traps the high energy radiation particles and shields the Earth from the solar storms and the constantly streaming solar wind that can damage technology as well as people living on Earth. The outer belt is made up of billions of high-energy particles that originate from the Sun and the inner belt results from interactions of cosmic rays with Earth’s atmosphere. The belts endanger satellites, which must have their sensitive components protected with adequate shielding if they spend significant time near that zone.

The European Union develops and operates space infrastructures such as Galileo, EGNOS, Copernicus, Space Surveillance and Tracking and later IRIS2. The NORM data will be useful for design, operations, and diagnosis for these EU missions, and beyond.

In addition, access to the data will be facilitated for the scientific community to contribute to the broader understanding of Sun-Earth interaction and of the effects of space weather on Earth’s magnetosphere, and other space-based technologies, including the derivation of nowcasting/forecasting products and warnings.

In addition, access to the data will be facilitated for the scientific community to contribute to the broader understanding of Sun-Earth interaction and of the effects of space weather on Earth’s magnetosphere, and other space-based technologies, including the derivation of nowcasting/forecasting products and warnings.

NORM‘s particle telescope is a stack of 9 silicon detector diodes and 5 absorbers, designed as an easily adaptable unit for satellite missions in GEO, LEO, and HEO.

The ASBM satellites, composed of 2 satellites placed in highly elliptical TAP orbits with an orbital period of 16 hours and crossing altitudes between 8,700 and 43,000 km provide broadband telecommunication over the Arctic.