Space Weather and Avidos - VVS Sun Working Group

Last week, March 8th, I attended the Sun working group of the VVS. Beside giving a lecture on "how to observe the E-Corona using a Sol'Ex" an interesting lecture was provided by Jan Janssens of the SIDC (Royal Observatorium of Belgium) of space weather and the aurora of Jan 19, 2026.

Selfie with Jan Janssens of SIDC 

In his lecture he refers to radiation during spaceflights and shows a link to the website. I searched this website and it's an ESA website in Sweden. After registration I could simulate my exposure during my flight from Brussels/Beijing in Jan last month. This was about 30microSv. 

Normal natural exposure in Belgium is about 2,4mSv. When going through the details, CT en PET scans are responsible for 7mSv for CT and 4,5mSv for PET. I wasn't aware this was such high.

This is the link to Avidos

This is the link to the dashboard 

Space Weather Training STCE

This week I could attend the Space Weather training at STCE (Solar-Terrestrial Center of Excellence @Uccle Belgium). This introductionary training was open for all amateurs of the astronomy club VVS. In total 11 people participated the course.

The three main trainers (Petra, Elke and Jan) gave very well, detailed and interactive information about all aspects of space weather. Beside classroom lectures we participated a space weather forecast, visited the Uccle Solar Eqautorial Table (USET), Library of the Royal Observatorum and the headquarters of Solar radio-astronomy for Humain. 

A lot of information was given and how to understand the different parameters and how they are measured. I'm looking back to a succesfull two day training. Thx to STCE and all trainers. 

Attending Space Weather forecast meeting

Selfie with Walter in the Library

Library of Royal Observatorium

USET 

USET Control Room

Historical drawing with huge sunspot

The Solar Dome

Exercise 

left to right Ivo, Roel, Stijn,Pascal, Fleur, Niels, Claude, Jan, Petra, Walter, Elke, Rudy, Ann, Ruben

Space Weather workshop by Christine Verbeke

Selfie with Space Weather expert Christine Verbeke

Last week (March 3) I attended a meeting of the VVS Workgroup Sun. Space weather was one of the subjects. Guest speaker Christine Verbeke is a Space Weather Scientist for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and is affiliated with KU Leuven Universtity. Christine was also a finalist in the 2023 PhD Cup for her research on solar storm modeling. The session provided an overview of solar storms and space weather, what are solar storms and what effects can they have on our Earth and society. A demo was given on how to make a prediction of the arrival of a solar storm based on a previous solar storm.

Space Weather - Petra Vanlommel @ SIDC Ukkel

During the recent Open Doors at the Space Pole (september 25th) It was possible to visit the Space Weather room. I met Petra Vanlommel who is leading this devision. Some interesting and more detailed information can be found via the Space Weather Introductionary Course 

Coronal Mass Ejection and Earth's magnetic fields

Illustration of a CME from the Sun’s surface in the direction of Earth. The blue waves around the Earth’s poles represent it's magnetic field lines. The CME and it's magnetic cloud of plasma can extend to 45 million km wide by the time they reach Earth. These CME storms can disrupt communications and navigational equipment, damage satellites, and even cause electrical blackouts; and this is the science of Space Weather.

Oorzaken en gevolgen van energetische zonnedeeltjes

Deze namiddag interessante lezing in de volksterrenwacht, Armand Pien, in Gent. De lezing werd verzorgd door Dr. Mark Dierckxsens.

Spaceweather of ruimteweer is het onderzoeksdomein dat de variabele condities in ons zonnestelsel bestudeert en in het bijzonder de invloed op de ruimte nabij de aarde. De belangrijkste oorzaak voor deze veranderingen is de elfjarige cyclus van de magnetische activiteit van de zon. Hevige uitbarstingen zoals zonnevlammen en plasmawolken die voornamelijk voorkomen tijdens periodes van maximale zonneactiviteit kunnen geladen deeltjes in een korte tijdsspanne versnellen tot hoge energieën. Deze energetische zonnedeeltjes kunnen schade veroorzaken aan cruciale elektronica van ruimtevaartuigen en satellieten, communicatiekanalen verstoren en een schadelijk effect hebben op de gezondheid van zowel astronauten als personeel en passagiers in vliegtuigen die transpolaire routes volgen. De oorzaken en gevolgen van de energetische zonnedeeltjes zullen in detail besproken worden, evenals de methodes die gebruikt worden om hun schadelijke effecten in te perken.

Space Weather Flow Chart

I made a Space Weather Flow Chart which provides an oversight on solar phenomenon, solar activity, effect and consequence.

Space Weather

Source ESA

Space Weather refers to the environmental conditions in space influenced by solar activity.
What kind of  solar activity exist? The best known are coronal mass ejections (CME), flare radiation, energetic protons and energetic radiation belt particles (escaping from earth magnetic field). Beside solar activity we have also cosmic activity, known as cosmic rays.
What's the effect of Space Weather? As seen in the picture above, it seems all kind of "radiation" has potential impact on our day to day life. Impact on electronics, navigation, power distribution, pipe line corrosion, radio communication, but also increased radiation dose during flights with airplanes and  in space. Did you know that flying on an altitude of 10km results in a dose of 10 micro Sievert per hour. Average exposure is about 2 à 2,5 milli Sv/Year or 5 micro Sv/hour, so flying doubles the exposure.

For a live view on space weather see following websites:

* ESA Space Situational Awareness
* SIDC - Solar Influences Data Analysis Center

Flare X9.3 X10.0 generating blackout and CME

Today a major flare was produced on the sun by active sunspot AR2673. For sure this was the most powerfull one since the last 15 years. According the SIDC the X-ray flare Is classified as class X9.3 up to class X10.0. Earlier today, this region was responsable for a strong flare class X2.2
The strongest class X9.3 (X10.0) flare also generated a short blackout (region short wave and within Europe, Asia and Africa) and generated a CME which is heading Earth.

Increased Cosmic Rays - Solar Cycle #24 minimum

Solar Cycle #24 is moving in to a minimum with more and more sunspots free days. As a result the sun will be less active and the magnetic field will be weaker with decreasing solar wind. This solar wind acts as a shield to protect Earth against high energetic cosmic rays. Based on historical data we see an inverse correlation between the sun's activity (sunspot number) and gallactic cosmic rays.

As we are moving into a "quit" period I took data from 1/1/2014 - today and compared :
1) Sunspot data from Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels (WDC-SILCO-SIDC) with
2) Gallactic Cosmic Rays data from University of Oulo, Finland

It's not outspoken but we see clearly an inverse correlation between the sunspot data and the cosmic ray activity.

Also Spaceweather.com is tracking these changes with balloonflights above the US. Since 2015, levels of radiation increased up to 19%.

3D Sun news: Sundiving Comet and CME

NASA Heliophysics News from 3D Sun iPhone app Sundiving Comet and CME Story posted: Aug. 20 A small comet plunged into the sun on Aug. 20th. Just before it arrived, the sun expelled a magnificent full-halo CME. Tap to view a movie from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Large image

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