Institut Für Weltraumforschung (IWF) Österreichische Akademie Der Wissenschaften (ÖAW) Schmiedlstraße 6, 8042 Graz, Austria
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WWW.OEAW.AC.AT ANNUAL REPORT 2018 IWF INSTITUT FÜR WELTRAUMFORSCHUNG WWW.IWF.OEAW.AC.AT ANNUAL REPORT 2018 COVER IMAGE Artist's impression of the BepiColombo spacecraft in cruise configuration, with Mercury in the background (© spacecraft: ESA/ATG medialab; Mercury: NASA/JPL). TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 5 NEAR-EARTH SPACE 7 SOLAR SYSTEM 13 SUN & SOLAR WIND 13 MERCURY 15 VENUS 16 MARS 17 JUPITER 18 COMETS & DUST 20 EXOPLANETARY SYSTEMS 21 SATELLITE LASER RANGING 27 INFRASTRUCTURE 29 OUTREACH 31 PUBLICATIONS 35 PERSONNEL 45 IMPRESSUM INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION The Space Research Institute (Institut für Weltraum- ESA's Cluster mission, launched in 2000, still provides forschung, IWF) in Graz focuses on the physics of space unique data to better understand space plasmas. plasmas and (exo-)planets. With about 100 staff members MMS, launched in 2015, uses four identically equipped from 20 nations it is one of the largest institutes of the spacecraft to explore the acceleration processes that Austrian Academy of Sciences (Österreichische Akademie govern the dynamics of the Earth's magnetosphere. der Wissenschaften, ÖAW, Fig. 1). The China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) was IWF develops and builds space-qualified instruments and launched in February to study the Earth's ionosphere. analyzes and interprets the data returned by them. Its core engineering expertise is in building magnetometers and NASA's InSight (INterior exploration using Seismic on-board computers, as well as in satellite laser ranging, Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) mission was which is performed at a station operated by IWF at the launched in May to place a geophysical lander on Mars Lustbühel Observatory. In terms of science, the institute to study its deep interior. concentrates on dynamical processes in space plasma BepiColombo was launched in October to investigate physics and on the upper atmospheres of planets and planet Mercury, using two orbiters, one specialized in exoplanets. magnetospheric studies and one in remote sensing. IWF cooperates closely with space agencies all over the The Korean satellite GEO-KOMPSAT-2A (GK-2A) world and with numerous other national and international was launched in December to conduct space weather research institutions. A particularly intense cooperation investigations. exists with the European Space Agency (ESA). ESA's first Small-class missionCHEOPS (CHaracterizing The institute is currently involved in twenty active and ExOPlanets Satellite) will classify exoplanets in detail. Its future international space missions; among these: launch is expected in 2019. Fig. 1: In spring, the entrance to the Victor Franz Hess Research Center, housing IWF Graz, got an impressive "facelift". 5 6 Along an innovative trajectory, Solar Orbiter is to study THE YEAR 2018 IN NUMBERS solar and heliospheric phenomena, planned for launch in 2020. Members of the institute published 179 papers in refereed international journals, of which 48 were first author ESA's JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) will observe publications. During the same period, articles with authors Jupiter and three of its largest moons, Ganymede, from the institute were cited 5143 times in the international Callisto, and Europa. It is planned for launch in 2022. literature. In addition, 85 talks and 41 posters were ESA's third Medium-class science mission PLATO is a presented at international conferences by IWF members. space-based observatory to search for planets orbiting Last but not least, institute members were involved in the alien stars. It is planned for launch by 2026. organization of nine international meetings or workshops. HIGHLIGHTS IN 2018 IWF STRUCTURE AND FUNDING 2018 broke all records as far as launches are concerned. IWF is structured into four research fields represented by With CSES, InSight, BepiColombo, and GK-2A four eight research groups. Wolfgang Baumjohann serves as missions with contributions from IWF Graz were sent Director, Werner Magnes as Deputy Director. into space (Fig. 2). The bulk of financial support is provided by ÖAW. Signifi- Astronomers have detected an excess of massive stars cant support is also given by other national institutions, in 30 Doradus, member of the Large Magellanic Cloud. in particular the Austrian Research Promotion Agency The study was published in "Science". (Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft, FFG) and the Austrian Science Fund (Fonds zur Förderung In a "Nature Physics" paper, it was shown that the solar der wissenschaftlichen Forschung, FWF). Furthermore, atmosphere can be heated through plasma waves. European institutions like ESA and the European Union A "Nature Astronomy" study concluded that pseudo- contribute substantially. shocks can act as an energy source for the solar corona. "Science" presented the latest results of NASA's MMS satellites, which for the first time captured the 3D structure of electron-scale dynamics also on the Fig. 2: Clockwise, from top left, nightside of the magnetosphere. the launch of CSES (© IWF), InSight (Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech), GK-2A (Credits: ESA-CNES-Arianespace), and BepiColombo (© ESA). IWF/ÖAW NEAR-EARTH SPACE NEAR-EARTH SPACE Recent advancements in the in-situ measurements of GEO-KOMPSAT-2A charged particles together with electric and magnetic fields at high cadence make near-Earth space a most suitable GEO-KOMPSAT-2 (Geostationary Korea Multi-Purpose place to study fundamental space plasma processes. IWF Satellite-2) consists of two spacecraft, which are built and has been participating in hardware activities of numerous managed by the South Korean Space Agency KARI. Both space missions in the Earth's magnetosphere, now satellites focus on meteorological survey measurements operating, being build, as well as in the planning phase. from a geostationary orbit above Korea. One of the Data taken from operating missions have been extensively spacecraft, GEO-KOMPSAT-2A (GK-2A), carries additional analyzed at IWF by applying different analysis methods instrumentation to investigate space weather phenomena. and by theoretical modeling. The obtained knowledge In cooperation with ESA and international partners, IWF contributes to the better understanding of different space is engaged in GK-2A with a four-sensor magnetometer plasma processes in our solar system and beyond. called Service Oriented Spacecraft MAGnetometer (SOSMAG). It was developed with ESA technology grants and serves as a ready-to-use space weather monitoring system to be CSES mounted on a variety of different spacecraft built without The China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) was a magnetic cleanliness program. Up to two high-resolution launched in February 2018. It is the first Chinese platform boom-mounted fluxgate magnetometers, the Digital for the investigation of natural electromagnetic phenomena Processing Unit (DPU) and the boom are provided by with major emphasis on earthquake monitoring from a Sun Magson GmbH and Technische Universität Braunschweig. synchronous, polar Low Earth Orbit (LEO). For detection and characterization of magnetic disturbers on the spacecraft, two magnetometers based on the The CSES magnetometer was developed in cooperation anisotropic magnetoresistive (AMR) effect were developed between China's National Space Science Center (NSSC), in a joint effort by Imperial College London and IWF. the Institute of Experimental Physics of TU Graz (TUG), and IWF. NSSC is responsible for the dual sensor fluxgate In 2018, the flight model of SOSMAG has undergone magnetometer, the instrument processor and the power system level testing (vibration, thermal vacuum, ...) on the supply unit, while IWF and TUG participate with the GK-2A spacecraft as part of the Korean Space Environment newly developed absolute scalar magnetometer, called Monitor (KSEM) instrument suit. On 4 December 2018, Coupled Dark State Magnetometer (CDSM). GK-2A was successfully launched aboard an Ariane 5 from the European spaceport in Kourou, French-Guyana. In 2018, the technology readiness of CDSM for space application was successfully demonstrated. After its first The measurements in Fig. 4 perfectly demonstrate that turn-on beginning of March it has been operational for the spacecraft field measured by the AMR sensors can be more than 200 days (Fig. 3). Consequently, the accuracy used for the correction of the magnetic field measured by of the magnetic field measurements could be improved the outer boom mounted sensor. It enables a much higher by more than a factor of thirty. This is also an important quality of the magnetic field measurements and confirms step towards a successful implementation of the CDSM the usefulness of the four-sensor SOSMAG design. technology for ESA's JUICE mission to Jupiter. Fig. 3: Strength of the Earth's magnetic field measured by CDSM along the Fig. 4: Spacecraft interference in the Z component of the outboard sensor is CSES orbits within a latitude range of ±65°. corrected with the Y component of AMR sensor 2. 7 8 CLUSTER THEMIS/ARTEMIS The Cluster spacecraft have been providing data since 2001 NASA's THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale for studying small-scale structures of the magnetosphere Interactions during Substorms) mission, launched in 2007, and its environment as the first four spacecraft mission in consisted of five identical satellites flying through different space. Currently the mission is planned to be extended to regions of the magnetosphere. In autumn 2010 the two outer December 2020. IWF is PI/Co-I on five