Topic 1
Space Weather: A dynamic interplay between Earth and Space
2 October, 2024 at 15:00 - 17:00
Egmont Palace, Brussels
Space weather refers to the environmental conditions in space as influenced by the Sun and the solar wind. It includes phenomena like solar flares, geomagnetic storms, and cosmic rays, which can impact satellites, communications, navigation systems, and power grids on Earth. The session will cover the science, services, satellite missions and industrial developments associated with space weather.
Speakers & Presentations
Jasmina Magdalenic
Work Leader at Royal Observatory of Belgium & Professor - KU Leuven
Christian Kintziger
Head of Space Systems Program at Centre Spatial de Liège
From Sunspots to Solar Storms: CSL's 60-Year Journey in Space Weather Exploration
Viviane Pierrard
Head of the solar wind division - Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy
Interactions between space particles and the terrestrial upper atmosphere
Eric Callut
Senior Project Manager and Space business developer - Deltatec
CMOS image sensor readout electronics for sun observation instruments (SWAP, Proba3 & EUI, Solar Orbiter)
Flavio Murolo
Meteosat Spacecraft Operations Manager – EUMETSAT
A dynamic interplay between Earth and Space which affects our daily life.
Speakers
Solar activity through observations and modelling
Jasmina Magdalenic
Work Leader at Royal Observatory of Belgium & Professor - KU Leuven
Jasmina Magdalenic is Work Leader at the Royal Observatory of Belgium and professor at KU Leuven. She is working on observations and modelling of solar wind and dynamical processes in the solar atmosphere such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and their impact on Earth. During her career of about 25 years, she has authored numerous scientific publications and was principal investigator of a number of national and international projects. She collaborates with scientists in numerous countries worldwide, and she is member of different committees and boards like European Solar Physics Division, Community of European Solar Radio Physicist, LOFAR Project committee and so on. She is very enthusiastic in educating young solar physicists, she was and is presently supervising ten PhD students.
From Sunspots to Solar Storms: CSL's 60-Year Journey in Space Weather Exploration
Christian Kintziger
Head of Space Systems Program - Centre Spatial de Liège
After earning a Master's degree in Physics Engineering from ULiège, Christian Kintziger completed a PhD in Applied Sciences, focusing on the design of a near-infrared spectrograph for the TIGRE telescope in La Luz, Mexico. He began his career as an optical engineer, working on the ESA PROBA-3 ASPIICS (Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun) coronagraph instrument. He then served as Lead Optical Engineer for the NASA ICON (Ionospheric CONnection explorer) Far UltraViolet (FUV) spectrographic imager. In 2020, Christian became the Head of Scientific Space Systems, and since 2022, he has held the position of Head of the Space Systems Program. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing all of CSL's contributions to projects related to the development of space instrumentation, whether for industrial or scientific applications.
Interactions between space particles and the terrestrial upper atmosphere
Viviane Pierrard
Head of the solar wind division - Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy
Dr. Viviane Pierrard leads the Solar Wind Division at the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy and is an invited Professor of Physics at the Université Catholique de Louvain. She is a space plasma physicist specializing in the solar wind and its interactions with the Earth's magnetosphere, with more than 30 years of experience. Dr. Pierrard has received several prestigious awards, including the Zeldovich Medal from COSPAR and the Baron Nicolet Prize from the Belgian Academy of Science, in recognition of her outstanding work. She is also the Editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics and the author of several books about space weather.
CMOS image sensor readout electronics for sun observation instruments (SWAP, Proba3 & EUI, Solar Orbiter)
Eric Callut
Senior Project Manager and Space business developer -
Deltatec
Since October 2014, Eric Callut has been a Space Projects Manager at DELTATEC, where he is responsible for developing Space activities business. From 2000 to 2011, he worked at the Centre Spatial de Liège, handling electronics design and system engineering tasks for various instruments, including PACS (Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer) for Hershel mission, MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument) for JWST (James Webb Space Telescope), and EUI (Extreme Ultraviolet Imager) for Solar Orbiter. Between 2011 and 2014, he served as a Device Architect at IBA in Proton Therapy, overseeing the development and maintenance of devices and features within the IBA Proton Therapy system.
Space Weather: A dynamic interplay between Earth and Space which affects our daily life.
Flavio Murolo
Meteosat Spacecraft Operations Manager – EUMETSAT
Flavio Murolo graduated in Aerospace Engineering, cum laude, at the University of Naples in 1999 and started his career with Thales Alenia Space, as Attitude & Orbit Control system design responsible for several missions, like Cosmo-SkyMed and Radarsat2.
In 2004 he moved to the European Space Agency as the Principal Operations Engineer for the cornerstone mission Herschel-Plank. In 2007, he joined EUMETSAT as MetOp Instrument Operations Engineer and founded his own consultancy company to provide several high-skilled specialists to both GEO and LEO missions.
Since 2009, he has covered many different roles in the Meteosat missions in EUMETSAT, being responsible for the LEOP of MSG-3 and MSG-4 and established a new mission over the Indian Ocean with the MSG satellites.
Since 2018 he is the Operations Manager for all the Geostationary Satellites of EUMETSAT, Meteosat 2nd and 3rg generation. Among his roles he is also the Co-Chair for Space Situational Awareness WG and the EUMETSAT Delegate to COSPAS-SARSAT Council.
He published more than 20 scientific papers focussing on Operations of space systems, space debris and spacecraft reliability.
Chair & Co-Chair
Chair: Veronique Dehant
Véronique Dehant works at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, where she is Senior Researcher in the Operational Directorate "Reference Systems and Planetology". She is also an Extraordinary Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain). She is an Academician (Member of the Royal Academy of Belgium, Science Class) since 2010, Foreign Member of the Paris Academy of Sciences since 2016 and of the US National Academy of Science since 2023. She has been awarded several prizes as well as two ERC Grants from the European Research Council. She is involved in several space missions visiting the planets and moons of the solar system.
Co-Chair: Pierre Rochus
Senior Consultant and Honorary Professor at the University of Liège, Guest Professor at KUL and the past Scientific Director of the Centre Spatial de Liege, Pierre Rochus is the Chair of the Scientific Council of the Royal Observatory of Belgium and a former Member of ESA’s Space Weather Steering Board. He is active in Space Technology for more than 40 years (Development of around 20 space instruments from 1988 to 2016 and development of 3 different lubrication units for the CFM 56 turbo-engines and 3 Ariane-5 valves from 1981 to 1988). He started his research in Theoretical Nuclear Physics in 1974. At IAF, he was the chairman of the IAF Space University Administrative Committee (SUAC) and Member of the Space Astronomy Technical Committee (SATC) and IAF Materials and Structures Committee.