Thanks to the DemoGRAPE project, led by INGV, an ionospheric storm was observed in Antarctica through data acquired by Galileo satellites
Observed in these days an ionospheric storm in Antarctica. To record it, the signal receivers of the new Galileo system, installed thanks to the project "Demonstrator of GNSS Research and Application for Polar Environment" (DemoGRAPE - http://www.grape.scar.org/), which has now entered its operational phase. Launched in May 2014 under the coordination of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) and funded by the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) under the National Antarctic Research Program (PNRA), DemoGRAPE has the purpose of developing a service prototype for the use of satellite positioning systems on the polar regions for all those users who need high-precision positioning, both for technological applications and for scientific research. Flight assistance during landing, take-off and movement in airport areas, positioning of drilling for the exploitation of natural resources, prediction of the perturbation effects of solar storms on the Earth (space weather), study of the dynamics of the earth's crust and the polar cap, measurement of the concentration of water vapor in the atmosphere. These are just some of the services offered by satellite positioning systems, defined with the acronym GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems), and which society makes increasing use of today. The best known of the GNSSs is certainly the US GPS (Global Positioning System) system, although Europe is adopting its own system: Galileo. "The acquisition of the data acquired within the project", says Lucilla Alfonsi, INGV researcher and project coordinator, "has made it possible for the first time in Antarctica to exploit the information provided by the signals transmitted by the new European Galileo system (similar to the US GPS), to study the effects of geomagnetic storms on the upper atmosphere (in the ionosphere)”. The data acquired in the last few days reveal ionospheric scintillation events, a phenomenon that creates a disturbance on the signal transmitted by satellites and which can compromise both positioning and satellite communication systems. "The disturbance originates as a result of anomalies that occur in the ionosphere, and the phenomenon is often observed in the polar regions where electromagnetic interference - caused by solar storms - are more intense and frequent, as evidenced by the appearance of the northern or southern auroras ( depending on the hemisphere in which they occur)”, continues Alfonsi. The ionospheric observation took place from the Antarctic bases of SANAE IV (managed by South Africa) and EACF (managed by Brazil), and places Italy, as leader of the experiment, as a pioneer in the field of scientific observations in Antarctica carried out the nascent Galileo system. This ambitious goal is made possible thanks to the collaboration with the Polytechnic of Turin, the Istituto Superiore Mario Boella (both project partners) and the support of the South African colleagues of SANSA (South African National Space Agency) and the Brazilian INPE (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais). SpacEarth Tecnology srl also collaborates on the project and the Joint Research Center of the European Commission. "Having observations such as those collected by the DemoGRAPE project allows researchers to develop forecasting models to support satellite navigation", concludes the INGV researcher. “In this context, the new data received from the Galileo satellites represent added value because, thanks to this system, the scientific community has an additional tool for understanding space, which can be translated into useful information to improve the quality of satellite navigation worldwide.”