About us

Division Ionospheric Profiles

Ionosphere sounding pavilion

I. Background

The ionosphere is a layer of the atmosphere that extends from 50 km to 1000 km above the Earth’s surface. The ionosphere plays an important role in radio wave propagation. Indeed, the ionosphere is defined as the atmospheric layer where the free electron concentration is sufficient to affect radio wave propagation.

Nowadays, our modern society relies on sophisticated technological systems which are based on the emission and/or reception of radio waves: ground-to-ground or ground-to-space telecommunications, radars, Global Navigation Satellite Systems like GPS or Galileo, …

Disturbed ionospheric activity conditions can strongly affect the performances of such technological systems. It is therefore important to monitor and to model the ionospheric activity and its effects on radio wave propagation.

 

II. Main activities

Division Ionospheric Profiles main research fields are:

  • The monitoring and modeling of the ionospheric activity and of the different parameters which can influence the ionospheric activity;
  • The monitoring and modeling of ionospheric effects on Global Navigation Satellite Systems;
  • The measurement of cosmic rays.


All the instruments our Division is operating are located at the Geophysical Center of Dourbes. One part of our Division’s staff is working at Dourbes and the other part is working at Uccle (Brussels).

 

III. Main products and services

The ionospheric section develops products and services for different user communities, mainly for the national and international scientific communities and for the users of Global Navigation Satellite Systems. These products and services are made available through the section's web site: http://ionosphere.meteo.be

 

IV. Research projects

Our Division has been and is presently involved in different national and international research projects which are mainly granted by ESA (European Space Agency), GSA (GNSS Supervising Authority) and by Belgian Science Policy Office.

 

V. Instruments

In the frame of its scientific research activities, our Division is responsible of different instruments installed at the Geophysical Center of Dourbes:

  • an ionosonde (Digisonde-4D) which monitors the main ionospheric activity parameters ;
  • a neutron monitor for cosmic ray monitoring;
  • a GPS receiver
 

VI. Contact

Stan Stankov, Ph.D., Head of Section

Tel : 32 (0)60 39 54 27
Fax : 32 (0)60 39 54 23
Email: S.Stankov@meteo.be